The Motorola XOOM and Notion Ink Adam are two of the first Android tablets to ship with NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual core processors. But there are a number of differences between these two devices. One comes from a small Indian company while the other comes from a long-established hardware maker known for producing phones, set top boxes, and other consumer electronics. Surprisingly, it’s the Adam tablet from India’s Notion Ink that’s the cheaper model… although you may have to jump through some hoops to actually purchase the tablet.

YouTube member Inspiron41 happens to have both tablets on-hand at the moment, and he’s posted a video showing how the machines stack up against one another. The short version? If you already bought an Adam, there’s not a heck of a lot of reason to switch to a XOOM unless you really need a higher resolution display or you just can’t wait for Android 3.0 Honeycomb to make its way to the Adam. But each machine has its strengths and weaknesses.

The Adam tablet has an optional Pixel Qi display which is readable in direct sunlight. But it’s a 1024 x 600 pixel screen which doesn’t look as good indoors as the 1280 x 800 pixel LCD on the XOOM.

The Adam can handle a wide range of video formats including MKV and DiVX files with resolutions up to 1080p, while the XOOM struggles with many of those video codecs. The Adam can also play videos from a USB flash drive and the tablet sounds better than the Xoom when you crank the speaker volume all the way up.

The Motorola XOOM, on the other hand, gets better battery life and is significantly smaller than the Adam, even though they both have 10.1 inch displays. That’s thanks to a slimmer bezel and thinner case design.

You can check out the Inspiron41’s comparison video after the break.

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15 replies on “Notion Ink Adam v. Motorola XOOM – the video”

  1. Thus far everyone seems to have missed an important little detail on this video. When he goes into “manage applications” on the Xoom, the second or third app down is Flash 10.1! Obviously side loaded but who cares, how well does it work? Which version is it? I know the 10.1 build for Droid X works well on Archos gen8 devices, so which device did you pull this off of (I have to assume it’s the same one you’re using on the Adam) and how is it working for you so far? Any info about current Flash functionality on the Xoom would be nice. Thanks in advance.

  2. It’s funny that the reviewer doesn’t know that the SD card hasn’t been enabled yet on the Xoom yet. that’s probably why it hasn’t honeycomb hasn’t been released to AOSP yet.

  3. Not really the first i have a pov mobii tegra2 and i bought it dec 2010.
    For €299.- you have the power for a nice price.
    It has not 3g or gps but with tethering and a gps mouse u can do all that.
    Only the screen is not that good but the price is right.
    And its more than 3 months available and u can buy it in the store.
    So make ur choice.
    Typed on the tegra2 🙂

  4. The Viewsonic G Tablet was an earlier Android tablet with a Tegra2, two months before Adam and three months before Xoom. Also significantly cheaper than either one.

    1. Except the software is complete trash. The UI is not a complete port of 2.2 and is very sluggish.

      Just check out the review videos. What’s the point of Tegra 2 if your software isn’t even optimized for it?

      It’s cheaper than the iPad but it is definitely lacking in quality. Outside of Tegra2 (which again, isn’t a big deal if your software is crap), the screen and other parts aren’t great either. (512 MB RAM)

  5. I was about to run into Fry and stick their Xoom with a micro SD card to see if build-in playback can handle any movie files. Thanks for the video, but very disappointed in Xoom. Android is plague with the necessary codecs.

  6. xoom >…………… wifi+3G = $799 (tegra 2 + 1GB ram + ? SLC)
    Notion ink adam>…wifi+3G = $425+$50 (tegra 2 +1GB ram + 1GB SLC)

    humm….

    1. correction-

      Notion ink adam>…wifi+3G = $375+$50+(Excise- which is 0 if you are in US) (tegra 2 +1GB ram + 1GB SLC)

  7. How are you doing? Thanks for the info on the two tablets. If you had $500-$600 to spend, which tablet would you purchase? Motorola Xoom or an I-Pad 2? Why?

    1. 500 to 600 won’t get you a XOOM, I’d get an ADAM, because once the Honeycomb software is released for it, it will be hands above all other devices on the market including the two you mentioned.

      1. 500 to 600 won’t get him an adam either, at least not by the time prices drop on tablets and he can get actual customer service, not just promises of “improved customer service”. There’s always the ~$536 wifi xoom to wait for.

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