After a few days of deliberation, I’ve decided to stick with my iPad 2 for another year and forego the purchase of a sexy (oh, so very sexy) new iPad.
RETINA!!!
I’ll admit the decision didn’t come easily to me. A friend recently brought his new 16GB 3G Retina iPad over to my place, and our side-by-side comparisons of the screens were just unfair – Bruce Lee side kicking a toddler levels of unfair. But that quick bout of show-and-tell prompted me to think of what I’d gain from an iPad purchase.
The incredible screen was the first and most obvious advantage. Everybody has talked about the thing to death, so I won’t. Simply put: given the amount of reading and writing as I do on the iPad, vastly improved contrast and legibility would go a very long way towards making work and play better.
A new iPad would also allow me a second chance to acquire a more appropriate amount of storage. When I first bought the iPad 2, I really only had an inkling of what I wanted to use it for. After nearly a year of use, I now have a much better idea of how a tablet fits into my daily life. It’s a reading and writing machine, but thanks to apps like iPhoto and Avid Studio, the iPad is becoming a much more capable photo and video editing device, as well. Unfortunately, photos and videos love to eat up space. Then there’s the fact that Retina-ready apps can take up a lot more space.I currently have 16GB and am constantly forced to re-evaluate what I need to keep on the device, thanks to the capacity constraints. A new 32GB iPad would be a much better fit for the way I’ve come to use my tablet, allowing for more HD videos for editing, more general photo storage, and room enough to actually keep all of my music on the device.
The third thing I figured I’d gain from a new iPad purchase is more flexibility, thanks to the built-in dictation. Voice dictation would allow me to quickly jot down quick notes or conduct searches without resorting to the keyboard. I really like software keyboards, but I’m finding the iPad’s keyboard – even the awesome split keyboard – just isn’t ergonomically friendly enough for extended use.
Opportunity Costs
The number I came up with for the new iPad purchase was 450. That’s $450 for a new 32GB Wi-Fi iPad after 13% tax in Ontario, and after selling my iPad 2 to a family member for just $250. It’s not an astronomical sum, but it’s certainly not a cheap upgrade.
Then I started to think of all of the other things I could buy with $450. On the mundane side, there are the new clothes I need to purchase (because walking around naked is getting old fast), then there’s the iron I need to buy so I can flatten and un-wrinkle said clothes. But this is a tech blog and you didn’t come here to read about laundry, so I’ll tell you about the Western Digital Scorpio Black 500GB hard drive I’ve been eyeing for my ageing mid-2009 13" MacBook Pro. That would allow me to do all sorts of things I currently cannot do on my MacBook Pro, thanks to a tragic lack of hard drive space. Not buying a new iPad would leave me with more cash to purchase all sorts of other "wouldn’t it be nice" items like that WD Scorpio Black.
The iPad 2 Reborn
One question I asked myself was whether or not the new iPad would allow me to do anything I couldn’t on my iPad 2. The resounding answer to this was "no". Besides, aside from the addition of more RAM, reports of the new iPad seem to say that it’s only a little faster than the tablet I’m currently typing on. I don’t find that disappointing, as I’m guessing the Retina display requires quite a lot of CPU and GPU oomph to run, but it certainly isn’t like the speed jump iPhone 3GS users felt when they upgraded to the iPhone 4.
In terms of dictation, Google Search allows me to quickly dictate searches from the couch – and while it isn’t built right into the keyboard, it’s a decent workaround. Space is still an issue, but iTunes Match lets me have all of my music on my 16GB iPad most of the time, and deleting a few larger games has freed up three gigabytes of space on my device for videos and photos.
The kicker for me, however, was deciding to just rip off the matte screen protector I’d installed all those months ago. The difference has been like night and day. It sounds ridiculous, but I’d forgotten how crisp the iPad 2 display could look without a thick piece of anti-glare plastic taped over it. It’s certainly not Retina sharp, but I’m still quite giddy about re-discovering this gorgeous 1024×768 IPS display.
Overall, the iPad 2 is still an extremely capable machine, and I’ll be happy to keep using it until the next iPad rolls around. I’m hoping the next one will be a little lighter, and that Apple will decide put a decent iSight camera on the front…you know, where I’ll actually have a chance to use it.
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