Apple iPad features, hitches, prices and deals

Life takes a full circle” – I guess Apple iPad is another gadget that stands testimony to this saying. Moses came back with the 10 commandments inscribed in two tablet and the tablets became the means of communication. It has now, once again – only that this electronic tablet may not be sacred to the Vatican masses but it is demi-God for its users! The sheer beauty and style will mesmerize you. There has been several arguments made about ‘why I don’t need an iPad’ just as was the case with iPhone (read smart phones – coz  android phones is breathing down iPhone’s neck in terms of features and market competition). Even some of the ardent Apple customers needed persuasion to see the whole new cool way of doing things. For those who are still saying that the iPad tab seems an evolutionary link between  Laptop and iPhone, I will not greatly disagree. Even if it were going to do just what the laptop did, isn’t it cool that such a cute 10 inch beauty does all that?

The Technicalities:

Size:

iPad has this beautiful 9.7 inch LED backlit, glossy, widescreen, multi touch display with a resolution of 1024 * 768 pixels (132 ppi) and finger print resistant coating. Try however it may, the Samsung Galaxy tab (even though the colors were more prettier there) looked too petite with its 7 inch screen. iPad wins hands down

Processor and Memory:

1 GHz, Apple 4 processor which boasted high performance coupled with low power system on a single chip. If this processor definition fails to awe you, I wonder what will (Can’t wait to see what’s in store in A5) .

Here comes the first hitch (trust me there are only very few of these – is it blasphemy already to find hitches with the demi-god?) – No external memory. Not that I am complaining, it was perfectly ok to run the iPhone with just the internal memory, but I personally feel that an external SD memory would have been simply great! Standard Apple memory sizes available – 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB

Battery:

Inbuilt non-removable battery (the second hitch). The battery lasts up to 10 hrs when used with Wi-Fi (which includes watching video and audio). If you are running on 3G data network all through, the battery runs for 9 hrs.

Other WOW Features:

1. 3G enabled through micro sim

2. External keyboard (an excellent accessory!)

3. Runs all iPhone/iPad apps (including apps that can replace a kindle)

4. Web, email, maps, GPS and much much more

Other Hitches:

1. No camera – one blogger had written this - on saying why he thought not having a cam in iPad was not that bad at all  “If I am driving and I see a beautiful sunset, I will not reach out for my laptop to take a pic”. Very true. You will not want to take a photo with the 10 inch tab every time. But an avid blogger who blogs on what he sees around him, will definitely want to click and write from the same device. Also, in the age of video chats and face time, single camera system by itself is being frowned upon. In that aspect yes, this is a hitch.

2. No USB/HDMi port – when an iPad almost takes the place of a laptop, it is a disappointment to see no USB or HDMi ports in the iPad. Every single piece of electronic junk on the planet seems to have a HDMi port these days… what were the iPad designers thinking?

Prices:

What I loved the most was the pricing. It was neither too high (to make it another of those unreachable desires) nor too low (to look worthless). The prices at the time of launch was:

Size	Wi-Fi only	Wi-Fi & 3G
16 GB	$499	$629
32 GB	$599	$729
64 GB	$699	$829

 

And it remains the same till date. The best deals that I’ve seen so far are from amazon.com (the difference in price is between few cents to $5 – if you can call that a deal )

Are you a proud possessor of iPad – share your pleasure. Or are you waiting for the next gen iPad, do share what improvements you want to see there.. I am doing that list next :)