14 DAY TRIAL // While seemingly trying to keep things as objective as possible, Consumer Reports has concluded that Apple’s iPad 2 is no 'significant' upgrade from a performance standpoint, suggesting the tablet is not a must have.
Consumer Reports, as Softpedia readers will recall, is directly responsible for the PR fiasco Apple had to endure last year for the iPhone 4 ‘antennagate’.
Most recently, although it admits that the new version is “an improvement over the original iPad—without any increase in price,” Consumer Reports points out to “one” major difference inside the iPad 2 - “a new processor that's supposed to make it far speedier than the original.”
“While performing routine tasks such as Web browsing and e-mail in our tests, we didn't notice any significant speed improvement,” the group of consumer-oriented reviewers note.
“The biggest speed boost, a 9x improvement in graphics processing, should be apparent when you run demanding 3D games, but it's not clear whether any games that take advantage of that higher speed are yet available,” the organization adds.
They go to note the rear camera as a major drawback as well, saying “with just 0.7 megapixels of resolution and no flash or manual controls, is far more limited for shooting stills than the Motorola Xoom's 5-megapixel camera, which has a flash and controls for picture size (resolution), white balance, picture quality, color effects, scene modes, exposure level, and focus mode.”
What Consumer Reports doesn’t say is that iPad 2 beats the Xoom on so many levels (pretty much all), that such a comparison isn’t even necessary.
Admittedly, the rear-facing camera will not shoot pro-level stills, but it will do HD video, and it’s very likely that folks don’t even need more for now - they’ve got their iPhones for taking better pictures.
The price is listed as a plus, but Consumer Reports fears that Apple will have to face tough competition in the near future “with the small-but-growing field of Android-based tablets.”
While also admitting that “the iPad 2 is a very good choice in the tablet market,” Consumer Reports outlines that “many more tablets are expected to reach market this year. The tablet race is far from over,” they believe.
They plan to further test the second generation iPad to verify Apple’s battery life claims, and other aspects.