Looks like I was posting in the wrong place. Posted in the Xoom thread in the Android section, and was quickly disgusted by the lack of quality posts in that thread, where towards the end, the thread was more towards b****ing about the price than any useful information and discussion about the Xoom generally, and the Android Honeycomb OS particularly.
Been looking around for my options, and based on past experiences, I've picked the Motorola's tablet out of the Acer and Asus's own. To me, build quality is paramount, and Xoom does not disappoint, it is solidly built. That said, I am still interested to see if the Asus Transformer can match Xoom's built quality, and am particularly looking forward to the IPS panel it sports. Comparison between my Xoom and my iPad 2 shows how much more superior the IPS panel is on the iPad 2.
I am personally turned off by the Acer Iconia A500 because of the huge bezel and weird silver edge design, not to mention the weird port placements. Built-in slots are of course more superior on the Acer and Asus(particularly the Asus with its keyboard dock), but I came from the iPad and I do not miss any of these ports, nor do I have any immediate compelling need for them. They are "nice to have", not a "must have". Since my iPad days I've shifted to cloud-based storage and delivery for contents I need. I am also a consumer, not a content creator, so therefore I do not have the need to transfer content around between multiple users all the time at any time, so built-in ports aren't on my immediate needs.
Talking about the OS itself, it is a huge improvements over 2.2. I've used the DHD as my standby phone (my iPhone 4 being primary), and are not particular taken by the quality of the OS(still laggy) or the amount of content available on its apps-delivery system(Android Market). I am also partial to rooting, and the fact that you had to root to access the full content of the Android Market (MarketEnabler to buy the apps from US Android Market) turns me off. I see a lot of promise on the Honeycomb OS, particularly when paired with promising specs like on the Xoom (dual core Tegra 2). Games offered on the TegraZone app is particularly good, and in some cases, better than the one on the iOS AppStore. Example is Samurai 2 Tegra Edition compared to the version on iOS, and Galaxy On Fire 2 on both platform(shaders made available by Tegra 2 compared to the iOS put the iOS version to shame).
As for productivity purposes, I've tried to make the two tablets I have mirror each other as close as possible, although like I said, I don't do heavy duty productivity on them. I got them both running similarly on the reading apps(Zinio, Google Books, Nook, Kindle, Pulse News) as well as social networking apps (Facebook, Twitter, any IM apps), but the polish seems to be more prevalent on the iOS compared to Android. Not a big enough issue to me to pick one over the other.
Android has the edge in terms of tabbed browsing with the stock browser, although iOS's Safari still is king when it comes to sensitivity of the pinch-to-zoom/selection accuracy to copy-paste/smoothness when swiping to scroll, or rotation especially.
Honeycomb scores big with its widgets though, very easy to peek though the content without having to go through the actual app itself.
I've mentioned before, I'm a consumer, not a content creator. Because of Google's lateness to the table with offering a good enough tablet OS (to me, 2.2 on a 7" device is not tablet OS) for me to enjoy my contents (songs, photos, videos like TV Shows, Movies), I've invested heavily on contents purchased from iTunes. Therefore it makes sense for me to either convert my video/audio content to the type acceptable in iTunes, and this has shown limited compatibility when trying to put those contents in my Xoom. These contents are also DRM-protected, therefore can only be played on an iDevice, until recently when DRM-free music was made available on iTunes (but still on purchase). Videos are still DRM-protected.
I may be on the minority side (purchasing content instead of downloading them from shady sources/sharing them between people), but Android's lateness to bringing a tablet-worthy OS had me invested so much on iOS-friendly content that in turn, turns my iDevice into my primary content cosumption device instead of the Xoom.
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my Xoom, and of recently, I've been taking around my Xoom more often than my iPad 2. The strong build quality and heftness made it more confident for me to lug around than the iPad 2 with its thinness making me perceive it as being unnecessarily fragile. I desperately hope the new iterations of future Honeycomb updates can match the speediness of iOS, and I may just ditch my iPad entirely.
Personally, I'd like to see how the Asus Transformer looks like IRL. Particularly the screen. Design
IS is a feature to me, and I'm willing to pay for it, which made me discard the Acer Iconia as a viable option (sorry, ugly bezels/side designs). I hope the Asus Transformer steps up to the plate when it comes to the built quality, and I may well be picking it up as the third tablet.
Nice review on Xoom especially since you having a iPad2 as well. I'm currently using iPad1 which really make the same experience. Based on my observation, here is my 2 sen thought:
1. IPS screen definitely is a go for tablet - Thanks to Apple for almost standardized it. Eee Pad Transformer is using IPS as well, the next version of Xoom most likely will move to IPS because Taiwan LCD manufacturer got licensed to build IPS LCD screen already..
2. Honeycomb still feel a bit immature; we still don't know about upgrade ability of future Android OS - iPad1 most likely can be upgraded to iOS5 which I believe will open up more functionality
3. I like the stereo speakers build-in the the Xoom, u just couldn't believe iPad1/2 doesn't come with stereo speakers.
Apr 5 2011, 04:17 PM, updated 15y ago
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