iPad Reviews Praise Device for Ease of Use, Battery Life, More

The first iPad reviews are out. Apple’s tablet has been declared a winner by pretty much every tech journalist lucky enough to get a review unit from Apple, starting with the intuitiveness of the device, and ending with its long-lasting battery, which reportedly exceeds even Apple’s own expectations.

The folks at electronista summarize some of the noteworthy aspects surrounding the iPad, from several journalists’ point of view. The site quotes Ed Baig of USA Today who called the iPad a "winner." In his review, he added that Apple had "pretty much nailed it" on the first try at the device, also confirming that bestselling books would cost $13, but that many of the titles featured in the iBookstore went for ten bucks.

It is also known that more than 30,000 books will be free at the iPad’s launch, thanks to the Gutenberg Project. The reviewer also stressed that the iPad wasn’t as comfortable a reading device as was the Amazon Kindle. "Some have suggested that it might make a good goof-proof computer for technophobes, the aged and the young," The New York Times’ David Pogue wrote. "They’re absolutely right."

Moving on to the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg, electronista claims the journalist was pleased with the device as well. He described the A4 silicon as "wicked fast," and mentioned that he got about 11.5 hours of video playback with active Wi-Fi and e-mail. Comparing the device to notebooks, Mossberg was using his MacBook and ThinkPad about a fifth of the time he normally would. He praised the large, on-screen keyboard, noting it was more comfortable than a netbook's.

"[The iPad] has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop," he said. "It could even help, eventually, to propel the finger-driven, multitouch user interface ahead of the mouse-driven interface that has prevailed for decades," Mossberg concluded.