Motorola Xoom: A Personal Review. iPad and Galaxy Tab alternative.

[mechwira]

So i just bought the motorola xoom a few days ago and i'm gonna share my personal review of this product. MSRP S$998. 32GB storage. 5MP rear camera, 2MP front camera. Android Honeycomb. first, a bit of background why i chose this instead of the ridiculously popular iPad2. what i want out of my tablet is: an approx 10" screen (which rules out current galaxy tab), adobe flash player, and ease of use with regards to files/documents/music/movies without being a slave to iTunes. Plus 3G-capable sim card slot (which rules out all other tablets in the market such as viewpad and asus and other whatnots). in fact, based on my criteria, only the motorola xoom fits the bill. other than the 10" Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, which i would have purchased in a heartbeat if not for the fact that it still hasn been released in singapore yet. So is it good? Well, good enough but not anywhere near perfect or excellent. First of all, i have never used any mobile OS other than iOS of my iPhone. to be able to us the flash-capable browser of Android Honeycomb is truly an eye-opener. web-surfing is pretty much identical to that on PC or laptop. i can really scoff at ppl using the iOS Safari of iPhone or iPad. flash sites, streaming videos.... where the iOS safari would show that blank screen with the silly tiny cube symbol, the android browser shows just what you'd see on the PC. you do have to download adobe flash player first though, which is a simple matter of going to the android app market and downloading it for free. then enable the plug-in on the browser. no bother really. a bigger annoyance is that some websites (not a lot, but enough to notice) which would give a mobile version of its website if it detects you surfing from a mobile device, still gives you its mobile version. which is totally unnecessary because the big screen displays normal websites without a problem. occasional annoyance only. and what i said about being a slave to iTunes? let me tell you how simple it is to view movies or music on the xoom. honeycomb comes with its own music player, but you have to download a player app. you can get free no-frills player apps on the market easily. then, you plug in the xoom to your pc or laptop, transfer the files in exactly like a portable hdd. after that, launch your music/video player app, find the folder, and play. plus the player app i DL'ed plays multiple video formats too. iTunes? pui! the honeycomb OS works in a very similar way to the Apple iOS. desktop screen with app icons. DL a folder manager app, and you can access your storage just like a PC or laptop. another advantage compared to iOS devices. Battery consumption is quite good. it lasts a little longer than my one-year old iPhone 3GS. which of coz is heck of a lot longer than an unplugged laptop. thats where the roses end, now for some of the drawbacks. in general, i find that android apps are not as polished as Apple apps. quite a lot of them have a tendency to crash or not work. apparently since Android works on multiple platforms, the apps are finding it difficult to work 'equally' across all platforms. or something. you WILL feel like the android apps lack the QC of Apple apps. again, a minor annoyance but not enough to make you feel like you bought an 'unusable' device. another thing is that somehow the xoom has a tendency to slow down, particularly if you have an app downloading in the background. usually this manifests itself in a slow response to your finger swipes. again, another minor annoyance, but does not make the device feel 'unusable'. oh, and the device comes with an external microSD slot which is not usable. apparently motorola has not completed the software that enables you to use the slot. it will come as a software update 'in future'. apparently motorola decided to roll out the xoom before fully completing the external storage facility because they fear if they wait, their rivals would have rolled out more advanced devices. in any case, the 32GB internal storage is plenty huge. and, although you can use a sim card for 3G connectivity (the wi-fi only version is about S$100 cheaper), you cannot make calls like the galaxy tab. another drawback is that it is impossible to find accessories for this thing in singapore. i had to purchase the motorola original cover case for $68. ridiculous, but hey it needs a cover case. and screen protector had to ask a shop to cut an iPad sheet to size. all in, i am dam happy with the flash-capable browser and no need for iTunes for everything. that alone to me makes it worth buying the xoom (or other android-based tablets) over the iPad. seriously, i refuse to buy the iPad because of these, even though admittedly the iPad rivals all have their little flaws and unpolished feel compared to Apple devices. for the xoom, its not perfect, yes its not as polished, but its flaws are tolerable and no i dont regret picking this up over the iPad. i can live with its minor flaws, but i cannot live with iPad's non-flash and iTunes.

Advertisement

[Pandora's Kitten :3]

Thank you for the well written and objective review.

While Android as you say is not as polished performance and app store wise, an Android tablet to me is way better than overpriced Apple products (so popular, no kick owning one) and a netbook (horridly slow and inefficient).

After using a small galaxy tab for some time I have to say that an Android device, like a classic motorcycle, requires some homework to tune the thing so it doesn't suffer from the slowdowns you mention. But it's actually really simple. Kill all the unnecessary processes and disable "smooth scrolling", animated transitions and once things like that are gone, it's as quick as you expect of a mobile operating system, which has to be quick-drawing and fast responding as a dueling pistol.

Compared to a netbook, which is bogged down by the Windows OS and all its PC-like hardware architecture, Android tablets are the way to go for mobile connectivity. Instant wake from standby, big battery life and very quick network access seems to be the defining experience of a well designed Android device. They are also loaded to the gills with a lot of sensors you can use for various fun/functional purposes including using it as a augmented-reality dashboard for a car, if that's your thing. (Not sure if the Xoom has the same arsenal of sensors as the Tab but both are Androids, so..)

While products from the Tab and Xoom are far from perfect, functionality wise they are everything you expect of a tablet PC that you read about in science fiction. Next year there will be better, faster and of course, cheaper products in the pipeline, including another ASUS "Transformer" concept with a detachable smartphone. So if you don't like devices we first adopters are using right now, wait a while, Android will just keep growing

[mechwira]

i haven't tried netbooks before. I was very intrigued by them, but to be honest the only reason I never bought one was because I felt the keyboards were too ridiculously small to type properly.

I think one day very soon tablets will replace laptops. Unfortunately, not today. For anyone requiring regular hard usage of document processing, spreadsheets or other specialized software, a tablet is not going to cut it. You can find paid apps for office type software that allow you to edit and create, but most reviews claim they are not as complete a package as an actual office suite on your laptop or desktop. Even google docs doesn work well, at least not on my xoom. And of coz as of now there is no option to install any specialized software into a tablet, other than apps. So if these describe your professional needs, you'll still need to lug around a laptop or netbook.

So whats today's tablets for? Its a super portable and mobile web access device (wi-fi or 3g availability assumed). Its got a batt that lasts longer than a laptop, and its far more compact. Faster startup and running. Its also a super mobile multimedia entertainment device. Movies and music on the go. And finally its essentially a digital swiss army knife. Other than web surfing, music and videos, you can really pull out all sorts of app to perform all sorts of tasks like the swiss army knife. And since its got gps and sensors, it can perform tasks a laptop can't. And if you only require occasional light use of document processing or other office tasks, it will suffice. If this describes your needs, get a tablet and forget a laptop.

I envision a future where the desktop remains a main stay workstation in the home powering tablets and smart phones, with all other mobile devices obsolete. How long before microsoft or other software developers actually create a dedicated office suite for use on a mobile operating system? How long before we can actually hook up a tablet to our desktop and install mobile-compatible software from disc installers? I think as early as five years, no later than ten. You may think the touch screen keyboard and finger swiping is too unwieldy for 'real' work, but asus got the solution. Dock the tablet to a mobile keyboard and mouse. And bye bye laptop.

[Pandora's Kitten :3]

Apparently the big galaxy tab does not have phone functions as Honeycomb does not support voice calls.

However Samsung Singapore's research division is looking into the issue. Big tab is likely going to retail for 900 bucks for the basic 16 gig versions with the 32 gig models topping the scales at $1200 or more according to a recent press release. I'm thinking I could order one from overseas cheaper. It's already out in Australia.

This means tablets like the Xoom and ASUS transformer are going to remain quite competitive. Small tab is a worth buy for me then, no point waiting for future devices if they don't suit my intended purpose.

Shame too on Samsung for imitating Apple's ridiculous policy of charging a few hundred dollars more for storage which costs mere cents in production. Hopefully they'd come up with a better marketing solution come July when the big tab is launched here.

Sent from my hong kong gangsta phone using Tapatalk

[mechwira]

so it appears its actually google's honeycomb causing all the problems.

coz apart from the fact that the honeycomb is the culprit not allowing standard voice calls, i just found out that the external microSD slot on my xoom is actually fully functional, but again its the honeycomb OS that isn capable of reading or accessing external storage. google is the one promising a software update 'soon' that will enable external storage functionality. this being the case, expect galaxy tab 2 not to have external storage either, though not sure if they've built it in like xoom.

i do hope google gets their act together. get me that update quick, and while they're at it add in voice calls too. is it that difficult? or maybe the manufacturers should get off their chairs and find their own software/hardware tweaks to get around these problems. is it that difficult too?

i think its a matter of preference of whether one thinks the ideal tablet is 7" or 10". i personally think its not satisfying with a 7" screen. but admittedly a 7" is more portable.

one thing i just want to add here is that i found out the xoom doesn have an in-built gps, requiring the 3G sim card for gps functionality. its got all other sensors like gyroscope, magnetometer, barometer and accelerometer, just no gps. bit of a shame coz i read the galaxy tab does indeed have internal gps. so i have to slot in my 3g sim card for gps enabled apps, and its something to note for ppl potentially purchasing wi-fi only.