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A New iPad

Entry 1597, on 2013-11-25 at 20:21:35 (Rating 1, Computers)

I was one of the first people in New Zealand to get an iPad because I bought one from Australia before they were even available here. It was the original iPad with 64G of storage and the 3G cell function. I have used it for many years and it has been very reliable and useful but recently it has become obvious that the older devices just can't do everything I want anymore.

For example my old iPad won't run the latest version of iOS, or even the version before that! It doesn't run a lot of the latest software and some of the newer software which it does run is a bit slow. And it doesn't even have a camera.

So it was clearly time to get a new iPad and I considered the iPad Mini which I decided I really do like after using one for a day. But it has a smaller screen and I already have an iPhone 5 with a small screen so the iPad Air seemed to make more sense, and that's what I now have.

So what are my initial impressions after using it for about 12 hours?

Well, it's light and compact. It's not as light as a Mini but definitely easier to hold than the original iPad which starts feeling rather heavy after a while. The screen is the same size as other full-size iPads but the device itself is not as wide and a lot thinner.

The screen is very nice. It's a high-resolution retina display and it's very detailed and has plenty of brightness. The brightness changes slightly when viewed off-center but it's really hardly noticeable.

And it's fast. Everything launches quickly, the graphics in games is super fast, and it seems that nothing takes any time at all.

I haven't had much of a chance to evaluate the camera but I would most likely use the iPhone camera or my SLR anyway so just the fact that it has one at all is useful.

It's taking me a long time to get this device set up the way I like because instead of just moving everything from the old device I'm setting this one up again from scratch. This should give me a chance to throw out old stuff I don't use any more.

So I have a couple of hundred apps to sort through, a whole pile of on-line services to configure, and lots of media to shift across. It will take a few days to get things fully operational and a few more to get a real idea of how useful this new device is.

So maybe in a week I might post a full review. But what's the point really? I know I'm going to love this thing. It's brilliant!

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