Alright, the iPad 2 is out, and everyone is waiting to grab it. You're not ? Don't lie ! … Hahahaa … Well, friends are asking me, should they upgrade. I have been pondering this question since the iPad 2 was announced last night, and after much though, here's what I think.
If you already have an iPad, and you also have the iPhone 4, I think you can just keep your iPad and wait for iPad 3. You won't really be missing much. Let's look at the main differences.
1) Performance
The iPad 2 comes with A5 processor with 2X CPU performance, 9X GPU performance compared to the A4 processor in the iPad 1. This is definitely a very significant performance boost. However, you should remember that iPad 1 is already pretty fast, so what can this performance boost do for you ?
- Faster app loading: So, an app that takes 3 seconds to load, may now take 1.5 sec. Saves you 1.5 sec in load time … nice to have, but not critical.
- Smoother app experience: You may see things work more smoothly, scroll faster, refresh faster, etc., but this will vary from app to app. Most apps that are properly optimized for iOS would already work pretty smoothly on iPad 1.
- Smoother multitasking: The A5 most definitely came with more RAM, so multitasking will definitely be smoother. Another nice to have, but again, is not critical.
- Better gaming graphics: Some game developers may start creating games that takes advantage of the 9x higher graphics performance, but most developers will still make sure their games works well on iPad 1.
The fact is, there are likely in excess of 18 million iPad 1 out there right now, but at the moment, ZERO iPad 2. It will probably be at least many months later before there are more iPad 2 out there than iPad 1. Therefore, all the iPad apps coming out in the next 6-9 months will likely be optimized to run on iPad 1, rather than take advantage of iPad 2 features exclusively. So, any app that works well on iPad 2, will also work well on iPad 1. You're not really gonna be missing anything here in the coming one year.
2) Cameras
The iPad 2 has cameras for FaceTime, which you would already have on the iPhone 4, so you won't really be missing anything here.
3) Lighter and thinner
No doubt, it's great that iPad 2 is about 5mm thinner, and around 80 grams lighter (comparing Wifi models, 3g models have slightly bigger weight difference) … but it isn't earth shattering difference.
4) Miscellaous
The smart cover is really cool, no denying that. The HDMI mirroring on iPad 2 could be a nice feature for people who do presentations.
Conclusion
Taking into consideration everything, I believe if you have both the iPad and iPhone 4, you are probably better off just sticking to your current iPad, and upgrade only when iPad 3 comes out. The iPad 2 is a nice upgrade, but not essential. Unless of course, you have a lot of excess cash that you're waiting to spend, in which case, would you like to buy me an iPad 2 ? Hehehe ...
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