Apple iPad 2 32GB Wi-Fi 9.7-inch Tablet

Mar 28 2011 - Apple's iPad 2 may not have had all the upgrades that many users had wished for, but it still is the best overall tablet available on the market. Between faster performance, one of the best displays available and its thinner more comfortable profile, there is little not to like. Add to this Apple's easy to use software and plethora of apps available and it can be used for just about anything. There are still some faults with it including some less functional multitasking capabilities and mediocre camera performance.

Mar 28 2011 - Apple's second generation iPad tablet offers some significant performance improvements over the first generation. The original iPad featured a single core processor but the iPad 2 now comes with a 1GHz dual core processor. The memory has also been increased from 256MB to 512MB to offer better multitasking performance. This is half the memory that many competing tablets but Apple still has very limited multitasking support in their iOS software which doesn't seem to impact its overall performance.

The big feature introduction over the past iPad is the front and read facing cameras. These are essentially similar in performance to the cameras that were introduced into the last iPod Touch refresh. The rear facing camera has the higher 2.0 megapixel resolution that allows for video recording of high definition video at 720 lines of resolution with 30 frames per second. There is no flash so it has very limited low light still picture capabilities. The front facing camera only provides VGA resolution video and is mostly useful for the FaceTime chat features. It is acceptable but not as clear as Apple's computer based cameras.

The display on the iPad 2 remains unchanged from the previous model which is good and disappointing at the same time. The 9.7-inch display keeps the 1024x768 resolution and still offers the best overall color found on in a tablet form. It would have been nice to see a retina based display so it could really support high definition video playback. As a consolation, Apple does now offer an HDMI output cable adapter for use with a HDTV or computer monitor.

What they did upgrade was the iPad 2's graphics capabilities with the new PowerVR SGX 543 graphics engine. Apple claims a nine times improvement to graphics performance which is highly that it probably is in real life. Even still, the graphics engine allows for even smoother transitions between apps and some outstanding performance meaning that even more graphically enhanced gaming can be achieved. If you want to do some gaming with a tablet, then the iPad is clearly the one to get.

Even with its extremely thin profile, Apple has built into the iPad 2 a 25Whr capacity lithium polymer battery. Apple claims that this should provide up to ten hours of running time for watching video or browsing the web. In video playback test using an HD video file from iTunes, the iPad was able to run roughly ten and a quarter hours before running out of power and requiring a recharge. It should be noted that playing games on the iPad 2 is much more demanding on the battery and will provide much less running time.