X

iPad 2 vs iPad 1 in comparison video

Now the original iPad is £100 cheaper, are you really missing out by opting for the old one over the iPad 2? We've put together a quick comparison video to help you make up your mind.

Nick Hide Managing copy editor
Nick manages CNET's advice copy desk from Springfield, Virginia. He's worked at CNET since 2005.
Expertise Copy editing, football, Civilization and other old-man games, West Wing trivia
Nick Hide
2 min read

How does the spangly new iPad 2 measure up to the old model? Now the original iPad is £100 cheaper, are you really missing out by opting for the old one over this year's model? We've put together a quick comparison video to help you make up your mind.

The obvious difference is that the new one is much, much thinner. The porky iPad 1 was 13mm thick. The iPad 2 shaves that down to a dainty 8.8mm, which is even thinner than the iPhone 4. It's nearly 100g lighter too, which Luke attempts to demonstrate by bouncing them up and down before your very eyes. Sorry, it's not a very visual concept.

The other main difference is the addition of two cameras. The back one packs less than a megapixel, but does let you shoot hi-def 720p video, which you can edit with the iPad version of iMovie. The front one is even weedier at 0.3 megapixels, but it lets you video chat with FaceTime and mess about with PhotoBooth -- perfect for silly profile pics.

Inside the iPad 2 has a new A5 chip, which manages to fit a dual-core processor, a graphics unit and some RAM all on the same die. This means it offers superior Web-surfing and graphical performance, but retains the iPad 1's impressive 10-hour battery life.

To see how the iPad 2 squares up to its Android competitors, check out our head to head comparison. For more on Apple's new baby, take your pick from our full preview, our hands-on photos, where you can buy it, and what we didn't get.

  • Video produced by Alper Cagatay. Presented by Luke Westaway.