Motorola Xoom 10.1in WiFi Android Tablet

SPECIFICATIONS:

Motorola’s Website: Tech Specs

• 1 GHz dual-core processor enables web browsing at unprecedented speed and accelerated multi-tasking
• Integrated NVIDIA graphics delivers smooth, full frame-rate 1080p HD video playback
  1 GB of DDR2 RAM
• 10.1-inch multi-touch HD display (1280 x 800 pixels; 150p per inch) with 720p video capture and pinch-to-zoom navigation
• Onscreen keyboard
• 32 GB internal memory
• Memory expansion via microSD card slot with support for optional cards up to 32 GB (functionality requires future software upgrade)
• HDMI audio/video port enables you to output pictures, slides and videos in HD quality (1080p) via HDMI cable (sold separately)
• Micro USB port (not for charging)
• 3.5mm headphone jack

INTRODUCTION:

I found myself waiting for Les Schwab to install my new tires and had about an hour to kill. I wandered over to the Fred Meyer Electronics Department and noticed they had a new Motorola Xoom on display. I had never really played with any 10.1in Android-based tablet yet. I was immediately enthralled with the Honeycomb interface. Since I use Google/Gmail for virtually all of my business services (e-mail, calendar, contacts, etc) all the helpful possibilities ran through my mind. I had inadvertently sold myself on buying the $599.99 unit within minutes. I got a call that my car was ready. I took a deep breath and walked away tablet-less.

Later that night I discovered that the unit was $100 less at one of my favorite online retailers, B&H Photo, based out of New York. I ordered the Xoom and it arrived the week after. From the very beginning I compiled a list of pros and cons. Here is that list…

PROS:

• Amazing battery life
• Super-crisp, high-resolution screen
• Dual-camera operation is smooth and very useful
• Gmail account integration is unbelievable (this goes for all Android devices)
• Maps/GPS functionality is fast and smooth
• HD video (and sound) recording is decent; as expected or slightly better. SAMPLE
• 5MP still-photos are crisp and focused. SAMPLE
• Google Talk video chat works great
• Audio playback from built-in speakers is great; better than expected

CONS:

• Unit is awkward to hold upright for any extended period of time
• Video uploads on YouTube are tagged “This video was uploaded from an Android Phone”
• Occasionally clicking the “Free/Buy” button on an app in the ‘Market’ will randomly launch an existing/unrelated app
• Shazam doesn’t function; “setup” fails to error “Could not establish a connection”. I suspect this is due to WiFi only model versus 3G/4G model
• There is no Facebook native app; sharing to Facebook within other apps requires sending a Gmail message to your own personalized Facebook share e-mail address. Example: Sharing Pandora tracks to Facebook via e-mail appear with no Song/Artist info or image
• Google+ Hangouts are not compatible with Android; plugin only exists for desktop OSes. There is currently no native support within the Google+ app
• PayPal app fails to login; reports “System error. Please try again later”. I suspect this is due to WiFi only model versus 3G/4G model
• LinkedIn app login credentials don’t show up as you type them, but you can still login
• Spotify app error messages aren’t formatted correctly; only show “OK” button
• My Twitter ‘follows’ have infiltrated my ‘Contacts’ list; I had to disable account syncing and manually ‘delete/hide’ every unwanted contact
• Extremely repetitive tasks corrupt/crash apps. Example #1: deleting/hiding the Twitter contacts seems to have corrupted my ‘Contacts’ list and now it crashes everytime I view the ‘P’ section; even after a soft-reset. Example #2: After taking about 60-70 photos at a car show the camera became unresponsive and I was forced to soft-reset the unit
• The micro-USB port does not charge the device; you must use the provided pipe-style power adapter separately which can be extremely fragile
• Unit does not come with a screen cleaning cloth; fingerprints need to be cleaned off at least twice a day under normal use

Here’s the persistent crash message I receive when trying to view my contacts list. Somewhere in the “P” section a contact entry has become corrupt and when I try to view it this happens:

Corrupt contact entry crash message

CRASH UPDATE:

I was forced to hard-reset the unit and reload all my apps. This wasn’t too harsh as Google had backed up my list of installed apps and reloaded all of them automatically after I signed into my Gmail account.

CONCLUSION:

The Motorola Xoom 10.1in Android Honeycomb tablet is very fun to use, but in a very gimmicky way. It ends up just being a big-kid’s toy and not a really productive piece of hardware. I understand most of the “cons” are software related and perhaps they will be resolved with future updates. Unfortunately, for now, this isn’t good enough. The Honeycomb operating system has received a couple updates and is currently at version 3.2 on the Xoom tablet. Most of the issues are with 3rd party apps. They are simply not designed for the large-format screen in comparison to the mobile phones they were originally developed for. The “stretch/zoom” function helps the visual aspect with some apps, but doesn’t really ‘fix’ anything. I assume developers will resolve these issues with future updates or release tablet-oriented versions of their apps.

My official recommendation would be to stay away for now, unless you have too much money and really need to play Angry Birds. Maybe you can just buy an iPod touch or something.