Motorola Xoom vs. iPad vs. iPad2: The prelude

I got a Moto Xoom over the weekend to take on a test run in the lead up to the iPad2 release. The Xoom is the first real contender to challenge the iPad's supremacy (or should I say "magicalness"). It's specs outstrip the mach one iPad by a landslide. It's actually more specced out than the iPad2 as well. You can find detailed descriptions of how the thing differs from King iPad all over the internet, so I'm not going to dwell on that here. Over the next few days I'll keep fooling with it and then on Friday I'll check out the iPad2.

What concerns me most is whether either device builds on the foundation of the iPad1 enough to make them worth buying. I have used my iPad a lot in the past year. I'd like to see if either of these machines can build on that.

I can say that the Xoom is crazy fast and the notification systen is WAY better than iOS. Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), is the best iteration of Android I've seen yet.

Major downside: the thing costs $800. Can I justify keeping it with that price tag when I can go iPad2 for $500?

Stay tuned for the full smackdown coming soon.