Dubbed as “a magical and revolutionary device” by Steve Jobs, the Apple iPad is one of the most sought-after gadgets today. Coming with a multitude of features and benefits, the iPad has proven itself to be every techie’s best friend—expanding its market from the geeks, the yuppie generation, and the academe to the regular students, the housewives, and even kids (watch out for the seemingly endless list of games that they can download).

Just recently, Apple released the iPad’s successor: the iPad2. It is interesting to note that while there are a variety of changes in the iPad—bringing about what is now the iPad2—there hasn’t been a significant change in the price. Both the iPad and the iPad2 retails for $499. The key distinctions between the iPad and the iPad2 are the following: iPad2 has a front and rear camera, the old iPad doesn’t have any; iPad2 is relatively faster with an A5 processor, thinner by 33% measuring only 8.8mm in thickness, and is lighter than the iPad by 1.3 pounds. The iPad2 now also comes with FaceTime, an application that allows you to make video calls to other Apple gadgets (iPhone, iTouch, Macbook, etc).

College students will find the iPad or iPad2 more practical to purchase compared to a regular laptop. When it comes to hardware specifications, the iPad is undoubtedly more portable—it’s smaller and lighter, not to mention trendier than the average black and bulky laptop. The touchscreen features add up to this trendy feature—young people find this touch-and-tap feature quite cooler than having to make do with small keyboards of the mini-laptops. The battery life of the iPad is also quite an advantage—most laptops and mini-laptops come with an average of about 7 hours. The iPad has about 10 hours of battery life. The iPad also comes with a built-in dictionary in the Pages word processor and the iBooks application. There’s also a quick search feature in the iBooks app which lets you search for keywords within an e-book. The Multitouch productivity software makes resizing pictures, rearranging slides, and organizing files a lot easier. In terms of web browsing, the Safari browser in the iPad can open several webpages at once in a Browser Dashboard where you’ll find image thumbnails of all the sites you are currently viewing—this is an innovation and improvement from the standard tabbed browsing feature. All you need to do is to tap between them to access the pages. Of course, there are many other features in the iPad that would be of optimum use to the college student—from note-taking to researching and even a side of Facebook updating or chatting with friends.

Now that the iPad2 is out, more and more iPad owners would opt to upgrade to the newer model. Hence, there’s an onslaught of sale of pre-owned iPad units. Ebay and Craigslist would probably be the top two destinations for the online customer. If you’re interested in buying a used iPad, make sure you check two main aspects of the unit: the hardware and the software. When it comes to the physical aspect, be sure to check for scratches. If the iPad unit comes with a protective cover, then that’s even better. Check for cracks and make sure all the buttons work—do the power buttons work, can you still adjust the screen orientation, what about the volume controls? Of course, do check if the touch screen is still in good, responsive condition. If the touchscreen feature is not working properly, then you’re just wasting your money. You won’t be able to make full use of the iPad. You might want to check the battery life too. With regard to the software, be sure that the wifi, bluetooth, and 3G systems are without any glitches. Jailbroken iPads sometime sell for more, but there is a wealth of internet researches that will teach you how to jailbreak the unit on your own.

Buying a used iPad is only practical when the price is discounted in such a way that you’ll think—I should get it now because I’m not gonna be able to afford a new one that’s this GOOD. In short, make sure the purchase is worth it. You get a brand new iPad2 for $499, so there’s no sense in buying an old iPad with a slightly defective touchscreen feature for $350. You can take a risk with these purchases, but you can also make an investment. There are times, however, when you get lucky and run into sellers that offer slightly-used iPads for cheap. If that ever happens, go for it!