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*OFFICIAL* Xoom vs iPad 2 Discussions

They are both good devices for different wants/needs. I would prefer a dual botting tablet with Android and iOS, along with USB host, full sd card slot and 64gb internal :) ;) :)

I would, actually.
 
See, I want Android but in the iPad body (size, I mean, still want the SD card slot and no physical buttons). :) Which I'm sure we'll get, more or less, at some point.
 
I have to say this is interesting:

Ipad%20Review.png


Xoom%20Review.png


Considering the iPad 2 has been out longer than Xoom WiFi.
 
southflguy said:
I actually picked up a Verizon iPad two days so I could do a good comparison for myself. I was dead set on not returning my Xoom. Now I'm not so sure. After having used the iPad for 48 hours my perspective has changed. While I am an android fan after weighing the differences between the two I'm not sure I can justify the Xoom at this price point. A few thing were bothering me about the Xoom - one primarily being it's lack of Cisco VPN support which would be convenient for my job. The second was the screen that just wasn't tweaked color and contrast wise. Yes I love my Netflix but apps weren't such a big deal to me. Until I experienced them on the iPad. I have had an apple tv for a few months now and was able to experience the convenience of AirPlay for myself. The things it does not do well - the cameras suck. Period. Videoconferencing however through FaceTime is fine and about what I was seeing with gtalk on the Xoom. Photos are another issue altogether. They're no good on the iPad. The Xooms were far superior. Multitasking - Xoom does the superior job. Although not bad on the iPad when I turned on developer mode that enabled more multitouch gestures. Made switching between apps pretty seamless. Speakers - Xoom wins on the fact it has stereo speakers, but even though ipad only has one mono speaker it wins on sound clarity and no distortion at max volume. Notifications - I hate them on the iPad love them on the Xoom. I ran some speed tests between both and in almost every case they were virtually tied with the ipad winning a few more than the Xoom. Verizon speeds were also virtually identical. So in the end I'm having to weigh price with what experience I want with my tablet. For a while I thought the iPad was just a toy. It's not. As far as the 3G/4G argument goes, thats definitely a consideration if you need that speed. I'm fortunate that my area has awesome Verizon 3G speed and I regularly see upwards of 2mbps so it's not a big deal right now. Sure I want a better interface and notification system but for now the iPad may offer me the best experience. What I'm hoping is that the Xoom comes down in price and come down quickly so maybe I can have both. But for now it looks like the iPad wins for me. But by no means is it a slam dunk. I can also post some videos comparing speed tests and images in case anyone is interested.
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I have Xoom and iPad 2 and am evaluating all I can for my customer projects and myself. I put in what should be the right data for the IPSec VPN and did not get a connection the first try with Xoom and did with Apple.

In some ways both products are not ready for prime time where I've had browser compatibility with the iPad and crashing with the Xoom.

The Xoom in landscape mode is nice for personal productivity and I love the ability to customize it and the recent apps interface over the iPad 2. The iPad 2 physical shape is nicer for Kindle reading.

I've used Wyse Pocket Cloud with both and could give slight edge to Xoom via higher resolution.

LastPass is a very important app to me and their Android client is better than the Apple in that it scales to full screen properly but the Apple also has the "tab" version to help.

At this point the iPad 2 would look less attractive if Android 3 were available with thinner and lighter hardware as well as had more progress with the app front but I know the latter happens fast or at least has happened fast with phones.
 
I was listening to CNET podcast Buzz Out Loud. Brian Tong and Donald Bell were both defending about the Prizefight result. Basically, you can just tell from their tone, both of them are apple fanboys. Donald Bell even gave advice to manufacturers stop making tablets as they stand no chance competing with Apple iPad2. That was just so wrong. With such mind-set, how could someone be a fair judge in anything.
 
LunchBB said:
I was listening to CNET podcast Buzz Out Loud. Brian Tong and Donald Bell were both defending about the Prizefight result. Basically, you can just tell from their tone, both of them are apple fanboys. Donald Bell even gave advice to manufacturers stop making tablets as they stand no chance competing with Apple iPad2. That was just so wrong. With such mind-set, how could someone be a fair judge in anything.
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They can't. Competition is the driver behind innovation.
 
I extracted that part of podcast. Hear it yourself. They were trashing Acer on the market share compared to Apple. Then the Acer CEO said they want to focus more on making smart phones and tablet. That's when Donald Bell put in his comment.
 

Attachments

The problem with Android tablets right now are the Apps in comparison with the ipad. Its the Apps that make or break a tablet and right now Apple has a huge lead. The problem with being a Geek is you typically put hardware specs before software, but its the software that sells tablets. Apple has a huge mindshare with the buying public fueled by their creative marketing and the number of articles about businesses, schools, hospitals etc that are using ipads. I really think that the tablet market is going to end up looking like the ipod market. People are going to associate any tablet as an ipad just like everyone does with music and the ipod. Its really a no win scenario for Android right now.
 
I am not entirely sure how I feel about this whole thing. I have both the Xoom and the iPad 2...

IMO, a big reason android did so well in the smartphone world was choice of carrier and the surge of Droid on Verizon. That was the push they needed to get momentum.

However, in the ipad space, the iPad is not tied to AT&T...you can now get it on verizon, at&T or wifi....so the customer does have a choice. I really think the ipad is going to be like the iPod, where it would be MUCH harder for Google to really capture a significant market share. And I DO care of other people use Honeycomb...it makes more development for the OS.

What google needs to do is really provide some service or something that Apple simply cannot do. Navigation is a HUGE plus for me on my phones and I use it a lot...but its not a compelling reason to get a tablet...the reason a lot of people got the OG droid was Verizon....Google needs something on honeycomb to almost force people into getting it. That leads me to...

To take advantage of people like me who love android phones, but are open to iOS on a tablet, they need to make the phone and the tablet being paired together something SWEET. That way, to all the people who HAVE android phones, there is a HUGE, compelling reason to get an android tablet. Right now, Xoom/Ipad2 play equally well with my Nexus S. Make the Xoom do something with android phones that the iPad2 simply cannot come close to and you can get a bunch of android phone users on honeycomb.


I really think the tablet space is going to be much more of a challenge than phones. Especially if iOS starts actually advancing their OS, which we will see.
 
jsbaugh said:
The problem with Android tablets right now are the Apps in comparison with the ipad. Its the Apps that make or break a tablet and right now Apple has a huge lead. The problem with being a Geek is you typically put hardware specs before software, but its the software that sells tablets. Apple has a huge mindshare with the buying public fueled by their creative marketing and the number of articles about businesses, schools, hospitals etc that are using ipads. I really think that the tablet market is going to end up looking like the ipod market. People are going to associate any tablet as an ipad just like everyone does with music and the ipod. Its really a no win scenario for Android right now.
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It's a broken comparison.

On an iDevice, if the app is not designed for the iPad, it will not scale gracefully to accept the new screen size. It's either centered, with a black border; or it's 2X'ed, which leads to blockiness (After you click the button).

On an Android device, several things could happen if an app is not designed to take screen sizes into account: It could scale just fine, it could just simply expand (With blockiness, but rare), or it could do the black border thing.

The likelihood of anything but the simply scaling occurring is low; since Android developers have had to deal with multiple screen sizes/resolutions for quite some time. So, the chances of a bad scaling is low. most non-tablet apps just expand to fit the size, and you never notice a hitch.

Case in point, a whole fsck-ton of apps I use are NOT tablet-optimized. However, they work just fine, without a hitch. In fact, now that I think about it, I don't recall any apps just dying, or black-bordering. They just fill the screen.

So, the whole "iOS has more tablet apps already, so Android is dead in the water" is just a false argument, that sounds good on it's face, but fails when you actually look at it deeper.

But, even if we take that argument at it's face value, Android apps have experience a 600%+ increase in their numbers in the past year. If that's any indication; then the two should be comparable in offerings (Purely, by the numbers) within two years or so.
 
Some aps scale fine, others look like they are fine, but the peices are all over the place. Case was Words with Friends until they updated it would look "ok" but the peices were all over the place and you couldn't click on them. There are several apps that do this.
 
EarlyMon- yup, that about sums it up. FWIW, I have I'd say 40-something apps installed, and only 3 or 4 (all free game-type apps) aren't useable.
 
frenzy757 said:
Some aps scale fine, others look like they are fine, but the peices are all over the place. Case was Words with Friends until they updated it would look "ok" but the peices were all over the place and you couldn't click on them. There are several apps that do this.
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Might be the reason why I've not seen any that break, as about the only game I use is Angry Birds and Star Traders (Used to use some RPG, can't recall the name). But, it's mostly productivity apps for me (Office suite, news, etc).
 
I haven't read all the pages yet. But, it sounds like more people would rather spend their cash on an ipad 2 rather than a xoom.

Like people are disappointed with the xoom.

I am typing on a xoom right now and I love it so far. I think its just people expecting more than what's possible. I remeber when i got my first I pad and everyone was saying how much they were disappointed but yet here we are. I wonder if its the same right now with the xoom? Just wait a few months and things will start to come together. The I pad wasn't realized until more apps got out there.
 
OK it is early, the coffee here stinks, but I'll try and make sense. The issue I see here more than anything is marketing, branding, and public perception.

Once upon a time there was a device called the MP3 Player. There were multiple companies puttting out players. Some were pretty, some had more horsepower, some would manage files better, etc. Then along came Apple who put out a device, built a music store, made the device stand out in (ugly imho) white, put their brand power behind it.
Now, when I asked my 14yo niece the other day if she had an MP3 player she smiled at me like I was silly and said, "Oh, you MEAN an Ipod?"
I honestly don't know anyone who has bought a dedicated MP3 player in the last few years that wasn't an Ipod. And I don't care for Apple as a company and most of my friends aren't really techie.

Now on to tablets....or should I say Ipads? Because that is what the general public thinks when they hear the word.

My 70yo Mom has NO clue what a Xoom or Android Tablet is...but she knows what an Ipad is.

When I asked my niece if she or my sister had a tablet she told me, "No, Mom hasn't bought an Ipad yet, but I'm dying for one!"

It is easy on these forums to forget most consumers in the market aren't techies. They could care less about a more powerful device that has much more potential than the Ipad. They want what their friend bought, what they see on the commercial, they want to buy the same branding they went to for their other personal mobile device, their ipod/iphone. They know how to use their ipod and it is familiar. The fact that Apple started a year early and app development for them is leaps ahead is just icing on the cake.

Face it, apple and google both are making great devices right now, but Apple is ahead in the sales and customer race. IF Android tablets ever catch up it will take quite a while.

I was ready to pounce on the wifi only Xoom till I played with my friend's 3G. I was disappointed with the screen. For now, I just hope the screen on the new Sammy 10.1 looks better than the Xoom. If not I'll be fighting the urge to pull the trigger on an Ipad2.
 
My only hold up with the xoom is lack of IPS LCD and for now zero camera support. I used my iPad as a proofing device for clients at times and I can see I'd miss that with the xoom. But we shall see.
 
FYI- haven't tried it yet but as a workaround til we get SD support and/or usb host, I got an Eye-Fi SD card for my camera. they have an Android app, and supposedly it's easy to automatically transfer pics over.
 
I was at the Verizon Store the other day getting a new wall charger for my Xoom, While I was waiting I noticed that they had both the iPad and the iPad 2 on display next to each other. I held them both at the same time and the first thing that popped into my head was "eeeeeh really?" IMO that change in shape and weight really didn't make a huge difference in the overall feel of the device. Personally I don't like the aspect ratio of the screen at all, I much prefer the widesceen of the Xoom.

That being said I've read a lot of blogs and forums and people screaming and yelling at eachother via the internet and it made me realize something: "Why does there have to be a right answer?" Last time I checked it was a free country and someone could buy whatever product they see fit. I see people throwing out sales figures and specs and this that and for what? To help themselves validate their purchase? It doesn't make sense to me. It's not like I've read a blog and it says Apple has sold x amount of iPads and the Xoom has sold y units, and I set back and go "hmm maybe I'm wrong"

Personally I am an Android kind of guy, I love to customize and tinker with things I purchase and Android gives me a great opportunity to do that. I realize that it may not be for everyone, I'm not that naive. I'm just getting sick of all click bait stores and the wars that take place in the comment sections lol, its insane.

For my tastes, the iPads just don't do it for me, I look at my iPod touch and I look at an iPad and I just don't like seeing the same interface on both, it just bores me, I know for some people that's a plus, its adds a level of comfort and familiarity. So basically, to each his own.
 
Kalison said:
My only hold up with the xoom is lack of IPS LCD and for now zero camera support. I used my iPad as a proofing device for clients at times and I can see I'd miss that with the xoom. But we shall see.
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For me the Xoom screen is just fine. All my Blu-Ray's pop off the screen ( I have even had iPad owners say they were impressed when they saw Toy Story 3 playing). Personally I would rather have Gorilla Glass than an IPS LCD screen. I know my screen can take more damage than an IPS LCD screen.

DoubleDown - I am one of those people who bought a dedicated PMP. I bought the 32GB Zune HD and it's hands down the BEST PMP I have ever had. I own a 32GB iPod Touch 3rd Gen as well and I take my Zune if I want to listen to music (lately I have not because I just use my Xoom). ZunePass is Awesome BUT MSFT really screwed up Advertising the Zune (as Moto and Google have done with the Xoom).

I will give Apple this, they sure know how to advertise their products to the average consumer. There is no doubt about that.

I have a 10 year old daughter and she would rather use the Zune over the iPod Touch. Today I got her an EVO Shift 4G and I believe she will use that as her main Music Player from now on.
 
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