The Screens
The Moto Xoom will be packing a 10.1 inch capacitive touch panel at 1280x800. To give you an idea, this is the same size, and slightly higher resolution that most netbook screens. It works out to a respectable 160 pixels per inch (PPI). This should make for a reasonably crisp display. The other thing to be aware of is that the Xoom has a 16:9 widescreen display. This is great for watching video in landscape mode, but if you turn the device to portrait, it's suddenly a strangely tall device.
Some of us may have chuckled at the iPad's 1024x768 resolution display when it came out. But admittedly, that was mostly a snap judgment. The image produced by the iPad is good for most situations. The screen itself is 9.7-inches, so that works out to 132 PPI. Not quite as high as the Xoom, but in the same ball park. The iPad is intentionally designed to feel comfortable in any orientation, so the 4:3 screen ratio actually works well here.
The winner of this contest is going to come down to who has the higher quality touch experience. We have not been able to really dig into the Xoom, so for all we know the digitizer could be terrible, or the panel could be prone to bad viewing angles. Only time will tell. Whatever developers come up with should at least look great on either device.
Cameras (or lack thereof)
This one is simple. The Xoom has two cameras, the iPad has none. Google is building in support for native video chat for the new Google Talk client, so that front facing Xoom cam will actually be put to use. Despite Apple's robust Facetime network of iPhones and iPod Touches, the iPad can't play in that sandbox.
The Xoom sensors clock in at 5MP rear, and 2MP front. A 2 MP front sensor for video chat could be awesome, but they went further than they probably had to for the rear sensor. Rarely, if ever, can we see ourselves shooting lots of pictures with a 10-inch tablet. We recently had the opportunity to shoot some images with the Galaxy Tab, but even a 7-inch tablet seemed preposterous to hold up to take images. So, it might be nice to have, but a rear-facing camera is not a big selling point for a tablet.
The Xoom sensors clock in at 5MP rear, and 2MP front. A 2 MP front sensor for video chat could be awesome, but they went further than they probably had to for the rear sensor. Rarely, if ever, can we see ourselves shooting lots of pictures with a 10-inch tablet. We recently had the opportunity to shoot some images with the Galaxy Tab, but even a 7-inch tablet seemed preposterous to hold up to take images. So, it might be nice to have, but a rear-facing camera is not a big selling point for a tablet.
That front-facing camera is going to be important though. With the iPad 2 potentially having a front-facing cam, the Xoom needs to be prepared. Apple will tie into Facetime if this ever happens, and Google will have Google Talk video, which gives users access to a fair number of people. It's probably going to come down to the quality of the implementation.
Storage Space
The iPad comes in various storage sizes. There are 16, 32, and 64GB models. All this is non-expandable memory that is soldiered onto the mainboard. There is, in Apple fashion, no SD card expansion. So you need to pick the model you want at the start knowing that's all the space you'll ever have. A benefit from having the internal memory is that is tends to be faster to access than removable memory.
The Xoom will apparently only have a single SKU, a 32GB unit with expandable storage via a MicroSD card. This is the best of both worlds as you've got faster internal memory, but if you just need more space, you can drop in another 32GB of space on an SD card.
The Xoom will apparently only have a single SKU, a 32GB unit with expandable storage via a MicroSD card. This is the best of both worlds as you've got faster internal memory, but if you just need more space, you can drop in another 32GB of space on an SD card.
Data Connection
The iPad is currently only available on AT&T in the US for 3G data. A Verizon iPad is expected at some time in the future, but no firm plans have been released. For a lot of people, the AT&T situation is a deal-breaker. However, there is a Wi-Fi only version of the device. That can be great for those who don't want to have yet another connection to the cell carriers.
The Xoom is a Verizon device that will run on 3G at launch, with an update to 4G LTE later on. It's not entirely clear how that upgrade will happen. Verizon may need to add a component to the device itself, which could mean sending it out. Still, having access to 4G data on the Xoom is a solid benefit.
The Xoom is a Verizon device that will run on 3G at launch, with an update to 4G LTE later on. It's not entirely clear how that upgrade will happen. Verizon may need to add a component to the device itself, which could mean sending it out. Still, having access to 4G data on the Xoom is a solid benefit.
Other Hardware
Most of the other hardware in these tablets is less important in the comparison, but here's the rundown. The Xoom will have a Tegra 2 dual core CPU at 1GHz per core. It's also going to have 1GB of RAM. The iPad is running a 1GHz A4 CPU, and has 256MB of RAM.
Down the road, the Xoom may be able to run more impressive games with that Tegra 2 chip and 1GB of RAM. We know it has the potential for great things, but developers will have to get on-board. The iPad probably has some juice left in it too, but it's likely closer to its ceiling than the Xoom is.
The Software
More than anything else, the software will make a tablet either a win, or a flop. The iPad has proven that it is a robust development platform, leading to some excellent mobile apps. The interface, however, is limited. You're tied to the paradigm of the rows of icons on the home screen. Multitasking is limited, and low-level hardware access is mostly unavailable. That said, the iPad is, by its very nature, easy to use. By keeping the interface streamlined, Apple has kept it snappy and simple to learn.
The Xoom will be running Android 3.0 Honeycomb. By all accounts, this will be a much more visual experience than previous version of Android. Google is striving to bring the sort of unified UI to Android that iOS has long had. Features that were out of the way, like the multitasking UI, have been brought forward. It may not match iOS in ease of use, but the functionality of Android is much greater. Take the widget framework for instance. Xoom users will have access to a great number of live updating widgets to surface information, but the interface has been made more visual and easy to use.
One factor that has made the iPad so huge, as mentioned before, is the developer ecosystem. This may be the area Google has the most catching up to do. Apple has an SDK specifically for the iPad, and developers can easily take advantage of the additional screen space. Android has always had scaling ability built into the SDK, but that may not be enough. Google recently added some new features for developers to tag resource elements for tablet-size screens, but developers will need to see the market before any truly compelling apps will surface.
One factor that has made the iPad so huge, as mentioned before, is the developer ecosystem. This may be the area Google has the most catching up to do. Apple has an SDK specifically for the iPad, and developers can easily take advantage of the additional screen space. Android has always had scaling ability built into the SDK, but that may not be enough. Google recently added some new features for developers to tag resource elements for tablet-size screens, but developers will need to see the market before any truly compelling apps will surface.
The intrinsic strengths of the Motorola Xoom are the same as Android phones. Google products and services are built in. If you live in Google's world, the Xoom will be useful to you. The iPad offers a more controlled experience, but it's very polished. Some of the hardware features of the Xoom could give it a leg up on the iPad. The Xoom screen, cameras, and potential 4G data are all great selling points. However, if a new iPad is announced in the coming months, it could all come back to the software again. That's the part about the Xoom we still have the most questions about. Presumably Google knows that and is hard at work finishing Honeycomb.
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