Apple iPad 2

The slew of great magazine and newspaper apps that are now available do provide an arguably nicer way to read the same content you might get online.

This proves more of an advantage in the home than out and about; bearing in mind how many apps are effectively just pretty, stand-alone web pages, over 3G the connection tends to be the limiting factor in how fast apps run.

The slight price reduction of the 16GB model is a definite slap in the face to the competition, and one that won't hurt Apple in the slightest - iPad owners are practically throwing money at Apple in return for apps.

The resolution is low enough, though, that text on websites looks pretty pixelated at times, making it harder to read than we'd like - our eyes have been spoiled by too many super-sharp displays on all the great smartphones now available.

After all, the iPad/2 has a big screen to play with and having just a huge expanse of icons greeting you on the home page does feel like a less than optimal use of this space.

Pedants might like to know that the width and height are down from 243mm and 190mm to 240mm and 186mm respectively, as a result of a slight reduction of the amount of aluminium at the edges of the iPad 2, but these differences are much less noticeable - the black bezel and display are still the same size.

Even if Apple had gone the route of using a Carl Zeiss lens and a 10-megapixel sensor, the iPad 2 just isn't a replacement for a camera or smartphone.

The iPad's rear-facing camera won't replace your point-and-shoot, but the image quality isn't bad.

We also like the magnetic sensor that turns the screen on and off automatically as you put the case on and take it off.

It lacked not just a front-facing camera for FaceTime, but any camera at all, couldn't handle multitasking and for all that its display offered a great portal to the Internet and a plethora of apps, the Apple iPad was actually a somewhat unwieldy device to sit in bed or on the sofa with.

You couldn't bounce between applications with multitasking.

Unlike the Tab, in their own ways the BlackBerry PlayBook and Motorola Xoom offer a genuine alternative to the Apple iPad; they have well-designed and well-made chassis, slick operating systems, and are fairly price-competitive.

Aside from a negligible added heft of 0.1 pound and the fact that buyers are paying an extra $130 for the 3G capability (compared with Wi-Fi-only models), there's no downside to owning a 3G-compatible model.

The freedom to surf the Web over a 3G cellular connection costs an extra $130 for any of the three models mentioned above, plus monthly carrier fees.

Data plans and fees differ between the two carriers (and are always subject to change), and the 3G cellular technology under the hood differs as well.