Motorola was the first company to release an Android tablet that featured nVIDIA Tegra 2 technology , much of the reason behind it was to rival the ever-mainstream iPad and it does, in some respects. It is the first tablet to feature the new Android Honeycomb 3.0 Operating System built for tablets, but does this really make it worth purchasing even though it costs a heftier amount than its Apple counterpart? You will soon find out.
One of the first things one would notice when the Xoom stands beside an iPad is its thickness. The Xoom is bulky and heavy. It is the chubby, unattractive older cousin of the iPad. The Xoom has a 10.1” screen, which is the optimal size for today’s handheld tablet computers. The color scheme on this thing is a bit drab, with just a matte black finish to hide its cellulite. It looks about the same size as the original iPad, but has a more widescreen look to it; though it does have a wider aspect ratio, it looks significantly smaller than the iPad and iPad2. The Xoom weighs a lot more than the iPad2 at 730 and is a cow compared to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.
It is, however, not without assets. It features multiple ports for connections with micro USB and micro HDMI, which is a pretty big advantage over the iPad’s proprietary single-port approach. If you want to get video output for it, however, you will need a dock. Like every other tablet out there, it has front and back facing cameras which Google supports with Google Talk and other Third party software.
Software-wise, it has everything an Android tablet is supposed to have. It has support for the Android Market, Internet Browsers, and other stock software that Android packs into their system. The thing that made the Xoom so special is that when it was released during the first quarter of 2011, it was the only Tablet out there that had Honeycomb. Now that there are so many other choices for consumers that are cheaper and more value-oriented, the Xoom wouldn’t be a very good choice for a tablet buyer.
Overall, Motorola took a very important step forward against the Apple, but it came with various other missteps as well. Price is one of the most discouraging factors. It costs $800 without contract, but if you really are patient, you can get it for $600 with contract with Verizon and get access to the promised 4G network connectivity to be released later.