Gamer’s Guide To Tablets: iPad vs. Android

What you need to know

by AXiDER, formerly AXIS of Reality

©2011 Alex Baldwin

It’s a time of transition for gaming. For the last few decades we’ve had a clear-cut selection of devices for gaming: computers, consoles, handhelds and arcade machines.

Yet, within just the last 3 years we’ve seen the boundaries of what is considered a gaming machine utterly obliterated as ownership of smartphones, tablets and mp3 players grew exponentially, bringing with them the processing power necessary to power gaming experiences comparable to dedicated handhelds and even consoles.

While the bestselling games on smartphones are largely based around simpler concepts and structures ideal for short bursts on the bus or in queues, the sudden rise of the tablet fueled by the iPad in the past year has demonstrated the potential for the more in-depth gaming a larger screen can provide.

While there’s still a large degree of skepticism around tablets, the following guide should give you an idea of what you can expect from the two major competing tablet operating systems (Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android Honeycomb), and what each will provide for you as a gamer.

APPLE iOS

Made famous by the iPhone, Apple has adapted iOS for tablet use in the iPad range. Following the same design staples as their smaller devices, iOS for iPad is designed for user-friendliness at the expense of customisation.

The homescreen is still the smaller grid of icons, prompting criticism of it being simply a larger iPod Touch, but it’s the apps that make the difference with the larger screen real estate being used to provide both more information and multiple columns of segmented interfaces viewable in both portrait and landscape.

While more advanced features such as real-time multitasking, theming and widgets are absent it makes up for it in the absolute smoothness and fluidity exhibited in scrolling, zooming and general movement throughout the system.

This provides a benefit for gaming, as the restriction that prevent other applications for running in their entirety behind the currently viewed one ensures any game being played has complete access to all the power the hardware can provide.

Also thanks to the iPad’s popularity, the selection of games available is outstanding and provides a halfway point between smartphone or typical handheld gaming and full PC or console gaming. Some of the highlights are below.

GAMES

World of Goo – the PC independent game of the year is right at home on a tablet with players creating fully physics-affected towers and structures out of goo to bridge gaps and collect more goo in some truly inspired levels. The fantastic visuals and music are the icing on the cake.

Real Racing 2 HD – for fans of Forza or Gran Turismo, Real Racing 2 is the iPad equivalent with a huge amount of content and online multiplayer for a very low price. The recent update for the iPad 2 has added graphical touches like anti-aliasing and realtime reflections that make it visually comparable to modern console gaming. What’s more significant is its ability to plug directly into an HDTV via HDMI and be played in full 1080p.

Aralon HD – the closest you’ll get to the Elder Scrolls series on iPad. Aralon HD is a full open-world RPG with all the features you’d expect in a PC RPG. While still a bit rough around the edges, the developers have proven to be dedicated to making it the best it can be with frequent updates and new content.

HARDWARE

iPad 1 – the first iPad contains the same internals as the iPhone 4, including the same single-core 1ghz A4 processor but with a lower 256mb RAM. 2D games run more than happily on the 1024 x 768 resolution screen as well as standard 3D gaming, but it can’t be denied that games that look great on the iPhone 4 definitely show their flaws more when displayed on the much larger iPad screen. The 10 hours battery life is fantastic however, outlasting all current gaming handhelds and even smartphones for continous gameplay. Available with just WiFi or 3G for extra.

iPad 2 – those looking to use their iPad for a significant amount of gaming should definitely look to the iPad 2, with the much faster dual-core A5 processor and new GPU (graphics processing unit) providing up to a theoretical 9 times faster rendering.

All current iPad games run silky smooth with several having had iPad 2 updates to add new graphical features to make use of the speed such as anti-aliasing (smoothin the edges of 3D objects), reflections, bump-mapping and more.

The screen and battery life are identical to the first iPad, while the case is significantly thinner and slightly lighter.

It has to be mentioned however that the iPad 2 has a light-bleeding problem on most screens with a white/yellow ‘spotlight’ effect visible around the borders of the screen when viewing dark images. This seems to be a manufacturing flaw present on the majority of units but has not been acknowledged by Apple yet. My own iPad 2 has this at 5 points around the screen, but luckily it is very dim and only visible on black screens in my case.

GOOGLE ANDROID 3.0 – ‘HONEYCOMB’

Google’s Android operating system has been around for over 2 years now, but it’s only within the past year that is has grown to be the dominant smartphone platform in sales around the world.

Part of this is fueled by the choice of hardware and manufacturers, and consequently some manufacturers fit Android into tablets. I can tell you right now to avoid buying any Android tablet with a version of Android below 3.0 (known as ‘Honeycomb’), as this is the phone interface that was never intended for tablets.

The dedicated 3.0 version of Android known as ‘Honeycomb’ is specifically for tablets, and has only been released in the past few months in the United States and has just made its way to Australia.

Sporting a very Tron-like appearance, Honeycomb provides a much more advanced interface than Apple’s iOS with support for homescreen widgets that provide information at a glance such as news feeds, social media and shortcuts instead of needing to open an app for every task.

Full multitasking is supported along with a high degree of customisation, although it is intended to be in landscape for most of the time. All Honeycomb tablets also contain a rear-facing camera (5MP is the standard), and most have a front-facing camera for video chat too.

The Honeycomb gaming scene is a lot less mature than iOS, due both to its youth and the unfortunately high degree of piracy of Android apps. However, Nvidia is seeking to change that with its large push as the Honeycomb combination CPU and GPU of choice in its Tegra series of processors and touting of their graphical capabilities.

A major advantage of Android has always been its openess, with none of the app restrictions imposed by Apple on its appstore. A result of this is the number of emulators for almost all consoles up to and including the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation 1 that allows you to relive your old games on the move, even with support for the Wiimote and DualShock 3 bluetooth controllers.

Similarly, Google’s recent announcement for the next version of Android (3.1 ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’) included the ability for official gaming controller support.

GAMES

Cordy – a visually stunning 2.5 platformers that sees you guiding the titular character left and right to reconnect the power across levels with twisting paths. The best benefit is that Cordy is available for free!

Samurai II: Vengeance – using a unique art style, this 3D action-fighter provides a very console-esque experience as you slash your way across some truly beautiful environments.

Fruit Ninja THD – yes, it’s concept is simple and you’ve probably played it to death but the new ‘THD’ (Tegra HD) version contain a nice visual boost with 4 times more geometry and better shaders and shadows to take advantage of the more powerful hardware of Tegra 2 devices, which includes almost all current Android 3.0 tablets. The added control on a larger screen is welcome too, but requires much more furious slicing with the increased screen size – a bonus.

HARDWARE

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 – while it’s definitely coming to Australia there’s no official release date yet. This tablet is designed to go head-to-head with the iPad 2 due to its almost identically anorexic thickness and styling. As is the trend it’s powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 2 and uses a 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 widescreen display, and one-ups the iPad 2 with twice the RAM (1gb) to support Android’s more intensive multitasking. 3G is standard. One note: do not be fooled by the Galaxy Tab 10.1v currently available from Vodafone/Three, as this is the old chunky model due to be replaced by this one.

Motorola Xoom – Motorola’s effort is seen as the flagship Honeycomb tablet with the standard 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 screen and Tegra 2 hardware. There is little to differentiate it from the Galaxy Tab 10.1 other than a thicker profile, slightly less impressive screen brightness and viewing angles and its exclusivity to Telstra with 3G. It’s now available as of a few days before this article was written.

Acer Iconia 10 WiFi – this Wifi-only Honeycomb tablet will please bargain hunters with a mid-$500 price tag thanks to the removal of 3G and lower 16gb memory. While it has almost identical specs to the other Honeycomb tablets it undercuts them in price and are sold in electronics stores rather than mobile phone carriers. JB HiFi are selling these now.

SUMMARY

While some other competitors such as the Blackberry Playbook and HP Touchpad are on the horizon, for now the iPad and Android Honeycomb are the major tablet options available.

If you’re interested in seeing what games are available for both, clicking ‘iPad’ at the top of the iTunes Appstore will show Apple’s selection while visiting market.android.com display those from Google (note that this includes Android smartphone games).

Here’s a quick list of the advantages iOS and Honeycomb have over eachother for reference:

iOS ADVANTAGES

- Much larger selection of games

- Smooth, fluid interface

- Easy to use

- Widely supported

- High battery life in both iPads

- Lots of accessories

ANDROID 3.0 HONEYCOMB ADVANTAGES

- Very customisable

- Choice of hardware and manufacturers (Samsung, Motorola, LG, Acer, Asus with Sony, Dell, Toshiba and HTC coming later)

- Advanced features such as true multitasking

- USB support

- Many emulators for older consoles

- Does not need to sync with computer

©2011 Alex Baldwin

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Filed under: Console gaming, Handhelds, Hardware Reviews, iPhone Reviews, Mobile Gaming Tagged: | Android, Apple, iOS, iPad, iPad 2, iPhone, ipod touch, smartablets, Tablets