The Xoom has a large 10.1″ screen which is closer to Ipad size than the 7″ screen of the Galaxy Tab. The screen has 1290×800 pixel resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio perfect for watching movies and streaming content over the web. The Xoom definitely couldn’t be popped into your pocket but the larger screen makes this tablet more usable than the Galaxy Tab. The Xoom is a well constructed and stylish tablet although it’s noticeably fatter than the Ipad2 and a bit heavier.

Browsing on the Xoom is fast and fun although the Android app logos are going to need to be resized for Android 3.0 tablets. There is enough processor power to making using the Xoom a whizz and it also has Flash Player which of course isn’t supported on Apple’s Ipads. There are multiple home screen options and you can tweak the tablet’s graphics to find your perfect match.

The Xoom has all the connectivity options you would expect including an HDMI port allowing you to watch the Xoom’s output on TV and a 3.5mm headphone socket. The Xoom is also PC friendly and will connect to your PC and allow you to share files with ease, no file format woes await you.

The Xoom has both a front and back camera to allow use of see-me-see-u software. The front mounted camera is 5-megapixel snapper whilst the camera on the screen side is a decent 2-megapixel cam.

The Iconia Tab A500 is a Android Honeycomb tablet competing head-on with the Motorola Xoom and Asus Transformer for the title of top Android tablet. Like it’s competition the Iconia A500 Tab has a 10.1″ screen and inside it’s similar too with a Nvidia Tegra 2 processor running at 1Ghz and 1GB of RAM with 32GB of solid state storage. In terms of cameras the Iconia Tab packs two, the rear facing 2MP camera looks at the user and the forward facing 5MP takes the snaps and using both together will allow for some see-me-see-you webchats. The A500 doesn’t have 3G but the A501 model does, important to note this if 3G is important to you.

The Iconia Tab looks and feels well-made, the case is made of aluminium and perhaps will age better than some of the rubber-booted competition as a result, remember these tablets are going to get a load of handling and a wipe clean aluminium exterior maybe isn’t a bad thing.

Battery life isn’t too bad especially if you are used to getting 2 or 3 hours out of a laptop then you’ll be pleasantly surpised that the Iconia Tab is going to run around 10 hours on a full charge.

The Iconia Tab is a pretty decent performer too, it handles games well and generally gives swift movement through apps and general use. Where the Iconia Tab suffers in performanc is shared with all the other Android tablets so we’d expect performance to be pretty consistent and for these problems to be further ironed out with the next Honeycomb update.

In summary, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 is a real contender, make sure you catch the A501 if you need 3G but either way you aren’t going to be disappointed by the looks or performance.