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| Moto Xoom |
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| iPad 2 |
Now that Apple has announced the upcoming iPad 2 and Motorola announced the March 27th release of the Wi-Fi only Xoom, It's about time we really looked at the options you have as a potential consumer in the tablet market. This applies to everyone who wants a tablet without 3G connectivity and carrier data charges, weather you are new to tablets, trying to decide between Apple and Android or even if you bought an iPad or Android tablet last year and are considering upgrading.
First off lets start by saying what the actual options are by price and storage capacity. In the Apple corner you have 3 storage options 16GB for $499, 32GB for $599 and 64GB for $699. A very easy to remember Apple-ish pricing scheme.
Motorola is offering the Xoom in a 32GB version for $599 but with a microSD slot giving you the option to add up to 32 GB more.
Based on price and non-volitile storage both are on par with the midrange 32GB at $599. I give the edge to Motorola based on the fact that you can add more with a very handy and portable microSD card.
Lets move on and dig into the meat of these devices and see how they stack up hardware wise:
Comparison of Specs Xoom vs. iPad 2:
Specifications Xoom iPad 2
Screen Size (physical) 10.10 inches 9.7 inches
Screen Resolution HD 1280 x 800 pixels 1024 x 768 pixels
Screen type Multi-touch / Multi-touch/
Capacitive Capacitive
Processor Dual-Core NVIDIA Dual-Core A5
Tegra 2 1000 MHz 1000MHz
Memory (RAM) 1024 MB 512 MB
Memory (Storage) 32 GB Internal + 32 GB Internal
(MicroSD 1-32GB
Expandable)
Cameras Front 2.0 mp Front 0.3 mp
Rear 5.0 mp Rear ??
Video 720p Record/ 720p Record/
1080p Playback 720p Playback
Sensors Accelerometer/ Accelerometer/
Gyroscope/Compass/ Gyroscope/
Barometer Compass
OS/Web Android 3.0 Honeycomb/ iOS 4.*/
Android Webkit w/Adobe Apple Webkit
Flash 10.1
*Both systems come with all the other expected features such as Bluetooth (although 2.1 for some reason), high end audio and video codecs HDMI output . 3.5mm headphone jacks.
The Xoom outright demolishes the iPad in the hardware arena. I can't help but wonder now after reading articles on some of the popular tech blogs just what they are talking about when they say Apple has an unfair hardware price advantage over the competition? If Apple is able to offer better prices due to a bulk component purchasing plan, I fail to see how this saves the consumer any money. One thing I cannot stress enough is RAM. The Xoom offers double the RAM and that my friends will equal the biggest noticeable speed difference. Think I'm wrong? Reach in your computer and pull out one of your memory sticks and see how smooth and responsive your computer is. For a touch/mobile device that truth is even more so.
Now lets look at the operating systems. Apple's iOS 4 is a very refined and polished system. No doubt about that. The only problem is that it doesn't offer a true way to multi-task. As these tablets get more powerfull you really need the system to be able to run multiple apps simultaneously. You shouldn's have to leave your music player to reply to texts, or not be able to surf the web and play music while downloading a video. Android can do these things already.
Apple argues that Android doesn't have as many applications to run on the Xoom yet. Fact is all the great core apps have been optimized already as well as hundreds of others. More are being built very quickly, and I mean very quickly. Don't be surprised if there are 20,000 by late fall. Any app that is already in the Market for phones will work on the Xoom right now anyway.
Another concern lately has been security. Google removed some 50 apps as being malware. The culprit exploited some security hole and could potentially send your serial number to a web server. For those people
who drank the paranoia cool-aide and don't understand Android internals I'll sum up with this: Unless you have rooted your phone and specifically given some unknown app Superuser access, your phone is secure. If you don't know what that means your phone is secure. Each application runs in it's own Linux process without
access to other applications data. want to know more? read HERE.
Who is the winner? I am a biased Google fan so please forgive me if my judgement is clouded by some mystical shroud pulled over my eyes by unicorns swimming through the skies. I believe the answer to be obvious but then again. It's all about choice. I am grateful I have the option to choose a highly powerful, highly customizable Linux/Android tablet. For my money It would be crazy any other way:)
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