• All Things D et al., Thursday, April 1, 2010 1:30 PM

As iPad pre-orders continue to climb, the first (hands-on) reviews are in, and, by and large, better than expected.

The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg -- the Roger Ebert of consumer technology -- calls the device "pretty close" to a laptop killer, concluding that the "beautiful new touch-screen device from Apple has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop."

On the contrary, "The iPad is not a laptop," insists The New York Times' David Pogue -- Gene Siskel to Mossberg's Ebert. "It's not nearly as good for creating stuff." Of key importance, Pogue also insists that the iPad is "not going to rescue the newspaper and book industries," due to its weight, incompatibility with sunlight, and meager media selection.

Arguing that the iPad lives up to the hype -- and that's saying something -- The Chicago Sun-Times (which the real Roger Ebert writes for) calls the tablet the "computer that many people have been wanting for years: a slim, ten-hour computer that can hold every document, book, movie, CD, email, [and] picture ... with a huge library of apps that will ultimately allow it to fulfill nearly any function; and which nonetheless covers the dull compulsories of computing ... so well that there will be many situations in which this 1.5-pound slate can handily take the place of a laptop bag."

Likewise, USA Today heralds the iPad as "a winner," explaining that "It stacks up as a formidable electronic-reader rival for Amazon's Kindle," as well as "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."

Furthermore, PCMag.com -- an early skeptic -- is forced to admit: "the device just makes sense." Indeed, "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."

Read the whole story at All Things D et al. »