Upon its release, last March, iPad 2 was among the first tablets to come with a dual-core processor.The Apple A5 is a 1GHz CPU that performs admirably still. It's now the brainpower of the iPhone 4S,which manages to thrash most other's in its wake.

The iPad defined a new category of personal computing and inspired many a me-too offering. The iPad 2 isn't the next step in the evolution of the media tablet - Apple still has flaws to fix - but there's no question it's better than its predecessor - and a lot of its rivals. ®