This is a head to head comparison video between the Android 3.0 Honeycomb-based Motorola XOOM and the iOS 4-based Apple iPad 2. Each tablet has pros and cons, and I discuss my findings after using both of them for a while. Chime in with your own thoughts!
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Good job! Android definitely has some advantages: notifications, and more information on the home screen, but you can customize your iPad home screen to get pretty close in functionality by using folders, and making "home screens" for each function (games, business, etc). Simply move stuff where it makes more sense! I'd love to have that live presentation of email, calendar events, etc. on the iPad, but definitely nothing to compare, at least from what I've seen.
And the iPad cameras are really a joke, as you say!
I agree with your conclusion: that once Android matures over the next few iterations, and gets some real apps, it'll be a real competitor ... but for now, I'll keep my iPad2, warts and all.
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...but you can customize your iPad home screen to get pretty close in functionality by using folders, and making "home screens" for each function (games, business, etc).
But that only gives you icons in groups - you get no information from those icons. The ability to turn on an Android tablet and immediately see upcoming appointments, actual emails, etc. can't be underestimated. Apple's approach to this is particularly weak - nothing but icons. You want to know something? Click on an icon, go into that program, then back out again. It just seems rather crude to me...just like their notifications. They need to put in some serious work here.
At this moment I'm also wondering about what keyboard support is like on Android - I'm using my iPad 2 + Bluetooth keyboard for the first time to do real work, and I'm stunned that I can't press the down/up arrow to move around in the email app. Apple seems to have completely restricted the keyboard for interacting with text boxes. Uber-lame.
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Originally Posted by Michael Knutson
And the iPad cameras are really a joke, as you say!
Indeed...but you wouldn't believe the number of people who were complaining about the fact that I mentioned that - some of the fanboys really don't like it when you say that another product does something better. It was quite amusing.
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you can always jailbreak and use LockInfo (it provides an additional InfoShade like the pull down Menu in Android and, if you want, another homescreen where you can put eMail, calendar, weather, todo, rss, etc. info right between spotlight search and the first apps screen.
iPad 1 can be jailbroken already, iPad 2 will be jailbreakable some day.
I dont jailbreak any of my devices, nor do I install custom ROMs, etc. Reliability and predictability are paramount to me.
The POS Motorola Milestone's official ROM is inferior in almost every way compared to the custom Gingerbread ROM on my HD2. I've pretty much given up on most manufacturer's attempts to "customise" their phones. Only Apple seems to be able to give a consistent level of high quality in their phone OS.
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The POS Motorola Milestone's official ROM is inferior in almost every way compared to the custom Gingerbread ROM on my HD2. I've pretty much given up on most manufacturer's attempts to "customise" their phones. Only Apple seems to be able to give a consistent level of high quality in their phone OS.
This is really OT, but I think HTC does a fantastic job with Sense on its phones and on the Flyer as well (I'd suppose - not having used one). Sony Ericsson's UX is super lame (I replaced with SBP's launcher) but the next Android phone I buy will be an HTC model specifically so I have have Sense on it.
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Nice comparison. I just bought an iPad2 and I love it. But honestly, I think the thing that makes Android wipe the floor with iOS is widgets. I find widgets on my X10 or any Android device to be absolutely fantastic and iOS's lack of same is disappointing. And everyone knows the iOS notification system just plain sucks and Android's is far better.
Re: the cameras - blech! I actually use FaceTime on my iPhone and Mac as well as, now, with my iPad, but I'm totally stunned that Apple put such crappy cameras in the iPad. What - they couldn't use the cameras from the iPhone in the iPad? What were they thinking?
Apps, apps, apps is my mantra and iOS STILL has the better quality apps, although I suspect in the next year or so, we'll see that gap closing. Evernote on iOS is first class, but so is Evernote on Android phones. I'll bet it won't take long for the Evernote folks to bring it up to speed in Honeycomb either.
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XBox 360 S, 16GB iPhone 4S, iPod Classic 160 GB, Dell Inspiron Mini 1018; Macs: Mac Mini 2.4 GHz 6 GB RAM; Macbook 2.0 GHz 3 GB RAM; MacBook Air 11", 24" Cinema Display
I'll bet it won't take long for the Evernote folks to bring it up to speed in Honeycomb either.
Many of the successes and failures in the tech world come down to timing; Motorola had some bad timing (and pricing) with the Xoom, but Asus and Acer seem to be doing much better overall even though it's only a few months later.
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The Head to Head Battle: iPad 2 vs. Motorola XOOM
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