Any criticism of the iPad 2 halts when it comes to performance. The dual-core A5 processor is capable of handling anything thrown at it, including intensive apps like iMovie and video streaming. I never experienced a stutter or a blip in performance. In addition, I never once felt any heat emanating from the iPad 2. The iPad 2 also features near instant on from sleep mode, and takes about 20 seconds to power up cold.
The browser was also impressive as well as fluid, no doubt thanks to the new Nitro JavaScript engine. The touch gesture like swipe-to-scroll and pinch-to-zoom were impeccably responsive, and pages loaded in a zip. Of course, Safari for the iPad still doesn’t support Flash, which isn’t a killer thanks to the recent emergence of HTML 5, but it is a noticeable drawback.
Apple claims the battery is good for up to 10 hours of video or web surfing via Wi-Fi, and I believe it. I was on pace for 9 hours of video streaming, but that was with the screen set to maximum brightness, and following a break to run benchmarks, which typically eat up the battery.
Cameras, FaceTime and Photo Booth
New with the iPad 2 are a rear- and front-facing camera. While I applaud Apple for keeping up with the Joneses and including the feature, the camera quality is lacking.
Apple doesn’t list the iPad 2 camera specs in terms of megapixels, probably because it falls far short of competition. The rear camera shoots approximately .7-megapixels, and front shoots .3-megapixels. The Motorola Xoom’s cameras shoot at five- and two-megapixels respectively. The iPad 2 actually has the same as the camera output as the iPod touch. While .7-megapixels is more than enough for a 3.5-inch screen, the images look awful blown up on the 9.7-inch iPad 2 screen, and are full of noise and grain.
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