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Is the iPad 2 more like a laptop now?

C

ccf

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 14, 2011
139
0
With the bump in specs (dual core & such), can the iPad 2 be enjoyed as a budget-type laptop as well as its other uses? Will it do an acceptable job of browsing, YouTube, e-mail, etc.?

I don't know enough about processors & stuff like that to guess what this can do. Would anyone who knows such things be able to answer my question? Just curious. I may very well be interested in getting one.
 
So the NGP which has a quadcore should be like a laptop?

As well as many other tablets out there all have dual cores, iPad isnt the first.
 
I'm pretty sure the first gen iPad did a pretty good job at browsing, youtube and email. So I would guess that the iPad 2 will only do a better job.
 
The original iPad does fine with all of the things you mentioned. I don't really know what you mean by "more like a laptop" but the iPad 2 doesn't really do anything that the iPad 1 can't do (in some cases much more slowly). This isn't meant to be a criticism of the iPad 2, but basically the two are the same device (like last year's Macbook Pros vs. the new ones).

The thing that could make the iPad "more like a laptop" is iOS 5.
 
ccf said:
With the bump in specs (dual core & such), can the iPad 2 be enjoyed as a budget-type laptop as well as its other uses? Will it do an acceptable job of browsing, YouTube, e-mail, etc.?
Click to expand...
Here's my suggestion.

1) Start by going to www.apple.com

Read all about it. Check the iPad support pages & video's.
Apple has a terrific web site that has more info than many realize if they don't take the time up front.

2) Read all you can on different sites. Google "iPad Review"

3) Go to an Apple store and try one out. Ask questions.

By this time you'll be confident & know what you want.
 
If the absolute extent of what you're doing is YouTube, web browsing, and email, then go for the iPad by all means. Otherwise, you are going to want a PC to do any sort of taxing computer tasks.
 
For everyday things like email and web browsing, it's more of a laptop than a laptop. You really have to try it out to understand it.
 
admanimal said:
The original iPad does fine with all of the things you mentioned. I don't really know what you mean by "more like a laptop" but the iPad 2 doesn't really do anything that the iPad 1 can't do (in some cases much more slowly). This isn't meant to be a criticism of the iPad 2, but basically the two are the same device (like last year's Macbook Pros vs. the new ones).

The thing that could make the iPad "more like a laptop" is iOS 5.
Click to expand...

So I guess it has more to do with the OS? I've heard people say it's hard to do do some things on the iPad 1 (like maybe manage documents) & was wondering if any of the new upgrades would help that (I realize I didn't mention document management in my OP).

Anyway, so the new specs won't help with anything I mentioned? That's kinda what I was getting at. Just wondering if I could get by with an iPad 2 as my "laptop" (I'm a light mobile user...nothing serious, but I do want good performance with the things I mentioned).
 
zenio said:
Here's my suggestion.

1) Start by going to www.apple.com

Read all about it. Check the iPad support pages & video's.
Apple has a terrific web site that has more info than many realize if they don't take the time up front.

2) Read all you can on different sites. Google "iPad Review"

3) Go to an Apple store and try one out. Ask questions.

By this time you'll be confident & know what you want.
Click to expand...

I'm going to do that. I guess I just got a little impatient. :)
 
ccf said:
Anyway, so the new specs won't help with anything I mentioned? That's kinda what I was getting at. Just wondering if I could get by with an iPad 2 as my "laptop" (I'm a light mobile user...nothing serious, but I do want good performance with the things I mentioned).
Click to expand...

Well, obviously the faster hardware will make any task faster, but it's not going to add features to the OS like document management. A major iOS update could.
 
All depends what you use a laptop for. If most of what you do is surf the net, watch videos, type out a text file etc, then iPad is ok.

If you do any kind of pro work or need to do serious multitasking etc, you're most likely sticking with your laptop.
 
Last edited:
Laptops are not like desktops in terms of power. High-end desktops have 16 cores whereas laptops have 4 cores. iPad 2 has 2 cores.
 
yodaxl7 said:
Laptops are not like desktops in terms of power. High-end desktops have 16 cores whereas laptops have 4 cores. iPad 2 has 2 cores.
Click to expand...
High-end desktops have 4 cores. The majority of laptops have dual core chips. I don't know what you're talking about. Gulftown was the first consumer CPU that had six cores and that's exceedingly expensive.
 
It's hard to compare a tablet to a notebook PC when you talk about specs. The flash storage makes everything zippy to begin with, and iOS doesn't hog resources as much as any desktop/notebook OS will. It's kind of like a motorcycle not needing as much horsepower as a truck to get the same acceleration and speed.

The iPad is probably never going to be as good as an actual notebook, but I'm guessing most of the time you don't need it to be. If you need something that is processor-intensive like editing stuff in iMovie, then you need an actual computer. But for most casual tasks and more and more bigger tasks, you don't need a full-fledged computer. Get a bluetooth wireless keyboard and you've pretty much got all you need for taking notes.
 
I think the macbook will be redundant in 3 years as the ipad gets more power they are merging even more so now with garage band and imove etc...

This is bassically apple milking its way to a macbook pro without a keyboard and a touch screen!

If ipad ran OSX from the off they would not be selling them macbook pros now they are closely linked and more so in the future!
 
aibo82 said:
I think the macbook will be redundant in 3 years as the ipad gets more power they are merging even more so now with garage band and imove etc...

This is bassically apple milking its way to a macbook pro without a keyboard and a touch screen!

If ipad ran OSX from the off they would not be selling them macbook pros now they are closely linked and more so in the future!
Click to expand...

The only reason the ipad gets imovie becuase it exists on apples smartphone the iphone 4 already. Apple is just recycling iphone apps and hardware. The iphone 4 i believe even has the same camera tech nothing improved on ipad 2 version coming up.
 
I think once the Quad Core versions coe out next year you can say it more like a labtop.

We are close to being able to call it that. But we need to be able to install games like cod or MMORPG's to be able to call it a labtop replacement.

When the Ipad3 or the Xoom2 can play Rift online or COD5 we can call it that.
 
jbh142 said:
I think once the Quad Core versions coe out next year you can say it more like a labtop.

We are close to being able to call it that. But we need to be able to install games like cod or MMORPG's to be able to call it a labtop replacement.

When the Ipad3 or the Xoom2 can play Rift online or COD5 we can call it that.
Click to expand...

Apple games console? iGame?
 
aibo82 said:
Apple games console? iGame?
Click to expand...

BOth of those have yet to come out.. They may not ever see the light of day.. I think allot of MMO or FPS players would love to be able to play there games on the ipad..

The question was does the ipad 2 replace your labtop.. I say NO as you still cannot do many things on an ipad as you can a good labtop.
 
My iPad is just one destination for (and not the source of) stuff from my iTunes library. And since at least currently you can only sync an iPad to one library, it's not even the only destination device. Like I keep TV shows and classical music on other iPods now, which data I maintain in different libraries.

Since I keep movies on an external drive and they also have a separate library from my main iTunes music library, I have to drag selected movies into whatever library I sync my iPad or iPod touch or iPhone to, long enough for that device to "see" the movie and acquire it on a sync. This is clumsy but it works ok for me since I just don't want movies, TV shows, classical music and other music all mixed into one gigantic source library. Why would I want to make my iPad that gigundo source repository and clutter its precious storage with stuff I would not choose to play on it?

So... no, I don't see the iPad supplanting a laptop anytime soon. At least not for people who use a laptop as their primary or "desktop" machine, as I do, and who use external drives to store a lot of data segregated by format. The iPad is a wonderful tool but it's still a complemetary device the way I see it. If you want to stick a thunderbolt port on it then maybe that changes things. I am not ready for wireless to be the sole data transfer method for big files like movies, or a complete reload of some device like a large-capacity iPod.
 
for mobile people like me, iPad is weaning me away from notebook platform. with the camera and and productivity apps on ipad, I would rather buy an ipad than an MBA. anyway, what i am doing now with my hackintosh is just web browsing and email and some small office productivity stuff. is there an ms office stuff for ipad?
 
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