ASUS Transformer Prime TF201 vs Motorola Xoom with Ice Cream Sandwich: Best Android 4.0 Tablet Battle

Motorola Xoom and the Asus Transformer Prime are the only two tablets running the new Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, so here's how they compare. Motorola's Xoom can be found for around $400 these days because it's been out for nearly a year, but the Prime is brand new, so it goes for $500 or more. So, you've got two 10-inch tablets running the new Android system, but one is older and cheaper and the other is new but expensive.

$400 is a great price for a 10-inch tablet, especially if it has the new Android system, but the Xoom also has 32 gigabytes of storage and a full-size USB port for easy transfer of files. That means it's a bit thicker and heavier than any other tablet, although that might be a trade-off people are willing to make. Xoom also features an LCD screen with 1280x800p resolution, a full gigabyte of memory, dual cameras, microSD card slot and mini-HDMI port. It might not be the best device to read on for long periods of time because of its size and weight, but it's well suited for most other tasks.

For an extra $100, though, the Prime comes with an eight megapixel camera (compared to the Xoom's 5 megapixels), Gorilla Glass display protection, a first-of-its kind quad-core processor, super thin design and compatibility with the Eee Pad keyboard dock that turns it into a notebook computer. It's an extra $150, but adds a keyboard, track pad, double the battery life, two full-size USB ports and SD card reader. It's quite a device, and it's really built to go up against devices like the iPad 2, but because it has Android 4.0, it's only natural people will be considering it against the Xoom as well.

The new Android operating system brings new widgets, a smoother transition from screen to screen, tons of new photo editing features and most importantly, replaces the Android 3.0 system. Android 3.0 was a tablet only OS, and many felt it had been rushed into production, so the Android 4.0 system, in a sense, is almost giving new life to the Xoom and other devices that had been running Android 3.0. Tell us in the comments if you'd consider the Xoom even though it's been out for a year now.