Walt Mossberg’s iPad Review

Qualitatively different: You have to feel it, to use it, to fully understand it and decide if it is for you.

USE

• Can indeed replace a heavier, bulkier laptop a lot of the time. A pleasure to use for 80% of computing: Satisfying and fun for consuming web, facebook, video, photos, music, books, and games. Adequate for light content creation like noting and email. Fall back on laptop for the 20% of writing or editing longer documents and spreadsheets, viewing Flash videos, and video chat.

• Large color screen beats Kindle and doesn't strain eyes. But heavier, needs two hands, and lacks notes.

• Digital picture frame.

• Pay AT&T either $15/250mb/month or $30/month unlimited—a significant reduction from typical laptop 3G.

HARDWARE

• Thinner (1/2") and lighter (1.5 pounds) than any netbook.

• Typed accurately and quickly on on-screen keyboard. More comfortable than many notebooks' cramped keyboards and touchpads. But can't touch type.

• Battery lasts 11:28 minutes playing videos with push wifi email, and a fairly bright screen. TV, web, and books burn similar juice, mostly powering the screen. The battery ran down so slowly that I forgot about it.

• Wicked fast. Screens appear almost instantly, and home Wi-Fi ran as fast as a laptop.

* Decent speaker and tiny microphone.

• Bug: Old-skool 4:3 screen letterboxes or crops TV.

• Bug: Lacks physical keyboard, webcam, USB.

SOFTWARE

• Every tested iPhone app worked properly, in either a tiny iPhone-sized hole, or blown up to double size and blocky type.

• iPad apps might cost more ($4-50) but some are free.

• Portrait "popover" menus and landscape panes speed list/detail views in built-in apps, like email, like a laptop.

• $30 iWork imports and (Pages only) exports Office files, sometimes unreadably.

• Bug: Lacks multitasking, Flash, email rules, group addressing

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