iPad 2 Review: It's 'The Only Tablet'

We know what you're wondering: Now that Apple's upgraded to the iPad 2, is it time to take the plunge? If you've already got the original iPad, do you need to trade up? Well, here's what tech experts are saying:

• The upgrade—it’s a third thinner, 15% lighter, and twice as fast—may not look like much on paper, but wait until you hold the thing, says David Pogue of the New York Times. “My friends, I’m telling you: just that much improvement in thinness, weight, and speed transforms the experience.”

• “It's evolutionary rather than revolutionary like the first model,” says Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal. There are drawbacks—why, for example, can’t it connect to 4G networks?—but it’s still the best tablet for “average, non-techie users.”
• The only truly new features are the cameras, and those “are no great shakes” taking quality video, but “barely adequate” stills, says Rich Jaroslovsky of BusinessWeek. So if you’ve already got an iPad, you needn’t upgrade. “But let’s face it: Many of you are going to anyway.”
• “From an industrial design standpoint, the iPad 2 just seriously raised the bar on sleek, sexy computer hardware,” says Joshua Topolsky of Engadget. “It might frustrate the competition to hear this, but it needs to be said: the iPad 2 isn't just the best tablet on the market, it feels like the only tablet on the market.”

(More iPad 2 stories.)