The first Motorola Xoom review posts have hit the web by way of American publications and gadget blogs, so while we wait for a UK version and launch date, we thought we’d bring you a taste of what to expect from the very first Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet. Read on, and find out what the experts made of it all in our Motorola Xoom review roundup.
There’s a lot riding on the Motorola Xoom. While plenty of others have Android tablets on sale, this is the first model that uses a version of Android, 3.0, actually meant for that purpose. As such, it’s the first demonstration of how Google intends to take on Apple’s iPad in the tablet stakes. Let’s see what the reviewers said.
Motorola Xoom build
This won’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been watching the tablet market evolve over the last twelve months, but the Motorola Xoom’s design didn’t draw so much praise as just brief mentions that it was fine.
“The Xoom is a handsomely built tablet, though at a glance, you’ll think you’ve seen this before,” said Engadget‘s Joshua Topolsky. Crunchgear‘s John Biggs meanwhile called it a “featureless slab.” Laptopmag described it as not “exactly elegant.”
If anything, it drew complaints, with both reviewers nothing how touch the volume and power buttons were to press – but nevertheless, it got the job done.
Screen
The Motorola Xoom’s 10.1-inch screen however drew praise, not least because at 1280×800, the screen is sharper than the 9.7-inch panel on the iPad.
“The screen is the real draw on this device. The glossy 10-incher is wonderfully responsive and…[the] resolution allows for a great deal of living detail in the interface, icons, and during media playback”, said Crunchgear.
Android 3.0
This of course is the real differentiator: the Motorola Xoom runs Android 3.0, not a brutally hacked version of Google’s mobile OS meant for phones. And the results are, well, promising, if not great right now.
Topolsky singled out Matias Duarte, Google’s new user interface supremo, noting that Honeycomb showed the vision of one man, with a “Tron” like feel reaching throughout the OS.
Engadget also liked the new “desktop” vibe, particularly the notification popups in the corner of the screen: “When you get a new email or Twitter mention, you’re alerted in that righthand corner with an almost Growl-like box, which fades away quickly.”
Laptopmag’s Spoonauer too thought that Android made better use of the Motorola Xoom’s screen real estate than the iOS homescreen on the iPad. “The big takeaway is that Android 3.0 makes the most of a tablet’s larger canvas while making customization easier and more fun for users,” he wrote.
Individual apps too earned plaudits, with Engadget calling the revised music app “stunning”, and praise across the board for the Google Talk video chat. But – and it’s a big but, there were more than a few bugs on show behind the scenes. “I had quite a few app crashes and many apps designed for 2.x devices crashed,” said Biggs. “Google Body, remade for Honeycomb, crashed every other try…memory management and crashes will be part of your Honeycomb experience.”
Engadget found problems not with the core OS, but the “details. Too much in…the software (like the feeling that this is all very much in beta) makes you wonder if this wasn’t rushed out to market in order to beat the next wave from Apple.”
Performance and battery life
There were mixed takes on the Motorola Xoom’s performance, memory management issues aside – perhaps surprising considering it uses a whizzy dual core 1GHz Tegra 2 system on a chip, and a hearty 1GB of RAM. Engadget was “blown away by the robustness and speed of applications like the browser and some of the included games”, but Laptopmag said that the “Xoom just didn’t feel very fast in our testing.”
Everyone was satisfied by the battery life however, something we never expected from an Android tablet. Reviewers found that the Motorola Xoom lasted a solid 8-10 hours of use, making it comparable to an iPad. Little attention was paid to the five megapixel camera on the back however – the sample shots aren’t horrible by any account, though we’re not surprised to see that Engadget thought it had “little utility” on a device the Xoom’s size.
Verdict
Certainly, the Motorola Xoom pushes the Samsung Galaxy Tab off the best Android tablet top spot. “No offense to Dell, Samsung, or the many other companies that released Android-powered slates before now, but the Motorola Xoom is really the first official Android tablet. It’s not an oversized phone with tablet stuff tacked on,” said Laptopmag.
But that’s not enough, especially with the iPad 2 launching next week. And there’s a feel that Honeycomb isn’t quite there yet. “We’d suggest a wait-and-see approach,” advised Engadget, while Biggs had some wisdom of his own to dispense: “If you literally can’t wait, this is a great tablet for you. But a few months may bring changes to the Honeycomb market that will make it less of a coup and more of an also-ran.”
We’ll have a full UK Motorola Xoom review for you closer to launch. Anything you want to know? Drop us a line in the comments right here and now.
The first Motorola Xoom review posts have hit the web by way of American publications and gadget blogs, so while we wait for a UK version and launch date, we thought we’d bring you a taste of what to expect from the very first Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet. Read on, and find out what the experts made of it all in our Motorola Xoom review roundup.
