HTC Jetstream vs Apple iPad 2

Introduction:

When it comes to cellular enabled tablets for AT&T, the pickings are indeed slim with the Apple iPad 2 being the most highly respected name on their lineup. Well, the HTC Jetstream is flying in to make a name for itself as being the carrier’s very first tablet to feature next-generation 4G LTE connectivity. Indeed that’s a prevalent shining point for the Honeycomb flavored tablet, but when you look at its $849.99 no-contract price, it seems remarkably overpriced versus the comparable $730 32GB 3G-enabled version of the Apple iPad 2. There’s no arguing that they’re going to be the cream of the crop for moment on AT&T’s lineup, but which one should you fork over your hard earned money into?

Design:

From a cursory look, it’s very difficult to point out the design differences between the two tablets, but if there’s one thing we love about them, it has to be their solid feeling brushed aluminum casings – it simply radiates quality! Looking at them head-on, their overall dimensions are relatively close to one another, however, the iPad 2 takes the mark of being the more refined of the two due to its razor thin construction and lighter weight feel. It’s not to say that the HTC Jetstream is a chubby one, but when the iPad 2 is able to confine itself within a small space, we’d only expect others to follow closely in the same footsteps. Naturally, HTC does a valiant effort on their part, but the kudos has to go to Apple’s team for engineering the more premium feeling tablet between the two.

On one hand, the Apple iPad 2 features a 9.7” IPS display with a resolution of 1024 x 768, which might seem slim in figure compared to the higher 1280 x 768 resolution found with the Jetstream’s 10.1” LCD display. Actually, details are comparatively the same with the two tablets – with neither one gaining the upper hand in this area. However, the iPad 2’s display produces colors that are more natural looking compared to the bland tones exhibited by the Jetstream. Furthermore, there’s a subtle yellow tinge seen with the Jetstream’s display when it’s tilted at various angles. And when it comes down to outdoor usage, the higher brightness output of the iPad 2 enables us to visibly see whatever is on-screen in direct sunlight.



In our experience, we constantly find ourselves accidentally pressing the Jetstream’s dedicated power button and volume rocker since they’re very sensitive to the touch – thus, causing us to press them by mistake too often than none. In contrast, the iPad 2’s physical buttons are more pronounced and require a good amount of force to activate.


Of course, both tablets have their own respective charging and data ports, but not surprisingly, you’ll need to purchase adapters in order to gain HDMI-out functionality with the two of them.

Continuing to show off its mightier hardware, the HTC Jetstream packs a significantly higher 8-megapixel auto-focus camera with dual-LED flash, which dwarfs the iPad 2’s miniscule less than 1-megapixel count camera. At the same time, the Jetstream offers stereo output with its left and right speakers – versus the single one on the iPad 2.

Considering that they’re cellular enabled tablets, the iPad 2 employs a microSIM card slot, while the Jetstream uses a more traditional regular sized one instead. Giving props to HTC’s beauty, the availability of a microSD card is undoubtedly a sweet thing to find since it allows the tablet to increase its internal storage capacity. Nevertheless, we’re still locked out from accessing their batteries.

Interface and Functionality:

When we hear about hardware specs for the first time, we’re sometimes naturally inclined to get all giddy when we hear about souped up processors, but in actuality, they don’t always necessarily translate to responsive actions. Case in point with the HTC Jetstream’s 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor coupled with 1GB of RAM, which seems on paper better than the 1GHz dual-core Apple A5 processor with 512MB of RAM on the iPad 2. However, the iPad 2 is able to exhibit the smoother response when navigating the homescreen over the choppy actions of the Jetstream. Of course, the Jetstream’s sluggishness can be attributed to Honeycomb’s graphically intensive experience – whereas the iPad 2 sticks with a less strenuous presentation.

Already, we’ve gone over in detail between the difference between the iOS and Android Honeycomb experience in other comparisons – and honestly, it all depends on how you feel. Specifically, Sense for tablet on the Jetstream packs a considerable amount of personalization thanks to its useful widgets, slick looking 3D visuals, and transition effects. Conversely, the iOS experience on the iPad 2 is the easier one to grasp with its low learning curve. Simplistic in presentation, iOS might look downright dated by now, but its peppier operation and relative ease enables anyone to get situated with it right away. So yeah, depending on your tastes, you’ll find either tablet more than ideal to your particular needs.

Thanks to Sense for tablets, the core organizer apps on the Jetstream get a good amount of love in the form of optimizations that are better adapted to the tablet medium. Obviously, the iPad 2 is able to provide a sensual experience as well, but we feel that the Jetstream seems to offer more depth with its offerings. In fact, it’s evident in things like the calendar – where it’s able to display 2 months as opposed to a single one when in month view. Moreover, we see more of the love in other things like the Clock app, which integrates things like alarms, weather information, the temperature, world clocks, and more. With the iPad 2, it doesn’t offer any of those out of the box, but rather, you’ll need to download third party ones to gain those specific functions.

When it comes to inputting text, both offer well-sized keyboard layouts to make it wickedly easy to type long passages of text. Between the two though, we have to hand it to the Sense keyboard namely because we have access to other characters besides letters directly from the main layout. Besides that, there isn’t much that separates the two since they’re extremely responsive to the touch.

Lastly, we find the email experience to be roughly the same on both tablets since they intricately use two-panel layouts that provide visibility to both our inbox and selected email. Additionally, setup is a breeze with most generic accounts since it requires mainly our email address and password to properly set up.


Internet and Connectivity:

Using a Wi-Fi only connection with our comparison, the web browsing experience on both tablets are more than ideal to our taste, however, they both offer their own strengths. With the iPad 2, it’s clearly the more responsive one with its fluid and smooth navigations control – whereas the Jetstream has a choppier execution with things like kinetic scrolling and pinch zooming. Despite those shortcomings, the one advantage that the Jetstream has is its support for Flash, which of course provides that idyllic desktop-like experience. Nonetheless, both are still more than equipped in dealing a tolerable experience.

By far, the biggest feature that the HTC Jetstream has to offer over other devices on AT&T’s lineup is that it has the prestigious title of being the carrier’s very first 4G LTE enabled tablet – albeit, it’s not widely available just yet. Still, it’s able to ride the waves using AT&T’s HSPA+ network “with enhanced backhaul” in the meantime – while the iPad 2 relies on good old 3G speeds. Granted that we’re unable to compare data speeds, we’re pretty confident that the Jetstream’s faster data connection will enthrall individuals. Aside from their cellular connections, they feature the exactly the same connectivity options – like aGPS, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.

Camera and Multimedia:

Absolutely no denying it, the HTC Jetstream is hands-down the tablet you’ll want to pick if you’re interested in snapping a few photos. Generally, higher megapixel count doesn’t mean it’ll translate to better quality, but in this specific scenario, the Jetstream’s 8-megapixel shooter easily beats out the paltry less than 1-megapixel count of the iPad 2. In almost every situation, the Jetstream produces the better looking images with its sharper details and neutral looking color production – and it helps that the dual-LED flash is there to lighten things up. On the opposite end, the iPad 2’s results are downright appalling with lots of graininess, muddy appearance, and lack of fine detail. Seriously, the results are literally night and day between the two.

Not surprisingly, the same thing can be said about their high-definition video capture as the Jetstream easily flies by the competition with its higher 1080p video capture. Specifically, we’re treated to visuals that are significantly more appealing to the eye with its clear audio recording, smooth capture rate of 30 frames per second, and a sufficient amount of detail to visibly make things out. Meanwhile, the iPad 2 fails to capture our attention with its ridiculously muddy appearance and lower 720p capture resolution.

HTC Jetstream Sample Video:



Apple iPad 2 Sample Video:



Playing some tunes, there is nothing pretty to say about their respective music players since they’re straightforward in presentation and don’t employ any enticing visual effects – still, they’re more than functional. Interestingly, the single speaker of the iPad 2 and the two speakers of the Jetstream provide the same level of audio quality. From the sound of it, they produce loud and robust tones that don’t crackle at the loudest volume setting.

Naturally, both tablets are more than equipped to playing back high-definition videos with barely any falter, but we slightly prefer the experience found with the HTC Jetstream with its 16:9 aspect ratio. It’s not to say that the 4:3 one in use with the iPad 2 is bad, but rather, the widescreen format of the Jetstream is more favorable to most movies. Nevertheless, they exhibit a lot of clear details, punchy looking colors, and buttery smooth playback.

As we mentioned earlier, neither tablets offer dedicated HDMI-out ports for video out – instead, you gain the function by using separate adapters. Sure it’s not as convenient as other tablets sporting dedicated microHDMI-out ports, but we still find it acceptable.

In addition to the 32GB of internal memory available with the Jetstream, it offers us the ability to expand it with its built-in microSD card slot, which is astoundingly helpful in quickly supplementing its capacity. Oppositely, the iPad 2 doesn’t offer memory expansion, but it’s available in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB selections.

Software:

Out of the box, the HTC Jetstream is packed to the brim with some very useful apps that really accentuate its usefulness in different categories. For the business oriented consumers, it’s nice to find Polaris Office available to quickly edit and create various Microsoft Office files. Additionally, movie buffs will also love HTC Watch with its library of videos that can be either purchased or rented at a cost. And without a doubt, HTC Scribe Technology allows the Jetstream to turn into a notepad with the aid of the optional HTC Stylus Pen. Looking at all the available apps out of the box with the Jetstream, the iPad 2 is looking mightily meager at this point.

Since it’s an Android powered device, the Jetstream gets the love with other Google branded apps – like Google Maps and YouTube. Actually, the apps on the iPad 2 are seemingly functional at their core, but they lack the breadth of deep integration with other core apps. With things like 3D maps view with Google Maps on the Jetstream, it doesn’t surprise us that it gets a lot of the love in this category.

Even though the iPad 2 might not come preloaded with many third party apps, both the App Store and Android Market are filled to the brim with a variety of free and paid ones to further the experience. Yet, we’re still waiting for more tablet-optimized apps for Honeycomb as the iPad 2 clearly boasts a good amount right now than its competition.

Performance:

Using the two tablets with Wi-Fi connectivity only and setting their brightness to automatic, they’re both able to present us with the same amount of battery life. On normal usage, which consists primarily of emailing, web surfing, and occasionally watching YouTube videos, we’re able to get almost two days of usage on a single charge. Fortunately, we’re more than happy with the amount of playing time we’re able to get out of both tablets. However, we’re curious to see what kind of results we get when comparing the two with cellular connectivity – especially when the Jetstream packs 4G LTE connectivity. As we’ve seen with other LTE devices, they seemingly have an insatiable appetite for battery.

Conclusion:

Being the newest kid on the block definitely has its advantages, and it really shows with the HTC Jetstream as it excels in shooting photos & videos, packs support for AT&T’s 4G LTE network, and incorporates HTC Scribe Technology. Moreover, the HTC Sense for tablet experience offers a lot of usefulness with its depth – despite its choppy appearance at times. Even in the face of stiff competition, the iPad 2 remains the most relevant tablet on the market thanks to its eye-catching looks and well-rounded performance. However, pricing is always something that can dictate success or failure with any product.

Boasting a pricey $849.99 outright cost, it’s very hard to try and dish out the hard earned money to pick up the tablet that has the notoriety of being AT&T’s first 4G LTE enabled tablet. At $120 more than the comparably equipped 3G-enabled 32GB version of the iPad 2, it seems warranted because it sports beefier hardware specs under the hood. Still, if you don’t require any of those fancy luxuries, then the iPad 2 will be a reasonable choice as well since it continues to remain at the top of the ladder in this competitive market.

HTC Jetstream vs Apple iPad 2: