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iPad 2 and web browsing

M

Mike Reed

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 3, 2010
182
26
Columbus, OH
I upgraded my original iPad to the latest iOS and comparing the browser on that to the iPad 2 I was lucky enough to pick up today the difference is night and day. The iPad 2 feels significantly more responsive and zippy - so far it's working out to be just as fast as browsing on a PC or Mac. Very well done.

Just tossing that out there for anyone concerned about web browsing comparative performance (as I was) when considering whether an upgrade would be worth it.
 
So far so good for me. I am using the mercury browser and taking my first dump with the device.
 
Any hard stats to back that "night and day" claim. Or possibly a case excitement and over-exuberance, along with a one-sided hopefulness after shelling out 500+?

The specs I've seen support a modest (35%) increase in speed for typical web page loading. But I probably would also see everything as rose-colored given the level of excitement and salivating on this release day, if I had bought one.
 
Specs and benchmarks never tell you the entire story, I don't know why people still don't understand that.

The web experience on the iPad is indeed phenominal, it quickly became my favorite improvement. Been using it pretty heavy for 3 hours now and have not seen a single tab reload when I switched to it, and site load times are very similar to my Mac.
 
That's interesting. Are you sure you aren't comparing your old iPad at the old OS with the new iPad at the latest OS?

I also haven't noticed a tab reload after upgrading my iPad1 to 4.3. Not saying it's purely the OS upgrade, but I do know that 4.3 brings iPad1 closer in performance to iPad2.
 
Last edited:
Richard8655 said:
That's interesting. Are you sure you aren't comparing your old iPad at the old OS with the new iPad at the latest OS?

I also haven't noticed a tab reload after upgrading my iPad1 to 4.3. Not saying it's purely the OS upgrade, but I do know that 4.3 brings iPad1 closer in performance to iPad2.
Click to expand...

JavaScript performance is only one part of web browser performance. I think a more important test is now much data does iPad 2 cache and how long does it cache it for. iPad 1 only caches small items so if the extra memory in iPad 2 allows it to cache more data then that could result in much faster performance.
 
I am playing with my new iPad 2 right now. And I can tell you that MacRumors forums are desktop fast over a good wifi connection. No exaggerating.

Not all webpages are desktop fast. But som are. iPad 2 runs laps around my old iPad one
 
So, do we now know how much more memory in iPad2, compared to iPad1? The cache memory point is a good one. If we know for sure there's more memory in 2, I'd concede the point on tab reloads and say my 4.3 experience on 1 was only a quirk.
 
blackNBUK said:
The iPad doesn't have virtual memory so it's inevitable tabs will eventually have to be reloaded. The question is now often does it happen?
Click to expand...

Yeah just after I replied I switched to the iPad forums here in another tab and it reloaded. First time it happened, seems extremely rare.
 
Richard8655 said:
So, do we now know how much more memory in iPad2, compared to iPad1? The cache memory point is a good one. If we know for sure there's more memory in 2, I'd concede the point on tab reloads and say my 4.3 experience on 1 was only a quirk.
Click to expand...

It has 512mb, been confirmed by multiple sources. The 1st iPad only had 256mb.
 
Browsing is VERY fast, I was comparing with my new MacBook Air and it was the same. Some sites loaded faster, some slower, and some within a second of each other. Just really great.
 
iPad 2 is so much better than my old iPad which I am going to give to my younger brother.

Everything is faster in iPad 2, most probably because of the latest processor.
 
How many tabs can it open at the same time, while making sure you can switch back and forth between them without reloading?
 
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