Is Xoom slower than iPad?

[ecaggiani]

My boss is an Apple guy and I'm an Android geek. I've been chomping at the bit to get a Xoom for work and it looks like that might happen in a few months.

But my boss said he recently had a chance to play with his friend's Xoom and he told me it was significantly slower than his iPad (first generation). His friend told him it was because Honeycomb doesn't use the GPU to draw the UI.

Now I have played with a Xoom at Best Buy and it seemed blazingly fast to me. Are his claims inaccurate? Does Honeycomb use the GPU to draw the UI? Is the iPad faster?

Any insights are appreciated! Thanks!

 

[clevin]

Fast in what aspect?

 

[Adamd]

Rendering web pages the xoom wins hand down with no contest.

The I pad might be faster in one aspect that he might have found but overall the xoom seems way faster then the first Gen I pad.

 

[ravizzle]

Xoom has a dual core processor that is faster than ipad and ipad2. However, due to the xoom's ability to multitasking it can seem a bit slower if u have like 10 apps open at once. Not all apps are optimized to use both cores, but the GUI and honeycomb and some honeycomb apps are. The honeycomb is was designed on a dual core processor as well.

 

[ecaggiani]

I should have been more specific. He said the overall feel of the UI was slower, like swiping between screens and moving around. Also he said the Kindle app page turns are much slower. He had his iPad right next to the Xoom for comparison. Ultimately he says he was unimpressed with the Xoom.

 

[gregg37]

I had an ipad up until a couple weeks ago. I just got my WiFi Xoom this week. The Xoom has its problems...mostly "growing pains" that will be worked out - but when it does work (which is more often than reviews will make it seem), it is much snappier than the Ipad ever was. Its quite obvious that it shouldn't have been released yet, but it's also pretty obvious that when updated and tweaked in the coming weeks/months it will be quite a machine. In my opinion the issues right now are much more that the app development is lagging, but you do have the occasional OS hiccup.

 

[Maikai.Guy]

I should have been more specific. He said the overall feel of the UI was slower, like swiping between screens and moving around. Also he said the Kindle app page turns are much slower. He had his iPad right next to the Xoom for comparison. Ultimately he says he was unimpressed with the Xoom.

Your boss is clearly an Apple fan-boy. ;-)

I work with more than a few people with the iPad2. I am delighted on an ongoing basis to beat them... often blowing them out of the water... in just about any test they choose. Rarely, someone comes up with something that works as fast as the XOOM. My XOOM has yet to be beaten.

After I've beaten them in everything they ask me to do, I especially like to jump into a folder, burn a file to a thumb drive, hand it to them and say "Let's both open this file and compare the speed."

"What did you say? You can't open the file because there is no way for you to read anything but pictures from a thumb drive? And you need a $30 contraption to do that? Oh, that's too bad." Then I write them and e-mail, attach the file, and send it to them. ;-)

The amount of erroneous negative press on the XOOM helps quite a bit. They expect an easy comparison to confirm what they read. "Huh!? That can't be! ...but... but... but I read that it couldn't... I thought it wasn't... "

 

[Maikai.Guy]

I had an ipad up until a couple weeks ago. I just got my WiFi Xoom this week. The Xoom has its problems...mostly "growing pains" that will be worked out - but when it does work (which is more often than reviews will make it seem), it is much snappier than the Ipad ever was. Its quite obvious that it shouldn't have been released yet, but it's also pretty obvious that when updated and tweaked in the coming weeks/months it will be quite a machine. In my opinion the issues right now are much more that the app development is lagging, but you do have the occasional OS hiccup.

I generally agree, but stop short of saying it shouldn't have been released yet.

I've had the XOOM since day 1. Any issues with it have been incompatibilities (forced closes) of certain apps. There are so many other apps out there that it was easy to find replacements. Most of the time I found a better app than the one I was using on my phone!

Now that my system is set up with the apps I need, there have been zero issues with the OS. The one thing I still rely on a computer for is to create and edit PowerPoint presentations. For everything else, there is the XOOM.

 

[drethos]

Your boss must love the kool aid.
The xooms problems are all software based like. Even the SD card is a software based issue, unlike the bleeding screens that hardware and they seemed to sweep that under the rug. The xooms problem is it has a baby os , you gotta let it mature so it will grow into a big strapping example of stabilty and power.

 

[ecaggiani]

Thanks for the comments! Makes me feel a little better

I'd still like to know if Honeycomb uses the GPU to draw the UI or not. Or if it's hardware accelerated.

 

[EvoXOhio]

I have a first Gen ipad and a wifi xoom. I have done lots'of side by side tests between the two, things like browser page loading and so forth. The xoom is hands down, leaps and bounds faster than the ipad in every aspect. I have never compared side by side to an ipad 2 but from using one a few times it didn't feel significantly faster than the ipad 1.

That being said, there are many parts'of the UI on the I pad that are much more fluid. A lot of that probably has to do with honeycomb being brand new, and also that the I pad doesn't do real multitasking.

I suspect that the display model that he used had been thoroughly used by people checking it out, which probably lead to a lot of stuff running in the background, and undoubtedly some of those things were resource intensive and buggy if not optimized for honeycomb.

 

[clevin]

Honeycomb's ui is obviously more complex than the button launcher of ipad.

Button launcher is simple, regular, rigid, its fast for sure, palm treo is just as fast in terms of its ui, didnt mean much.

 

[siscim23]

Honeycomb's ui is obviously more complex than the button launcher of ipad.

Button launcher is simple, regular, rigid, its fast for sure, palm treo is just as fast in terms of its ui, didnt mean much.

Exactly what I was trying to figure out how to say, lol.

 

[ecaggiani]

I suspect that the display model that he used had been thoroughly used by people checking it out, which probably lead to a lot of stuff running in the background, and undoubtedly some of those things were resource intensive and buggy if not optimized for honeycomb.

Actually it was a brand new Verizon Xoom fresh out of the box that his friend showed him. It was not a display unit or anything like that. His friend just purchased it and was showing it to him when they did the side by side comparison with the 1st gen iPad.

My guess is that it was the first time booting and Honeycomb may have still been setting things up in the background or something like that. Not sure. But he said he was surprised at how slow it felt in every aspect. Judging from what everyone here is saying, as well as my own test of a Xoom at Best Buy, either his Xoom is faulty or it was doing something while they were testing.

I'll have to get one and prove to him that it is certainly faster than his 1st gen iPad

 

[imwjl#AC]

I should have been more specific. He said the overall feel of the UI was slower, like swiping between screens and moving around. Also he said the Kindle app page turns are much slower. He had his iPad right next to the Xoom for comparison. Ultimately he says he was unimpressed with the Xoom.

I'm evaluating Xoom and iPad 2 for different projects. What your boss complained about is the biggest advantage I see. The interface is fast in addition to the hardware. No moving for the round button, guessing how different apps are run, just watch that left corner.

 

[Bigum1969]

I have both the xoom and the iPad2... I have to regretfully agree with your boss. I picked up the Ipad2 because it was sitting in the shelf when I was at Best Buy looking for some xoom accessories.

I intended to sell it for a profit, but after playing with it I'm keeping it. I never thought I would say that.

Netfkix is incredible and I hooked it into my home theater and have been really pleased with the results.

The user interface is much snappier. It really is. The OS is really stable and the apps are both incredible in quantity but also in quality.

I do like the screen on my xoom a lot better. But the iPad2 just feels so refined. The web is snappy and there are several browsers you can get. Flash is missing, but it is slow and buggy on the xoom right now that I avoid it.

I am not an Apple fanboy... in fact, I've been really enthusiastic about the xoom. But, the Apple is still a long way ahead in stability, apps and overall usability.

Do I wish it had widgers? Heck yes!

But I'm really debating keeping the xoom at this point.

 

[ecaggiani]

I have both the xoom and the iPad2... I have to regretfully agree with your boss.

My main question was between the Xoom and the original iPad, not the iPad2. My boss was comparing to the original and said even that was faster than the Xoom. I'm hoping that's not the case.

 

[Bossxii]

My boss is an Apple guy and I'm an Android geek. I've been chomping at the bit to get a Xoom for work and it looks like that might happen in a few months.

But my boss said he recently had a chance to play with his friend's Xoom and he told me it was significantly slower than his iPad (first generation). His friend told him it was because Honeycomb doesn't use the GPU to draw the UI.

Now I have played with a Xoom at Best Buy and it seemed blazingly fast to me. Are his claims inaccurate? Does Honeycomb use the GPU to draw the UI? Is the iPad faster?

Any insights are appreciated! Thanks!

While as many Xoom users here sound just as biased as your boss, the Xoom is the best android device to date. The UI is smooth until, as mentioned, you have to many apps open then it can hiccup. I own both devices and the web load/render times are basically the same. You won't get checkerboards on the Xoom but most of the pages I visit often load nearly identical. I keep flash on demand on the Xoom or it will be slower due to loading more info.

Overall UI performance it simply faster and smoother on the iPad 2, sorry Fandroids, the reality is what it is. I love the Xoom but it's simply not as polished, it's new and has tons of potetial but numerous online videos can show the difference. The advantages of Honeycomb such as email attachments, file systems and true multitasking are no doubt a bonus but your blinded in bias if you think Honeycomb overall runs faster. I choose features over polish, my wife simply won't give up the apps and the iPad experience, which is very good.

If you like Android OS you will love he Xoom. That's really all that matters, if like others you get caught up in silly Fanboyism over stupid crap then you won't. Buy what you want, not what myself or anyone says.

 

[crypto#AC]

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.

 

[clevin]

Netfkix is incredible and I hooked it into my home theater and have been really pleased with the results.

I do like the screen on my xoom a lot better. But the iPad2 just feels so refined. The web is snappy and there are several browsers you can get. Flash is missing, but it is slow and buggy on the xoom right now that I avoid it.

netflix is an valuable addition and google is insane in not bringing it to android, so is HP for its webOS PAD.

iOS has no real selection of browsers, if its default browser has problem with a website, all its derivitives won't have better luck. Please dont confuse the numbers with quanlity.

Debating keeping xoom? I say return it, ASUS eeepad will be out with great specs and cheap price $400. Galaxy tab gives u much more portability a 10" can never offer. I just dont think xoom is a convincing product.