You’re trying to decide between a Apple iPad 2 and a Motorola Xoom running Android 3.0 (“Gingerbread”)
My summary is that if there are specific apps or games that you know you want or if you are an app-aholic, get an iPad. Otherwise get a Xoom since all the basics — web brower, google apps, dropbox, netflix, etc work just great on a Xoom. And flash works!
Buy an iPad 2 at Amazon
Buy a Xoom at Amazon
Here are the issues:
- Price. Advantage Xoom. At Amazon at least!
- Battery life. equal. But Xoom is probably replaceable. Advantage Xoom.
- Weight: iPad is lighter
- Screen Format: Xoom is 16:9 (nearly. 16:10 actually), iPad is 4:3
- Screen Resolution: About the same but Xoom is higher res and some say easier to read.
- Flash support. Advantage Xoom. Lots of wesbites still use Flash, not HTML5.
- 3g/4g: Xoom is 4G upgradeable in Sept 2011 via Verizon
- Generally, if you care about “special” apps: Advantage iPad. A number of apps are iPad only at the moment — like the NewYorker, Flipboard, etc. And the Apple App Store is a better environment for evaluating and finding apps. Though word on the street is that the Amazon Android App Store is the up-and-coming solution to this on the Android side.
- Google Docs. Either is fine. Works great either way.
- If you care about Web: Advantage Xoom (see #5 flash support)
- Need Minecraft? Advantage Xoom. Android can run Minedroid nicely
- Cheap Keyboard? Advantage Xoom. A USB keyboard will usually “just work”. The iPad can use the Apple Wireless Keyboard (Xoom too), but that costs more than nothing. Well, you’ll need a $3 micro adapter from Amazon. Search on “Micro USB Male to USB A Female Adapter”
LINK - Video Out. Both have HDMI. The Xoom just needs a $6 micro-HDMI cable from Amazon. No dock needed. That’s misinformation.
OK, that’s my list as of 9/9/2011. I’ll check back in a few months and see if I still agree!
Filed under: android, erik-VS, ipad, xoom