Honeycomb vs. iPad

I've been having fun playing with an Acer A500 Honeycomb tablet lately and comparing it with the iPad my company got me last year. Both are WiFi-only.

I've been using the iPad heavily for over a year so I've gotten to know it inside & out. I'm still pretty new to Honeycomb, been poking around on it quite a bit and learning to write Android apps, but still have more to learn.

EDIT: 9/23/2011: I bought an Acer A100 about a month ago and have been using it heavily. It's essentially the same as the A500, except for the 7" screen (smaller footprint) and it does not have a full size USB - it has micro USB only.

These are my observations.

OUT OF THE BOX EXPERIENCE

Summary: Acer wins this category, hands down. The iPad out-of-the-box experience is absolutely horrid.

When I first got my iPad, the initial out-of-the-box experience was so incredibly bad I was absolutely stunned. In short, your newly purchased iPad is a brick until you install iTunes on a separate PC, open an iTunes account, give Apple your credit card number, and tether the iPad. Details here.
Can you imagine if any company other than Apple required you to give them an open credit card number just to use the product you just purchased from them, even if you don't intend to buy anything else?

The Acer experience was much better. First, it works straight out of the box. Simply turn it on and start using it. You do need to create a Google account, but:

  • It's free and you do NOT need to give anyone - Google or Acer - a credit card
  • It works right on the device no need to use any separate computer

    • I downloaded a few apps from the Android Market and it still never asked me for a credit card. That's as it should be, because they were free apps. With Apple, you can't even download a free app unless you give them your credit card.

    Next I installed the Amazon Android app market. This is another thing I like about Android: an open system. Multiple companies and app stores all competing for my engagement and business. The Amazon app store has a free app of the day and I check it regularly.

    So far, I've gotten a nice print app that normally costs $15. It's easy to use and works well. I'm sure it's possible to print with an iPad, but I never did get it to work. It's much easier and simpler on Android.

    HARDWARE / CAPABILITIES

    Summary: A500 wins this category.

    The Acer has all the capabilities the iPad has, plus:

  • GPS: the A500 has a GPS - the iPad does not. To get a GPS on an iPad, you need to buy the 3G version, or purchase an external GPS that plugs into the iPad port. Also, the A500 (and A100) GPS is more accurate & reliable than the iPad 3G GPS.
  • USB: 2 ports (full size & micro) both master & slave. iPad has no USB support.
  • SD card: up to 32 GB. iPad does not support SD cards unless you purchase an external reader.
  • HDMI out: micro built-in and mirrors the full screen. iPad doesn't do this unless you purchase an adapter, and it doesn't mirror the screen; it only works with certain apps and is selectively disabled for others.
  • Camera: front (5 MP) and rear (2 MP). iPad has no camera.

    • MAPS

    Summary: The Maps app is better on Honeycomb than it is on iPad.

    Several ways Maps are better:

  • GPS: a WiFi iPad doesn't have a GPS, so the Maps app is useless for navigating. The A500 has a GPS and it works very well.
  • Caching: if you make a route/directions while on Wifi, the Maps app caches the details along your route so it works even without WiFi. You don't have to do anything for this to happen - it's automatic.
  • Pre-Caching: the Honeycomb Maps app enables any area(s) to be permanently pre-cached. This way you can always have detailed maps of areas you frequently visit, even without WiFi.

    • THE BROWSER

    Summary: The built-in Honeycomb browser on the A500 is faster, easier to navigate, gives a better more customizable web experience, and works with more web sites.

    For most people including myself, this is the most often used app. After over a year of frequent use, I have some pet peeves with the Safari browser on my iPad... namely:

  • No Flash: without this, a good portion of the web simply doesn't work at all.
  • No Tabs: makes using multiple windows painful. It takes multiple clicks to jump between them, when you do jump back and forth it reloads the entire page and forgets your page position, and you can't see what else is open while reading a page. Furthermore, when you switch away from a page it stops loading, so you can't read one page while others load.
  • No Java: without this, some portion of the web simply doesn't work at all. Less impact than Flash, but still noticeable.
  • Slow: pages load and render slowly... I get tired of the big grey checkerboard when moving the bottom of long pages, especially when it's the Nth time for the same page because the browser is reloading it unnecessarily (see above). This is made worse by the fact that it forces you to watch pages load - if you switch away, they stop loading.
  • No settings: can't adjust the User-Agent, so when you get the mobile version of a site there's nothing you can do about it. You can't adjust font sizes or typefaces.

    • Now for the Acer A500 browser (the default built-in one):

  • Flash: it works (version 10.3). If you don't like Flash you can turn it off - but unlike iPad, you get the choice. It has good performance and frame rates, so there's no reason to turn it off.
  • Tabs: they work and pages don't reload unnecessarily when you switch between them. This makes it much faster and you don't lose your position on each page.
  • No Java: just like iPad. I was bummed about this.
  • Fast: pages load and render faster. Pages also load in the background. That means from page A, you can open a link to page B in a new tab, immediately switch back to A and continue reading, meanwhile background tab B continues loading. When you switch to it later, it's already there and instantly available.
  • Settings: you can set the User-Agent, cookie policy, and a few other things. The most useful is the User-Agent because you can get the full or mobile version. Choices are: Android, Desktop, iPhone, iPad. I use Desktop - it gives you the full non-mobile version of sites.

    • STORAGE

    Summary: the A500 has more storage options and capabilities.

    Here, the iPad is simple: you get what it comes with. It doesn't accept SD cards and has no capability to access external storage devices. You can purchase an external SD card reader from the Apple store, but it plugs into the iPad port, so it's hard to take with you. The A500's storage options & capabilities are:

  • It accepts a micro SD card up to 32 GB. Most Android apps use the SD if it's there, and some let you configure whether they do.
  • It can use (read & write) external drives plugged into its USB port (A500 acts as a USB master).
  • It becomes a USB drive when plugged into another computer's USB port (A500 acts as a USB slave).

    • The micro USB, I've only used in slave mode, don't know whether it works in master.

    Another form of storage that Apple doesn't mention in their specs is RAM: Random Access Memory. The 16/32/64 GB of memory normally advertised is CMOS, not RAM. It's not as fast as RAM - running programs use RAM not CMOS. The iPad 1 has 256 MB RAM, iPad 2 has 512 MB, the Acer A500 has 1 GB RAM.

    I suspect that some of the iPad browser's annoying quirks, such as unnecessarily reloading pages when you jump around, are likely related to its limited RAM - it doesn't have enough to cache pages in memory.

    STABILITY

    Summary: iPad wins this category.

    Apps occasionally crash on both iPad and Honeycomb. But it happens more often on Honeycomb. This is likely because Honeycomb has only been out for about 3 months, and unlike iOS, it runs on different hardware platforms and each vendor is responsible porting Honeycomb to their platform.

    NOTE: just one month later, Honeycomb is already better in this area. It's now not quite but very close to iOS in stability; the difference is quickly becoming moot.

    When an app does crash, what happens on iPad & Honeycomb is similar but not the same. On iPad, the app simply disappears and you seen the home screen. On Honeycomb, this happens sometimes, but usually a window pops up enabling you to send feedback about the crash. If you don't want to, just hit CANCEL and you're back to the home screen.

    BATTERY

    Summary: iPad is a draw with the A500, but both of them beat the A100. Honeycomb provides better visibility and control over what is consuming the battery.

    The iPad has the edge on the A500 in battery life, but only when the A500 has "background data" enabled. Both devices give me a full day of use, but the A500 only barely so. The iPad typically goes for nearly 2 days of use. Since both give a full day, the difference is not an issue as long as I remember to charge the A500 every night.

    One contributing factor to this is Honeycomb has true multitasking: browser page loads, file downloads, application updates, GPS and other tasks run in the background while you work. The iPad makes you sit and wait for them. If I turn off "background data" on the A500, the battery lasts as long as the iPad. And this is a fair comparison, because that's how the iPad works - there is no background data capability.

    Battery life on the A100 is poor - about 5 hours of continuous active use (like watching movies over WiFi). Even if it mostly sleeps during the day, you must turn off "background data" to make it through. With background data turned off, it goes about 10-12 hours of on and off mixed usage. That's enough to get through the day, but only if you're not using it heavily.

    The iPad can also trickle charge when connected to a sufficiently powered USB port. The upper right screen will say "Not Charging", but it really is - just very slowly. This is a nice feature that the Acer tablets don't have.

    One nice feature in Honeycomb is detailed metrics about battery usage. It has a very cool time graph showing when it's been awake and asleep and charging, and exactly what % of the battery so far has been spent on which hardware & applications. For example, after a day of usage, mine's currently telling me:

  • 72%: screen
  • 6%: Table idle
  • 5%: Wi-Fi
  • 5%: Android OS
  • 4%: Browser
  • 2%: WeatherBug
  • 2%: Bluetooth
  • 2%: Replica Island

    • This is very useful if you want to know what's actually using your battery, and what to do to extend battery life. For example, I might consider turning off BlueTooth, but this tells me it would only save 2% of the battery, so there's no point. But turning down the screen brightness or shortening the screen inactivity timer might be a good idea.

    TETHERING

    Summary: A500 does not require tethering and iPad does. And if you want to tether, the A500 is more flexible.

    Here are some of my pet peeves on iPad tethering:

  • First, it must be tethered at least occasionally. You can't get around this. The only way to sync the iPad, back it up, or install firmware updates is to tether it to a real computer and run iTunes.
  • Linux is not supported - when tethering you must run iTunes which works only on Mac or Windows.
  • The iPad can only sync to one machine. If you plug your iPad into another machine running iTunes, a dialog pops up saying, "This iPad is synced with a different computer. Do you want to erase the entire iPad and resync it with this computer?" Obviously, the answer is no. Maybe you just want to drop a couple of extra files (books, music, video) from the other computer - tough luck.

    • NOTE: in response to the last point, the Apple fanboys might say "use Dropbox". But that doesn't always work because Apple apps are sandboxed and there's no access to the filesystem. For example, if you DropBox an MP3 file into your iPad, it's impossible to get it into the iPod player app. On the A500, after you DropBox the MP3 file you can use a file browser app like File Manager HD or Astro File Manager to put it anywhere you want to be used by any application.

    Now for the A500:

  • The A500 can be tethered but does not require tethering.
  • A500 firmware updates run over WiFi - no need to tether it for that.
  • Honeycomb has self-contained file management apps. It's not likely you'll have to move files around. But if you do, just do it right on the device - no need to tether it.
  • If you want to back it up, copy files back and forth, etc. simply plug it into a USB port and it appears as a storage device.
  • It can be tethered to any number of computers of any type: Mac, Windows or Linux.

    • NOTE: the A500 uses mtpfs for the USB. This should simply work on Windows & Mac. Linux requires an mtpfs driver, which are freely available and easy to install (e.g. "apt-get install mtpfs").

    USABILITY

    Summary: Honeycomb / A500 wins. Both iOS and Honeycomb are intuitive and well designed, but Honeycomb has a superior notification system and better keyboard experience.

    You can set up both devices to launch any application you want in 1-2 touches. Both have equally responsive, easy and intuitive interfaces. Both have all most-used functions one or two quick easy touches away: context-aware "back" and "settings", app switching, screen brightness, volume controls, orientation lock, etc.

    The key difference here is notifications. Apple's notifications are system-modal. They interrupt EVERYTHING you are doing and FORCE you to respond. This is especially bad if your iPad has been turned off for a while and you turn it on. You could spend the next 5 minutes touching OK on a long stream of notifications before you can use it.

    Honeycomb notifications appear in the bottom menu bar. They are not modal, you can ignore them as long as you like. You can configure an optional sound or vibrate to accompany them. When you touch them they pop up into the message or app as you'd expect.

    Another area Honeycomb has an advantage is the keyboard. I type about 100 wpm on a good keyboard, a bit slower on touch screen keyboards, but iOS is constantly interpreting my typing as other gestures. One moment I'm typing away and then suddenly the entire keyboard disappears and the screen zooms in. Apparently, I hit 3 keys rapidly enough to make iOS think I did a 3-finger tap. There may also be other gestures that are confusing iOS.

    This doesn't happen on the Android keyboard. My guess is that Android isn't overloaded with as many hidden gestures as iOS is. Also, the Acer works well with a variety of BlueTooth keyboards.

    APPLICATIONS

    Summary: iPad wins this only by a nod, with more high quality apps. In another 6 months I expect this category to be a draw.

    The iPad has been out for more than a year, during which time it's been the only real tablet on the market. And the selection and quality of apps shows this. Honeycomb has only been out for 3 months and the app selection shows this as well.

    That said, Honeycomb has a handful of impressive apps that take advantage of its greater capabilities (higher video resolution, faster processor, GPS, etc.) and these apps are better than the iPad versions. For example, Google Maps, Google Earth, WeatherBug, Sprinkle to name a few. There's just not enough of them ... yet.

    Another point in Honeycomb's favor is it handles different screen resolutions better than iPad. If you run apps made for older phone versions of Android it scales them smoothly to the bigger screen. The iPad just shows a tiny little app in the middle of the screen. You can 3-finger tap it to make it bigger, but it only scales 2:1.