Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
First iPad 2 Reviews: Evolutionary, 512MB RAM, Thinner, Faster
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
A travesty is upon us canadians. All the junkpads are getting shipped up here for two extra weeks flooding the ipad 1 market. While those bastards are living it up in mad style what the iPad 2. So now I might lose money tying to sell my old one for a new one. Shakes fist at u 
Sure. It's called your pocket.Does mobile Safari have a private mode? Sounds like you are the guy that would know.
Have they started turning on any of the features that differentiate it from the iPad, yet? Last I saw, they were all "coming soon". Hilarious.
I can't stand that either, they do good reviews and they then get bashed, literally every single post get flooded with flame post about android or apple, it doesn't even need to be a post about either company.
So, first John Gruber said that iMovie worked, but slowly, on the iPad 1.
Then he edited to state that it would only work on iPad 2.
And now he's told me over Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/gruber/status/45745332763639808) that he's just not sure what the release version will do.
So I guess we'll have to wait and see. It does look pretty clearly like GarageBand does work on the original iPad.
Then he edited to state that it would only work on iPad 2.
And now he's told me over Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/gruber/status/45745332763639808) that he's just not sure what the release version will do.
So I guess we'll have to wait and see. It does look pretty clearly like GarageBand does work on the original iPad.
I'm pretty sure Apple said that GBand will work on iPad 1.
Thing is, I'm much more excited to buy garageband on Friday than I am to buy the ipad 2. The reviews are pretty underwhelming. The iPad 2 is a let down for a number of reasons
1. No sd card/usb/retina/magic pony dust, etc. etc., basically no new features at all.
2. The cameras, the only real addition, suck horribly.
3. The CPU is running slow. Everyone else has these chips running at 1.2Ghz. Why did Apple only do 1GHz?
4. 512MB ram is too little. All the other tablets have 1GB.
Sure, it's "thinner", but the idfference isn't that huge, and the weight difference is almost non-existent. It's just hard to justify spending a lot of money on this when you already have the iPad 1. I was expecting more, and reading these reviews kind of hammered home how little they have actually changed.
Thing is, I'm much more excited to buy garageband on Friday than I am to buy the ipad 2. The reviews are pretty underwhelming. The iPad 2 is a let down for a number of reasons
1. No sd card/usb/retina/magic pony dust, etc. etc., basically no new features at all.
2. The cameras, the only real addition, suck horribly.
3. The CPU is running slow. Everyone else has these chips running at 1.2Ghz. Why did Apple only do 1GHz?
4. 512MB ram is too little. All the other tablets have 1GB.
Sure, it's "thinner", but the idfference isn't that huge, and the weight difference is almost non-existent. It's just hard to justify spending a lot of money on this when you already have the iPad 1. I was expecting more, and reading these reviews kind of hammered home how little they have actually changed.
SD and USB are handled by my USB connection kit. Works great. And to be fair about the retina display, no one's making that sort of crazy display. No one.[/quote]
They don't 'suck horribly.' They work fine for what they're designed for.
Battery life.
What would you like to do with iPad that you can't with only 512? What does Xoom do with its 1GB that you'd like to do?
That said, I also won't be springing for an iPad 2. My iPad 1 (even with less ram, no cameras at all, and a single-core processor) is working just fine for me, especially considering that it'll run iOS 5 this summer.
If the iPad 3 has better cameras, a quad-core processor, a gig of RAM, and 32GB for $499, then we can all feel really intelligent about skipping this generation.
Can you imagine being one of the people who rushed out to get an iPhone 3GS when they already had a 3G, instead of waiting for the iPhone 4? You'd have to feel like an idiot. Not because the 3GS wasn't a great phone, and worth getting if you don't have an iPhone, but because we know that something betterjust not possible at the momentis on the horizon.
1. The reference is either "pixie dust" or "unicorn tears". Please get your Apple-bashing boilerplate straight. Don't they give you guys a cheat-sheet when they hire you? Cheapos!
2. You know the cameras "suck horribly" how, exactly? They probably work just fine for what they're intended for, which is not to replace a dedicated camera for still photos.
3. "Everybody else" is running Apple A5 processors at 1.2 GHz? Lol! Who exactly is "everybody else"?
4. You have no idea whether 512 MB is "too little". If you're comparing with Android tablets you're comparing Apples (ha) with oranges (crabapples?). Android may very well need twice as much RAM. It doesn't give the appearance of being particularly well thought-out.
Last edited:
Every single review says it is not as good as the iPad and more expensive.
Add those together and you have worthless garbage. Being worse and more expensive means nobody should buy one.
Not quit true, most reviews actually say that its betetr on several points. Overal depends on how you use it.
Some people would be best of with Xoom others with ipad , what is with this need to convince everyone to use an ipad that soem seem to have?
It is. It's amazing how people that have no clue of its internals nor could build one think to know better about the speed, battery and price balans.
I have an ipod tocuh 4g (wich would be the same camera as on the ipad 2 ) and I use it sometimes when I dont have a camera with me, sad to say those pictures are largely useless.
SO I dont know what they are intended for, but I havent found a use for them .
The camera fonctions fine, although the quality isnt all that great as wel, but at least that works what it was intended for.
You do realise the A5 is just a Cortex A8 or A9 wich is the same as any other such CPU?
Samsung, Texas Instruments, nvidia, qualcomm all have dual core cortex A8 and even A9 out, some have quad cores planned out late this year or early next.
Android doesnt need twice as much ram, and seeing the 256 on my actuall ipad isnt enough, I would think 512MB would be suffecient . I dont see ios increase the load all that much wich means 350+MB of free memory .
If iPad 3 comes out in September as rumored, this actually makes a lot of sense.
Why would they release another soo soon? Apple never does this and it wouldnt make a lot of sense.
No retina display isnt going to be avaible mid this year, just adding some memory and perhaps better camera and a bit thinner is just pointless.
Looking forward to getting one! Sadly I have to wait until the 25th as I live in the UK
Are they accepting Pre-orders in the US or is it a "stand in line at a store" kind of deal?
Same in Belgium... the device will be available on the 25th...
Looking forward to it!
You're right. Nobody should buy anything unless Apple makes it. What was I thinking? If Apple doesn't make it, it's garbage. Only fools buy non Apple products.
I've had a 1st Gen iPad for some time now and while incredibly awesome, there are two things I wasn't that happy about. The first is actually the RAM - Safari with many windows open really drags when you switch between them because it's having to reload the page from scratch because it's run out of memory, and on a large complex page there's even lag as you scroll around.
Secondly I have always been looking for a higher resolution display. I do a lot of reading on the device and while there's nothing inherently wrong with the current resolution, I feel a higher resolution would really make it shine.
I definitely think the new iPad should have 1GB RAM as standard, there's no excuse when you look at Android tablets coming with 1GB and for such an expensive premium device I feel it justifies that little extra.
Personally I'm waiting this revision out and waiting for the next one which hopefully will have a higher resolution display.
Well, this sounds awesome. But come on, of course it isn't going to be as "revolutionary" as the iPad 1. It's not THE iPad 1 that was revolutionary, but the entire idea of "The iPad" in general. The difference between the iPad 1 and 2 can't be as big as the difference between nothing and the first iPad!
Download some other browser and the reloading pages are gone for good.
Also, this spec issue is the same with Macs vs Windows PCs, for the same price you get less specs on a Mac… what counts is the final experience, so try the iPad 2 and see how it behaves besides the tech specs.
Apple is always about finding balance between design - features - power - battery life. I think they do a good job generally and certainly better than most other manufacturers.The camera is nothing more than a way to do facetime calls, and who would be trying to take any good quality photos with an ipad anyway?! The CPU is another trade-off to maintain the same battery life as we've all come to expect and love. 512mb ram seems plenty given the new dual core CPU - together they should be great, but sure, more ram is better.
Given the price point, technology available and inevitable compromises they have to make, I think Apple has a really good balance going with the ipad. I'd LOVE a high resolution display and a real USB slot, but I suspect that it'll come next year. Can't wait an IPS screen on my laptop too!
But will I be upgrading my classic ipad? Nope, not until next year.