Motorola Xoom
Motorola Xoom was announced at last year Consumer Electronics Show. Motorola

The Motorola Xoom 2 tablet was the first from the company to run on the Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) operating system . Apple, meanwhile, recently launched its next-generation iPad, featuring the Retina Display, the new A5X chip and a 5 megapixel iSight camera.

We put the two up against each other to see which comes out on top:

Display

The new iPad features a 9.7-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen multi-touch, high resolution Retina Display along with In-Plane Switching (IPS) technology. The resolution of the display is 2048x1536 pixels. The display features fingerprint-resistance oleophobic coating and it support the display of multiple languages.

The Motorola Xoom features a 10.1-inch WXGA display with a resolution of 800x1280 pixels.

Camera

Apple's new iPad has a 5 megapixel iSight camera with auto-focus, tap to focus and face detection in still images as its primary features. It can also record videos at HD 1080p and up to 30 frames per second (fps) with audio. It also has a VGA quality Face Time camera that can shoot videos of up to 30 fps.

The Motorola Xoom also sports a camera a five megapixel primary camera but with dual-LED flash and auto-focus. The camera can only capture videos at 720p. The secondary camera is of two megapixels.

Dimension and Weight

The new iPad measures 241.2x185.7x9.4mm in thickness and weighs 652g; the 4G enabled model is 10g heavier. The Xoom, meanwhile, measures 249.1x167.8x12.9mm and weighs a heftier 708g; the 4G version views 22g more.

Wireless and Carriers

The new iPad offers Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n) and Bluetooth version 4.0. The Wi-Fi+4G model can run on both AT&T and Verizon's networks and offers Long Term Evaluation (LTE) connectivity. The Motorola Xoom supports Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n and Bluetooth version 2.1+EDR+HID.

Operating System

The iPad runs on iOS 5.1, an Apple update that features a re-designed camera app with video stabilisation technology, the ability to delete photos from Photo Stream and support for dictation in English, French, German and Japanese. Meanwhile, the Xoom runs on Android 3.1 (Honeycomb) operating system, which can be upgraded to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

Battery Life

The Wi-Fi and 4G iPad models have a built-in 42.5 watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery, which can run for up to 10 hours. The battery can then be charged via power adapter or USB cable to a computer. The Xoom carries a Li-on battery that can run for, approximately, 10 hours while browsing with Wi-Fi and has a stand-by time of 14 days.

Processor

The new iPad is powered by a dual-core Apple A5X custom-designed chip with quad-core graphics. On the other hand, the Motorola Xoom is powered by a dual-core 1GHz Cortex-A9 processor with an Nvidia Tegra 2 T20 chipset.

Storage

The new iPad Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi+4G models come in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions. The Motorola Xoom offers only one model - 32GB. However, the latter does support microSD cards, something the iPad does not.

Price

The new iPad's Wi-Fi model is available at a retail price of approximately £300 (16GB), £377 (32GB) and £450 (64GB). The 4G enabled model is available for approximately £400 (16GB), £450 (32GB) and £520 (64GB). The Motorola Xoom is priced at approximately £300.