Bigger than it looks in photos. That’s actually good. I was worried it would be too small.

Grip surface is matte with fairly good purchase, better than naked iPhone anyway. One clever touch: The Apple logo on back is grippy. Makes a nice anchor for your hand holding onto the iPad. Whoever thought of this deserves a bonus!

Keypad is not quite touch-typeable right out of the box anyway. Maybe I’ll adapt once I’m more familiar with it but the touch keys added to the flatness of the screen make it a bit tricky. I’m moving along fairly well hunting pecking but would prefer touch type of course.

Comes 90 Percent charged out of box, that’s good.

Performance is fast so far but it’s early in the game and I haven’t tried YouTube yet.

The main keyboard lacks a colon. I’d rather have the colon than, say, the exclamation point, yes I would!!! Wait I take it back!

I’ve been writing about this device for years, particularly after net books began catching on. Finally something for folks like me who want the net book functionality but not the cheap junk that netbooks are. [Note in above link how Jobs used to say Apple couldn't build a netbook that wasn't "a piece of junk for under $500." The iPad's starting price: $499.]

I particularly think the iPad is well suited for mobile blogging. I’ve long wanted something I could slip in and out of my backpack and was light enough not to matter. So far this is the real deal! (There’s that exclamation point again!)

I was worried I’d be disappointed by something right away but no gotchas yet. More later!