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Apple iPad Ping!
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Posted on 04/05/2011 1:52:03 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Consumer Reports’ press release follows, verbatim:
After almost a year in which the Apple iPad has been virtually the only game in town in tablet computers, some serious competitors are finally hitting the market. Yet in Consumer Reports latest tests of the 10 most-promising tablet computers, the Apple iPad 2 with Wi-Fi and 3G topped the Ratings. The full report including Ratings of tablets is available at Consumer Reports’ website.
In Consumer Reports lab tests, the Motorola Xoom revealed itself as the iPad 2′s chief rival. Like the iPad 2, the Xoom boasts a 10-inch screen but adds conveniences that the iPad lacks, including a built-in memory card reader and support for the Flash videos and animations found on many Web sites.
“So far, Apple is leading the tablet market in both quality and price, which is unusual for a company whose products are usually premium priced,” said Paul Reynolds, Electronics Editor at Consumer Reports. “However, it’s likely we’ll see more competitive pricing in tablets as other models begin to hit the market.”
Consumer Reports tested tablets from Archos, Dell, Motorola, Samsung, and ViewSonic, as well as several models from Apple. Each tablet was evaluated on 17 criteria, including touch-screen responsiveness, versatility, portability, screen glare, and ease of use, and testers found several models that outperformed the rest. The Apple iPad 2 with Wi-Fi plus 3G (32G), $730, topped the Ratings, scoring Excellent in nearly every category. The first-generation iPad, $580, also outscored many of the other models tested but tied with the Motorola Xoom, $800.
The largest gap in performance among the 10 tested tablets was evident in Consumer Reports’ battery-life test, measured by playing the same video clip continually on each tablet and timing how long it played until the battery ran down. The top-scoring iPad 2 lasted 12.2 hours, but the lowest-rated tablet, the Archos 70 Internet Tablet, $270, lasted just 3.8 hours.
Before choosing a tablet, Consumer Reports recommends that consumers consider the following:
Many features are almost universal. Easy-to-use touch screens based on capacitive technology are now widely available. All the models Consumer Reports tested feature Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, a front-facing webcam, and GPS capability. Android-based models can be expanded using built-in USB ports or slots for SD flash-memory cards, but the iPad 2 lacks both.
You get what you pay for. With prices for the best tablets still too high for many budgets, consumers may be tempted by lower-priced competitors. Don’t be, says Consumer Reports, whose tests have found the performance of models costing $300 and under to be at best mediocre. Buying a tablet with a data plan may lower the initial cost of the device, but cancelling early may result in a stiff penalty. Otherwise, it might be cheaper to buy a 3G-capable model without a contract.
Future-proofing will pay off. Hardware specifications don’t tell the whole story. Portability, storage capacity, and weight are important. But less obvious differences in software, connectivity, and upgradability are critical too. And with faster 4G data networks becoming more widely available, 4G capability (or at least the ability to upgrade to it) is also a plus.
Source: Consumer Reports
MacDailyNews Take: Even a blind squirrel can stumble across a nut sometimes, however this nut is typically rotten. Consumer Reports has zero credibility (see related articles below). In this particular case, look no further than the Xoom “tying” the original iPad despite Consumer Reports’ all-too-brief mention of the criticality of software. The publication also totally fails to account for third-party accessories, including protective cases, vehicle support, CE industry support, and much more; things that will actually really matter to end user; as would, of course, something as important as AirPlay.
The fact is that only a severely flawed ratings system could end up equating the original iPad and the Xoom. It’s a testament to the vast superiority of iPad 2 that even Consumer Reports couldn’t concoct enough “negatives” to knock it from the top of their totally worthless list. We wouldn’t recommend the rag to grandmas looking for vacuum cleaners, much less to tablet computing consumers. Consumer Reports remains a total joke, best left sitting on the newsstand and certainly not something to which we would ever subscribe.
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Apple is a California company. Motorola is not. Apple’s products are bound to be superior to Motorola’s products. It’s really not a fair comparison.
Consumer Reports is worse than worthless, especially when it comes to anything more high-tech than a toaster. I wouldn’t take their word for it if they recommended breathing.
(That said, I think they happen to be correct in this instance - the Xoom and Galaxy are just terrible devices compared to the iPad, and everything else out there, at least that I’ve seen, is far worse still. But considering the source is CR, I have to assume they were lucky, or someone paid them.)
Heh: I love the MacDaily News commentary on Consumer Reports testing and evaluation spin efforts.
Consumers in this market are pretty smart. When a couple thousand people stand outside their local Xoom outlet in a cold rain, well in advance of opening time, to trade their dollars for the Xoom rather than the iPad down at the Apple Store, then there might evidence of an actual competition among these devices. It is not happening anytime soon.
I hope to get a tablet soon, but, wouldn’t touch an Apple product with a 40 meter yivik prod.
I will either:
Wait for Windows to come up with a suitable product,
Go with the Android based items, once they can meet my software needs,
Just get a new laptop and forget the tablet thing,
or
just forget about it all together and stick with my old laptop until it falls apart.
Wait a second, do we like Consumer Reports this week?
GOOD NEWS FOR YOU!!
To the best of my knowledge, there is no law that requires you to buy an Apple product.
I recommend that you... not buy an Apple product.
I further suggest that for your own peace of mind, you... avoid Apple threads, since they're about Apple products, and might only serve to further irritate you. But since you're already here, thanks for sharing. :)
Nah, they still suck.
The only reason they approved of the iPad2 is they couldn't find the antenna to complain about it. :)
Heeheehee.
BTW, what the heck is a “yivik”? And why would I need a 40 meter prod for one?
Ya just gotta admire the unapologetic straightforwardness of the "MacDailyNews Take" comments. Nope, no bias there, nope... :)
I mean, geez.... I like Apple, and have a number of their products, and yet I overloaded long before the end of their comment, even though I largely agree. I'm sure it plays well to the fans. Unfortunately, such dramatic overstatement gets in the way of taking anything else they say seriously.
I just post the report... They still get quite a bit wrong. They report the Xoom is equal to the original iPad even though there are fewer than 20 tablet optimized Android apps available... and that according to other reviewers, most of the phone apps don't work well on the larger screen, sometimes with the virtual buttons being off screen...
Swordmaker Take: And that was one of their mild comments on Consumers Reports... you should see when they really get going...
Dumb question: can tablets get viruses?
I don't doubt it.
Well, I guess somebody has to hold down the zealously-pro end of the spectrum. Certainly, there are anti-Apple zealots at the other end who are equally vociferous in their hyperbole.
Those of us who hang out in the calmer mid-regions view both extremes with amusement. And yes, I am aware of Jim Hightower's famous statement: "There's nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos." :)
No such thing as a "dumb question" except the one that goes unasked. The short answer to this question is yes. There has been malware in the wild for the Android OS and for jail broken iPhones already. . . To date there has been no "in-the-wild" malware for non-jail broken iOS devices, but that could happen. The curated nature of the Apple App Store makes it much more difficult to get malware onto the iOS devices than it is onto the wide open Android devices through the Multiple Android market places. google had to step in just last month to remotely remove already installed apps from people's phones and tablets that were infected with malware. There are vulnerabilities on both platforms.
Not a dumb question.
Sure, any computing device can get a virus, if the virus is capable of breaching the device's security defenses.
With the rise in popularity of tablets, I expect there will be plenty of malware. Whether it targets one platform more than another is a different question; all software can have vulnerabilities, but some software is better designed and written than others.
Of course, the best avenue for tablet malware is a devious application, that gets approved for sale, gets distributed and downloaded and run on thousands or millions of devices, and only -then- unleashes some nastiness. That scenario is not far off, if indeed it hasn't already happened.
Although Swordmaker had more specifics than I did, so his answer was more useful than mine. :(
Probably a lot of subscriptions got cancelled after the earlier fiasco, and it sobered them up in a hurry.
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