Super-Zero

After months of internal debate (mainly in my own head) I decided to buy an Apple iPad over a netbook. There were a few well formed reasons for making this decision as well as a few one would come to expect from a crazy techno-obsessed student.

Battery-life: For me this was the big hitter. I currently own a MacBook Pro as my main laptop (2008 Unibody edition to be precise) and while I love it to pieces for great high powered mobile computing, it’s battery life really sucks – were talking 2-3 hours here with wifi on. With wifi off the max I have been able to squeeze out of it (screen at lowest brightness tick etc) has been about 3 1/2 hours, so its not really amazing.

Some high end netbooks offer 7-8 hour battery lives, but this will diminish to about 5 hours on usage of wifi for web surfing and general, everyday usage. The iPad on the other hand boasts as 10hr battery life…and on top of that it actually delivers on that boast and can actually better it! Which is perfect for a day of usage at uni or work.

Portability: Another big reason for my purchase, the iPad is just so easy to carry around. It’s super slim, and weights next to nothing. For example, I am currently sitting in my car, with my chair rolled back and my iPad on my lap (oh yeah, I’m writing this entry on it) and i can barely notice it. I would have a hard time doing this with a netbook and it would be impossible with my MacBook…my car is very small.

Also after carrying a MacBook Pro around for a few weeks you will welcome the relief your shoulders get. However this can lead to the idea that not bringing s bag to work is a good idea. Perhaps, but remember your keys are in there (that’s why I’m in my car…)

Applications: Everything I would use on a netbook, especially in this final year at uni, has a version or something similar if not better on the iPad. At this point I have to become slightly critical as the only office solutions for the iPad are currently paid apps, but I’m holding out for an OpenOffice variant for the iPad. Other than that though there are tons of free apps dinged for the iPad and lots more on the way too.

Coolness: Ok, I’ll admit, the iPad is one neat piece of kit. Ever seen a Star Trek PADD? I’ve wanted one ever since I was a kid…this is kinda realised (in a slightly more real world way) by the iPad. So I guess there was the typical gadget lust to encourage me to buy the iPad over an eeePC.

Sp what are my impressions so far? I’m impressed. Having never owned an apple product that runs an iPhone (or iPhone based) OS I have to say the iPad has bettered all of my expectations. Its super fast and has caused me no grief thus far. And for someone who’s eyesight normally sucks I’m glad to say that my eyes haven’t suffered from the delicious high resolution screen. Yes it’s a bit odd using a 4:3 format when I’m so used to 16:10 but at the same time its refreshing to have something that little bit different.

For just lazing round the house watching movies or youtube videos it really is easy to use. Even my dad could get to grips with it quickly. And photos look amazing on it. The standard 10.1″ screens of netbooks have a lower resolution of 1024×600, compared to the 1024×768, 9.7″ screen of the iPad, meaning the iPad screen looks much better in comparison (more pixels in a smaller area) and doesn’t suffer from the misshaping of webpages which happens on netbooks.

So far I have only found one thing that really irks me about the iPad and that Is it’s inability to receive files via bluetooth, something that has only bugged me today when I wanted to get some wifi access to the network here at work and needed to install a certificate to my iPad. I know that to wait until I have wifi access so i can receive the certificate via email.

Overall though the experience has been awesome and I’m really looking forward to starting uni with it by my side.