The iPad 2 is a thinner, sleeker, faster variant of the original and may not be breaking lots of new ground, but it's already at the front of the pack. Is the iPad 2 a perfect product? Absolutely not. The iPad 2 is still touting last year's spec, and its operating system still has significant annoyances, like the aggravating pop-up notifications. For owners of the previous generation, I don't think Apple's put a fire under you to upgrade. Unless you absolutely need cameras on your tablet, you've still got a solid piece of gear that reaps plenty of the benefits of the latest OS and apps. For those of you who haven't yet made the leap, feel free to take a deep breath and dive in - the iPad 2 is as good as it gets right now. And it's really quite good.
PurelyGadgets Rating: 4 out of 5
*****
- Pros
* Amazingly thin
* Extremely fast
* Dual Cameras
- Cons
* Last year specs
There's more to it. And even less of it.
Two cameras for FaceTime and HD video recording. The Apple dual-core A5 chip. The same 10-hour battery life. All in a thinner, lighter design. Now iPad is even more amazing. And even less like anything else.
Thinner, lighter and full of great ideas.
Once you pick up iPad 2, it’ll be hard to put down. That’s the idea behind the all-new design. It’s 33 per cent thinner and up to 15 per cent lighter, so it feels even more comfortable in your hands. And it makes surfing the web, checking email, watching films and reading books so natural, you might forget there’s incredible technology under your fingers.
The device that does it all now does even more.
Features:
- Dual-core A5 chip
- Up to 9x the graphics performance from iPad 1
- 10 hour Battery life
- Two cameras. And a big hello to FaceTime for iPad.
- LED Backlit Display
- Multi-Touch
- iOS4 Operating System
- WiFi
- Supports iPad Smart Cover
Specification:
Display
* 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
* 1024x768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
* Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
* Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously
Chip
* 1GHz dual-core Apple A5 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip
Storage
* 16GB * 32GB * 64GB
Wireless and 3G
* Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n)
* Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology
Cameras, Photos and Video Recording
* Back camera: Video recording, HD (720p) up to 30 frames per second with audio; still camera with 5x digital zoom
* Front camera: Video recording, VGA up to 30 frames per second with audio; VGA-quality still camera
* Tap to control exposure for video or stills
* Photo and video geotagging over Wi-Fi
Power and Battery
* Built-in 25-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery
* Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video or listening to music
* Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system
Input/Output
* 30-pin dock connector port
* 3.5-mm stereo headphone mini-jack
* Built-in speaker
* Microphone
Sensors
* Three-axis gyro
* Accelerometer
* Ambient light sensor
Location
* Wi-Fi
* Digital compass
Audio Playback
* Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
* Audio formats supported: HE-AAC (V1 and V2), AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3 and 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX and AAX+), Apple Lossless, AIFF and WAV
* User-configurable maximum volume limit
* Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound pass-through with Apple Digital AV Adapter (sold separately)
TV and Video
* Video mirroring and video out support: Up to 1080p with Apple Digital AV Adapter or Apple VGA Adapter (cables sold separately)
* Video out support at 576p and 480p with Apple Component AV Cable; 576i and 480i with Apple Composite AV Cable
* Video formats supported: H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640x480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats; Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280x720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format
Mail Attachment Support
Viewable document types: .jpg, .tiff, .gif (images); .doc and .docx (Microsoft Word); .htm and .html (web pages); .key (Keynote); .numbers (Numbers); .pages (Pages); .pdf (Preview and Adobe Acrobat); .ppt and .pptx (Microsoft PowerPoint); .txt (text); .rtf (rich text format); .vcf (contact information); .xls and .xlsx (Microsoft Excel)
Languages
* Language support for English (US), English (UK), French (France), German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Arabic, Thai, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malay, Romanian, Slovak, Croatian, Catalan and Vietnamese
* Keyboard support for English (US), English (UK), French (France), French (Canada), French (Switzerland), German, Traditional Chinese (Handwriting, Pinyin, Zhuyin, Cangjie, Wubihua), Simplified Chinese (Handwriting, Pinyin, Wubihua), Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Korean, Japanese (Romaji, Ten Key), Japanese (Kana), Russian, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Estonian, Hungarian, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Latvian, Flemish, Arabic, Thai, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malay, Romanian, Slovak, Croatian, Bulgarian, Serbian (Cyrillic/Latin), Catalan, Vietnamese, Tibetan, Macedonian and Cherokee
* Dictionary support (enables predictive text and autocorrect) for English (US), English (UK), French, German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Korean, Japanese (Romaji), Japanese (Kana), Russian, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Flemish, Arabic, Thai, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malaysian, Romanian, Slovak, Croatian, Catalan, Vietnamese and Cherokee
Accessibility
* Support for playback of closed-captioned content
* VoiceOver screen reader
* Full-screen zoom magnification
* White on black display
* Mono audio
Environmental Requirements
* Operating temperature: 0° to 35° C (32° to 95° F)
* Non-operating temperature: -20° to 45° C (-4° to 113° F)
* Relative humidity: 5% to 95% non-condensing
* Maximum operating altitude: 3,000 m (10,000 feet)
Mac System Requirements
* Mac computer with USB 2.0 port
* Mac OS X v10.5.8 or later
* iTunes 10.2 or later recommended
(free download from www.itunes.com/uk/download)
* iTunes Store account
* Internet access
Windows System Requirements
* PC with USB 2.0 port
* Windows 7; Windows Vista; or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 3 or later
* iTunes 10.2 or later recommended
(free download from www.itunes.com/uk/download)
* iTunes Store account
* Internet access
Dimension
* Height: 241.2 mm (9.50 inches)
* Width: 185.7 mm (7.31 inches)
* Depth: 8.8 mm (0.34 inches)
Weight
* 601 g (1.33 pounds)
Environmental Status Report
iPad embodies Apple’s continuing environmental progress. It is designed with the following features to reduce environmental impact:
* Arsenic-free display glass
* BFR-free
* Mercury-free LED-backlit display
* PVC-free
* Recyclable aluminium and glass enclosure
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