You can't turn around these days without finding a way to video chat. You can video chat on Facebook and Google+, on PCs and Macs, on Skype and Fring, and on countless mobile devices. Companies are betting on video chat replacing text-based chat, which itself has supplanted phone calls and voice as the primary means of communications. No one's betting more on that shift than tablet manufacturers, which are making video chat an ever-more integral part of their offerings.
If tablets and video are the future, we decided to see how the future works, and how quickly we all need to get over making phone calls in our underwear. We grabbed some of the tablets around the PCMag Labs, and put their video-calling capabilities to the test to see which ones are viable chatting options, and which simply are not.
There were some overall takeaways from our tests, in addition to some platform- and device-specific findings. You can't turn around these days without finding a way to video chat. Video chat may be catching on fast, but it's not yet a perfect system. Different companies use different, non-compatible applications, and the quality of the experience varies wildly.
We're a long way from the equivalent of picking up the phone and dialing anyone in the country, or being able to text anyone just by using their phone number. Video chat is a hodgepodge of applications and usernames, and there's no good way to integrate things yet. If video calling is going to catch on, it's going to need to standardize to the point where my TouchPad can call your iPad, or your computer, or your phone. We're not there yet, not even close.
All that said, however, video chat is already a fun and useful way to communicate, though some platforms are more fun and more useful than others. We investigated webOS, iOS, Android, and BlackBerry video-chat offerings to find the good and bad of every platform, so hit the slideshow or read on for our findings.
Apple iPad 2
The iPad uses FaceTime, an Apple-specific, video-chat application that works on iPads, iPhones, iPods and Macs.
The Good: FaceTime consistently had the best video quality of any video-chatting app I tested. It lagged less and looked sharper. It's also extremely easy to use, with a simple and excellent interface, and cleverly identifies people by their email addresses so you don't need to look for yet another username.
The Bad: It's Apple-device-only. It's a separate app, pulled away from all text-based chatting, and doesn't integrate as well with the address book or other apps as it should. Calls can also only be made over Wi-Fi, which is good for call quality but terrible for convenience of use.
The Verdict: FaceTime is the best video-chatting app available on a tablet, but Apple's poor track record of making its applications friendly with other platforms means it's not likely to be the standard.
HP TouchPad
The HP TouchPad uses Skype for all its calling, both voice and video.
The Good: Skype is integrated all over the TouchPad, from contact lists to the Messaging app. You can initiate a call from anywhere, call real phones with Skype Out, and more. It's much closer to a full phone app than just video chatting.
The Bad: Video chatting only works in portrait mode, and in my tests the person on the other end complained about the camera quality. The lack of a rear-facing camera means you can't use it during video chat to display items at which you are looking.
The Verdict: Skype is the current grand poobah of video chatting, and will likely continue to be so thanks to its recent integration into Facebook (though that integration is more a technology than an actual Skype client), but the TouchPad's video-chatting hardware and Skype app aren't up to par.
Samsung Galaxy Tab
The Galaxy Tab, like all tablets running Android Honeycomb (3.0 or above), uses Google Talk for video chatting.
The Good: Google Talk is one of the most cross-platform chat programs available, since it's both a standalone app and embedded in Gmail. That means you can use your Android tablet to chat with people on other tablets, as well as computers and smartphones. It also uses your Google account, so as soon as you log in to your tablet you're logged in to Google Talk. Multiple accounts are supported, so you can chat with all your friends on various accounts.
The Bad: Google Talk video is typically low-res, which looks bad on such a large screen. You can only use a Google account, which means no Skyping. Android tablets have a nasty trend of having off-center cameras, so you have to hold the tablet at a weird angle to be seen properly.
The Verdict: Google Talk has the best chance of any app, other than maybe Skype, to be the cross-platform standard for video chatting, but Android tablets need to step up their hardware game for it to be a good experience.
BlackBerry PlayBook
The BlackBerry PlayBook didn't ship with a video-chatting app, but it's now available in the App World and as a software update.
The Good: Though it wasn't available at launch, the BlackBerry PlayBook Video Chat app is now available, as a software update or in App World. Camera quality is good, so video looks good. Video can stream from either the front- or rear-facing camera.
The Bad: PlayBook Video Chat only lets you chat with other PlayBook owners, so odds are good you won't be able to find a chat buddy. The camera faces straight forward, but the lens is off center, so, like Android, you'll have to hold it at a goofy angle to frame your face properly. Calling only works over Wi-Fi.
The Verdict: The PlayBook's camera is good, but the video-chatting app is extremely barebones, doesn't work with anything other than other PlayBooks, and doesn't do anything other apps don't.
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