Wednesday, April 7, 2010

First Impressions (as remembered)

So what do (did) I think of the iPad on first use? Number one: it's fast! Things happen quickly and smoothly. No. 2: It's pretty! The big screen is very good looking and crisp. There is the problem of glare in the wrong light or angle, however. No. 3: It's heavy! The 1.5 pounds sounds light, and it is for just carrying around, but when you hold it in one hand to read or tap, it wears your hand out! It works best when sitting down and braced on your legs or a table or tilted on a box of Kleenex. The thing needs a stand for extended use. And it should have a variable angle to avoid glare.

One big concern: the lack of a keyboard, except an on-screen keyboard, is not a problem after all. Contrary to the iPhone, because the iPad is big enough, typing on glass is ok. The auto correct feature is generally fine, but very annoying when it changes my e-mail domain from acm.org to cam.org all the time! I wouldn't want to write a novel, but for filling in userid and password, light e-mail replies, and other short work, it is fine. In fact, it is probably better than thumb typing on a small keyboard.

1 comment:

  1. So I definitely found the weight surprising. With phones, I really appreciate a surprisingly heavy device (like my Nokia E71); it makes the device feel a lot more substantial in your hand. With the iPad, I noticed after about 30 seconds that my arm was getting tired. Clearly that's a direct trade-off for the great battery life, but it's *heavy*!

    The other thing that surprised me was hand fatigue when typing. After typing for only a few minutes, I found that my hands were getting tired and I realized it was because my fingers had to hover over the screen. When I use a regular keyboard, I rest my fingers on the keys which you clearly cannot do on a touchscreen keyboard. I should point out that I dislike typing on any touchscreen keyboard (phone or otherwise) and have never done so for more than a few minutes.

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