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Motorola Xoom vs. the Apple iPad 2

March 2, 2011 — 22 Comments

After much speculation and debate, the iPad 2 was finally unveiled.  As most people had predicted, it was a very nice update, but nothing was really groundbreaking.  It’s now thinner, faster, and has front and rear-facing cameras.  The software, screen and price are essentially the same.

On the flip side, I picked up a Xoom last week and I’ve been quite impressed with it.  So which one should you get?  Read on to help make that decision.

The Specs

Comparing the 32GB 3G iPad to the Xoom brings you two very similar tablets.

  • Connection: Both support wifi and 3G, but the Xoom will support 4G in a few months.  Edge: Xoom
  • RAM: The iPad has 512MB, the Xoom has 1GB.  While this appears to be an edge for the Xoom, the iPad has never had an issue bogging down, so I don’t think sheer numbers mean too much here.  Edge: Even
  • Cameras: Both have a front and rear-facing camera, though the Xoom has higher quality cameras in both places.  However, I don’t think you’ll see much difference in day-to-day use.  Edge: Even
  • Screen: While the iPad 3 is rumored to have a much higher-res screen, right now they’re pretty similar.  The iPad is 9.7″ at 1024×768 and the Xoom is 10.1″ at 1280×800.  It’s not much of a difference, but it means that the Xoom can play 720p video right on the device and the iPad can’t.  Slight Edge: Xoom
  • Apps: The native Honeycomb apps are quite awesome (Gmail, CNN, YouTube, etc), but there aren’t many of them yet.  People estimate around 100 tablet-ready apps for the Xoom, and around 65,000 for the iPad.  Even if the email and browser are much better on the Xoom (and they are), and you know they’ll have a ton of apps pretty soon, numbers don’t lie.  Edge: iPad
  • Multi-tasking: While both devices handle multi-tasking, it’s much more friendly on the Xoom.  Not only is the task-switching much easier, but the notifications are handled way better.  This is rumored to be fixed in iOS 5, but for now Edge: Xoom
  • Connectivity: Both devices have full HDMI out (which is way cool), but the Xoom does it with a normal mini-HDMI cable.  In addition, it has a standard USB cable, can add storage via MicroSD, and gets updates over-the-air.  Edge: Xoom
  • Music/Movies: While the Xoom has a greatly improved music player and the screen resolution was born for high-def movies, Apple has this area locked up for now with the excellent apps included with the iPad.  Edge: iPad
  • Battery Life: They can both go for about 10 hours, which is pretty awesome.  Edge: Even
  • Video chat: The iPad can do FaceTime and the Xoom can do Google Video Chat, so that’s kind of a toss up.  However, the Xoom can do chat over wifi or 3G, and the iPad is 3G only.  I didn’t think this would matter much, as I expected 3G video chat to be pretty choppy, but it’s shockingly smooth.  Edge: Xoom

Other Xoom Advantages

  • Homescreen widgets — Get a live look at your email, calendar, weather, etc, without having to open each app individually.
  • Notifications — As mentioned in the “multi-tasking” above, the notification system on Android has always been far better than iOS, and it’s even better now in Honeycomb.
  • Great phone app handling — The Xoom handles phone-based apps much better than the iPad handles iPhone-based apps. However, considering the iPad has 65,000 apps, the Xoom had better do something like this to balace it out a little bit.
  • Tethering — If you get the 3G package on the Xoom, you can tether that connection to any other device for free.  Just be careful not to use up too much data.

Other iPad 2 Advantages

  • Screen protector — It’s not a huge deal, but that screen protector thing they unveiled with the iPad 2 looks pretty slick.
  • Stability — Honeycomb is quite stable and rarely crashes, but iOS is rock solid.

So which one should I get?

That’s not an easy decision.  I always bring it back to email.  If you use Gmail, it’s 100x better on Android.  If you use any other email system, then they’re about the same on both systems and you’ll need other metrics to decide.  I find that the Xoom is more of a workhorse (multitasking, etc), and the iPad is more fun to play with (more games).

I think most people would be quite happy with either device.  I’m thrilled with my Xoom, and wrote most of this blog entry on it.  However, my wife prefers iOS over Android so if she ever gets a tablet it’ll almost certainly be an iPad.

While it’s almost certain that the iPad will outsell everyone else this year, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best.

What do you think? Plan on picking up either tablet any time soon?

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My first thoughts on the Motorola Xoom

February 28, 2011 — 14 Comments

As many of you know, I picked up a Motorola Xoom from Verizon last Thursday.  It runs the latest version of Google’s Android Operating system, version 3.0, known as “Honeycomb”. The timing worked out well, because I had my wisdom teeth taken out Friday morning and was laid up in the recliner all day with the Xoom at my side.  A netbook or phone would have worked in that case as well, but a tablet works so much better.

So what do I think?

For starters, I love it, but it’s not perfect.  There are a few missing pieces that will be fixed in future updates — sd card, Flash, 4G support — and a variety of minor bugs.  The biggest problem at this point is a lack of tablet-focused apps.  It handles the Android phone apps quite well, but there’s a big difference between a scaled up phone app and a native tablet app.  The Xoom handles phone apps better than the iPad does, but the iPad has about zillion iPad-specific apps, making it the clear winner in that category.

Video Review

Here’s a quick video to show you around the system:

Battery Life

While I’m sure there will be some official tests, but Friday gave me a chance to give it a good run for its money.  Laying in the recliner all day, the Xoom was on my lap about 90% of the time, and running about 75% of the time.  After 10 hours of email, browsing, various apps, watching some videos and doing some video chat, the battery was down to 36%.  That seems pretty good to me!

Compared to the iPad?

The Xoom is better than the existing iPad in almost every way — larger screen, higher resolution, faster processor, dual cameras, more memory, etc.  However, the iPad 2 is set to be unveiled on Wednesday and will probably knock down a few of those, though they don’t have a release date set for it.  I’m thinking it’ll probably be a few months before it comes out, but we’ll find out soon.  At that point, the Xoom should have sd card and Flash support, and many more apps will have been written to take advantage of the tablet format.  The battle between the iPad and the various Honeycomb tablets should be fun to watch, and we’ll all benefit from the added features that both sides develop.

Should I buy one?

For most people I’d at least wait two more days to see what the iPad 2 has to offer.  I’m expecting that I’ll continue to suggest Honeycomb/Xoom as the tablet to get, but you never know what Apple might come up with. Much like my initial reasons for switching from the iPhone to the Nexus One, email is one of the top criteria.  The iPad email is certainly solid, but if you use Gmail it’s a much better experience in Honeycomb.

Do you have a tablet yet?  Looking to buy one soon? Leave a comment and share your thoughts!

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Why don’t you have an iPad?

February 9, 2011 — 3 Comments

I enjoy tech gadgets, and I tend to have quite a few of them.  I have a variety of computers, a Flip video camera, a Verizon Mifi, and I change phones fairly often.  With that in mind, people are often surprised I don’t have an iPad, so I thought I’d explain why.

The iPad

First off, the iPad is great!  I’ve used them before, they’re amazingly slick, and some of my favorite apps like Evernote and Nozbe look awesome on there.  There is no doubt that right now the iPad is the best tablet out there.  If I had to buy a tablet today, I’d certainly get an iPad.

Android

The holdup is Android.  I had an iPhone for a few years, but for most of that time I knew I’d switch to Android eventually.  I use Gmail a lot, and I knew that Gmail on Android would be far better than the mail app on iPhone — and I was right.  However, I was sticking with iPhone until a few things happened on Android:

  • Waiting for improvements to the Facebook app.  At the time, it was awful.
  • Waiting for the release of the Evernote app.
  • Waiting for the release of the Dropbox app.
  • Waiting for some kind of better Twitter app.

Eventually, all of those were met and I’ve moved over to Android and I’m (probably) never coming back.

DroidPad?

It’s been no secret that there are Android tablets coming out, and we even saw a few last year (like the Samsung Galaxy Tab).  However, they just weren’t very good.  I could have picked up an iPad at that point, but it would have been just like when I had an iPhone — counting down the days until there was a decent Android alternative.  The time has finally arrived.

The Motorola Xoom

For quite a while, I thought I’d be moving to a Notion Ink Adam.  It had the potential to be an awesome tablet, but it’s had shipping delays, screen problems and a host of other minor issues that held me back.

While I was debating whether or not to pre-order an Adam, news of the Motorola Xoom came out and my decision was made.  Despite a somewhat higher than anticipated price, the Xoom looks to be an amazing tablet.  You may have seen their Super Bowl ad, which clearly took some shots at Apple:

As with the phone, email is the killer app for me.  The Xoom has a crazy-good Gmail app, along with some impressive email widgets.  All in all, it should be a great machine.

It’s expected to be released on February 24, so look for a full review sometime after that.

Do you have an iPad?  Are you waiting for a Xoom?  Do you think tablets are a waste of money? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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