As we’ve come to expect from Apple, the iPad is a physically beautiful, highly usable gadget refined to a state of excellence. The iPad is light – just 1.5 pounds (or 1.6 in the 3G model) – and feels great held either with one hand or two.Its 9.7-inch screen is a joy for practically everything, especially games, video, and the web (the only drawback is that non-native apps don’t always look great in fullscreen mode, but that will change as those apps are updated), but isn’t so big as to be unwieldy.

While the screen is great looking, it’s also a magnet for fingerprints and smudges – even moreso than the iPhone. Apple applied an “oleophobic” coating to the iPhone 3GS screen (which I don’t love, but that’s another matter). Why it didn’t do the same with the iPad is puzzling. Apple could have at least including a cleaning cloth like it used to with iPods. Looking at smudges on the screen is unappealing.

Solid Software, With Better Yet to Come

The iPad runs a modified version of the iPhone OS that’s been tweaked for the iPad’s bigger screen. It offers all of the strengths of the iPhone OS, but adds new features like drop-down menus that present more information and options in the bigger space. These changes will be welcome to anyone who’s tried to work with long lists or large amounts of data on the iPhone’s screen. They also move some options out of a setting panel and into the app, and smooth the overall process of working on the iPad.

But, along with the strengths of the iPhone OS, the iPad also has its weaknesses: no multitasking, support for tethering, unified email inbox, or powerful business features. Many of these drawbacks (with the exception of tethering. We may need an end to the AT&T/Apple relationship to get that) will disappear with the release of iPhone OS 4.0 this fall.In some respects, the iPad feels like a large iPhone. But with the addition of the new OS, it will become more like a robust handheld computer that can challenge desktop functionality for many standard apps.

Because it runs the iPhone OS, the iPad gets the thing that contains its greatest promise and potential: App Store support.

The built-in apps range from acceptable to great and include the things you’d expect – web browser, media player, calendar, photos, etc. – but the nearly limitless options in the App Store are what make the iPad so exciting and fun.

The apps that got the most attention at the iPad’s launch – the Netflix and ABC video players, Marvel Comics’ reader and online store, the iWork suite, iBooks – demonstrate the versatility and potential in the App Store. With it, users will only be limited by the imagination and skills of developers (well, that and Apple’s app approval system and technology restrictions, which are not insignificant factors).

The iPhone platform has already gained substantial momentum as a gaming platform; the iPad won’t slow that down. In fact, given its bigger screen, multitouch features, and motion sensors, games are likely to get more sophisticated, immersive, and impressive.

Among the many other things it does, the iPad is a strong – possibly superior – competitor to dedicated eBook readers like Amazon’s Kindle or Barnes and Noble’s nook.Core eBook functionality is delivered via Apple’s free iBooks app, which is backed by an online store.

The feature of iBooks that has probably gotten the most attention is its well-executed page-turning animation (so sensitive that you can move the page minutely, back and forth, and it doesn’t blink). But that’s mostly eye-candy.

Using iBooks is pleasant enough. Pages look good, can have their font, text size, and contrast customized, and I haven’t experienced any eyestrain yet.

When it comes to features – bookmarking, dictionary integration, links – iBooks works well and much like other eBook apps. But it’s a little sluggish sometimes, especially when turning pages, so here’s hoping Apple refines that in later versions.

The iBooks Store is a little sparse right now. Hopefully the selection will grow there the way the iTunes Store’s music library grew – steadily at first, and then exponentially, such that nearly anything you could want is available. The risk is that the iBooks Store instead follows the path of the Movies section of the iTunes Store, which has never had enough titles to gain real momentum. If iBooks meets that fate, Apple’s foray into eBooks will likely fail.

But, thanks to the App Store, the iPad isn’t limited to iBooks for reading. Amazon’s Kindle app is available, as it Barnes and Noble’s Reader (along with many other eBook readers). Comics fans are also in luck, with numerous great reader/store combinations from Marvel, comiXology, and many others. In all cases, the iPad’s screen provides a lovely reading experience.

Browsing in Bed (and On The Couch, and In The Bathroom)

One advantage that books continue to have over eBooks (in addition to pure, tactile pleasure) is their portability into places you wouldn’t bring consumer electronics. Recent eBook readers have solved this issue for bathroom reading, but they’re still not for reading in the tub (which is a shame).

In most other rooms in the house, though, the iPad is perfectly pitched. This is likely to be the best web browsing experience you’ve ever had in bed or on the couch, and it may be up there in the mobile gaming and entertainment departments.

Whereas browsing on the iPhone in bed requires positioning the iPhone at just the right angle to prevent its screen from rotating, the iPad’s screen rotation lock switch ingeniously solves this problem.

These areas are where the iPad’s industrial design really shines. It just feels good in your hands, in your lap, resting on your knees – better than any laptop, certainly.

Though the iPad looks like it could function as a mobile office tool – after all it’s got email, web, word processing, spreadsheets, and many productivity apps – it’s not quite developed enough for that.The onscreen keyboard is an improvement over the iPhone’s, especially thanks to its larger size, but typing is a choice between going slowly or incurring lots of errors. Multi-finger typing is a challenge and locating punctuation marks in separate screens frequently breaks up typing and thinking momentum.

The iPad supports external keyboards through its keyboard dock accessory and via Bluetooth, but carrying yet another item along with the iPad isn’t appealing.

Surprising Battery Life

Apple iPod and iPhone products haven’t exactly been renowned as battery powerhouses, but the iPad breaks that trend. Apple promises 10 hours of use on a fully charged battery and that’s borne out in my testing. On a full charge, over 3 hours of movie playback consumed just 20% of the battery, indicating that Apple’s 10-hour figure is perhaps a little conservative. Similarly, nearly 9 straight hours of music playback hardly dented the battery – again, about 20%.

Given that most of us won’t use the device continuously, expect to get day’s worth of use before needing to recharge. The iPad battery is also a wonder on standby. Expect days, maybe even weeks, of standby battery life.

All that said, this is a first-generation product and it has first-generation problems. Users have reported a variety of problems, from unclear battery charging messages to difficulty waking the device from sleep, from slow syncing to overheating.Perhaps the most widespread problem involves the inability to maintain WiFi connections and signal strength. Apple’s addressed that in support documents, but if that problem becomes more widespread, it could dramatically impact the iPad.

One small bug that I noticed is a tendency for the iPad’s system time to lag behind the real time. I’ve observed it losing up to about 20 minutes over the course of a few days. Syncing corrects the time, but this shouldn’t happen.

Who’s It For?

Despite all the very good things about the iPad, I can’t yet conclude that it’s great, primarily because I can’t quite figure out who it’s for.

It’s not – yet – a laptop or desktop replacement (more on that in a minute). It’s not a replacement for an iPhone or iPod. I know that Apple’s trying to create a new category with the iPad, but in doing so, there may be a period of time where that category, and how we’ll use the devices in it, is hazy.

The iPad is really a lot of fun to use, but in my house, which already has a laptop and an iPhone, how necessary is it? It may be a good portable computer for trips where a laptop is too much, but how much better will it be than my iPhone? If I love mobile gaming, does what it offers justify paying more than double to get an iPad instead of an iPod touch?

Right now, I’m not sure it does. But I think it will.

We’ll begin to see the first glimpses of that this fall with the release of iPhone OS 4.0. That will allow the iPad to include the good aspects of a traditional computer, while leaving limitations behind. It will also equip developers to create even more powerful and useful apps. When that happens, the iPad will be much more compelling.It’s in future revisions of the iPad that its true potential will be unlocked.

Most computer users tend to have a fairly limited and basic set of needs: email, web, music, video, games. Most users don’t need to run Photoshop or page layout software, or video editing tools. For those power users, desktop and laptop computers will continue to be useful tools.

But, for users with limited needs, won’t a future version of the iPad make as much, or more, sense than a traditional computer? Add more memory, a camera, an improved means of storing local files, maybe a USB port (though I’m not sure that’s absolutely necessary), and a few other tweaks, and the average computer user will have everything they need in a portable, affordable, exciting package.

In fact, users who have the iPad as their main computer may find computing easier, less prone to errors, and more fun than with their old desktops or laptops.

And that’s when the iPad’s real potential is likely to be fulfilled. But we’re a few years away from that.

The iPad’s success really isn’t in question. With sales of over 450,000 in the U.S. in its first week alone, it’s another hit product for Apple. The question isn’t whether it will succeed, but rather whether it can live up to the promise of being magical and revolutionary.As the device and its software stand now, I’m not sure it will. But, with the upcoming changes to its software, and revised hardware we can certainly expect, it may.

For now, the iPad is a product for early adopters, tech and gadget enthusiasts, and those interested in luxury items. That doesn’t detract from its status as a well-conceived, fantastically executed device, though. Those who do purchase it are likely to be well satisfied.

In the coming years, though, I suspect the iPad may be the device that we look back to as a turning point in computing.