I just had a go on an iPad
A bloke from work bought one (64gig). Delivered to the UK including import taxes for under £600.
It's veeeery nice. But also quite 'heavy'. It doesn't take long for your wrist to start aching a little bit. But to be fair I wasn't sitting on a sofa with it on my legs as you probably would use it. You also tend to switch a lot from landscape to portrait and back as some things look better or work better in one mode or the other so you twiddle it round a lot.
The screen is beautiful. Very bright, sharp and clear. It works exactly like an iPhone or Touch. You just tap on what you want or swipe across the screen. I had a go on wikipedia for a test web page to look at. You get a better view in landscape mode I think as the text is larger. You can wipe your finger up and down the page to scroll and you can click the pictures and pinch to zoom in.
Also had a little go on the pop up keyboard which actually worked pretty well. It's fine for short emails but I don't think I'd want to write long messages like this on it. I also had a go on the books, calendar and itunes which all looked nice.
He had a fantastic4 movie on it. Played nicely but it did look a little pixelly to me. Certainly not DVD sharp.
Then we had a look at a Marvel comic. That was very cool. Very sharp images and you can either see the whole page on one screen or you can tap a 'cell' and just have that on the screen and the flick to slide in the next cell or the other side of a larger one. Very nice fade and scroll effects.
Oh and if you think it's just a big iPhone that can't make phone calls.... it does. He has a VOIP app and used it to call the work phone to demonstrate it.
Would I like one?
Yes
Do I need one?
No
If I was loaded I'd probably buy it as a sort of coffee table toy to surf the net but I've got a MacBook that already does all of the things I need.
Very very nice bit of kit though.