Apple iPad first generation

7owners with an opinion

71%of verdicts positive

5/2positive/negative since 2024

0happy after 3+ years

Praised for value and reliability; criticized for software.

What owners wrote

Likes it

Oh nice! I used it back on a first gen iPad in 2010 and the editorial-style layout meets curated RSS feeds was hard to beat.

Likes it

This is a myopic take. I've found iPads to be fantastic presentation tools. Having an ipad on a conference/convention booth is amazing - airplay my rotating content to a big screen, and when someone walks up I can grab the ipad to delve into details based on the conversation. Early on (first gen ipad) I had a whole client team nickname me "the ipad guy" because I showed up and presented across a few ipad apps where I could pinch, zoom, and annotate live instead of showing a vanilla PPT file.

Likes it

It’s been one of the most underwhelming releases that I can remember. There is no tentpole feature that I care about or that makes anything slightly better. It’s not worse. I’ve had an iOS device since v2 on an iPod Touch and v4 on an iPhone 4. On the other hand, iPadOS 26 is the best update since the iPad was released. I had the first one in 2010. Finally real windows and it actually works decently on my 2019 iPad Air 3 with 3GB RAM and an A12 processor. I haven’t tried it yet on my wife’s iPad M3 Air. I could definitely see an iPad as being my only personal computer. I have an M2 MacBook Air and work M3 MacBook Pro

Likes it

Perhaps with some tablets, but the iPad 2 and first gen shipped with an adapter (20W?) that didn’t allow that to happen, in my experience.

Doesn’t like it

Yes they should, they should also be forced to unlocked the bootloaders and release specs to the hardware so that 3rd part OSes can target the devices. Hardware recycling is a joke. I have first gen ipad that would make a great photoframe, video play and ebook reader but instead it is a fully functional paper weight.

Doesn’t like it

There have been a few articles like this and without a return percentage or number of returns it's a worthless waste of reader time. Of course some people who just wanted to try out the device will return it. I would have a returned a first generation ipad as well (I did try it out on release day but after playing with it for 15 minutes I knew it wasn't for me) Personally, I'd feel bad to buy one and return it a week later - I'd feed better to pay a restocking fee, because I want to try one out, but don't want to keep it..

Likes it

Never say never... I got the first generation iPad, and was happy that I did. But then, it was not that expensive. But yes, especially with such a new product category, you really want to wait a few generations, if you want to get the best product for your money. Just look how quickly iPhones evolved and this Vision Pro is even more groundbreaking.