Barcelona has been a spectacular stage for smart computing technology this year. Samsung with its launch of Galaxy S II smartphone made a stupendous impact at MCW 2011. Following the league of Motorola, this Korean manufacturer sure making plenty of waves of its own.
With Samsung Galaxy S II soon to be on the product shelves, Motorola and Apple are both going to face tough competition. Why? Read on and find it out.
Dimensions:
Galaxy Tab 10.1 à 246.2 x 170.4 x 10.9mm, 599g
Motorola Xoom à 249.1 x 167.8 x 12.9mm, 730g
Users who had hands on experience with both the tablets feel that Motorola Xoom is on the chunkier side, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 attacks that weak spot with gusto. Not only is it thinner, but 100g lesser in weight as well. Even though you’re not going to carry it around in your pockets, but thin about the extra weight you have to bear on your shoulder, especially with your laptop bag.
Display:
Motorola Xoom à 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800px, LCD
Galaxy Tab 10.1 à 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800px, LCD
There’s a tie in this department. None of the tablet makers boast of any specific display characteristics, except the specs on offer. Both offer HD playback on a smooth sized screen, 16:9 aspect widescreen displays. And, neither makes the promise of LED backlighting, nor super contrast or colour gamut action. As such, this one’s a very clear tie.
Engine Room:
Motorola Xoom àNVIDIA Tegra 2, 1GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB RAM
Galaxy Tab 10.1 à NVIDIA Tegra 2, 1GHz dual-core CPU
Yet again, this arena is a tie situation, no winners here. Both the manufactures offer Nvidia Tegra 2 platform with 1GHz dual core processor and beefed up HD graphics power. Even though Samsung has not revealed how much memory it’s jamming into its device, but we’d be surprised if it is anything short 1GB.
Storage:
Motorola Xoom à32GB + SD
Galaxy Tab à 10.116/32GB
At last, we have another winner. While both tablets come with standard issue amounts of flash memory, for some reason, Samsung has not added microSD port as found on the original 7-inch Galaxy Tab. And, this makes Xoom double what you can keep on the 10.1. The SD card slot on the Xoom is currently inactive and will only come into play once there’s been an update to the firmware.
Battery:
Motorola Xoom à Up to 10 hour video playback
Galaxy Tab 10.1 à 6860mAh
It’s a tricky one to decipher this time, as both have quoted their battery specs in a different way. The Xoom and the iPad (6600mAh) have essentially the same longevity. Therefore, our guess it that Xoom with slightly bigger screen and more powerful engine, will probably has the battery specs fairly equal to Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Imaging:
Galaxy Tab 10.1 à 8MP rear, 2MP front, 1080p video
Motorola Xoom à 5MP rear, 2MP front, 720p video
Samsung has stuck the same set of impressive optics and circuitry inside the Galaxy Tab 10.1 as it has in its super phone Galaxy S 2. So what we have here, is the winner-Samsung Galaxy S Tab 10.1 with 8MP resolution camera with AF and LED flash, capable of capturing Full HD video at 24fps. However, Xoom supports a milder 5MP and just the 720p. The good news- both have a robust 2MP webcams, you sure would look great on the other end of video calls.
Software
Motorola Xoom à Android 3.0 Honeycomb
Galaxy Tab 10.1 à Android 3.0 Honeycomb
With both gadgets sporting the exact same software, there’s no winner. Each feature Google’s debut Honeycomb aka Android 3.0. Neither of the manufacturers have played around with the OS (TouchWiz or Motoblur) to bring out something unique, so users are in for a real treat. It leaves us no room to declare a winner.
Connectivity:
Motorola Xoom à 3/4G, Wi-Fi, USB, HDMI-out, BT
Galaxy Tab 10.1 à HSDPA+, Wi-Fi, BT, USB
It’s a serious let down here from Samsung given all of the amazing wireless goodies that the company has crammed into the Galaxy S 2, announced at MWC 2011. No DLNA, 4G, NFC and wireless communication with your PC either. Xoom doesn’t have any of that either, but what the company has put in though is an HDMI-out and the promise that it will launch an LTE version for higher network speeds in the coming months.
Our Verdict:
Winner: Xoom
Loser: Galaxy Tab 10.1
This is one was a close shave, but we had to award the medal, and this goes to Motorola Xoom. Even though most categories were a draw, but we had to judge. The fact Motorola is bulkier, but can do can do everything the Galaxy Tab 10.1 can – if in slightly lower resolution – but the same can’t be said the other way round.
Once the prices are announced, we would have a clearer picture of winner, and we hear that Motorola is going to announce a hefty price tag, maybe that’s why Samsung has not tried to spec its 10-inch tab up to the full throttle this time.
So which of these Android super-tabs would you prefer? Let us know your comments.
