With the acquisition of Motorola Mobility, Google has a company experienced in tablet manufacturing, even though the Xoom didn't exactly sell as well as expected.
We found the A500 would recognise a USB keyboard anyway, although it didn't recognise all the shortcuts that our Android 3.1
Xoom did.
Well, some months have passed, and while the Motorola
XOOM did not burn up the sales charts, it has gone under the scrutiny of at least one person who thinks that the tablet could be pushed beyond 1.5 GHz in terms of speed, touching a respectable 1.6 GHz this time around.
With very similar first rumour dates in their respective years, one might bet that the Motorola Xoom 2 turns up at the same time in the calendar as the first
Xoom did, i.e. CES 2012.
But the Xoom didn't at launch, meaning it was no more able to pull up Flash videos or surf Flash - enabled websites than the iPad.
Another new feature that
the Xoom does very well is the organization of Music files.
If physical cables are not your thing, you might want to check out DLNA, but right now
the Xoom does not support it.
Also, the iPad has a great EQ via itunes and
the Xoom does not.
Again, the Playbook produces decent video footage, but
the Xoom does better.
Actually the Xoom doesn't do flash right now, but soon I guess.
The resemblances between the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Xoom don't stop at the OS.
Fortunately, the Xoom doesn't have any of that either.
I like the fact that the Xoom doesn't have physical buttons on the front, but Honeycomb's navigation is difficult to learn.
I'll wait around a while, see what
the Xoom does in the marketplace (aka prices going down after the initial hoopla and other products rolling out), then decide which to get.
For a company who prides themselves on offering choices, we're surprised that the Xoom doesn't come with a non-4G LTE option to help make the price tag easier to swallow.
Granted
the Xoom does give you two more cameras and two much faster CPU cores than what you get in the iPad, however I'm guessing the more fair comparison will be to the upcoming iPad 2.
A major shortcoming is a reduced Color Gamut, but the iPad 2 improves on - screen image color saturation by steepening its intensity scale — a simple trick that is also used by the Galaxy Tab, but the other displays fail to implement this (and the Motorola
Xoom does the reverse).
My Android smartphone is smaller, lighter, and can do almost everything
the XOOM does.
According to the specifications,
the Xoom does indeed have 720p HD, as does the iPad.
That would equal the $ 599 iPad 2 With a lot more RAM in the Xoom Don't need Apple's proprietary dongles $ 40 - $ 80 And you get an expansion slot = priceless
The Xoom doesn't yet have nearly as many apps — high - quality, polished apps especially — that Apple's platform offers, but it is more open and accessible, allows for more customization, and is more user friendly for tasks like transferring ebook, PDF, and other files, although more advanced to learn initially.
(Edit: Verizon's
Xoom does include EV - DO, as will the Sprint version with all likelihood.
In a positive turn of events for Android manufacturers, the court has denied Apple's claims, ruling that
the XOOM does not copy elements of the iPad's design, which covers such aesthetic aspects as the tablet's bezel and shape.
And let's not forget that the XOOM doesn't stop making money at the sale.
Not exact matches
I'm sure Android tablets are going to get better and start taking market share from Apple, but the
Xoom just doesn't seem quite there yet.
If you are the recipient of an email from someone claiming to be
Xoom,
do not respond.
I
do love my iPad, but I also love Android and that
Xoom looks SWEET.
I've actually owned a
Xoom for a few days and I just don't see this thing taking off.
The ipad 2 looks and sounds just like the first one, ain't too much has changed and so far the
xoom and samsung galaxy tab 10.1 sounds better than the G - Slate smh so yes Teen Mobile once again messed up big time and was no big information here but making us wait for weak devices well this one ain't too weak but still not a good move at all in my opinion: (They need to get rid of that ceo Bumm or Humm whatever name is and whoever else that
do they marketing and products supplies to step down and bring on some more smarter and wiser people to the table!
It definitely bites, but look at the cost of the
xoom... having 3D on it doesn't help the cost either.
I'm an Android afficionado (no I don't want the
Xoom) but without more info about Honeycomb, WiFi versions and lowered pricing....
Do you think the Motorola
Xoom and Android Honeycomb can challenge the iPad for tablet dominance?
NFL's loudest Twitter fan Chad Ochocinco
did exactly that, posting an image of the device on Twitpic, adding on Twitter that the
Xoom is «pretty awesome» and that Motorola «won't be getting this back!»
They're repeating exactly what Motorola
did with the
Xoom.
then don't use 3d genius its up to you if you want to run a 3d game movie or program ones the ipad 2 comes out and the ipad 1 prices drops so will the over priced android tablets
did you know the
xoom only cost 285 to manufacture plus labor and there tryin to sell it at $ 800 F Motorola
No,
did motorola
xoom has usual update in time!
I don't own a
Xoom (I'm actually typing this all out on my gTablet) but your ill - informed comments are making this bad for everyone else.
Did Jha from Moto not say at CES, that the
Xoom would be out in February?
''... Now, Google has some good news for you bibliophiles out there: The
Xoom's Android Market application includes Google Books, and now the web version
does too.»
Throughout this part of the first impressions series, by the way, we will be
doing a lot of comparisons between the Thinkpad Tablet, the
Xoom, and the A500, as I have used all of these.
And what
do you make of Verizon dropping the «
Xoom» title?
Motorola launched yesterday the successor to their first
Xoom Android tablet device from earlier this year, which arrived with a 10.1 - inch screen size and just as the new version
does too.
If you don't mind picking up a refurbished unit, you'll be saving yourself a cool $ 200 off the asking price of $ 599 that you'll find for a new WiFi - only
Xoom direct from Motorola.
I know that a lot of people don't like the
Xoom's placement of the lock / power button, but having used several Android tablets, it is my favorite placement for a power button because it limits the frequency with which a user accidently hits the button and wakes the device up or sends it to standby.
The first Android 3.0 - based tablet, the Motorola
Xoom, was one of the big stars of CES, and we can't wait to see it
do more than running demos.
What
do you think of the
Xoom Wi - Fi pricing?
During our hands - on time, we didn't see the same performance issues as we
did on the Motorola
Xoom or the T - Mobile G - Slate.
What the
Xoom also
does well in internet browsing is quick swipes to move up and down a page.
But then, early
XOOM users will have to
do without Flash, at least till spring which is when Adobe is expected to come up with Flash 10.2 for Android.
The entire
Xoom Android interface is very intuitive and allows even for new users to tablets and Android to wrap their heads around what they are
doing.