First impression is definitely its elegant design. It's slightly smaller than I thought it would be, but once you start playing around with it you'll realize it's not too big to be bulky, but not too small that it resembles an iPod Touch. It's also heavier than I thought it would be. The next impression is without a doubt the gorgeous display. It's phenomenal. iPad-specialized apps look terrific with little to no lag on those demanding games. Unfortunately, there were no iPhone apps preloaded onto the iPad at the Apple Store so I couldn't see how iPhone apps looked with pixel doubling.

Typing & Navigation is where it gets a little rough. I found typing on the iPad to be a little awkward. You can't hold up the iPad and type like you can with the iPhone because it's too big. You have to place it down on a flat surface or put it on your lap. And that's just for landscape mode. Portrait mode typing was very uncomfortable and I wouldn't recommend it at all. Icons on the home screen are bigger than on the iPhone, so navigation was smoother. Certain buttons here and there, like the Safari bookmarks bar, are a little too small. I had to move my head in more to make sure I was tapping the correct thing.

Pre-loaded apps look great much larger. They aren't as "magical" or as big of a deal as Apple made them out to be, but they take great advantage of the larger screen. My personal favorites are Calendar, Contacts, App Store, and YouTube. The larger screen seems to make everything much more productive especially when using Mail and Safari.

iBooks and iWork are great experiences. They are elegant, easy to use, and they really narrow the gap more between the iPhone OS and real, hardcore productivity. I thought iBooks would be extremely rough to read from the bright LCD screen, but there's a built in brightness button so you can adjust it according to location. It goes down to a very low level, and I was quite impressed. It actually goes further than the brightness slider in the main Settings app.

Photos, Videos, and Music shine on the iPad. The built in slideshow button on the lock screen takes you straight to your photos if you want to and they look gorgeous on the 1024x768 screen. Videos looked even better. My iPad happened to be loaded up with Paul Blart: Mall Cop in HD and the iPad made it look tremendous. It's ten times better than my laptop, and it's 17". the iPod app is also pretty unique with the album artwork front and center. It resembles the desktop version of iTunes and the sound quality was pretty good.

Other Nifty Features & Enhancements I noticed just seemed to brighten the whole experience a little bit. One thing would be the Home button has a little bit less of an effort to push down on, it's nice an light. That can be both a good thing or bad thing, I suppose. Also, the screen rotation lock was definitely needed and it works great. I did notice there's no silent switch anymore. Instead, pressing and holding the down volume button on the right side of the device will make the device completely silent. Finally, the horizontal home screen was a great addition too and I hope to see that on the iPhone.

Overall, it's a great gadget. I'm very impressed at how just by making a screen bigger on a device can create so many more new possibilities. I consider to be the iPad an all-in-one type gadget. Plus, with developers creating more and more apps designed for it, it will only get better. For now though, I think I will wait until the second-generation iPad to purchase one because I know there are still some needed features in it, such as a camera. ★★★★