Posted in: Mobile computers

Motorola XOOM battery put to the test in a web browsing marathon, iPad 2 comes out on top

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Web browsing is a tablet’s bread and butter and a key factor is how long you’ve got until you have to go looking for a wall socket. As part of our tests on the Motorola XOOM, we ran a battery test using the same method as when we tested the Galaxy S II.

We’ll be using the Apple iPad 2 as a yard stick. Here’s how we did the tests and the numbers we came up with.

Since a test like that takes hours on end, we’ve automated the web browsing with a simple script, which reloaded pages from our website hosted on a server in the local network. Both tablets were connected over Wi-Fi and had their screens set at 50% brightness. We also kept an eye on both tablets to make sure everything was going smoothly.

The tests were more taxing than real-life usage – the script loaded a new page every 10 seconds. While most people spend more time on each page, they don’t start at 100% battery and browse till they run it dry either. Note that we used copies of real-life websites with all Flash content stripped out.

What we’re trying to do here is come up with relative numbers – will the Motorola XOOM or the iPad 2 give you more browse time? Note: we used the native web browsers on both tablets.

Tablet web browsing battery life test:

  1. Apple iPad 2 – 9:27
  2. Motorola XOOM – 7:35

Here’s the battery test results we ran on several smartphones using the same method, in case you’ve missed it.

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