Apple iPad 2 and Motorola Xoom are two direct competitors in the tablet market. Apple iPad 2 is much more smarter than iPad, it is amazingly slim and light while maintaining the same screen size but is powered by a powerful 1GHz dual core A5 application processor and improved operating system iOS 4.3. The main difference between iPad 2 and Motorola Xoom is the operating system. iPad 2 runs iOS 4.3 while Motorola Xoom runs Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), it’s a competition between Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) versus iOS 4.3.
Apple iPad 2
iPad 2 has excellent multitasking feature with the support of dual core high performance A5 application processor, 512 MB RAM and updated OS iOS 4.3.
iPad 2 is amazingly slim and lighter than its previous iPad, it’s just 8.8 mm thin and weight 1.3 pounds. The new A5 processor’s clock speed is twice faster than A4 and 9 times better on graphics while the power consumption remains same.
iPad 2 has added some new features like HDMI compatibility, camera with gyro and a new software PhotoBooth, 7200p video camcorder, front facing camera with FaceTime for video conferencing, and introduced two applications improved iMovie and GarageBand, that turns the device in to a small musical instrument. iPad 2 has three variants to support both 3G-UMTS/HSPA network and 3G-CDMA network and available as a Wi-Fi only model also.
iPad 2 is available in black and white colors and use the same battery as iPad and also priced same like iPad. Apple introduces a new bendable magnatic case for iPad 2, named as Smart Cover. iPad 2 will be available in the US market from March 11th and to others from March 25th.
Motorola Xoom
The Motorola Xoom, which was rated as one of the best device at CES 2011 is a large 10.1-inch HD Tablet with Dual-Core Processor and sailing on Google’s next generation OS Android 3.0 Honeycomb and support 1080p HD video content.
This is the first device to run on Google’s next generation mobile operating system Android OS 3.0 Honeycomb, which is entirely designed for tablets. The device is made more powerful with 1 GHz dual core NVIDIA Tegra processor, 1GB RAM and comes with 10.1″ HD capacitive touch screen with higher resolution 1280 x 800 and 16:10 aspect ratio, 5.0 MP rear camera with dual LED flash, 720p video recording, 2 MP front camera, 32 GB Internal memory, extendable up to 32 GB, HDMI TV out and DNLA, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n. All this is supported by Verizon’s CDMA Network and upgradeable to 4G-LTE network, proposed in Q2 2011. The device has built-in gyroscope, barometer, e-compass, accelerometer and adaptive lighting for new types of applications. The tablet can be a mobile hot spot with the capability to connect up to five Wi-Fi devices.
The Android Honeycomb has attractive UI, gives enhanced multimedia and full browsing experience. The Honeycomb features include Google Map 5.0 with 3D interaction, Tablet optimized Gmail, Google Search, redesigned YouTube, ebook and thousands of applications from Android Market. The business applications include Google Calendar, Exchange Mail, opening and editing documents, spreadsheets and presentations. It also supports Adobe Flash 10.1.
The tablet is slim and light weight with a dimension of 9.80″ (249mm) x 6.61″ (167.8mm) x 0.51(12.9mm) and only 25.75 oz (730g)
Apple introducing iPad 2 – Official Video
Motorola Xoom – First Look