While every major site may have raced to get their iPad review out before the end of launch day, we’re taking things slow here and spending a reasonable amount of time using the device before passing any judgment. With that said, our full review is still brewing; for now I’d like to drop some info on the slate after using it for about a week.

I’ll give you three chances to guess what is surprising me most about the iPad. Is it the build quality? Perhaps the battery life? Maybe the keyboard? If you guessed any of the above, you’d be wrong. What is surprising me most about the iPad so far is how little I’ve been using it compared to how I expected to use it.

I’ve owned and thoroughly used the iPhone for quite some time now. I’ve gotten used to the experience, and the fact that it is phone sized means that I have it on me all the time and it really integrates with my life as a useful tool. The promise of something larger and more powerful seemed great. Given the amount of use my iPhone gets I figured that, given its size, the iPad would provide a faster, more immersive, and more useful experience. While this is true on some levels, I’m finding that the iPad only fits perfectly into a few usage scenarios. It is highly target toward casual users who would prefer to sit on a couch and interact more intimately with their content rather then pulling up a chair to their computer desk and navigate around with a mouse.