Motorola’s Xoom tablet is here at last bringing a revolution to Android’s mobile operating system and a wealth of new features that can be enjoyed on the tablet format. Here’s our break down of the Xoom and the new features of the brand new Honeycomb OS.
Hardware…
The Motorola Xoom boasts a 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, 32GB of internal storage for pictures, video, music and more. The screen is 10.1-inches with a resolution of 1280 x 800; the screen is capacitive so it’s really responsive. There are also lots of connectivity options and cameras to boot, but more on those later. The specs are really impressive for such a small device, it’s also surprisingly light (but not to the point it feels cheap) considering the powerful components packed inside.
The Xoom has two digital cameras, a front facing webcam for video calling through Google Talk and a 5 megapixel rear camera with a dual LED flash. The rear camera is also capable of shooting video in 720p HD. While snapping pictures is a little unwieldy on a big format it’s certainly nice to have it as an option and it’s a lot easier to open up the camera app than it is to fish out a camera when you need to record a moment quickly.
The Xoom can connect wirelessly via WiFi and 3G mobile internet; it’s also possible to buy a 4G version which connects to super fast wireless signals, there’s also Bluetooth technology. The Xoom has a micro USB port for connecting to a computer or dock and an HDMI output to view content stored on the device on a bigger screen. The battery life lasts about 8 hours with background apps running, on high brightness and with the various wireless options turned on. With a bit of power management it’s easier to get a longer life from it.
Design…
Motorola have really done a great job for a debut tablet. The face buttons which tend to clutter up the front of Android devices have been removed in favour of an on screen representation; this has resulted in a clean front where nothing distracts from the screen, the webcam is embedded in the bezel around the screen and blends in a lot better than the usual buttons. The volume controls, sleep/wake button and SD card slot are all dotted around the device and blend in well with the look of the device which has taken a leaf from Apple’s book and kept things minimal with a brushed metal, or plain black, backing panel. Basically there’s very little to distract you from the bright responsive screen.
The Software…
There’s one massive reason why you would want to focus on the screen and that’s Android 3.0, aka Honeycomb; the latest version of Google’s massively popular mobile operating system. Unlike many tablets on the market this one has been developed for the tablet form rather than adapting an existing operating system for a bigger or smaller format like Apple and Windows have had to do.
The new version makes great advances to the user experience, there’s an increased focus on widgets to make navigation and productivity a lot easier to manage. There’s a heavy focus on the 3D rendering capabilities too, Google Maps now has the 3D cityscapes featured in the desktop computer version, YouTube now displays videos as tiles on a 3D wall and the music player also uses 3D to create a scrollable selection of album covers.
Gmail has also been treated to a touch based revamp; using Honeycomb’s new panel system to make navigating through folders and messages a lot easier and less cluttered. The drag and drop method of organising messages is great too and really needs to be in the desktop version of Gmail.
The web browser is very similar to the desktop experience of Google’s Chrome browser. Tabs make browsing multiple pages easy, full Flash support isn’t there yet but there are no doubt plans to roll it out in software update so eventually.
Given the Xoom’s ability to shoot HD video it’s a very handy that there’s a video editing program installed as default. Touching to scrub through footage and cut feels very natural and gives yet another reason to keep your home computer powered down and stay on the tablet.
Summary…
Android finally has a decent competitor to Apple’s iPad and the Xoom may even draw a few Apple loyalists away if they’re searching for some up to date specs. The Xoom has a lot to offer but similar to HTC’s Dream, which was the debut device for Android, there are a lot of things that need to be ironed out in the software but Android updates are promised so these problems should be resolved soon. The Xoom’s specs are impressive and should make it a future-proof device that’s perfect for whatever developments come along in the tablet world. Despite being the first Honeycomb device it’s sure to be one of the most popular.