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Motorola Xoom

xoom image

Motorola Xoom.

LAS VEGAS— Motorola announced the tablet everyone was anticipating before CES 2011 officially kicked off. Now, PCMag shares it's experience from a hands-on session this morning with the world's first tablet running on Google's Android 3.0 (Honeycomb).

Available on Verizon (in the USA) in early 2011, pricing is still unknown.

Motorola was only willing to show the Xoom running an animated demo. While Honeycomb looks every bit a multi-tasking, tablet-friendly OS, actually operating it will have to wait for another day. That RIM showed a full hands-on demos of a working tablet OS on the BlackBerry PlayBook certainly gives them the early advantage over Motorola, but the real test will come when the devices are in the labs at PCMag for review.

Specs:    Xoom

Operating system: Google's Android 3.0 (Honeycomb)

It will start off on 3G in 1st quarter of 2011; upgrades to 4G in 2nd Quarter. Available through Verizon in the USA

 

  • The 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 resolution multi-touch screen offers support for 1080p HD playback—but it's unclear if the files will be scaled down on the device to a lower resolution.
  • Adobe Flash Player 10.1 fully-integrated support
  • Video recording at 720p
  • Dual core processor with 2GHz worth of processing power
  • It measures 249.1mm by 167.8mm by 12.9mm and weighs 730 grams
  • Video file support: H.263, H.264, MPEG4
  • Audio file support: AAC, AAC+, AMR NB, AMRWB, MP3, XMF
  • Connectivity: 3.5mm headphones jack, micro USB port, BlueTooth 2.1 + EDR +HID support
  • Email support: Corporate Sync, Google Mail, POP3/IMAP embedded, Push Email, Yahoo Mail
  • Motorla claims up to 10 hours of battery life
  • It supports 802.11n wireless signals
  • 32GB of storage, and SD slot for card support (after a firmware update); 1GB DDR2 RAM
  • The rear facing camera is 5MP with a dual LED flash; the front-facing 2MP camera works for video chats, Google Talk
  • HD camcorder with 1080 playback
  • E-reader app and store that graphically looks comparable to Apple's iBooks
  • Acceloremeter and gyroscope built in for better gaming, app use
  • Maps app comes with 3-D graphic renderings of buildings when you zoom in
  • Google maps and GPS built-in

 

There are over 80 tablets being showcased at CES, but the two that stand out the most are the Xoom—because it's running Google's first tablet-focused version of Android—and the BlackBerry PlayBook, because it has its own operating system, the BlackBerry Tablet OS. Both tablets are the first truly viable competitors to the iPad, which will likely get an update of its own in early 2011.

 

Report by PCmag.com - January 2011

 

Jan 22, 2011