ChangeWave Research surveyed 200 new iPad owners during the week of March 22-28 to get their impressions of the device including their likes and dislikes. The survey also asked these users whether the widely-reported issue of the iPad getting hot in certain situations (e.g. continuously playing a video game for close to an hour) was a problem. 

Apple has to be thrilled with the results. In terms of satisfaction it was almost a total slam dunk with 98% saying they were either satisfied (16%) or very satisfied (92%) with the new iPad. 

The iPad’s new high-res Retina display was the feature 75% of these new tablet owners said they liked the best, while 89% said the heat issue wasn’t a problem or was something they never experienced. Only 4% said heat was “somewhat of a problem, while 7% said heat was “not much of a problem.” No one in the survey picked “very big problem” as a response. 

Apple has said the new iPad operates within the thermal envelope it set for the device. Recent reviews, including one by Consumer Reports, confirm that though a portion of the iPad can get warm after extended use playing a processor-intensive video game, it is neither too hot to hold or cause for concern. 

The top four iPad dislikes

Asked to report what it didn’t like about the iPad, about a quarter of the new owners picked two specific issues, the price (26%) and cost of a wireless data plan (23%). The next two “most dislike” items were the size/weight of the device and amount of Flash storage each cited by 8% of those surveyed. Another 7% said integration with other other devices (i.e. lack thereof) was their biggest dislike. 

In a similar survey done in February of owners of the earlier iPad, ChangeWave Research found that 23% were “somewhat satisfied” and 74% were “very satisfied” with the device.