Browser Comparison Between Original iPad and iPad 2

[infiniteentropy]

For the first time in a while, I'll be skipping an iDevice rev. I can't justify getting an iPad 2 when I already have an iPad 1, and I don't understand - other than for reviewers or pundits who need it by fiat - what the rationale is for getting one if you already own an iPad. Have to wait a fraction of a second for a page to load or checkerboard to disappear? Nope. The extra 3 ounces of weight is breaking your back? Nope. Even if your justification is needing the better Verizon network (at least in some / most areas, my area included), you should already have the iPhone 4, which has Personal Hotspot you can connect your old iPad to. The cameras pale in comparison to the iPhone's cameras, so it's not that either. I guess it's the "shiny new toy" effect. I'm going to pass on this one, but good on the people who ran out to grab one, I hope they enjoy their new cool device!

 

[DrJohnnyN]

I love my iPad 1 & iPad 2.

 

[FSUSem1noles]

Haha... the guy made a statement in the beginning and was taken by surprise when iPad1 did cache the pages.....

I was just about to say the same thing!! Look, sure the new iPad is a little faster, it's NEW it should be faster!! $500 worth over the previous iPad?? that's up to the buyer to decide.. personally speaking I'm passing for now...

 

[RobQuads]

4.2.1 on iPad 1, 4.3 on iPad 2

Completely pointless comparison as it shows nothing then. Only worth anything if you compare like with like

 

[markm49uk]

For the first time in a while, I'll be skipping an iDevice rev. I can't justify getting an iPad 2 when I already have an iPad 1, and I don't understand - other than for reviewers or pundits who need it by fiat - what the rationale is for getting one if you already own an iPad. Have to wait a fraction of a second for a page to load or checkerboard to disappear? Nope. The extra 3 ounces of weight is breaking your back? Nope. Even if your justification is needing the better Verizon network (at least in some / most areas, my area included), you should already have the iPhone 4, which has Personal Hotspot you can connect your old iPad to. The cameras pale in comparison to the iPhone's cameras, so it's not that either. I guess it's the "shiny new toy" effect. I'm going to pass on this one, but good on the people who ran out to grab one, I hope they enjoy their new cool device!

or maybe it's the fact that the processor is twice as fast and the graphics chips up to 9 times?

You have to look at the big picture I guess - lot's of small improvement add to a greater whole.

 

[clientsiman]

What's more interesting here is the quality of the screen. Could anyone do some more comparisons? Black levels, etc?

"On average the iPad 2 seems to be marginally brighter with a bit worse black levels than the original iPad, resulting in a lower contrast ratio. The display is pretty close to what was in the original iPad and very tough to tell apart."

You can read anandtech's preview for more details.

 

[KALLT]

For the first time in a while, I'll be skipping an iDevice rev. I can't justify getting an iPad 2 when I already have an iPad 1, and I don't understand - other than for reviewers or pundits who need it by fiat - what the rationale is for getting one if you already own an iPad.

I don't get why some people always consider upgrading when their own version is just fine. Of course your iPad has been superseded now, but so will the iPad 2 in one year. But that does not mean that it's outdated. I don't mind using an older version as long as it does what it should do. I would only upgrade if the new version does existing things much better (e.g. browsing) or even new things I need (e.g. the camera). I bought my MacBook in 2008, and it has been updated, improved (with Firewire) and even rebranded since then. It's still working fine and looking gorgeous. I won't consider upgrading until it becomes too outdated or breaks.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Sweet, can I be expecting a similar upgrade when I replace my iPhone 3GS with an iPhone 5 this summer (my two year contract will be up with AT&T, thus why I would choose to upgrade despite my iPhone 3GS still working more of less flawlessly.)

 

[BrettJDeriso]

Haha... the guy made a statement in the beginning and was taken by surprise when iPad1 did cache the pages.....

Yeah... then he procedes to replicate the problem on 3 of the 9 tabs he opened and calls it "half of them".

Anyway, not the most effective demonstration, though it at least answered my question about why tab-flipping always seemed to force a refresh. Don't know why I never bothered to look it up before . It is indeed a nuissance when you're browsing a pair of graphics intensive pages in separate tabs (wink wink, nudge nudge). Sucks having a whole page of thumbnails reload every time you flip back to it.

And therein lies the shortcoming of this demo. Dude shoulda picked havier pages.

 

[thinkQuick]

A shame this is not like for like. Please re-do your comparison with iOS 4.3 on both devices. Add in a comparison of page loading time, if possible.

Keep up the great work.

 

[BrettJDeriso]

I don't get why some people always consider upgrading when their own version is just fine. Of course your iPad has been superseded now, but so will the iPad 2 in one year. But that does not mean that it's outdated.

I can only speak for myself, but it all comes down to one (made-up) word: FaceTime.

I said from day 1 of the first iPad that this feature should've been included from the get go, and that I would upgrade as soon as they added it. There isn't a whole lot by way of improvemet in iPad 2, and I aggree that if your iPad 1 does everything you want it to, there's little else other than impulse to justify upgrading it. But I considered that front-facing camera a pretty big hole in the first feature set.

This is coming from a guy who jus re-imaged his PowerBook G4 for its 3rd hand-off as a hand-me-down

 

[the vj]

The article is so much ************ the size of mount Everets!

Why the iPad with 512MB will load web pages "faster" because of its ram IF a web pages weights barely 100K Byte?

Come on people, all of you are smarter than that.

 

[pmz]

I feel like I get less checkerboard in 4.3 iPad 1. Maybe it's just me.

You do. The performance is 95% iOS 4.3. The extra ram only affects the page caching. And still, if you were to actually open enough apps on your iPad 2 and go back to Safari, I doubt there would be any page caching going on anymore.

512 MB of RAM is still pretty chintzy. Come on Apple, spend the extra few bucks wholesale to give us a product that won't be outdated in 6 months!

Wrong. 512 is more than enough. You have no basis for comment, as you don't have another product that compares.

 

[pmz]

I can only speak for myself, but it all comes down to one (made-up) word: FaceTime.

I said from day 1 of the first iPad that this feature should've been included from the get go, and that I would upgrade as soon as they added it. There isn't a whole lot by way of improvemet in iPad 2, and I aggree that if your iPad 1 does everything you want it to, there's little else other than impulse to justify upgrading it. But I considered that front-facing camera a pretty big hole in the first feature set.

This is coming from a guy who jus re-imaged his PowerBook G4 for its 3rd hand-off as a hand-me-down

I have a hard time believing you'll actually use FaceTime all that much, and simply don't believe that you can't be doing it right now (if you actually needed to) with another device that you own.

 

[brkov]

Well. The new iPad seems to have some nice specs, but I just recently saw a friend of mine working with the iPad 1th Gen and having to look at him almost made me crazy - EVERYTHING IS SOOOOO SLOW.

Let me explain this further. This issue in my opinion is not an hardware issue but a software problem. The UI for the iPad is just not very good. It's right that the UI works just perfect on the iPhone but just porting it over to a bigger device - cmon Apple, really?

I am wondering even more considering for example the very cool gestures you can perform on a MacBook - 4 fingers down lets me quickly select another window: NICE! Now we have a Touchscreen device from Apple and I have to press a BUTTON to activate it!!! User friendly... I dont think so. Taking advantage of the big screen and gestures working on an iPad could be a blast, but right now it just feels incredibly clumsy and slooooow.

 

[pmz]

For the first time in a while, I'll be skipping an iDevice rev. I can't justify getting an iPad 2 when I already have an iPad 1, and I don't understand - other than for reviewers or pundits who need it by fiat - what the rationale is for getting one if you already own an iPad. Have to wait a fraction of a second for a page to load or checkerboard to disappear? Nope. The extra 3 ounces of weight is breaking your back? Nope. Even if your justification is needing the better Verizon network (at least in some / most areas, my area included), you should already have the iPhone 4, which has Personal Hotspot you can connect your old iPad to. The cameras pale in comparison to the iPhone's cameras, so it's not that either. I guess it's the "shiny new toy" effect. I'm going to pass on this one, but good on the people who ran out to grab one, I hope they enjoy their new cool device!

+1
Without a doubt. I think the iPad 2 is a marvelous replacement for iPad 1, but I'm not getting so long as my iPad 1 is working. There literally is NO reason to.

I might enjoy the better overall performance, but it's not such a leap that I need it now. Give it a few months at least to see if any apps come out that actually use the horsepower.

I think iOS 5 will be what makes me want iPad 2.

 

[pmz]

Well. The new iPad seems to have some nice specs, but I just recently saw a friend of mine working with the iPad 1th Gen and having to look at him almost made me crazy - EVERYTHING IS SOOOOO SLOW.

Let me explain this further. This issue in my opinion is not an hardware issue but a software problem. The UI for the iPad is just not very good. It's right that the UI works just perfect on the iPhone but just porting it over to a bigger device - cmon Apple, really?

I am wondering even more considering for example the very cool gestures you can perform on a MacBook - 4 fingers down lets me quickly select another window: NICE! Now we have a Touchscreen device from Apple and I have to press a BUTTON to activate it!!! User friendly... I dont think so. Taking advantage of the big screen and gestures working on an iPad could be a blast, but right now it just feels incredibly clumsy and slooooow.

Just go away troll. The UI is lightning fast on either iPad, and the entire thing is as simple, functional and intuitive as it could be.

Go play with a Xoom if you must, and then tell me about user friendly.

 

[iSee]

I don't care about the tab reloading, but the faster rendering is very nice.

 

[DrJohnnyN]

I don't get why some people always consider upgrading when their own version is just fine.

Just fine is just not good enough.

Upgraders like myself who already own the original iPad are looking for the latest and greatest and have the disposable income to do so. Why have an older version when paying $540-$900 gets you something better and makes you happy?

 

[brkov]

Just go away troll. The UI is lightning fast on either iPad, and the entire thing is as simple, functional and intuitive as it could be.

Go play with a Xoom if you must, and then tell me about user friendly.

A task that takes me 5 mins on the iPad (checking mails, skyping, and surfing the internet at the same time) I can probably do an a MacBook in 1 minute just because of the gestures... I dont say it's ALL bad, but in my view there is a lot of room for improvement.

Edit: looked at a Xoom Video online. NICE! Thats some nice features. Thanks for the hint.

 

[itsmemuffins]

For the first time in a while, I'll be skipping an iDevice rev. I can't justify getting an iPad 2 when I already have an iPad 1, and I don't understand - other than for reviewers or pundits who need it by fiat - what the rationale is for getting one if you already own an iPad. Have to wait a fraction of a second for a page to load or checkerboard to disappear? Nope. The extra 3 ounces of weight is breaking your back? Nope. Even if your justification is needing the better Verizon network (at least in some / most areas, my area included), you should already have the iPhone 4, which has Personal Hotspot you can connect your old iPad to. The cameras pale in comparison to the iPhone's cameras, so it's not that either. I guess it's the "shiny new toy" effect. I'm going to pass on this one, but good on the people who ran out to grab one, I hope they enjoy their new cool device!

You can make any amount of excuses for yourself, but we can all make up our own minds…

 

[andybrown44]

Just fine is just not good enough.

Upgraders like myself who already own the original iPad are looking for the latest and greatest and have the disposable income to do so. Why have an older version when paying $540-$900 gets you something better and makes you happy?

Also, when iPad 1 came out people were saying "Why do we need this? Using my iPhone and laptop is just fine." But once people get to use the devices, they realise what it's all about.

 

[iSee]

512 MB of RAM is still pretty chintzy. Come on Apple, spend the extra few bucks wholesale to give us a product that won't be outdated in 6 months!

It's not just a few bucks. It would also have some impact on the size, weight and battery life of the device. I'm not sure by how much, but I don't think you can assume more RAM would be "free" across the board.

 

[pmz]

A task that takes me 5 mins on the iPad (checking mails, skyping, and surfing the internet at the same time) I can probably do an a MacBook in 1 minute just because of the gestures... I dont say it's ALL bad, but in my view there is a lot of room for improvement.

Edit: looked at a Xoom Video online. NICE! Thats some nice features. Thanks for the hint.

This couldn't possibly make less sense, so thanks.

Did you include boot time in there too?

 

[DynaFXD]

Completely pointless comparison as it shows nothing then. Only worth anything if you compare like with like

Agreed. What a waste of time.