My Apple iPad review

Hey all :) hope you are fine :)
I just bought an iPad 64GB Wi-Fi 3 days ago and wanted to write a review about it.
Before i start,let me say that its the first Apple device that i bought(I have worked with a 27" iMac,iPod touch but I have never owned any Apple devices until now).
So let's get started :)

General Specifications

Display
Capacitive 9.7" scratch-resistant LED-backlit glossy widescreen LCD with 1024x768 resolution

Capacity
16GB,32GB and 64GB(64GB tested in this review)

Processor
Apple A4 1GHz CPU

Input and output
Dock connector,3.5mm audio jack,microphone and a built-in speaker

Connectivity
Wi-Fi 802.11(a/b/g/n)
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

Location applications
Wi-Fi
GPS
Digital compass

Battery
Built-in 25-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery with up to 10 hours of web surfing,watching movies and listening to music

Weight
0.68 kg

Finally in the box,aside from iPad,there is a Dock Connector to USB Cable,10W USB Power Adapter and of course documentation.

Design and Display
In terms of design,it looks pretty much like a iPod touch but a lot bigger.
It weights 0.68 kg and is about 9.56" tall and 0.5" thin.For me,its light and easy to carry or hold.the back side is silver with an Apple logo on it and fingerprint-resistant with oleo-phobic coating.
And there are 4 buttons on the iPad,on top there is the "on/off,sleep/wake" button.On the right side,you'll find the "volume control" along with the "screen rotation lock",and finally on the down-side,the Home button is located.
Overall i was impressed by the design and the build quality.
Here are some pictures
iPad next to(my uncle's)27" iMac
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Front
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Back
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As for display,it looks gorgeous,a big 9.7" display with great features like IPS technology,Multi-Touch input method and more importantly scratch-resistant; furthermore, its capacitive too,which reacts to the slightest of touches and is very precise.
Typing on the on-screen keyboard was a very good experience,the keys sizes are good in both portrait and landscape mode and thanks to the capacitive display,typing was easy,fast and accurate,
On the down-side,however it attract finger print very much,so i had to clean it after each time i used it,however the good thing is that there are some screen protectors for the iPad which are anti-fingerprint,but in this review,I didn't have any screen protectors.

Operating System
The OS(Operating System)is pretty much like the iPod touch and its very user friendly and easy to use.Currently the OS version is 3.2,but it can be upgraded to OS 4.0 when its released. By default,there are two pages on the screen which you can switch between them,the first one is for searching the device and the other one is for placing the applications and games.(You can add more pages in the iTunes though).
In the home page you'll find Calender,Contacts,Notes,Google maps,Videos,Youtube,iTunes,App Store and Settings,along with Safari,Mail,Photos and iPod on the down-side.
My overall experience with the OS and User Interface was very good,its very fast and responsive(thanks to its 1GHz CPU).
On the negative side,there is a lack of multi-tasking,so you can't switch between the applications,you have to close one program and then open another one,however this will be solved with OS 4.0

Multimedia and e-book reading
Music
As mentioned,iPad has a port for 3.5mm audio devices,so you can connect headphones and earphones that have a 3.5mm port; in addition,very much like iPhone,iPad has a built in iPod,the audio quality is very good in both headset and the loud speaker,the bass was quite good too.
On the other hand,you have to go to the "settings" to set choose a equalizer setting,I would have preferred to have these options in the music player,also unlike iPod touch,cover flow is missing from the music gallery.

Video
iPad can play videos with the formats like MP4 and H.264,for this review,i played a HD video of one of Shakira's musics and it played it perfect,without any problems such as lags,slow-downs etc.
However,it doesn't support formats like DivX or WMV out of box and you have to convert videos like these in iTunes,so you can watch them in the iPad,but it seems that VideoLAN are working on a video player that can support numerous video formats.

Photos
Viewing photos on the iPad was excellent.I added about 20 high resolutions pictures(all with a resolution like 2700x1700 and up)and it opened them very fast and they looked great on the widescreen display,also when you add a folder of pictures to the iPad,it recognizes it as an album,so it gathers them all in one place in a cubic shape album and by touching it,it expands and show all the pictures.
Overall,browsing and looking at the pictures was quite fun and enjoyable.

e-book reading
As mentioned above,i was looking for an e-book reader,because i can't sit in front of my computer to read PDF files and e-books for a long time,so i needed something portable,in order that i can read my files and books anywhere i want,so this was one of the most important buying reasons for me.I didn't download iBooks,because it doesn't open PDF files,instead i installed "good reader",which is an application for reading PDF files,and i added some books in PDF formats,and i was really surprised.The experience was just amazing.First of all,there is a option which allows users to change the back-light,so its optimized for reading in day or reading in night(or in low-light),overall i was quite impressed with reading books on the iPad.

Internet and connectivity
Internet
Like iPod touch,iPad has a built-in web browser known as "Safari".It supports multi-touch so you can easily zoom in every part of the page(you can use double-tap as well).
One of the great things about the browser is that it shows all the open web pages in a group,with a small view of each,so you can select the pages that you want easily.
The only drawback of the browser is the lack of Adobe flash,which is a very useful feature in browsing websites.
Also iPad has a built-in Mail application,which allows users to add a variety of accounts(such as gmail,yahoo etc.)and check their e-mails.

Connectivity
Unfortunately,many connectivity features are limited in Iran and are not usable,so the only thing that i tried was the Wi-Fi.Before buying the iPad,i had read some articles that some users experience random disconnects and could use Wi-Fi in a short range.
Well i couldn't test it in long ranges but i tested it from every corner of our house(maximum range was about 12 meters) and it connected fine with maximum signal and it never got disconnected.

Applications and games
Applications
There are variety of useful applications and games available from Apple store.I tried some applications such as "good reader" for reading PDF files and "Keynote",which is great for making presentation,both were very user friendly and worked very well.

Games
I tried some games like Rally racing HD and Mirror's edge and it was a great experience,especially the Rally racing which benefits from the built in accelerometer.

Conclusion
In conclusion,i really got what i needed,i wanted a device for listening to music,watching videos,reading e-books,browsing the web etc.and i am quite satisfied with my purchases,because although it has some drawbacks,but its very good for my needs.
It's not anything that can replace my computer,its a portable and simple to use device that lets me do the tasks i want easy and quickly,first i was considering to buy a notebook(netbooks aren't widely spread here and are priceless),but since i needed something with a size of a book(height) and thin and light,i decided to get and iPad.(Also e-book readers are quite expensive in Iran and don't have all the features that i want)

I hope you enjoyed reading this review :) feel free to ask any questions about it.

 
to zyy
I bought it from a shop in Iran, and it was about $1000 US
to Janet
Yes it has changed my usage too,i now read all of my PDF files/books on it, i do quite lot of web-surfing and typing,watching vids....
Like i mentioned in the review,i needed something with a size of a book(height) and thin and light to read books and do other normal and daily tasks on it and i am quite happy with it.