Best Tablet for 2012

The Motorola XOOM is a powerful tablet that offers nearly all the traditional features of a desktop PC, but it's in a 10.1 inch tablet that's just half an inch thick. I have the pleasure of supporting 3 of them at work right now. So far this would be my choice for Best Tablet 2012.

Who makes it: Motorola

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Price Range: 0-0 for wi-fi only version. 3G and 4G XOOM's can run as much as 0 depending on if you sign up for a 2 year data contract from a cellular provider. This review is on the Wi-Fi only version of the Motorola XOOM (which is all I've worked with so far).

Who's it for: This a hardcore tablet. It's got a lot of power and features. It's perfectly suited for home and corporate users who want the desktop experience right in the palm of their hand, however if you're just trying to browse the internet and read some ebooks there are more affordable tablets out there.

Motorola XOOM Hardware Features

The XOOM isn't playing around when it comes to hardware. It's beefy. Motorola popped in a dual core 1 ghz nVidia Tegra 2 processor, 1 GB of DDR2 Ram, 32 GB's of internal storage and a 10 hour battery (and that's 10 hours of actually using the tablet)! That's a lot of power for a tablet.

Motorola didn't skimp on wireless connectivity either. The XOOM comes with 802.11 N Wi-Fi and it also supports A, B and G signal types as well. Blue-tooth is also included so you'll be able to use accessories like headsets or even connect it to your hands-free blue-tooth system in your car (which is great for those turn by turn directions played via your car speakers).

The XOOM allows you to setup 5 "home screens". Each of these home screens can contain different applications and widgets. While this isn't a big deal in the corporate environment it does make sharing the XOOM at home with other people much easier. Speaking of widgets...you can add dozens of widgets on each home screen. These widgets are scrollable (for example you can scroll through emails on the email widget), stackable and now re-sizable!

Unlike the iPad, the XOOM completely supports Adobe Flash (v. 10.2), so you won't be limited to viewing just half of the sites on the Internet. You should know that flash content uses the battery almost twice as fast. So your 10 hours if internet browsing becomes 5 if you're on flash rich websites.

Multi-touch gestures are there too, for example, you can use 2 fingers to pinch zoom in and expand (zoom out) any website, picture or movie.

Email: You can add as many corporate or personal email accounts as you want. Our XOOM users here at work have Microsoft Exchange and gmail accounts configured on their XOOMs. So far it works perfectly.

XOOM is Multi-tasker. You can download music, files, watch a video or play a game all at the same time, there's no need to wait for something to finish. Tabbed web browsing is also available in the XOOM. It's just like your desktop.

The Android Market gives you access to hundreds of thousands of Apps, Games, Books and more. Some are free and some cost anywhere from - (usually). Now, with the new Android 3.2 release for the XOOM you can also rent movies directly from the Android Market (and these are new movies, as soon as they are released to DVD). Google apps and technologies are found throughout the XOOM (and they work flawlessly with the exception of Google Earth at this time). You can video and voice chat using Google talk (over a Wi-Fi connection) or pull up a 3D Google map and get spoken turn-by-turn directions if you're out walking or in your car.

Best Tablet for 2012

Owner Reviews: Read XOOM Owner Reviews

Here is a side-by-side comparison of top 4 android tablets for 2012 - best tablet 2012

Tablet PC Games

Tablet PC games include crossword puzzles, Microsoft Sudoku, and many war games that are more advanced in nature. News reports indicate that Microsoft is in the process of designing a Tablet PC game software development kit (SDK) and a new Tablet-PC-specific game, both meant to draw new developers and customers towards buying Tablet PCs. Another game that is being developed by Microsoft is the "Arc of fire."

The M4 release concentrated on Tablet PC-specific improvement, game-play development and incessant refactoring to develop performance. "Arcs of Fire" now runs in portrait and landscape modes, and re-sizes itself based on screen rotation. It also responds to system-wide power events, and can be held in suspended animation until the user restarts it. Gesture support has been added to AoF and the circle gesture to toggle sound, the square gesture to maximize or restore the game, and the star gesture to exit the game. Slate labyrinth is another tablet PC game that has a maze of roads, which are to be crossed.

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Another popular tablet PC game is the Metroid, which does not have very good reviews on the Internet. Users of Metroid have complained about its awkward controls. There are many other puzzle games available on tablet PC's that can be downloaded from the Internet free of cost or as a shareware.

Any game that can be played on a normal computer can also be played on a tablet PC by properly downloading it or on a burn-and-share basis. Many companies also offer free games along with their software. Some of the software companies in the gaming industry are Valve Software, Id Software, Micropose and Lionhead studios. These are makers of some famous games such as Half Life, Doom, and Quake. The web sites of these companies offer these PC games for free or as shareware.

Tablet PC Games

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Tablet PC Comparison: Apple iOS vs Google Android

Although there are a number of different companies, utilising different operating systems (OS for short), now creating brilliant options for tablet computers, the chief tablet PC comparison for almost all consumers still boils down to the Apple iPad's iOS and different Google Android tablets. So which choice of these two systems (or any other) is the correct one for your needs?

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Look and feel: Most industry experts largely agree that Apple's iOS works extremely well both as a smartphone and a tablet PC operating system. The system works very intuitively on the iPad - particularly if you've used an iPhone or iPod Touch before. The interface can be said to be iOS's best benefit, which no other tablet currently on the market can match.

Apps: In addition to the look and feel seniority, Apple also have a major marketing point with their App Store. There are currently over 350,000 apps available to download for free or buy for a small price from the Apple Store. It's a certainty that when a new app is created by a company or developer, the first version is for the App Store and after that it is ported to other platforms. However, Apple's store is not the sole player in the arena - the Android Market is rapidly growing, passing the 100,000 apps mark in early 2011.

Android has one major advantage on the competition when it comes to apps: it's far more open and has more of a laissez-faire policy to the Market, whereas the App Store exercises very tight controls on every application, particularly in regard to adult content. The Android market allows developers much more creativity and flexibility.

There have also been complaints from some developers about Apple's rigid marketeering, with Apple requiring developers to remove any links from inside apps to the developers own websites. (The benefit to Apple is that they keep 30% commission from every app sale, whereas previously customers may have upgraded from free to paid version from within the developer's own site.)

Hardware: One major difference between iOS and Android is that iOS is exclusive to the iPad, while Android is open source and is being used by a number of different companies. This effectively means that the iPad and iOS are joined at the hip - you can't run the iPad without iOS. The iPad therefore has much more restriction of choice than other tablets, and much tighter pricing. However, those choices that are on the market are all good quality, and the hardware and software do work together harmoniously - crashes are very rare on the iPad.

Android, by contrast, is used in many different tablets from a large number of makers. From Blackberry to Samsung, you have a much wider choice of tablet PC to suit your budget and particular needs. However, you do need to do your homework. Some companies have customised Android and improved it, but some may not work as well and might still be based on older Android releases.

Conclusion

Right now, the iPad is still the most well-known and iconic tablet PC on the market. However, popularity is growing with a number of other tablet PCs. The choice is certainly good news for customers, who now have much more availability to get their exact requirements from a tablet computer. A lot of people still favour the Apple iOS, particularly if they have used other Apple products, but in the end it comes down to doing a tablet PC comparison yourself, by researching, checking them out, testing some in store, and selecting the one that feels like a good match for you.

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