I have to agree with the posts above. I have both a xoom and an ipad 2. The ipad 2 definitely feels quicker. I think a lot of that has to do with it having a simple, more stable operating system. I have done numerous web site load tests with the two machines and they're both pretty close speed wise.
One thing I noticed recently was the use of twitter on both devices. I have a pretty "busy" twitter background (its a dark image with lots of code stamped on it). The IPAD 2 is MUCH faster at rendering the background image in safari and feels more closer to desktop speed. The XOOM browser struggles to refresh as I scroll down (I'm not sure if twitter has done specific ipad/safari optimizations or not).
Things I like about the xoom:
- Google app integration (maps/navi blows away ipad)
- choice of keyboards
- widgets (who doesn't?)
- Speakers (much better than Ipad 2's)
- Screen resolution
- Form factor (i like the widescreen aspect over the 4:3)
- Google speech recognition
- Ability to mount file system natively (this is huge. I hate itunes).
- Notification / status bar on bottom. IPAD 2's notification system (if you can call it that) sucks!
- SD slot
- 4g? I'd like to think this is something that I'll use but in reality, it'll prob cost more on verizon than 3g and I'll just hit my 1 gig cap faster. :|
Things I like about the ipad 2:
- Works well, all the time. I just pick it up and go
- It's quick/responsive all the time
- Battery life is crazy good
- Apps (Zite, Flipboard, Netflix, Hulu, BBC, engadget, etc) - everything I want/use is there right now. I hope android will catch up soon.
- USB charge option
- AT&T - I can get 2 gigs of data for $25 and only 1 gig on verizon for $20. I've been tearing through that damn 1 gig allowance.
- Speed of the accelerometer. It's just so quick to rotate from portrait to landscape. Xoom is MUCH slower.
I also find I need to reboot the xoom more often since it becomes rather un-responsive over time. This is likely due to some app or OS leak (I'm guessing). Flash also makes the browser a little less .. ummm..."responsive" (at least that's what I've been finding)
I definitely think android has much more potential as an OS than iOS (unless apple makes some pretty big changes) and have never really liked apple as a company. Their closed model just can't compete over time with Google's. I've owned the xoom since day 1. That said, >right now< the "experience" using the ipad 2 is better than the xoom. The xoom has potential but it's not there yet. I find myself reaching for the ipad a little more often than the xoom right now. Hopefully that'll change soon. I'm a techie and appreciate the additional features that the xoom offers but after using my desktop for a while, I just want to hit the couch and catch up on some news. I find that a little easier to do right now on the ipad 2. I never thought I'd say it but I almost appreciate the simplicity of the wall of icons sometimes.
One thing I do worry about is the amount of apple lemmings, err...I mean perfectly normal and sane people that STILL line up at 5am to buy an ipad 2. The xoom is pretty much always in stock whenever I ask (and I almost always ask when I'm in costco or bestbuy). From an app dev standpoint, you want to program on the platform people use most. With the influx of (hopefully cheaper?) android tab's coming out in the near future, I'm hoping that'll change. Right now though, I think most companies are spending their attention on ipad development.