The iPad is all the rage lately and despite my feelings about being tired of hearing about the iPad, I found myself wanting one. So I started to take a real look at the iPad and the other touch screen tablet devices that are poised to hit the market this year. So I put together a table to do a side by side comparison of several devices that have caught my eye. It should be noted that official/final specs for the devices other than the iPad haven’t been released.
Below are the specs that I’ve gathers for the devices so far:
| Apple iPad | HP Slate | Notion Ink – Adam | |
| Price | $499 (16GB) $599 (32GB) $699 (64GB) |
$549 (32GB) $599 (64GB) |
$327 – $800 |
| Storage | 16GB/32GB/64GB | 32GB/64GB | 16GB/32GB |
| OS | iPhone OS | Windows 7 Home Premium | Android + Tegra |
| Height by Width | 9.56 by 7.47 inches | 9.21 by 5.70 inches | 9.4 by 6.2 inches |
| Thickness | 0.5 inches | 0.57 inches | 0.5 inches (13mm) |
| Screen Size | 9.7 inch | 8.9 inch | 10.1 inch |
| Resolution | 1024 by 768 | 1024 by 600 | 1024 by 600 |
| 720p | 1080p | 1080p | |
| Processor | 1 GHz A4 | 1.6 GHz Intel Atom |
NVIDIA TEGRA 2
Dual Core Cortex A-9
|
| RAM | 512 MB (Speculated) 256 MB Available to Apps |
1 GB DDR2 | Unknown |
| USB Port | No | Yes | Yes (2) |
| SD Card Reader | No | Yes (SDHC) | Yes (MircoSD) |
| Camera(s) | None | VGA Webcam (inward) & 3-megapixel (outward) |
3.2MP Swivel camera (inward) |
| Flash Support | No | Yes | Yes |
| Wireless | 802.11 a/b/g/n | 802.11 b/g | 802.11 b/g |
| Estimated Battery Life | 10 Hours | 5 Hours | 16 Hours |
| Bluetooth | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Accelerometer | Yes | Unknown | Yes |
| 3G | Optional (Add $130) | Optional | Yes (Optional Assumed) |
| GPS | Only in 3G Model | Yes | Yes |
| Video Out | Optional (accessory) | Yes – Dock (HDMI) | Yes (MDMI) |
Now the one thing that Apple has going for it and the iPad/iPhone in general is the iTunes app store. The sheer amount of variety and amount of apps in the app store is staggering, there is nothing that can compete with it. However, the Android market place is growing daily, and at an astonishing pace. With new Android devices coming out at a steady pace this is a trend that isn’t likely to subside anytime soon.
With the specifications above and then taking the app store into account I feel that my order of preference on tablets between the above three would go in the order of the Notion Ink Adam, the iPad and then finally the HP Slate. Besides just having better specs the fact that it runs Android is a huge benefit to me as it allows more freedom than that which is available on the iPad.
I personally will be waiting until the second generation of these devices comes around and till there is far more meaningful apps for the device of choice.
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