In this video, I unbox the iPad 2 and I will demonstrate the size comparisons that you all have seen as well as show off some of the capabilities of the iPad 2 including gaming, video as well as the Face Time app.

Update: 3/14/2011

If you don't want to watch the video, you can read what i have to say here:

Evolutionary not revolutionary

So after picking it up Friday and playing around with it most of the weekend, what's the final word? Seemless.  If you had the first one and moved to the 2nd one, it's worth the move. I made a back up of the original and after going through iTunes everything just moved right over. Made a few tweeks here and there but otherwise it was painless.

As far as the size goes, it's definently lighter than the first one and it's really lighter than the XOOM, which I had a chance to play around with on Saturday. Also due to the size, it feels like it swims around in the original's case so you definently will want a new one. With the new case, Apple really wants you to show off the sleekness  of the device which is cool, but you want to take advantage of having AppleCare in case you accidentally drop it and it breaks. When things get smaller and slimmer, it always tends to feel more fragile. My complaint about the exposure is the back of the iPad which I can see being scuffed in a few weeks so I may get something to protect the back of it. Otherwise, this truly looks like a slate.

It does feel speedier when loading up apps and as far as gaming goes, some like Infinity Blade and Shadow Guardian really gets a boost from the extra speed. They look much better and the loss of framerate is not as noticable as the iPad 1's.

There is however still a bit of barely noticable stutter in some movies shown via netflix when streaming which makes me hope that the next gen iPad has the Retina Display or something better for true on the go HD viewing.

The cameras, while not the best ( I still don't see someone trying to do serious photography with this so this is not a big deal for me) still does very great with Face Time support. I demoed it a few times with one of my friends who also had the iPad 2 (as well as the iPhone 4) and people who has never seen Face Time in action were astounded.  This was the video phone that we only imagined back in the 60s and 70s.

Apple has done a good job at taking the next step with the iPad and any competitor that had something coming out this year really need to take notes because if they don't move swiftly enough, Apple will dominate the tablet space in a similar fashion as they did the mp3 space with the iPod.