The Bottom Line: The iPad is a great device to use for both leisure and productivity, especially on the road. However, it is missing a lot of important features.

The iPad made a huge splash when it was announced. It was supposedly meant to revolutionize the way we looked at computers, books, games, and electronics in general! I have no problem saying that it is a beautiful and innovative device. But, I cannot say that it revolutionizes technology in general.

Its main uses are: listening to music, browsing the internet, viewing pictures, reading eBooks, using the paid apps for Pages (a word processor), Keystone (a slideshow creation/presentation tool), and Numbers (a business application). And it does all of those things on a beautiful, 9x7 inch touch screen!

But does it do all of these things well? The short answer would be yes. But when you dissect it and look at what it truly is, the question arises: at the expensive price, why not just get a laptop?

There is no real reason to get this over a laptop. Sure it is flashy, and it is very fun. It is true that the on-screen keyboard works very well and intuitively. But it is obviously much easier to type on a real, physical keyboard. You can buy one, but it'll cost you $69.00.

The apps are one of the greatest things about this device. All of the iPod touch and iPhone apps do work, but you will have to make them larger and it makes them look quite a bit blurrier than they are meant to look. However, the "made for iPad" apps look and cooperate excellently. From games, to applications that allow you to print, to an interactive and detailed sketchpad for graphic artists; there is something here for everyone.

Videos look excellent on this sharp screen, and the user interface is simple. You just have to click the video's icon, then what type of video you want, then the video itself. Watching videos in HD is simply stunning. The music works just like an iPod, but obviously you can't just put your iPad in your pocket and bring it around with you.

The browser is absolutely stunning. One of the things that really blew my mind was that there is not even a need for a Facebook app. The website of Facebook looks identical to the way it does on an average computer. You can also pinch on the multi-touch interface to make text/pictures larger or smaller. However, the ever annoying issue of not having Flash is as prevalent as always on this device.

There are also quite a bit of issues that make you wonder if they just wanted to speed through the production of the iPad and not really put much time into it. A true wish-list of things would contain USB ports to connect things to the iPad, a webcam, Flash compatibility, a disk drive, and a larger hard-drive (64 GB is the largest model). For those reasons, having an iPad is simply not as useful as having a laptop.

However, if you already have a laptop or a desktop, the iPad is a great device to use on the road. As mentioned earlier, the Pages application is very well-designed, along with the Keynote app. The only downfall is that the 3G service provided from AT&T is not ideal. It is $30.00 a month for the unlimited plan, and the service zones are very spotty. I use Verizon for my cell phone, and in many places on the road (especially in the country) I have 4 bars on my cell phone, and no bars on my iPad. It can be very frustrating.

Overall, the iPad is a very good device to use for leisure and productivity. It has a beautiful multi-touch screen, is very intuitive, and is great to use on the road. I recommend it if you have a laptop or desktop, but not to use as a primary computer.

Tech Specs:Height: 9.56 inches
Width: 7.47 inches
Depth: 0.5 inch
Weight: 1.6 pounds
LED lit, glossy, can be used landscape or portrait
1024x768 pixel resolution
132 pixels per inch
64 GB flash drive
1GHz
Accelerometer
25-watt lithium polymer battery (built-in)
9-10 hours of battery life depending on usage.
General iPod Dock Connector Port
Built-in Microphone
Built-in Speaker
Headphone Jack
Micro-SIM card tray
HD video up to 720p