Gaming on a PC is arguably more fun when you have a good display to match, but that also holds true for anything you do on a tablet. I don’t like to rely on subjective opinions in order to evaluate the quality of a screen, but there is almost no way to benchmark the IPS panel on Apple's iPad 2. On the desktop, we have programs like CalMan and ColorEyes to test a monitor’s performance, but these programs don’t work on mobile operating systems. Even if they did work, iOS doesn’t honor ICC profiles.
No program currently exists to test the performance of a tablet's LCD panel, which is why I spent the few weeks last month creating a custom program. The whole process is a little complex, but briefly, I’m measuring the color gamut at the display’s native settings (native gamma and white point) with a Spectracal NIST-certified i1Pro.


Even though mobile operating systems don't honor ICC color profiles, native color management does occur at the hardware level. When a GPU sends 10 different hues of blue to an LCD only capable of displaying three, the subpixels display the closest matching color. So in a way, smartphones and tablets behave like they’re using relative colorimetric rendering (for more information read our printer paper benchmarks).
Apple hasn’t really changed the technical performance of its iPad 2's IPS panel. The contrast ratio is better thanks to deeper blacks, but honestly, I’m actually a bit surprised at the low gamut volume. It’s about what you get out of a cheap TN-based LCD. Most people won’t complain because Apple sets the saturation too low, while increasing gamma and contrast. This makes color accuracy a bit harder to discern. However, if you’re a photographer who’s fussy about color, you’ll want to reconsider using the iPad 2 as a field tool. Compared to a notebook, you’re losing a lot of detail in blue shadows and midtones. This, in turn, causes some detail loss towards the magenta border in highlights as well.





Understand that these gamut measurements carry a few assumptions. First, we're disabling dynamic brightness because it doesn’t allow us to get an accurate (or reproducible) measurement of the display’s potential. Second, brightness is set to the highest value. If you don't use the same settings, your color gamut is going to look smaller than what we're showing here.
Apple continues to using a 1024x768 LCD display with 132 PPI (pixels per inch). So, the size of the individual RGB subpixels hasn't changed when we examine them under a microscope. Though, for some odd reason, the shape of an individual subpixel looks different. I suspect that Apple is using another manufacturer for the LCD panels in the iPad 2.
- My iPad (The Original Flavor) Experience
- Meet iPad 2: Thinner And Lighter
- Processor Performance: Now Dual-Core Flavored
- GPU Performance: More is Better
- Better Gaming: Infinity Blade And Real Racing 2 HD
- Display Quality: Color Gamut
- Display Quality: White And Black Uniformity
- The User Experience: iOS
- HDMI Output And Camera Quality
- Real-World Performance And Battery Life
- Final Words
The XOOM could be a good choice, or the Asus Transformer.
Cheers!
Cheers,
Andrew Ku
TomsHardware.com
Here is an article that Apple fanboys would be glad to rip up.
Fixed it for you.
Like most computer guys like myself, adding an ipad won't make us to pack our PC/Mac to our closet. But again, mistakes like Microsoft or Linux, the "most computer guys on earth" are actually just a small group in total.
For example:
i've been teaching my 80 years old grandma to use pc to download, install and play simple games for years, no success. then she learned how to find/download/install/play many games after few days playing with my ipad.
my 5 years nephew reads/plays/watch cartoons all on ipad now, she didn't turn on her pc for weeks.
For myself, i uninstalled all my online video, movie client applications from my laptop, as I found watching these on ipad is much comfortable.
Yes I still do my works on my pc, mostly in my office. At home, now the only thing force me to turn on my pc is to play world of warcraft
I mean, who says ipad can't replace anything?
I'd actually argue that in your case you're not replacing a PC, you're augmenting it. Granted, there will be others like your nephew and grandmother who can use an iPad as their primary device.
P.s. I use an Acer W500 and I still struggle to justify why i have it.
Oh, don't get me wrong; I think they'll make their permanent mark on the smart phone and laptop scenes, the devices that really fit into people's lives - but the tablet is too limited and too clumsy in actual use.
Certainly, they have their niche uses - as book readers, like the Kindle, for example, but as something that will actually replace anything, I think not. Lots of coolz, little practicality.
They don't "add anything to what you can do", but they do certain things much better than other devices.
Reading this article on my iPad while sitting on a sofa was certainly much more comfortable than reading it on my desktop or laptop.
You need a more comfortable computer chair. =)
You should have taken the money you spent on your ipad and bought a more comfortable desk and chair for your desktop. Then a few cases of beer.
Oh, and using a stylus to type sucks.