Internet and browsing

Apple has touted the Safari browser on iPad 2 and it's improved JavaScript Nitro engine, saying performance is twice as fast. In our tests, that claim is a stretch.

In fact, the same websites appeared much faster on the Motorola Xoom browser. In some cases, testing sister sites GamesRadar.com and PhotoRadar.com, the iPad 2 took up to a minute to open the sites on a 2Mbps broadband connection.

However, we had much better luck with sites that use HTML5. One site, Sarahsilverphotography.ca, loaded quickly and formatted images correctly, as did many other websites we tested at html5gallery.com.

In most cases, web apps like iPaint did not work because of the touchscreen interface, however. Sites that make heavy use of Adobe Flash, such as Presonus.com, failed to load and did not substitute static images by sensing the iPad 2's lack of Flash support.

Predictably, Flash video sites only loaded in parts and did not play videos. Google sites like Maps and Google Videos did load quickly and were formatted correctly. Maps.google.com also found our GPS location quickly.

Of course, the iPad 2 uses the Internet in many ways other than through the Safari browser.

We tested Tweetdeck which runs at about the same speed as on the original iPad.

We also tested LogMeIn Ignition, which lets you connect for a remote session to your desktop PC. Once again the app ran at about the same speed as it does the original iPad without any dramatic speed improvements, especially for watching videos on Hulu.com (which tended to chug along) on the PC's Chrome browser.

Overall, Internet browsing was definitely not a reason to upgrade to the iPad 2: it runs at about the same speed as the original iPad. With the Xoom, you get tabbed browsing and the promise of Adobe Flash support eventually.