It should be noted that there are still some things we don’t know about the PlayBook, and the HP Slate specs are taken from a leaked internal document that hasn’t yet been officially confirmed.
Still, the battlefield’s a lot more clearly defined than it was when we first compared tablets – both real and rumoured – back in January. And as its rivals catch up, the iPad’s looking increasingly outgunned.
That’s just on the hardware side, though. Apple’s still got three major advantages that opponents haven’t made up much space on: iOS, the App Store and a huge head start. It’s going to take more than a pair of HD cameras to overcome that.
olearymo
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 10:24 AMwould it be possible to adjust the pic to show their relative sizes?
Or, if not, have a picture like that afterwards? It looks like they’re all the same size.
Stefan
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 10:26 AMdoesnt windows have the largest app store? XD
Simon Reidy
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 3:32 PMNot if you want proper tablet based apps, optimised for touch at the tablet’s native resolution.
Windows 7 based tablets suck for this very reason.
Sylphier
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 10:44 AMI’m unconvinced at the price of Galaxy Tab. Fact is, the iPad is THE table atm, and considered as a benchmark for a lot of others yet to get one. For a tablet with suggested price (above) of nearly double the iPad, one would expect it to be REALLY awesome. Else I don’t see a lot of people will want to get it.
Your Mate Alex
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 11:00 AMSorry but these spreadsheet comparisons are completely misleading. The only way to compare them would be to put each through a test of how well it performs specific functions, subjective build quality and ease of use. Don’t draw up a spreadsheet of raw specs and call it the “Ultimate Tablet Showdown”. On devices as dissimilar as these, the hardware specs are largely irrelevant.
Also Stefan, I have remote desktop access to a terminal server running windows7 from my phone and on my work iPad. Performance is outstanding (much faster than what an Atom machine could manage) but I have found Windows is utterly useless for touch screen devices. Most programs for windows just don’t work well enough. If needed, yes you can use them, but it’s not fun. HP and Microsoft obviously have put in a lot of work to make things more finger friendly but there’s only so much you can do.
If you want computer functionality, for the same price as a Slate, you can get a proper laptop from Sony that’s only slightly heavier and you don’t have the same interface issues.
10.1 inch VAIO W Series (Imperial Lime)
* Intel® Atom™ Processor N470 1.83 GHz
* Genuine Windows® 7 Starter 32-bit
* 10.1″ wide (WXGA: 1366 x 768) VAIO Display, LED backlight
* Billabong Inspired Limited Edition
* Weight: 1.19 kg
zul
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 11:03 AMI own iPad and look at all the rest I would go to blackberry. The reason, I like the simplicity of the design, like the clean cut of the shape. I don’t like brand name at the front as i love it only appear at the back like iPad.
Hopefully blackberry will price it table comparable to ipad, then I am willing to line up.
Sergei Nester
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 11:07 AMIPAD has an extra 168 vertical pixels (1024 x 768 vs 1024 x 600) or around 28% more pixels than the other tablets – this means websites are more likely to readable without the need for zooming. The interface is proven and beautiful. Multitasking obviously is an upgrade later in the year.
Screen resolution was always a problem with the netbooks – the screen resolution simply meant more scrolling.
I think leaving out a camera on the IPAD was a mistake and lack of Flash support – well i still haven’t been able to get Jobs’ head out of my ass.
peter
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 1:46 PMDont you mean horizontally?
Guy
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 5:33 PMDepends on how you hold it actually :P
@Sergei Nester, you’re also forgetting that the iPad has the largest screen of all tested, which drags the pixel density down – the iPad doesn’t necessarily have the largest screen.
cgb
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 11:20 AMlets not forgot what i think is the main selling point for getting the Samsung Galaxy Tab.. it make Voice Calls !!.. for someone who wants to replace the mobile phone with a Video player, email & game device in one.. the Tab is the only choice… the DULL streak of course being weak using android 1.6
Jayson Solis
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 12:28 PM..and the fact that you’d have to bring a 7″ screen to your face whenever someone calls you while you’re ordering a drink at a nightclub.
peter
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 1:47 PMOnly bluetooth and speakerphone is available.
There is no earpiece.
glennc
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 3:41 PMdamn
Greg
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 12:05 PMAs has been pointed out elsewhere, the line left out of the comparison is Is this actually available? The answer is simple, the only one you can actually buy right now is the iPad.
These tablets wont be competing with the ipad 1.0, but more likely a second generation. I’ll be more interested to see this run again after all models are able to be bought in Australia, compared to the version of the iPad on sale at the time.
Jane
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 12:59 PMiPad wins… even IF they make a 10″ Playbook.
Maybe Playbook is more professional and can do a lot more things than the iPad can. But on the other hand, iPad is made by Apple and so 1. They will attract a lot more consumers. 2. They have TONS of developers to make apps. So many developers are live on Apple, such as iFunia, a MAC video converter tools manufacturer, what awesome is they have being a strong link chain in the tablet industry.
The consumer market will stick with the iPad for now and long time in the future…
peter
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 1:50 PMYou cant disregard the enterprise customers of which Blackberry has a tremendous lead over Apple.
It’s a very tough market for Apple to crack. Yeah, they may win the consumer side, but the thing is BB doesnt need to. Majority of people go to work, so interfacing with the enterprise market is a highly attractive proposition.
matt
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 2:38 PMlol! you better hope so! heaven forbid there was a popular platform that wasn’t as needlessly restrictive as the ipad, and just let you play any video format, because then there would be no reason for iFunia to exists…
glennc
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 3:46 PMthe consumer market does as it’s told to do by the media. if the media decides the ipad is no longer the flavour of the month, then the sheep will follow. the trick is to use their image as the carrot to create that “don’t need but must have to look cool” desire.
johnd
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 1:06 PMiPad carrier is AT&T??? Only if you choose AT&T. You can choose any carrier you like.
Will
Wednesday, September 29, 2010 at 1:32 PMnot in the US you cant, you would be stuck on AT&T. obviously that doesnt apply here.
matt
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 2:34 PMlol, really? app store as a bigger selection of programs than windows??? might wanna recheck that…
the one thing that really strikes me there is the Weight! half the weight of the ipad is tempting. and its surprising to see that the hp slate weighs the same as the ipad. and the same price…
Simon Reidy
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 3:34 PMAnd you think Windows based apps feel good on a tablet? You obviously haven’t seen a Windows based tablet. They universally suck.
Limmw
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 5:16 PMHow do the rest work in terms of business productivity applications as compared to ipad? Do they have capable apps?
Do they come with USB interface for transfer of files from external drives?
I am surprised ipad only has 256 ram and it works quite smoothly, I can’t imagine how much better it can be for the rest with so much more ram.
matt
Wednesday, September 29, 2010 at 11:55 AMwindows one needs lots of ram because it has to run full windows… and any windows made app (which these days expect atleast a gig)
also, multi-tasking benefits from lots of ram when there is no virtual memory.
if there is no multi tasking, 256meg is MORE than enough ram for one of these things. if you were really trying, 128 meg would be enough.
akba
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 7:14 PMiPAD INSTANT on and off is the real winner.
Kiddo
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 9:40 PMPlaybook has always on technology.
You for got to mention Playbook has full web. Looking at it objectively, the iPad is no competition for the playbook. Calling the Playbook and iPad killer is an insult to the Playbook, they aren’t even the same class of machine.
Of course it will be hard to overcome the cult of apple, but thankfully RIM has inroad to businesses so these will be rolling out and people will get to see this monster in action.
Oh and for all those non-business types, go look up QNX it’s a highly graphical easily programable OS meaning gaming and other graphics are going to pop on the screen.
I’m sure apple is rushing out a smaller iPad (the size was definitely a miss) but the problem for them is for portable computing iOS doesn’t match QNX by a long distance.
Will
Wednesday, September 29, 2010 at 1:37 PMA lot would disagree with you that the ipad size was a miss. I know I do. I look at the Tab and playbook and think, Ye they are amazing and have lots of great features (a lot of them better than the ipad) but they are just big phones. I mean the ipad is a big ipod touch too. But it’s a REALLY big one and that’s the difference. Screen size. Otherwise might as well use a phone.
Fletcher Andersen
Wednesday, September 29, 2010 at 2:51 PMand still none of them do what I want them to do, which is the same thing that the Adam does … alas, will we ever get that?
Phil
Thursday, September 30, 2010 at 4:45 AMone of the major features for me is boot / startup time. I need to take notes, make presentations etc and having to wait for laptop to boot, even from hibernate is too slow. The instant on is a big plus.
Be interesting to see boot/startup times for these devices.