iPad: Battery Exceeds Expectations

Both the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg and BoingBoing's Xeni Jardin agree that Apple's battery claims hold up to real world demands -- and then some. The BoingBoing review notes that graphics hardware acceleration available to native iPad applications provides a performance one doesn't see on the web: "This ain't Flash video over WiFi, folks. You'll feel sad going back to chokey http embeds." Mossberg noted that he used his own notebooks perhaps 20% of the normal amount of time while reviewing the iPad, mostly when he had to edit a long document or view Flash (which Apple is not going to support on its mobile platforms).

Although Mossberg credited Apple's initial battery life at 15% over Apple's claims, BoingBoing went further:

Manic, nonstop use revealed a number of things: battery life is better than I anticipated. I got a full day of constant internet-connected use (it did not leave my hands) on one charge. More than 12 hours, with heavy video and gaming, and screen cranked up to full brightness.

Jardin extols iPad content by likening it to a Harry Potter book -- a responsive source with moving pictures, magical, allowing a content experience involving personal tactile control, not seen elsewhere. If Mossberg says the device answers 80% of his portable computing needs, this thing may be a plausible notebook replacement for some users, and if not a notebook killer, maybe close enough for Apple's purposes.

Time's writer Fry concludes his article with what is likely the most heartfelt endorsement:

It is possible that the public will not fall on the iPad, as I did, like lions on an antelope. Perhaps they will find the apps and the iBooks too expensive. Maybe they will wait for more fully featured later models. But for me, my iPad is like a gun lobbyist's rifle: the only way you will take it from me is to prise it from my cold, dead hands.
The iPad Launch, by Stephen Fry