Mar 25, 2011 02:13 PM EDT by K. T. BradfordCamera and Camcorder
Both the Xoom and iPad 2 have both a rear and front-facing camera, but there’s a big quality difference between them. Before the iPad 2 arrived, there was hope that it would have the same cameras as the iPhone 4. Instead, the specs show that the cameras are closer to what Apple included in the most recent iPod touch. The rear-facing camera on the iPad 2 is capable of recording 720p video (1280×780) at 30 frames per second. It’s also capable of 5x digital zoom for still photos. The front-facing camera can record (non-HD) video and stills, and has a VGA resolution of 640×480. Given these numbers, the rear camera is a little less than 1 megapixel and the front camera is 0.7.
The Xoom has a 5-megapixel (2592 x 1944) rear-facing camera capable of 8x digital zoom and a 2-megapixel (1600 x 1200) front-facing camera. Motorola also included an LED flash for the back camera, a feature the iPad 2 lacks. Like its competitor, the Xoom’s rear camera also records at 720p, 30fps.
The difference in quality is clear when you look at stills and video captured by both the Xoom and iPad 2 side by side. (click images to see the hi-res versions.)
| Rear-Facing Camera, Indoors | |
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| iPad 2 | Motorola Xoom |
| Rear-Facing Camera, Outdoors | |
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| iPad 2 | Motorola Xoom |
The Xoom’s images have richer color whereas the iPad 2’s stills have a lot of noise and aren’t as distinct. Neither camera really captures a fine level of detail, but the Xoom’s photos are sharper.
It’s also worth noting that the Android camera app gives users multiple shooting options to get a better picture, including white balance, scene options, exposure, picture quality, and auto-focus. The iPad 2’s camera app only provides focus and zoom options. To take pictures using filters, iPad 2 owners need to use a separate app: Photo Booth. Xoom owners can do this right from the camera app.
| Xoom Rear-Facing Camera | |
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| Auto | With Optimal Settings |
The difference in video quality is just as noticeable. We shot video both in our office and outside and found that the iPad 2’s output looked washed out compared to the Xoom’s. The iPad 2′s footage also had more graininess and noise.
Motorola Xoom: Indoor, Rear-Facing Camera
iPad 2: Indoor, Rear-Facing Camera
Motorola Xoom: Outdoor, Rear-Facing Camera
iPad 2: Indoor, Rear-Facing Camera
Winner: Motorola Xoom
The Xoom’s superior hardware means you’ll be able to leave the point and shoot and the Flip cam at home.
Video Chat
Both the Xoom and the iPad 2 have native video chat clients, but they take different approaches. FaceTime works across iOS devices and Macs, but not other devices. Xoom users can use Google Talk to chat face to face with GTalk users on PCs and Macs. We’re assuming Android phone support is on the way, but it’s not here yet.
Want to make video calls outside of Wi-Fi range? The iPad 2 doesn’t let you do it, while the Xoom supports video chat over 3G and (soon) 4G.
The front-facing cameras themselves are a different story from the rear ones. Though the Xoom’s is 2 MP to the iPad 2’s 0.7 MP, video from the front camera on the iPad 2 was brighter, more vibrant, and exhibited less noise. We also noted more blur on the Xoom’s front-facing camera, making for a less enjoyable video chatting experience.
| Front-Facing Camera, Indoors | |
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| iPad 2 | Motorola Xoom |
Motorola Xoom: Video Chat
iPad 2: Video Chat
Winner: Draw
The ability to call a lot more people and 3G support help the Xoom in this round, but the iPad 2 ties it up with better video call quality.
Motorola Xoom vs. iPad 2
- Introduction
- Design and Display
- Software, Interface, Performance, Battery
- E-mail, Messaging, Browsing
- Camera, Camcorder and Video Chat
- Multimedia and Apps
- Accessories, Pricing and Value
- Verdict
March 25th, 2011 at 3:53 pm
Funny, my impression of the videos taken on each device show that the iPad is better than the Xoom for taking video in both low light and bright light conditions. The color balance on the Xoom looked wrong and the footage looked consistently overexposed. Was any objective criterion used to judge the video quality?
From my experience with a generation 1 iPad, page loading speed is the most important aspect of the web browsing experience. These tablets are not PC’s, so web page rendering speed is not measured in milliseconds but in many seconds. Slow page loading is a serious usability hiccup on any ARM based mobile device. I’d have to give the browser category to the iPad, simply because it loads pages so much faster than the Xoom.
March 25th, 2011 at 4:09 pm
Nice review! I do take exception to the browsing category. You gave the Xoom the win based on the fact it has flash, even though it is 3-4 times slower than the iPad? I’d go for speed and less animated ads any day.
March 25th, 2011 at 4:12 pm
You can keep the rear camera on both of these things. I’ll never be the dork holding up a tablet to take a picture!
March 25th, 2011 at 5:11 pm
This is the second review I’ve seen that gives the UI edge to XOOM. Ridiculous! The UI should not be a distraction.
You lost me at “Using Android 3.0 requires a small learning curve compared to iOS”
Consumer FAIL – Nerd WIN!
March 25th, 2011 at 7:16 pm
So… the iPad wins in being a toy, but when it comes to being useful the Xoom wins?
March 25th, 2011 at 8:47 pm
The web browsing loading speed was not fairly tested. The Xoom had flash enabled and was actually loading more content than the iPad 2. Other test results on the net have shown that both the iPad 2 and the Xoom are very close (1 or 2 second differences) in webpage loading times.
March 25th, 2011 at 9:17 pm
@PTtilted, a few things:
1. Nerds are consumers, too.
2. There’s nothing wrong with being a nerd. Nerds are awesome.
3. If a product causes you to add another wrinkle to your brain, to gain more knowledge and open up experiences to new things, that is not a fail. If it was, humans would have never learned written language or discovered fire. (Not in that order, necessarily…)
@pjs_boston
On video quality, the YouTube versions don’t display the difference as well, but the raw video files do. That said, if you’re only ever going to upload to YouTube the iPad’s output may be good enough. But since yu can use the tablet to cut and even throw the videos up on an HD screen, you don’t want to look at the result and go: ew.
March 25th, 2011 at 11:14 pm
Hey, Apple sold more iPAD 2′s in the 1st hour than Motorola Xoom’s did in the past month.
The iPAD 2 could turn out to be Apple’s killing machine:
1st it will kill the Galaxy & Xoom. Pretty much a given already.
Then the Playbook. In the meantime, notebooks and maybe PCs too. Acer just issued a warning.
And then it will do in HP’s tablet and you might as well count the phones too because they’re not going anywhere with just a different logo on them.
And finally, the iPAD 2 killing machine will do in Google (no more copycat products- per Steve Jobs).
Hooray for the iPAD 2!
March 26th, 2011 at 3:36 pm
until the touchpad is released that is, for now we’ll let Apple take down the inferior products.
March 26th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
You left out the most important factor: Which has the highest “joyful and sheer delight to use” quotient? I’d be shocked if iPad did not win that one by a landslide.
March 27th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
@Ird
Tablets will not be taking over notebooks and PCs anytime soon. They simply don’t have the power, and more importantly, tablets are toys. They don’t offer to people anything they can do on another product. They are more or less fancy toys that can browse the internet and use apps your phone can.
It’s going to be a while before the tablet because a product that takes more importance then the notebook or pc.
March 28th, 2011 at 9:14 am
Of course the Ipad2 is the clear winner as it should be. What’s scary for apple is how good the Zoom actually is. It does beat the original ipad in many ways. Which was its main competition. With 4G the zoom will blow away the ipad2 in website loading speed. Plus the included hardware ports at no extra charge are a plus. Apples answer to this is “there’s a dongle for that!” In terms of value it depends on needs. Though def. Not an ipad2 killer. The Zoom is an excellent alternative and for a first time product very compelling indeed.
March 28th, 2011 at 10:46 am
The color in Xoom’s camera is so off that you won’t be using that for shooting any video either. Did you configure the colors to be like that or is it hardcoded? Also: Does Android still require you to use Task Manager? That’s a no-deal for me ever since I bought the iPhone: automatic task management is a must-have.
March 28th, 2011 at 1:02 pm
So, Xoom wins the “Software” category with it’s amazing array of 30 apps? All the bells and whistles of Android 3.0 means squat if there are no apps to download and use.
March 28th, 2011 at 3:58 pm
The ipad screen is physically bigger in area than the Xoom (45.2 sq. In. Vs. 43.6). The Xoom has 30% more pixels (higher pixel density).
March 29th, 2011 at 5:35 pm
Interesting review. I’m not sure the XOOM won the browser category for, in part, having Flash. Really? I thought Flash was “coming at a later date.” Also, you mention software. Where? And as far as the interface goes, how good is it if it can’t charge and sync at the same time? I learned long ago that when it comes to tech, it’s the here and now that counts. The blue sky stuff many times never arrives. Look at the crop of tablets that were slated (pardon the pun) for last year. How few actually came out.
April 6th, 2011 at 10:04 am
Ipad users, you can tell who you are. I don’t like Apples closed ecosystem on its products. I like to do what I want with my product and you can’t do that with Ipad unless you hack it. It’s nice but not for me, I prefer and Android tablet and lets so who wins the race. 24 months from now when the smoke clears I believe the tale of the tape will be different, just like cellphones.
April 14th, 2011 at 10:46 am
I think the article missed a few important issues:
1. Expandability – iPad does not have memory card slots. When you travel and wish to view your photos, you must bring with your laptop and use iTunes to upload your photos to iPad. For the Xoom, you can use a micro SD card insert it to an adapter as a micro SD card into your camera.
2. Big Brother – please view Computerworld’s review: http://blogs.computerworld.com/17901/eight_reasons_the_motorola_xoom_beats_the_ipad
Apple treats their customers as pirates and must go through its big brother iTunes.
3. Interface with PC – once you connect your USB with the PC, it is almost instant that you will see the drive and again, iPad needs iTune for interface. It is so slow and not user friendly.
4. Email/Contact Sync – If your contacts, calendar and email are all resided at gmail, then Xoom is your choice. However if your stuffs are at Microsoft Exchanger Server, Honeycomb is not your choice. For those who has multiple contact files and many folders, the Honeycomb O/S is very difficult to navigate around folders (even though it has improved quite a bit). There’s still problems on sending emails via the Honeycomb email software – sometimes it does not work.
5. User Interface Response Time – The Xoom is still not as smooth as the iPad. This is very obvious when moving an icon from one location to another location. Some very simple application or games’s responsiveness is slower even than the Galaxy Captivate (same app).
In general, I think it all depends on the user, what points are more important. For myself, I think expandability and big brother are the most important issues.