Apple iPad 2 deals & review

While many may mistakenly believe that Apple invented the concept of a touchscreen tablet the devices had actually been on sale for many years before the iPhone made touch sensitive screens the latest craze. Although it was not the first such device the iPad was certainly the first tablet to gain any significant degree of interest or success and has caused many people to suddenly need a device that was previously seen as pointless. The iPad still tops the tablet sales charts a year after its release and despite a plethora of Android devices being flooded onto the market.

While many of the initial Android tablets failed to make a significant dent on the iPad´s popularity, with perhaps the exception of the Samsung Galaxy Tab, the tablet market is developing rapidly with the second wave of dual core Android tablets already going on sale. With this new generation of devices the iPad seems to have lost its cutting edge with the iPad 2 failing to offer anything unique besides its iOS operating system.

This is not to say the iPad 2 is a bad tablet, as it offers some great improvements on the original, but it can no longer single itself out as a vastly superior device as in many areas such as dual core processors and cameras the iPad 2 now seems to be playing catch-up. Apple did not include cameras on the original because they insisted that people would not need them on such a device, and provided a peripheral camera for those that might. But the subsequent backlash against this decision and the popularity of Android tablets featuring cameras caused Apple to reconsider this move.

The iPad 2 now features a 0.7 megapixel rear facing camera with 720p video recording and a front facing VGA camera for FaceTime video calls. These cameras, along with the new dual core ARM Cortex processor, are the main features that mark the iPad 2 as a superior tablet to the original. In many other areas of the tablet Apple have been keen to stick to their winning formula.

The iPad 2 comes with the same 9.7" screen size, with the display now using IPS LED-backlit technology. This comes with multitouch support and a new gyro sensor for 3 dimensional controls, although Apple have not yet managed to implement the iPhone 4´s crystal clear Retina Display on this larger screen just yet. For this, we may just have to wait for the iPad 3.

The iPad 2 comes with a 3G and Wi-Fi or a Wi-Fi only version, both of which provide internet access via the Apple Safari web browser. There is access to the App Store for games and apps and also iBooks for all avid readers. The tablet also comes with three different options for storage capacity, with 16GB, 32GB or 64GB on offer although though none of these versions come with expandable memory.

The iPad 2 is an excellent tablet that offers a number of benefits over the original device, with the dual core processor and FaceTime cameras being of particular interest. While the iPad 2 is destined to be a huge success it should be noted that its competition has made great advances since the launch of the original and the iPad 2 is not quite as game changing as its predecessor.