The ultimate iPad buyer's guide

Mail on the iPad works with a variety of top providers: Gmail, Microsoft Exchange, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, AOL and most other standard e-mail systems. Hold the iPad horizontally for a multi-pane view that shows your inbox and a message preview window.

Document and image attachments can be seen in full screen, and the search function looks through e-mail on both your iPad and the server for most accounts.

The downside? The weak onscreen keyboard makes it tough to type out long messages.

NEXT: Keyboard