As I sat to write this up, I did a little additional research and found an article I quite liked that summarized the review well. I suggest you check out the PC Mag article by Tim Gideon found here http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381687,00.asp
Following on with his article, the summary he came up with still largely stands even though the article referenced came out March 11 of 2011 and it is now May 12th, which in the world of tablet technology is almost a year of compressed time. The core point that comes up repeatedly is that there are a large number of players, a smaller number of competitors and even fewer contenders. The final tally of contenders really becomes about the Zoom and the iPad with a few contenders pushing their way in such as potentially Samsung, though at this point, they are not on the court of play.
What differentiates the iPad?
The clear advantage is a year head start for Apple on figuring out what works and what doesn’t. One might easily argue that if that be the case, wouldn’t the new comers leapfrog the first mover with all the lessons publically learned regarding UI and behavior and while it makes sense, it turned out to not yet be the case. Apple moved the ball forward as well with the next rev of the iOS and really, the biggest change was multi tasking if I had to pick one.
I have a friend who picked up the Zoom and really tried hard to get me to go that route as well. I have to say, it was my preferred direction as I already use a droid X as my primary personal phone and I like the idea of the Android OS. That said, it is clear which OS is in rev 1 and which is not when you play with both devices side by side. The iPad is overall, more intuitive and an easier UI experience. (subjective, of course) and from a hardware perspective, the iPad has a much better feel in the hand, though again, this is subjective.
Rather than repeat all the stats Tim quotes in his solid review, I will just add a a few points that jump out at me and suggest you read his review or follow the links I provide at the end.
I am disappointed that the iPad does not offer SD expansion and you have to use the proprietary components to achieve what I think should be built in. Apple does provide the ability to connect to pretty much whatever you need with their components, but it is with additional purchases rather than “just works” by plugging it in. If you want to Jailbreak your iPad, you have even more expansion options and you can in fact, connect it to a USB drive or almost anything else if you desire. I have not seen the need to do so yet with mine, though I am told it is easy and reversible and that seems to be the general consensus. Until I have a clear need, I am not playing with that bit yet and so far, all I have needed to do, I have been able to do with a stock machine.
With the disappointment in expandability aside, I am finding that the way I use the device is making not as much of a limitation as it might be, with the connectivity to pull over what I want when I need it generally working well. Sharing media is the topic of a pending post so I will talk through why you may only need a small portion of your music library and the same can be said for photos and video.
Remember, your usage will be guided by your particular situation and device collection, so don’t rely on anyone else to tell you the best way to use it without experimenting yourself.
Reference Links
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