iPAD 2 – COMPETITION

As we are all well aware, Apple took the world over by storm with the premier of its first tablet of its kind known as the iPad. It debuted back in April of 2010 here in New York City and was instantaneously a big seller and since its sales have been wildly successful. Since then Apple has come out with the iPad 2 which has been updated with new features and specs. The new model seems to be a thinner, sleeker, and faster version of its predecessor. With a 9.7- inch, 1024 x 768 display, the general size and shape of the device has remained the same, and though inside there’s a new dual core A5 CPU, 512MB of RAM, and a pair of new cameras, most of the iPad 2’s changes are cosmetic. If you’ve owned the original iPad, then one of the first things you will notice on the newer model is that it is unbelievably thin. At its thickest point, the tablet is just 0.34 inches (compared with the first iPad’s half an inch of girth). The device is slightly shorter than the previous model (at 9.5 –inches tall), but also slightly less wide (just 7.3 – inches versus the iPad’s 7.47-inches). This tablet weighs in at 1.33 pounds, just a hair under the original’s one and a half pounds. As far as performance goes, the reviews state that it seems noticeably faster even after a week of bombarding it with games and taxing apps and it rarely (if ever) seemed to be struggling. Another thing that they improved on at Apple is the battery life. The original iPad had a battery life of 9 hours and 33 minutes and the iPad2 has a battery life of 10 hours and 26 minutes. Even during heavy usage with 3G and Wi-Fi on, app testing, browsing, news reading, emailing, picture/video taking, and music listening, there was no need to charge the tablet for a span of up to five days. As far as software is concerned, the iPad2 uses iOS 4.3, a minor update which tweaks a few things. Apple has also improved browser performance, adding broader Airplay support and brought Personal Hot Spot to GSM devices. They claim big gains in the speed and performance of the new ions browser thanks to the introduction of the Nitro JavaScript engine to the underlying Mobile Safari software. With all of this, it’s evident that Apple is putting time and effort into making this complete. The Apple iPad 2 starts at $499.99 and can go up to as much as $829.00 with a month to month plan with mobile carriers AT&T and Verizon.
For now, Apples iPad seems to be the tablet of choice, but for those who don’t like Apple, or simply can’t afford to shell out that kind of money, there are several competitors out there that are giving the iPad2 a run for its money. T-Mobile and Sprint are just two of the four competitors out there with their own tablets to promote.
T-Mobile offers the following three tablets: 1) 7” Android 3.1 Springboard Tablet with Google, 2) 7” Android Tablet by Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.9 Plus and 3) The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.
The Springboard’s, Size and Weight: Height: 7.48 inches, Width: 5.08 inches, Depth: 0.41 inches, and Weight: 14.1 oz. The battery life supports up to 7 hours of continuous use and 12 days of standby time. The display is 7-inch HD touch screen, it has a built in memory of 16GB expandable up to additional 32GB with Micro SD card and 1GB RAM. It is supported by Android browser and Adobe Flash player support. This tablet offers a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera for photos, video capture and video chat. There is also a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera for HD photos and video capture. This tablet operates on a 1.2 GHz dual-core mobile processor and runs on the Androids Honeycomb platform. Here you can enjoy TV, games, music, books, magazines and the web on this perfectly portable 7-inch tablet. Plus you get a suite of preloaded applications, such as Netflix and Blockbuster just to name a few. You can also enjoy full-color magazines for free when you sign up, as well as free-streaming radio with millions of songs