Everything You Need to Know About the iPad 2: Thinner, Lighter, Faster, Available March 11th, 3G on Verizon and AT&T

Posted on 03 March 2011, Last updated on 03 March 2011 by

ipad 2 frontThe iPad 2 is here! Are you surprised? Probably not. Apple is quite consistent with it’s product iterations. There’s nothing mind-blowing about the iPad 2, but it’s definitely set the new bar for tablets. Here’s the low-down:

Specs:

  • iOS 4.3
  • 9.7 inch capacitive glass screen with oleophobic (fingerprint resistant) coating @ 1024 x 768
  • Dual-core Apple A5 CPU @ 1GHz
  • Enhanced GPU that Apple claims is 9x faster
  • 16/32/64GB memory options
  • Forward-facing camera (with FaceTime support, naturally) @ 640×480 resolution
  • Rear camera for up to 720p (1280×720) video recording
  • Sensors: Gyroscope, accelerometer, light sensor, digital compass
  • WiFi a/b/g/n & Bluetooth 2.1
  • 3G & GPS (optional)
  • 25 watt-hour battery
  • White or black bezel options

Dimensions & Weight (and size comparisons):

ipad original ipad size compThe iPad 2 is 9.5 x 7.31 x 0.34 inches or 241.2 x 185.7 x 8.8 mm. That’s right, the iPad 2 is ridiculously thin, probably the thinnest tablet on the market. It’s even more thin than the iPhone 4 (9.3 mm).

Here is the iPad 2’s size visualized against two other 10 inch tablets, and the original iPad:

ipad 2 comp iso

ipad 2 comp side

ipad comp top

The iPad 2 is also a bit lighter than the original iPad: 1.33 pounds (601g) vs. 1.5 pounds (680g). Here’s how its weight stacks up to the competition:

Weight was one of my major complaints in my iPad review, so it’s nice to see that they’ve been able to bring it down somewhat. Still, as Chippy noted on twitter earlier, they fell short of the important 1 pound mark.

Design

Image 51The design of the iPad 2 isn’t far off from the original, though they’ve reshaped it to make it much more like the latest generation of iPod Touch.

Specifically, they’ve flattened the dome shape on the back of the iPad, but still let the edges taper up to the sides of the device. This eliminates one of the surfaces, so now you’ve essentially got just a front and back with a smooth transition between, rather than individual sides. Keeping the sides rounded means you’ll be able to get your fingers under the device to pick it up, but the overall width of the iPad 2 has been reduced over the original.

Thanks to Apple’s iPad 2 video, we got to see some cool shots of the device’s insides. Check it out below:

Image 49

Image 50

Continue reading on page 2 (Cameras, CPU, GPU, & Battery Life, Display Mirroring & AirPlay, iOS 4.3)…

Pages: 1 2 3

6 Comments For This Post

  1. Welko says:

    no matter how cool the hardware is you’ve still got the boring curated approved iOS apps. in a few years when tablets are truly mainstream all the no-rules no-limitations innovation will be coming from the Android community, while iOS just keep releasing the same apps over & over with a different coat of paint.

    everytime these events go down it just reminds me how much I love the open marketplace of Windows & Android.

    although I do always recommend Apple products to my mom or other moms/kids, never colleagues.

  2. Ben says:

    Welko, I hope you’re right. I’d love to see innovation win. The biggest issue is that Apple has a really controlled experience (a great one) across their line of iOS devices. Within Apple’s rules, devs are pretty much able to create applications that are as complex as they need to be for Apple’s target audiences (which is mainstream consumers, not techies). And because they keep the experience so controlled, many of the apps are of an incredible quality.

    Still, as a techie, I’d never be able to live with vanilla iOS. Without jailbreaking and going beyond their walls, the iPhone would fall way short of my expectations. For techies though, that extra step beyond the wall is an option, so they sort of get the best of both worlds. If Apple ever permanently ended the ability to jailbeak, I’d be on Android in no time.

  3. jjsjjsva says:

    Is that a Micro-SD card slot? Memory incresed and faster? USB?

  4. Ben says:

    There’s no MicroSD slot and no USB port.

  5. Philip says:

    Nice thorough review on this one Ben! Keep up the great work! Philip

  6. Karen says:

    Thanks, Ben. Your review is very informative!

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