Well, the early reviews are already starting to trickle in. We've got David Pogue in the New York Times, Walt Mossberg (the real one), BoingBoing, USA Today, PC Magazine, just about everyone chiming in except Colbert.

And just like always, we're there for you. We've got the links, we've got the highlights, we've got your iPad early review goodness. And if you were on your fence, should you, shouldn't you, these early reviewers are basically pushing you in one direction: getting your butt to the Apple Store on April 3rd.

The first thing to keep in mind is to remember iPhone number one. It was a nice piece of hardware, but recall that iteration when you look at your iPhone 3GS. At least one critic had exactly that in mind when reviewing the device, BoingBoing's Xeni Jardin:

"Maybe the most exciting thing about iPad is the apps that aren't here yet. The book-film-game hybrid someone will bust out in a year, redefining the experience of each, and suggesting some new nouns and verbs in the process."

Calling it a "touch of genius," Jardin goes on to say about the iPad:

"Just as the iPhone ... scratched an itch we didn't know we had ... the iPad hits a completely new pleasure spot. The display is large enough to make the experience of apps and games on smaller screens stale. Typography is crisp, images gem-like, and the speed brisk...Gaming possibilities are profound."

As far as capabilities go, Jardin writes:

"[B]attery 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. Orientation lock is great for when I'm sharing YouTube clips on the couch with family, or web browsing in bed. It fits well in my lap for tweeting...I can imagine traveling with iPad instead of a netbook."

I think we'll put Jardin in the "sold" category.



That same last sentiment is pretty much the headline of (the real) Walt Mossberg's Wall Street Journal column entitled "Laptop Killer? Pretty Close." And keep in mind, much as Jardin notes, iPad apps have just begun to sprout. His eminence goes on to say that the iPad has "the potential to change portable computing profoundly." No doubt.

While Mossberg was overall more measured than Jardin's gushing praise, he did manage to put a few new facts into play:

"The Web browser also works beautifully, and takes advantage of the big screen to show full pages and cut down on scrolling. It even now has a bookmarks bar at the top....The browser lacks tabs. And the Wi-Fi-only version lacks GPS."

But overall, Mossberg found much to praise:

"I consider the larger color screen superior to the Kindle’s, and encountered no eye strain."

 

"I tested a small selection of the new third-party iPad apps Apple hopes to have available at launch, and most were also rich and feature-filled, beyond what iPhone apps offer."

 

"The iPod app is beautiful, too, as are the calendar and contacts app. Unfortunately, Apple excluded some of the more familiar apps from the iPhone, including Weather, Clock and Stocks."

 

"I found email easy and productive to use, and had no trouble typing accurately and quickly on the iPad’s wide on-screen keyboard. In fact, I found the iPad virtual keyboard more comfortable and accurate to use than the cramped keyboards and touchpads on many netbooks..."

As Jardin above, Mossberg also found that battery life exceeded Apple's claims, which many found to be dubious at the time of the Keynote.


In the hallowed pages of the New York Times, David Pogue decides the only real way to review this baby is to give a review for the techies who will never, ever be satisfied with any product, then to give a review for everyone else in the world, whose standards might be different.

From the techies review o' gripes we get these gems:

"There’s an e-book reader app, but it’s not going to rescue the newspaper and book industries...The selection is puny (60,000 titles for now). You can’t read well in direct sunlight. At 1.5 pounds, the iPad gets heavy in your hand after awhile..."

 

"When the iPad is upright, typing on the on-screen keyboard is a horrible experience; when the iPad is turned 90 degrees, the keyboard is just barely usable..."

There's the usual knock against the lack of Flash (and all the content providers rushing to make HTML 5 compliant sites suggests that this will be a problem, for a while, but not that long), and then this bit of praise echoing Mossberg:

"At least Apple had the decency to give the iPad a really fast processor. Things open fast, scroll fast, load fast. Surfing the Web is a heck of a lot better than on the tiny iPhone screen — first, because it’s so fast, and second, because you don’t have to do nearly as much zooming and panning."

The review for regular folks makes some of the same points as Jardin and Mossberg, most specifically that apps created just for the iPad rock and rock pretty freakin hard.

"That Scrabble app shows the whole board without your zooming or panning...Newspaper apps will reproduce the layout, photos and colors of a real newspaper. The Marvel comic-book app is brilliant in its vividness and panel-by-panel navigation."

Also echoing things we've read elsewhere, Pogue goes on to claim that Apple was wrong about their battery life. Instead, he claims to have gotten "more than 12 hours" out of his. Or to put it another way: "That’s four times as long as a typical laptop or portable DVD player."

We like the sound of this battery more and more. Anything else to add, Mr. Pogue:

"The iPad is so fast and light, the multitouch screen so bright and responsive, the software so easy to navigate, that it really does qualify as a new category of gadget."

Check. We're beginning to sense a pattern of response to the iPad.

Let's see what some others had to say.



Edward C. Baig, in USA Today (the paper of record for your average person) put it starkly. "It's a winner," his headline touts.

To describe the device and its likely appeal to mainstream consumers, Baig writes "Apple is rewriting the rulebook for mainstream computing."

Or consider this passage that pretty much sums it all up:

"It stacks up as a formidable electronic-reader rival for Amazon's Kindle. It gives portable game machines from Nintendo and Sony a run for their money. At the very least, the iPad will likely drum up mass-market interest in tablet computing in ways that longtime tablet visionary and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates could only dream of."

Baig gets around to griping about the Flash deficiencies, which we suspect is the first thing a noob will discover, not having feasted themselves on iPad rumors, speculation, and hype for months on end, but ultimately he comes around to a similar point to Jardin's. While iPad 1.0 is all about the awesome, the future looks very bright for this gadget.

Tim Gideon at PCMag.com didn't have faith at first, writing that "After it was announced back in January, the unfortunately named Apple iPad ... seemed like it could be the company's first major clunker in a long time."

He comes around though:

"But having used the iPad for some time, I can tell you that the device just makes sense. When you combine basic-but-essential work tools with iWork, an improved browser, e-mail, iPod, and photo applications, a well-executed e-Book platform with iBooks, and throw in thousands of downloadable apps and games, and package it all in a gorgeous, slim slate with a beautiful 9.7-inch touch screen, you have yourself a winner."

While PC Magazine didn't pull down the same battery usage as reported elsewhere above, they did get a very respectable nine hours and twenty five minutes out of it, and they too found the machine to be, in Mossberg's words "wicked fast."

And like Mossberg, Gideon finds no issues with the on-screen keyboard. In fact, he writes:

"As someone who's all thumbs when it comes to iPhone's tiny on-screen keyboard, I wondered if the iPad's larger keyboard would help me master this touch screen typing thing. In a word: Yes. I'm writing this review on the iPad's horizontal keyboard, in which the keys are large and nicely spaced."

For the record, it's a lengthy review and Gideon doesn't write around tech specs or fault ever on proper AP style formatting.

He too goes on to describe the device as fast, then to lament the lack of a camera, explaining, "I was on Gmail chat talking with friends within seconds of logging in. My biggest lament: There's no Webcam here, since this screen seems ideal for video chat."

With all the voices crying out for it, with its design practically begging for it and being designed practically around the idea, we're almost certain that iPad 2.0 will bring this feature fully on board.

Lastly and most briefly, we present to you Andy Ihnatko whose column ("iPad is Pure Innovation") is such a love letter to Apple and the iPad that we felt like we should just tiptoe away and let these three have some special time with each other. Read it, and read a man who is probably, at this very minute, tenderly, oh so tenderly, stroking his iPad and whispering to it the sweetest of nothings.

So what say you, Mac|Life reading fence sitters? Do these heaps of praise make you any more likely now? And what about you, pre-order Apple junkies? With such joy in the air, do you think you'll actually manage to sleep between now and April 3rd?