Motorola XOOM review: The Big Bang

Introduction

Phones far and wide wanted to be the iPhone killer and you know what – tablets are no different. The iPad needs to get used to living with a bounty on its head. And always be ready for the likes of the Motorola XOOM.

But the XOOM is no ordinary competitor. We’re talking the first Honeycomb tablet, a cornerstone for Android. It’s Motorola’s first tablet too. If they play their cards right, it could be a big money earner for a company in trouble, so we know Moto gave it their best.

Motorola XOOM official photos

The XOOM has a 10.1” screen of 1280 x 800 pixels resolution, Google’s latest Android OS (after the update rolls out in full), purpose made for tablet use, and a powerful Tegra 2 1GHz dual-core chipset with 1GB RAM. Barely a few lines into the spec sheet and we already like the sound of it.

The Motorola XOOM has more to offer than that. The Verizon US version will be getting a (delayed) LTE update, while dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4GHz and 5GHz) sounds sweet too.

But we won’t go on and on about the specs of the XOOM. Here go the highlights followed – as usual – by what we didn’t like.

Key features

• 10.1” capacitive touchscreen of 1280 x 800 pixel resolution; multi-touch
• 730g of weight
• Dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n connectivity; Wi-Fi hotspot
• Optional 3G connectivity (data only) – HSPA or 1xEV-DO (LTE via upgrade)
• GPS with A-GPS support on all models
• 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 AP20H Dual Core processor
• 1GB RAM
• Android 3.0 Honeycomb, upgradable to 3.1
• 16/32/64GB of onboard storage
• microSD card slot (up to 32GB)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Accelerometer, compass and three-axis gyro-sensor; barometer sensor
• 5MP auto-focus camera with dual-LED flash
• 720p video recording at 30fps
• 2MP secondary video call camera
• HD TV-Out via microHDMI port
• microUSB with host functionality
• Flash-enabled web browser
• 10 hours video playback, 3.3 days of music playback

Main disadvantages

• Seems quite laggy despite the 1GHz dual-core CPU
• Screen is very reflective, hard to use outdoors
• Quite a porker at 730 grams
• No kickstand – it cannot be stood up on a table without a dock
• Non-replaceable battery
• Can’t charge off USB
• LTE-enabling update not out yet for the Verizon version
• Still waiting for an update to enable microSD slot as well
• No document editor pre-installed, not even a viewer

We’re really curious to try out the tablet minded version of Android – the one we’ve tested before was clunky to use and clearly not intended for big screens. And we’ve had a positive experience with the Tegra 2 platform. It’ll be interesting to see how it performs inside a tablet.

And let’s just say that seeing a standard microHDMI port was a pleasant surprise – no need of an adapter to get the TV-Out working. The competition doesn’t even have a standard microUSB port so thumbs up for Motorola and keeping to standards.

Motorola XOOM in our office

The XOOM we’re about to get started with is the 3G-enabled variety with 32GB of inbuilt storage. And yes, it’s got Honeycomb inside – the version of Android meant for tablets. We can hardly wait. Jump to the next page and try to keep up.