13 Feb 2011

Dell Streak vs Motorola XOOM

Forget about XOOM vs iPad or near future iPad2. Today Motorola killed the Xoom by setting a $1200 price tag, which I found on engadget. One thing was not clear on how Motorola can set the price so high when Dell Streak 7 a very similar device can sell an unlocked tablet for $450. Let us compare the specifications now.

Motorola Xoom

Dell Streak 7
Processor nVidia Tegra2 - Dual Core @ 1Ghz nVidia Tegra T20 – Dual Core @ 1GHz
RAM 1 GB 512 MB
Storage Disk Size 32 GB 16 GB internal disk space
Graphics Accelarator Yes Yes
Screen Size 10.1” capacitive touchscreen @ 1280x800 7” Gorilla glass capacitive touchscreen @800x480
Front Camera 2 MP 1.3 MP fixed focus
Rear Camera 5 MP Auto focus and flash 5 MP Auto focus with flash
Operating System Android 3.0 Honeycomb Android 2.2 with 2.3 upgrade in the works
Gaming Console games type gaming..Huh Will it play Gears of War or Crysis2? I doubt it. I know that Angry Birds is possible.

Apart from the RAM and screen resolution, I don’t see much of a difference between them. How in the world can Moto rip its customers wallets when they are just assembling hardware and using an mobile OS developed and given for free by Google. Dell has a good chance here, but I think they will not take any chances. If they upgrade Dell Streak to use Honeycomb, they can rule the Android tablet space for a while.

My Rant:
This year will be the year of tablets. This is similar to the situation when all the junk touchscreen phones that got launched after the first iPhone. All serious tablet buyers should either wait till next year or just jump into Apple ship. The reason why I am saying this is simple:

  • All these Android tablet manufacturers are not serious about ecosystem.
  • They will scrap if they fail in the marketplace.
  • Forget about updates, if Android 4.0 comes, there will be new device for that.