Comparison Chart: Motorola XOOM Vs. IPad

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by darrakk

This doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I mean personal preference you are certainly entitled to... Movies and TV are mostly 16:9 or 16:10. Looking at it from the standpoint of a reader, your standard paperback novel has an aspect ratio of about 10:16 (portrait). The last product I have owned that had a 4:3 aspect ratio was almost 7 or more years ago when I owned my last analogue TV set.

I understand that you prefer a 4:3 device and again, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. However virtually every type of media these days is based on a 16:10 or 16:9 display.

Your difference with me is I do not want or need any device designed to deliver media content. I in my entire career in IT I have only tried a few computer games, I find game consoles uninteresting. I would rather go play golf, go fishing, take a hike, shoot some photos basically something physical rather than use the device I spend most of my day on as a source of recreation.

So that might be why I know my preference. my current laptops are all 17" displays measuring about 14-1/2" by 9" give or take to fit a diagonal of 17". This is thus a 16:10 device. And it's FINE because I have that good 9" of height at a resolution of 1680x1050. But when you begin decreasing to a ~10" diagonal then you run the numbers and all those devices are good for is video then if you encounter content not specifically setup for wide screen it's small, squashed and/or stretched.

I want a general use device not a media consumption device because, quite honestly I am not obsessed with the idea of entertainment needing to be with me 27/7/365. And to me whatever I get on a standard use device is just fine in terms of how any sort of media appears. One thing I KNOW is on a 4:3 device my books will look just fine and the fact these new devices are far taller than we are used to for portrait reading it's distracting for a lot of people.

Also, business users are the target of companies such as HP as well as Asus for the large format devices. And those folks will need to be able to run existing and legacy apps with them looking close to "normal" for productivity.

Maybe in 20yrs, long after I croak, things will be different and people will have all ocular implants or whatever and giggle over today's primitive "screens, how quaint"

In general that is my rational for a more standard screen. Basically a widescreen device has less screen real estate than a screen closer to 4:3 unless the screen gets to 17" or larger. I can't even use a 15.4" 16:10 laptop because it is vastly less useful than my old Dell Inspiron 5000's 15.4" 4:3 screen.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Dopedangel

http://www.droid-life.com/2011/01/23/comparison-chart-motorola-xoom-vs-ipad/


Well this more more accurately shows why the Xoom is priced how it is
but I would still like a non 3g version as I already have my android phone for wifi tethering.

Thx! Posted from Xoom.

[leebase]

Originally Posted by boswd

I don't think "baked" is the proper adjective, it sort implys software shortcomings that really aren't truely fixable,

Not at all. I expect every one of these issues to be resolved in time. It's simply a product that's been released before major features are actually done.

I'm sure there will be apps, but Apple got it's SDK done early enough to get it out to developers soon enough, that there were 3,300 apps at launch date, and 30,000 apps a couple months later, and now over 60,000 apps.

If Steve Jobs had talked about how wonderful the iBookStore was, and then shipped the iPad without the iBookStore being ready -- then yeah, the iPad too would have been unfinished.

Memory card slot. Well, the Xoom has one and the iPad doesn't. Yet the Xoom's doesn't work yet. That's certainly worthy of the claim "they shipped it before it was done".

I'm not suggesting the iPad is better because it doesn't even intend to have a memory card slot -- of course a non functioning one is better than not having one as you can expect it will function some day.

It just shoes a bit of the difference between where the iPad is at and where the Xoom is at that paints a picture quite opposed to the check list presented at the beginning of this thread.

The Motorola Xoom is the premiere, banner holding product for the launch of Google's highly anticipate "made for tablets" OS. And it came out not fully baked -- and priced higher to boot.

Lee

[darrakk]

You're argument strikes me more as one trying very hard to find fault where none exists. The 10.1 inch Xoom with it's 16:10 aspect ratio has about 25% more pixels than the 4:3 iPad, yet is physically smaller. That's not an attempt to compare the Xoom with the iPad mind you, just a comparison of a 16:10 with 4:3 device. If you dislike the extra pixels, you can always put some electrical tape or something down the side and "pretend" it has a 4:3 aspect ratio.

As for media content, that's the way of the world my friend. A "general use" device is one that can do, in general, anything. So why would you design a device with as aspect ratio that isn't in line with the vast majority of content, including books? Again, the aspect ratio of the standard paperback today is 10:16, not 3:4. And if you find it distracting looking at an application 16:10, you can always put it in a window.

I am not obsessed with entertainment 24/7/365. What I am interested in is bang for the buck. I don't see why anyone would complain about MORE pixels simply because they were added to the "wrong" part of the screen.

[darrakk]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

How many of these displays are viewed in portrait? And of course they are also mostly larger than 10", too. I'm looking at my 26" monitor as I type this - and I wouldn't get a 4:3 monitor in this size - but my browser window is approximately 4:3, leaving open a side slice of the desktop with various widgets on it. This isn't practical for a 10" screen (and of course the Xoom's 10.1" screen is smaller (has less area) than the iPad's 9.7" screen. And, as I mentioned, portrait does not work well on widescreen monitors.

If you have trouble reading the smaller screen, I suppose it would be an issue. I don't (as long as I am wearing my glasses or contact lenses, heh). I find it quite easy to read the screen on my iPhone, which is 15:10 aspect but way way smaller than either the Xoom or the iPad.

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

How many of these displays are viewed in portrait? And of course they are also mostly larger than 10", too. I'm looking at my 26" monitor as I type this - and I wouldn't get a 4:3 monitor in this size - but my browser window is approximately 4:3, leaving open a side slice of the desktop with various widgets on it. This isn't practical for a 10" screen (and of course the Xoom's 10.1" screen is smaller (has less area) than the iPad's 9.7" screen. And, as I mentioned, portrait does not work well on widescreen monitors.

Andrew,

I know you "get it" but we are wasting our heartbeats on darrakk because it's not doing anything beyond bouncing off. Some will never get it that it's "horses for courses" and a wide screen devices delivers LESS screen area than a 4:3 of the same diagonal measure. And for most practical uses it's about height and width not landscape length with ever shrink heights on widescreen devices. I can't count the number of people I've encountered while having coffee who are using a widescreen (and always a glossy screen on top of it) laptop or netbook that really is unhappy with the glossy and the lack of screen height.

but, hey some people just refuse to read and think they prefer to react. Widescreen works fine for most large format uses once you breach the 17" level, though there are some newer 17" laptops which have mysteriously lost height. And like you mention a 16:10 20"+ display works wonderfully for multiple open windows and widgets.

Like you I also keep my browsers as well as most other "full screen" apps in about a 4:3 ratio leaving a nice area to the left to keep some other utility apps running. But it's simply unusable that way with smaller screens <= 14" and even a 15.4" can be deceptively small today when using a widescreen format. Anyone who has opened their favorite IDE would get this at once.

but I'm not gonna keep trying to explain this to that id any further, it reminds me of the times wasted in college with the "but whhhhyyyyy" types belaboring a point everyone else in the room either understands or knows enough to realize they need to look at it in more depth outside the class.

Note: One wonders what happened to Rocky now that darrakk is around.

[Dulin's Books]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

One thing I KNOW is on a 4:3 device my books

well then you should get HPs TouchPad

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

well then you should get HPs TouchPad

it's on my short list for sure. I still want to see the production version of the Asus 121. Wish they had an extended life battery that just attached to the back, I don't mind the added weight to get up to a 10-12hr runtime. Of course I don't wanna cough of $300 for such a battery like we once had to for the 12-cell HP extended life battery. Of course getting around 14hrs runtime on my nw9440 was nothing to sneeze at when those batteries were new.

[darrakk]

I understand you quite well. I simply disagree with your argument. Physical screen size isn't as important to me as number of pixels, until you get to a point where pixel density is so high that it's unreadable. You feel it takes at least 17" before wide screen pixel density becomes worthwhile. For me it's much lower. As I said, I can read web pages and PDFs in my iPhone screen just fine. I'd guess the size is an issue for you. It is for some people.

So here's a question for you: If pixel density isn't an issue for me on a 10.1" 16:10 screen, meaning I can read text on that screen just fine, why would I choose 4:3 when most multimedia content is in widescreen format? Seems to me to be sacrificing the multimedia aspect for nothing. On the other hand if you have trouble with text and icon size at such pixel densities, then you may want to look at a different solution.

[leebase]

I prefer the 4:3 ratio as watching movies is a small part of how I use my iPad. I don't think it's a HUGE deal one way or the other. I certainly wouldn't buy an iPad just because it was 4:3 and the Xoom was wide screen (or vice versa).

Lee

[kjk]

I probably use my iPad more in portrait mode than landscape, even with apps that work well in both (Pulse, Flipboard, Safari). I just use landscape for movies, and even widescreen content works fine on the 4:3 screen for me.

[darrakk]

Originally Posted by leebase

I prefer the 4:3 ratio as watching movies is a small part of how I use my iPad. I don't think it's a HUGE deal one way or the other. I certainly wouldn't buy an iPad just because it was 4:3 and the Xoom was wide screen (or vice versa).

Lee

I don't think it's a huge deal at all. In fact the only thingnI have to day about asPect ratio is that the majority of content is designed for such screens. For me the bottom line is resolution. I just don't see how someone could take a lower resolution screen over a higher resolution based in nothing more than aspect ratio. Unless your eyesight is bad and the pixel density is too high for you to comfortably read.

Read this post and replied with my iPhone btw.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by FF2

Sorry, I need another PLAN like a hole in the head.

I hear ya. I wasn't forced into a data plan when I got my netbook. What makes them think tablets are any different and must have data plans?

WiFi was all I needed for my netbook, so it's all I need for my tablet.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by leebase

If Steve Jobs had talked about how wonderful the iBookStore was, and then shipped the iPad without the iBookStore being ready -- then yeah, the iPad too would have been unfinished.

And to be fair, that is what happened outside of the US, the iBooks application was not available at launch.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by kjk

I probably use my iPad more in portrait mode than landscape, even with apps that work well in both (Pulse, Flipboard, Safari). I just use landscape for movies, and even widescreen content works fine on the 4:3 screen for me.

I'm finding (after almost 24 hours) that I'm using the Xoom almost exclusively in landscape mode and the browsing and reading experience is incredible!