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Topic: Hardware

Hands on With the Motorola XOOM Tablet With Video

Summary: My brief time today with the Motorola XOOM made a definite impression, and a good one. I want one of these, and now.

James Kendrick

By for Mobile News |

Motorola captured the attention of a lot of people with the unveiling of the XOOM tablet at CES. The Motorola XOOM is a 10.1-inch tablet, powered by the Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor, that is running Android 3.0 (Honeycomb). I attended a luncheon thrown by Verizon to talk about its LTE network, and lo and behold there was a Motorola XOOM on display. It didn't take me long to move right in and grab the XOOM to give it a try. They only let me shoot video for a minute before someone remembered that was verboten, but I got to play with it for a good ten minutes. What a sweet tablet.

The XOOM weighs about as much as the iPad, and shows the typical solid construction of Motorola. It feels good in the hand, although it would get heavy after a while in one hand. The interface is slick and well executed, with large soft Back, Up and forward buttons in the lower left corner of the screen. Operation is accomplished by swiping up, down, left and right to make things happen.

The Tegra 2 is snappy and everything on the XOOM happens instantly, without lag. Video playback is great, and I ran a few intensive apps simultaneously with no impact to performance. I did notice a bit of lag in rotating the screen when switching from portrait to landscape orientation and back.

I am wondering if the Honeycomb interface I played with is stock Google Android or if Motorola has customized it. Some aspects of operation seemed slightly different than the brief preview videos Google has posted on the web.

My brief time with the XOOM made a definite impression, and a good one. I want one of these, and now. The tablet will be available the first half of this year, and while originally shipping with 3G it will be upgradable to the Verizon 4G network, also in the first half of the year.

Topics: Hardware, Laptops, Mobility, Tablets

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  • RE: Hands on With the Motorola XOOM Tablet

    Cool
    Rodfather
    Reply Vote

    • No tablet class applications, weak battery life, poor screen

      @Rodfather: I mean there is no point in wanting it when iPad 2 will be available soon enough; and even current iPad is more sensible choice since the screen, despite having weaker resolution, is IPS technology, and its layers with touch cover and protective glass are glued with no spaces. Xoom has nothing like this, and it has weaker battery lifetime.<br><br>And while Andorid 3.0 is finally proper OS from Google to be ran on tablets, the market still lacks applications that would actually use 3.0 tablet-ready features. iPad has over 50 thousand of such applications.
      DDERSSS
      Reply Vote

      • But iPad doesn't have 180 hours of battery life

        @denisrs
        Unlike the NoteSlate. iPad is an EPIC fail.

        Cue the double standard around battery life...
        NonZealot
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Hands on With the Motorola XOOM Tablet

        @denisrs
        I don't have a computer with iTunes installed. And I'm not alone.

        So, yes, there is a point in wanting a device that doesn't have to be tethered to a different computer.
        Droid101
        Reply Vote

      • Only comparable activities could be used to compare battery lifetime

        @NonZealot: and iPad, as of now, always wins -- since it has custom OS, custom CPU, custom battery.
        DDERSSS
        Reply Vote

      • Right, so Windows 7 tablets are better than iPads

        @denisrs
        [i]Only comparable activities could be used to compare battery lifetime[/i]

        Even if Windows 7 tablet don't have as much battery life.

        And cue the double standard around battery life...
        NonZealot
        Reply Vote

      • No, W7 tabs are *much* worse in battery lifetime in comparable activities

        @NonZealot: and with activities that are not accessible on iOS or Android, like running Photoshop or something "real", the battery life is nearly non-existent at all, let alone the fact that such applications are almost unusable due to slowness of the tablets, low memory, and horrible (for tablets) UI.
        DDERSSS
        Reply Vote

      • LOLOLOLOL!!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

        @denisrs
        [i]No, W7 tabs are *much* worse in battery lifetime in comparable activities[/i]

        So the difference between 180 hours and 10 hours isn't a big difference in your Apple zealot opinion? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!

        iPad battery life is *much* worse in battery lifetime in comparable activities to the NoteSlate.

        [i]let alone the fact that such applications are almost unusable due to slowness of the tablets, low memory, and horrible (for tablets) UI.[/i]

        Oh. I'm sad to hear that you don't like your Windows 7 tablet.

        You do have a Windows 7 tablet, right?

        :) :) :)
        NonZealot
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Hands on With the Motorola XOOM Tablet

        @denisrs I've never understood the "millions of apps" line. One only needs enough good apps. This was always Apple's strength Windows always had more apps, now Apple and its fanboy base seem to have swapped messages.
        Realspear
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Hands on With the Motorola XOOM Tablet

        @denisrs
        And it has a major advanage over the Ipad.. It goes to 100% of the internet unlike the 20% the Ipad can go to.
        rparker009
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Hands on With the Motorola XOOM Tablet

        @denisrs
        sorry, but no hdmi output for me is a deal breaker by itself. And a crippled lame browser will never work for me. I use way too many sites that rely on flash. Maybe in about 5 years when there are no more flash sites we can discuss it. But for now, xoom wins over ipad in every way unless you're a fanboy.

        That aside, I think I still would prefer a 7 inch version for the weight and portability factor. For me a tablet is mainly for on the plane and on the go. I like to pack light. 10 inch is stretching it a bit. And I would also use it at home as my blu-ray replacement (hence the hdmi output).

        Thats pretty much what I do now with my ancient 4 year old 5-inch tablet which can only do DVD quality output. But it does serve as my dvr and in flight entertainment and is extremely portable.
        rengek
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Hands on With the Motorola XOOM Tablet

        @denisrs

        iPad is an EPIC fail? Really?? 7.3 million sold last quarter is an 'EPIC' fail? What planet do you live on?
        draymis
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Hands on With the Motorola XOOM Tablet

        @DeRSSS Motorolla has only been good in industrial appliances, their cell phones are not that good, and now their tablets are nothing but just very low quality product.
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        lorisinclair
        Reply Vote

  • RE: Hands on With the Motorola XOOM Tablet

    Sweet..glad you got to squeeze in a little bit of video there..
    thejalapeno
    Reply Vote

  • While I'm not in the market for a low rent tablet...

    this looks so much better than the iPad. Good job Google and Motorola!
    NonZealot
    Reply Vote

    • Just curious, NZ.....

      @NonZealot
      Other than not having an Apple logo on the back, what makes it look SO much better than the iPad?
      Userama
      Reply Vote

      • yes, i second that request.. tell us what makes it better than an iPad..

        @Userama ..from that 1 minute video..
        doctorSpoc
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Hands on With the Motorola XOOM Tablet

        @Userama What makes it better than an iPad? Simple.
        NO ITUNES!!!
        Scubajrr
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Hands on With the Motorola XOOM Tablet

        @Userama

        Exactly.. it ripped off the design of the iPad... so how the hell does it look 'SO' much better??
        draymis
        Reply Vote

      • RE: Hands on With the Motorola XOOM Tablet

        @Userama There are a lot of things that are appealing. A completely new and tablet centric interface, which seems to handle navigation and notification very elegantly. I can't stand some of the iPad controls... they either cover part of the content, or are completely inconsistent from app to app. Not to mention iOS notification, which is badly in need of a re-write. <br>Second, it's nice to not have to wire it to a computer. <br>The browsing experience on this should be very good... not only because of flash, but because it has a gig of ram, and will be able to keep more than one tab in memory. <br>Finally, multitasking on this thing looks fantastic. Task switching looks brilliant, and I can't help but be impressed by the speed of it (if you didn't see the presentation at CES, after demoing a slew of other apps, he switched to Dungeon Defenders at the very end [an intense 3d game], and it resumed it instantly, without a hickup).<br>And of course it has cameras, both rear & front. And yes, I care about that.
        anakin78z
        Reply Vote
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