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How fast is iPad 2 browsing compared to a computer?

T

tmt345

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 24, 2008
84
0
I have looked all over and all I can find is iPad vs iPad 2 comparisons and not any comparisons to computers.

So, how fast is the iPad 2 in browsing speed compared to a mac or pc?

Thanks
 
There is no denying that loading pages is significantly slower on my iPad 1 than a modern Mac or PC. However I personally don't find it annoyingly slow. Plus once the page is loaded, scrolling and zooming the page is virtually the same as a desktop.
 
Depends on the computer you're comparing it to also. Obviously a computer with more ram and a faster processor is going to load pages faster. It's almost impossible to compare really, but I'd say they load fairly quickly on my ipad 1 I have no complaints
 
Seriously?

iPad 1 or 2 is way quicker.

I have Windowd Vista and it's slow, always crashing too and running Internet explorer.

Obviously a well set up PC running Windows 7 vs IOS would depend on Internet speeds so should equal in speed. If you are talking 3G obviously it's slower as it's mobile Internet.

But generally I bet IPad is quicker.
 
gadget123 said:
Seriously?

iPad 1 or 2 is way quicker.

I have Windowd Vista and it's slow, always crashing too and running Internet explorer.

Obviously a well set up PC running Windows 7 vs IOS would depend on Internet speeds so should equal in speed. If you are talking 3G obviously it's slower as it's mobile Internet.

But generally I bet IPad is quicker.
Click to expand...

Er... I can't say I've ever encountered this...

My iPad is ALWAYS slower than any PC that I throw at it, well apart from that 400Mhz, 64MB RAM laptop with Windows 98...
 
It is slow and really not useful with the iPad 1. I mean with only 256 MB ram I'm crashing the browser every 15 minutes. Perhaps the iPad 2 is better in this regard. I think I just going to get a ThinkPad x220 and have it all anyway.
 
Significantly slower and far less capable compared to a computer.

It is the price you pay for portability.
 
tmt345 said:
I have looked all over and all I can find is iPad vs iPad 2 comparisons and not any comparisons to computers.

So, how fast is the iPad 2 in browsing speed compared to a mac or pc?
Click to expand...

Pop down to a store with the iPad 2 on display and just try it out for yourself! Otherwise you're just going to get a handful of very subjective comments from people, some of whom may not even own one.
 
Let's put it this way: I never ever get the urge to pop over to a desktop because my iPad loads web pages too slow. It's absolutely fine. Maybe marginally slower than a PC, but the difference is negligible.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

gadget123 said:
Seriously?

iPad 1 or 2 is way quicker.

I have Windowd Vista and it's slow, always crashing too and running Internet explorer.

Obviously a well set up PC running Windows 7 vs IOS would depend on Internet speeds so should equal in speed. If you are talking 3G obviously it's slower as it's mobile Internet.

But generally I bet IPad is quicker.
Click to expand...

I agree hell my iPhone 4 over wifi is pretty damn quick in itself as fast as some pcs I've been on
 
gadget123 said:
Seriously?

iPad 1 or 2 is way quicker.

I have Windowd Vista and it's slow, always crashing too and running Internet explorer.

Obviously a well set up PC running Windows 7 vs IOS would depend on Internet speeds so should equal in speed. If you are talking 3G obviously it's slower as it's mobile Internet.

But generally I bet IPad is quicker.
Click to expand...

Your computer sucks.
 
Its slower than a computer( meaning any decent modern one ), but still rather quick, and there is a difference between iPad 1 and iPad 2.
 
Subjectively, I think it's probably a bit slower than my MacBook. The main difference is that I'm a tabs fanatic, and tend to open a bunch of pages in the background whilst I'm reading the current page. You can't really do that with the iPad, so it feels a bit clunkier.
I still use my iPad *all* the time though :D
 
Well, I've got my Macbook Pro setup with 'Better Touch Tool' gestures for both Opera & Safari and is excellent... magical,even ;)

As opposed to the lameness that is iPad Safari...

Speed is not the issue - neutered Safari is the problem.

This version of Safari (and the Opera Mini) might be great for iPhones etc, but on the larger iPad are not ideal at all.

This can be pretty well solved by paying for iCab... which has real tabs :eek: amongst other good features (full screen view, gestures for changing tab, great bookmark/favourite management, download manager).

Tried several others including Opera Mini, but iCab won out for me.
 
pcunite said:
It is slow and really not useful with the iPad 1. I mean with only 256 MB ram I'm crashing the browser every 15 minutes. Perhaps the iPad 2 is better in this regard. I think I just going to get a ThinkPad x220 and have it all anyway.
Click to expand...
:eek:. I can honestly say, that for the 12 months that I had my iPad 1, I could count the number of times Safari crashed on me, on the fingers of one hand(obviously, different users, different use cases, just sayin').
Back to the OP: My iPad 2's webpage loading is as fast as my friends El Cheapo netbook, but not as fast as my mid-low range 2009 Dell laptop, where even complex pages load in no more than 2-3 seconds. My iPad 2 loads the same pages in about 6-10 seconds on average.
 
iPad 1: It's slower, glitches occur on a regular basis, and you can only hold a certain amount of pages in the RAM. To explain, you can theoretically "Browse" up to 9 pages at a time. However, in action, you can only view 2 to 5 pages before they start reloading. This is especially true if you are running RAM intensive tasks... which pretty much means "anything else" with the iPad.

iPad 2: Much faster, and the iPad is able to maintain all 9 pages at once. This is the "true" iPad browsing experience IMO. It's much more tolerable, though I would still browse with a computer if I had the choice.
 
gadget123 said:
Seriously?

iPad 1 or 2 is way quicker.

I have Windowd Vista and it's slow, always crashing too and running Internet explorer.

Obviously a well set up PC running Windows 7 vs IOS would depend on Internet speeds so should equal in speed. If you are talking 3G obviously it's slower as it's mobile Internet.

But generally I bet IPad is quicker.
Click to expand...

I didnt know people still used internet explorer lol or vista for that matter :|
but obviously the ipad wont be faster than a computer but shouldnt be a problem ill see when i get mine tuesday :)
 
Considering my computer is a 1.6 ghz pentium M, which is 6 years old, running XP and a single core processor, I think the iPad 2 is faster, but it can depend on the site.

My pc at least has 2 gigs of ram. I actually just upgrade that laptop to a larger internal drive, if I hadn't my 32 gb iPad would have had more internal space than my laptop. That said she is still running strong. Don't know about modern Dells but the old ones are great.

I use firefox fox on my laptop which I prefer to safari, heck safari barely runs on my laptop. I am thinking of trying one of the other browser options for my iPad 2 and iPhone 4.
 
My iPad 2 two loads pages faster than my Acer netbook with a 1.6ghz processor and 1gig of ram.

It loads just a fast as my MDG desktop with a dual core 1.6mhz processor and 3gigs of ram, as well as my girlfriend's HP pavilion laptop.

The only device I own that it is not as fast as us the Acer 23" Z5610 with a dual core 2.6mhz processor and 6gigs of ram.


Overall I'm pretty damn impressed with the software optimization in conjunction with the hardware on the iPad 2.
 
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