Apple does one thing very well. They are great at managing their brand. And by being innovators within the market they continue to keep their brand on top even when it really isn't the best thing out there. Blackberry and Motorola are soon to invade the market with their latest products and the iPad should be worried. The iPad is sleek, skinny and does come with anti-fingerprint coatings. However it is the heaviest of the three. And for all the iPads innovation, they are forced to fight a battle that they will be losing simply because they came out first.
It is common for products that hit the market first. It is a trade off between early sales and giving your competitors time to see what you offer and beat it. In many cases that seems to be what happened here. Blackberry and Motorola did that in many areas.
The Blackberry Playbook will be coming out the first couple months of the year while the Xoom will follow shortly after. With the specs finally released for all three we can now see how they stack up. And after a close review of what they can do and watching a couple videos of the tablets in action, it's close but the Playbook does take the prize in this one.
Although it is close with the exception of a couple areas it may still come down to preference and price for many. Not to mention availability. The Xoom will be available exclusively through Verizon. So unless you can unlock it like you can a smartphone, you will not be getting a Xoom unless you have a Verizon account.
- 7 inch LCD screen, 1024x600 (1080p) full multi-touch & gesture support.
- 1ghz Dual-Core Processor, 1gb RAM
- 2 Cameras (3mp front / 5mp rear) Full HD - 1080p recording
- Video playback - 1080p, H.264, MPEG, DivX, WMV / HDMI video output
- Audio - MP#, AAC, WMA
- Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR
- Micro HDMI, Micro USB, charging contacts
- Open Flexible Application Platform, Support for WebKit, HTML-5, Full Flash, Adobe support, POSIX, OpenGL, Java
And for the Motorola Xoom:
- 1ghz Dual-Core Nvidia Tegra 2 Processor
- 10.1 inch display. 1280x800 Gorilla touch screen
- 1080p video output, HDMI output
- 32 gb internal storage (software update required before it will support SD cards)
- 1gb DDR2 RAM
- 2 Cameras (2mp front / 5mp rear), 720p recording
- Gyroscope, Barometer, E-Compass, Accelerometer
- Wi-Fi (n), Bluetooth 2.1
- Audio - AAC, AAC+, MP3, XMF, AMR, AMR WB, WMA
All three generally have it where it counts. And each one is just a little better or a little worse in area that they comparable in. Let me tell you here what really matters. When you buy one of these your going to be using it to get on the Internet, play some videos, maybe run some spreadsheets or various little applications, among some other odds and ends. The Apple iPad can multi-task to a point. It starts to suffer from memory shortage after having two or three apps running and will start wiping them away. It may continue a download in the background, but that's about it. The only window working at full steam at that point is the one you have on top.
Here is where the Playbook shines. Blackberry has done a masterful job at OS implementation. The Playbook runs seamless even when multi-tasking. Out of the three pads the Playbook is the only one that can run multiple windows all fully. Nothing will run at half speed or half capacity when multi-tasking. So if you need a pad that can run multiple browser windows and still keep your stock ticker or streaming music running without a hiccup in the background this will be it for you.
The Xoom strives to get to the top using little features. Featuring multiple hardware functions such as a gyroscope and barometer it offers a future of possibilities. This plus the fact that their marketing heavily on Verizon's 4G-LTE to be available and supported on the Xoom. This means that for a mobile device you should have no problem either connecting to the Internet or becoming your own personal Hotspotsome cups and your all set.
I wont even get into the pricing because if you can afford one of these things, price does not matter. Personally unless your a business person always on the move and a laptop is a bit too bulky and cumbersome for your liking your really don't need one. Especially if you have a smartphone already. These are essentially underpowered notebooks. And that being the case, how many devices does one person need? Your on a business trip and you have a laptop, smartphone, and a tablet? There is a bit of overkill in that scenario. Can you guess where?
Either way these devices are nice and they do what they promise very well. The Playbook hits the mark a little better. But the Xoom is a close second and based on a preference you might have the Xoom can even be considered number 1. If your looking for sheer power and functionality and a device that can handle pure multi-tasking then the Blackberry is your machine. If you want a device that can give you enough power to handle normal functions of your day to day operations and still look nice playing a video on youtube then go with the Xoom.
Whatever you do, if you are in the market for one of these do NOT purchase an iPad. You will be wasting money much better spent on one of the other two. Your money will will go further with Motorola or Blackberry. Plus you will not have to deal with all the DRM that comes with iTunes and their overhyped and useless music service. Or better yet, save your money and upgrade your smartphone. Alot of those I am seeing today are falling behind the curve and some can do almost as much as a pad! So get a phone and save everyone, including yourself the headaches.
