COMPARISON BETWEEN WINDOWS 8 TABLET AND iPAD 3

Our test device, a Samsung XE700 tablet PC, originally comes with Windows 7. However, we installed the consumer preview of Windows 8 on it in order to find out whether the glitzy new interface goes well with the device. The result? We'll just say Windows 8 should make even the most die-hard Apple fans sit up and take notice.Windows 8 supports quite a lot of hardware, starts faster and offers more online storage alongside better connections with social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google+.However, the Samsung device does cost about twice as much as an iPad; it’s also heavier. The XE700 lets you watch movies in the 16:9 format, while Apple banks on its fanless technology, which makes it impossible for the device to generate noise.On the other hand, Samsung provides hardware that totally eclipses Apple’s A5 dual core CPU. No wonder the XE700’s benchmark values are so high.

Tablet-hardware is fully exploited

Windows 8 makes good use of the XE700's Sandy Bridge components – an Intel core i5 CPU with two cores, an integrated graphics processor (Intel HD Graphics 3000) and 4 GB of RAM. Current Windows applications and the programs from the Windows App Store are supported too. Apple, on the other hand, is still waiting for apps that can fully exploit the four graphic cores in the iPad3. In Samsung’s case, in spite of the powerful hardware, the heat generation has been kept under control. After playing video files for ten minutes, we recorded a temperature of 44 degrees Celsius at the warmest, which is clearly higher than the warmest temperature on the iPad - 32.3 degrees.
On the software side, Apple’s App Store currently offers about 200,000 apps. The competition, on the other hand, can access the entire breadth of the Windows world.SourceForge alone currently lists more than four million applications. However, dedicated metro apps are quite rare in the run-up to the launch of Windows 8

Works like a PC

In Windows 8, you can move fi les in the blink of an eye, but the iPad needs to be synchronized before each copying process. Need to move a document from point A to point B on your tablet? You can do it only on Windows, since iOS doesn’t let you access the file system. That’s why the iPad doesn’t have a file manager. If you want to move your fi les, you will have to use iTunes to synchronize the device, which is inconvenient and time-consuming. If your tablet uses Windows, you will be able to do everything that you do with a PC.

Windows 8 gives you lots of freedom

Even though it’s being run on a tablet, Windows 8 gives you full access to the system; you can even manipulate the registry if you want. Furthermore, Windows is a lot more fl exible and varied as compared to iOS. For instance, if you decide to attach a picture to an e-mail that you’re currently writing - all the mail programs that are available in Windows feature a button that can be used to attach a photograph to the mail. On the iPad, however, you have to close the mail program, launch the Photo app and attach the image from there.In Apple’s case, you can only install apps from the App Store and movies and music can only be downloaded over iTunes. Windows 8 also features an app store from where apps can be installed in a manner identical to that on the iOS. Or, you can use the classic desktop to install and use any of the many programs that the Windows world contains. The Samsung device comes with a keyboard and a mouse, and is therefore the perfect substitute for a notebook. That puts the price difference between it and the iPad - which can, if desired, be bought along with a notebook - into perspective.

More memory and a better address book

Tablet users want to be able to access mails quickly and check what’s new on Facebook and Twitter. Consequently, a good connection to the Internet is a necessary feature of tablet PCs. Windows 8 uses the SkyDrive app to provide free access to 7 GB of online memory, as opposed to the iPad’s 5 GB of online memory. However, the iCloud service can only be used in conjunction with apps that are connected to a cloud. Windows 8 allows you to configure the online hard drive as a normal drive in order to view the files that have been saved on it. Both systems use online memory to synchronize various devices. The Contacts app is one of the biggest advantages of Windows 8. In addition to listing the friends that you have entered into your address book, it also displays a list of the people you know from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. You can use the Contacts app to get in touch with friends or check their status. In fact, glancing at the tile is all you need to do to check your friends’ statuses. It displays the latest Facebook updates in real time and makes the iPad’s contacts app look antiquated. The iPad’s contacts app does allow you to enter a friend’s Twitter name, but it cannot display their stream or followers.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 8 Consumer Pr.                                iOS 5.1

MANUFACTURER Samsung                                                              Apple

CPU     Intel Core i5 (2 x 1.6 GHz)                                                      Apple A5X (2 x 1.0 GHz)

MEMORY – RAM/FLASH 4,196 MB/64 GB                                         1,024 MB/64 GB

CARD READER/HDMI microSD/Standard-HDMI ✖                             ✖

USB-HOST ✔                                                                                   ✖

DIMENSIONS 30 x 18 x 1.4 cm                                                        24 x 19 x 0.9 cm

WEIGHT 870 g                                                                                665 g

BATTERY CAPACITY (WH) 42                                                        42.5

POWER ADAPTOR CAPACITY (W) 40                                             10

DISPLAY SIZE 11.6 inches                                                               9.7 inches

ASPECT RATIO 16:9                                                                         4:3

DISPLAY RESOLUTION 1366 x 768 pixel                                          2.048 x 1536 pixel

DISPLAY: BRIGHTNESS 365 cd/m²                                                   397 cd/m²

CHECKERBOARD CONTRAST 174:1                                                 147:1

MAXIMUM CONTRAST 1.201:1                                                       876:1

CAMERA DISPLAY / REAR 2.1/0.9 megapixel                                    0.3/5.0 megapixel

LAGESENSOR (GYRO) ✔                                                                ✔ 

EXTRA-EQUIPMENT Docking-Station                                               –