Motorola's Xoom is the first tablet to come out featuring the Android 3.0 (aka Honeycomb) operating system. As far as I can make out, it is the best competitor to Apple's iPad.
With a 10.1-inch screen, Xoom feels larger than the 9.7-inch iPad. The Xoom has a 0.5-inch bezel around the screen instead of the 0.75-inch on an iPad.
It makes for a meaningful difference in a number of ways. The bad news is that the slimmer bezel offers less area for your thumbs to grip the screen, making it less comfortable to hold with one hand.
First impression is the device feels heavy. In reality, at 730 grams, it is only 50 grams heavier than an iPad. All black in the front, it does not have any hardware buttons and all the actions are done on the screen. On the bottom, there are connections for a micro-USB, micro-HDMI, a socket for the included power adapter, and a pinhole microphone and docking options. On the top edge you will find a standard headphone jack in the middle and a removable door to its left that conceals the microSD expansion port which can support up to 32GB.
At the back, Motorola has chosen to place the power button next to the 5-megapixel camera and dual-LED flash. These are flanked by stereo speakers.
The camera quality is good, but not to the extent of point-and-shoot and can easily be ruined by fingerprints on the lens. The Film Studio software allows you to easily edit your creations, though by no means is it perfect. A front-facing 2-mega-pixel camera is included and geared for video chat. But Honeycomb is missing a library of apps optimised for the tablet.
There are around 150 right now, and only a small handful of those are worth downloading. And some of those, like Flixster and AccuWeather, crash a lot. You have a series of home screens which are scrollable, and can be loaded up with application shortcuts, folders, shortcuts, and widgets. The battery life comes to ten hours of video playback — same as the original iPad. During testing, it stood for around nine hours which is good.
The Xoom does not yet support Adobe Flash. Motorola promises that the Adobe Flash support is coming soon via an over-the-air-update. The music app in Honeycomb has now been replaced with a 3D interface that is actually useful. There are 2D views when you jump into albums and playlists.
Keeping in line the 3D feel of the Honeycomb interface, YouTube app is presented with a wall of videos which you can pan through. The notification area on the bottom right that shows you new tweets, IMs and e-mails amongst other things.
When you connect to your PC to add files, the device does not charge. Instead, the Xoom only charges using the power adapter, which is a bit limiting.
The Wi-Fi version of Xoom from Motorola with 32GB storage capacity is priced at Dh2,699.
Pros of Motorola Xoom Tablet
- The Tegra2 DualCore processor make it very fast.
- The 10.1 HD screen.
- Can be hooked to a TV.
- Made from scratch-proof Gorilla Glass.
- 1080p video playback.
Cons of Motorola Xoom Tablet Reviews
- The volume rocker is too flush.
- Speakers are not that great.
- No USB charging.
- Big and heavy for single hand use.
- Few tablet apps for Honeycomb.
- No Flash support yet.
