I’ve had my iPad for about 9 months now and it has truly changed my life. I’m not a person that gets every single gadget on the planet and I’m not an Apple fan either. The iPad was my first Apple gadget, and I, overall, I have to say that I have been very impressed.
Design: 5/5
You don’t need me to tell you that the iPad is really a piece of art.
Quality of built: 2/5
Not great. I display issues with the first device, returned it after a few months (as it was getting worse); the replacement unit only lasted one week and I’m now on the 3rd device. I guess they need to spend more time on QC.
Apple Customer Service: 5/5
GREAT! I had no problems returning the faulty units. During these unit swaps, I lost a few videos that I had bought from iTunes. You are only officially allowed to download movies once. I contacted the iTunes helpdesk and I was allowed to download the videos I had lost.
Apple App Store: 4/5
It’s really a piece of cake to buy apps. I know that many have complained about the way Apple keep under tight control the apps that get published and we are not allowed to access alternative app markets (unless the iPad is jailbroken of course). I don’t agree with them. I actually like the fact that I can buy a £0.59 app (or even download a free one) without having to worry about possible viruses, exploits and other nasty things.
Apple iBooks: 4/5
The app is great but the selection of books is not as good as I’d expect. On the bright side, I love the fact that I can buy books on pdf from oReilly and Apress and read them on iBooks. I even got a Safari Online subscription, something I hadn’t done before as I didn’t like the idea of reading textbooks on my laptop.
Apple iTunes: 3/5
I love the on-demand service, but I’m not very happy with the frequency TV episodes are added and the fact that you are not allowed to download twice something you’ve already paid for. This is for me a major flaw in the iTunes business model and the only thing that stops me from buying an Apple TV.
Overall, I’m very happy with the device, the apps and the service I have received from Apple. I wished the built quality was better, but I wouldn’t consider getting a different tablet.