Tablet Display Technology Shoot-Out Apple iPad 2 - Motorola Xoom - Asus Transformer
Introduction Tablets are essentially large portable displays - handheld screens designed for conveniently viewing content and images anywhere you want while untethered. For Tablets the display is the single …
Context & Ripple Effects
The 2011 tablet race has been scored so far on paper and partial tests: Engadget's March tale of the tape lined up the iPad 2, Xoom, TouchPad, and PlayBook on specs, and Macworld followed with side-by-side camera testing of the iPad 2 and its Android rivals. DisplayMate now applies its instrumented lab methodology to the component every tablet review calls the most important one — the screen itself.
That matters because tablets are, functionally, large portable displays, so measured differences between panels translate directly into the viewing experience buyers actually have. A rigorous shoot-out gives the iPad 2, Motorola Xoom, and Asus Transformer an objective common yardstick where until now they had only marketing claims.
First-order effects
- Apple, Motorola, and Asus each get a third-party measured verdict on their flagship screens — replacing spec-sheet assertions with lab data shoppers can compare directly before buying.
- Motorola and Asus, whose Xoom and Transformer compete head-to-head with the iPad 2 on price and hardware, learn precisely which display attributes they win or lose on rather than whether they 'match' Apple.
Second-order effects
- Display panel quality becomes a headline differentiator in tablet marketing, pushing each vendor's panel-supply choices into the competitive equation alongside processors and RAM.
- Other review outlets face pressure to move from subjective screen impressions to calibrated measurement, since readers now have an instrumented baseline to judge them against.
Third-order effects
- If lab-measured shoot-outs keep setting the reference standard, tablet competition shifts from counting specs to verifiable component quality, rewarding OEMs that invest in panel engineering over those that win the checklist war.
The trend: Tablet rivalry in 2011 is migrating from raw spec sheets toward independently measured component quality, with specialist labs like DisplayMate acting as the arbiter of what 'good enough' means.