The Motorola Xoom is the first Android 3.0 tablet to hit the market. That makes it the first Android tablet to ship with an OS that's designed especially for big screens, and that's why it's so exciting.
Every tech gadget must be judged solely on what it provides, its purpose in life, and whether it will help you accomplish tasks and enjoy your media.
With the Motorola Xoom, it's too easy to make constant iPad (and iPad 2) comparisons. Can you purchase movies as easily? Does the screen get as grimy? Does it cost more?
- Read: Android 3.0 review
Yet, the Xoom is the first Android 3.0 tablet, the first really powerful tablet with a dual-core processor, and a sleek, 10.1-inch slate that is easy on the eyes.
You can check out our Android Tablet round-up to see how this slate measures up against three of its rivals below:
There's no question the Xoom is a brilliant tablet, one that is incredibly flexible in terms of media you can put on the device.
With a 5-megapixel front camera and a 2-megapixel rear-facing camera, 32GB of local storage (plus a potential for more SD storage after the next software update), 1GB of RAM, 4G support once the LTE roll-out starts and after a software upgrade, and 10-hours of battery life, the Xoom has the hardware specifications to make you sit up and take notice.
Plus, the new Android 3.0 tablet interface lives and breathes in the open source world.
Frankly, the Motorola Xoom blows the Samsung Galaxy Tab out of the water, and that is saying something. We'll keep our iPad comparisons to a minimum (hey, if you wanted one of those you would have bought one by now, right?) and ratchet down our comparisons to the iPad 2 which ships in the UK on 25 March.
The Xoom is the best Android tablet around and a device that is well worth serious consideration.
However, before we go any further, we need to address pricing - the Motorola Xoom is currently available for pre-order for £499. The 3G version is set to cost £100 more at £599.
The next-best Android tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, costs £399.00 without a contract, which is quite a bit lower than the Xoom. And, the Apple iPad 2 will start at £429.00 for the Wi-Fi-only version, so the Xoom is expensive.
Yet, our overall impression testing the device is that it is a notable upgrade from every other Android model, including the Dell Streak series. The heart and soul of this tablet is the new Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) OS, which ran lightning fast in our tests on the Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor.
And we mean fast: finger swipes registered quickly and accurately, and the few games available ran smoothly.
Android 3.0 is a brilliant interface for tablets – much more flexible than iOS in that you can drop widgets all over your homescreens, and more responsive and even better suited for reading books and playing games.
The Xoom even touts this fact in the Google Books app: there's a cool page flipping animation.
The Xoom has a decidedly PC-like UI in that you can press a button to see all open apps (unfortunately, you can't selectively close them from here but you can close apps through a memory manager under the settings screen), click the clock to see notifications and access settings, and move objects around the screen easier.
Your comments (26) Click to add a new comment
jake1944
January 5th
26. I have a Xoom tablet ZM601. Does anyone know if this tablet has a compass
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thereaper
November 29th 2011
25. Have Motorola had a "Ratner" moment. Why would anyone consider purchasing a 16Gb Tablet without a Micro SD card slot?. A film is at least 1 Gb and I would expect Apps to increase in size so the Tablet would be useless for something like a holiday. Motorola's suggestion to download via WiFi is stupid if you are considering films.
Going to get an ASUS Transformer Prime if it has the expansion slot
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lucario
August 23rd 2011
24. i do not own one but i have been on this for 40 mins as i can not believe how cool this is, it has lightning fast home scrrens but the ipad was far ahead than this but the moterolla xooms camera was better and more high quality.
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bcbennycan
July 25th 2011
23. I will start by saying I'm an Professional IT Analyst 22 years and with the School district in Prince George, BC CAN for 12 of these. I support both Win/Apple with Debian Servers. I purchased on of these xoom for 530$ Can and I very impressed. I like to also note yes there is also a rainbow of apps for Android you just have to look not just paid i-bucks to Apple all the time. The tablet kicks the i-Pad2 in the butt. Unless you just would like to be like the rest of the sheep then you should just buy the i-spend money devices and you cannot go wrong. For me the Android is fantastic and I love the power to be creative and customize it. This really is a big 9 out of 10 for me the xoom. And I have tried almost all the devices out there on a professional working environment. I'm with you google and your bringing some of the old Apple fan boy club members to you also that Apple forgot to look after.
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cmugridge
May 26th 2011
22. The worst aspect of the Xoom is not the tablet itself. It is Motorola. They are too america focussed. Updates and applications are not delivered to users outside of the USA.
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phibo78
May 25th 2011
21. One simple thing puts me off this device.
Unable to charge via USB! Seriously! nearly £500 and you can't just plug into a usb drive to charge!!! What's that all about, if I've got a tablet it's because it's light and tiny to carry, I don't want to have to go carrying a AC adapter!
This was the one andriod tablet I was looking forward to seeing, but that is a massive deal breaker for me.
Another issue regarding Andriod Tabs as a whole, that has been mentioned in the review, lack of downloadable media content, love or hate iTunes, the ability to just grabs a movie/tv show and download it anywhere is of massive appeal to many, If I'm going to trade in my ipad to get another tablet this is a must!
Until that can be resolved. No thank you.
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mrcarbon
May 12th 2011
20. All the Apple fanboy comments on this are hugely amusing - I hope they don't expect anyone other than another Apple fanboy to take them seriously.
The Motorola Xoom is an amazing piece of kit and I have all my favourite Android apps running beautifully on it. There seem to be more apps every day updated to provide Xoom support too - the Tegra HD games are fantastic and there's a lot more with Tegra support than are mentioned in the Tegra zone.
I have an iPhone 4 btw and love that too.. if the iPad 2 came close to the Xoom, I wouldn't have the Xoom!
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anangaranga
April 3rd 2011
19. And one more thing...
Based on my last comment,
How on earth can tech.radar.com manage to come up with a result
of 4 stars on this Xoom. The SAME as on the iPad 2 review...
I'm laughing all the way to the apple store...
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anangaranga
April 3rd 2011
18. What everyone seems to forget is that
no matter what speed memory screen quality or size
One or two speakers, or connections
this and that...
A tablet is just a CHANNEL for content!
This one has almost NO app's and the few available
Is hard to download!!!
Ipad one or two, has a RAINBOW of apps
and even around 70.000 apps specifically made for the iPad format...
So please don't compare this empty piece of hardware
with the Apple fruitgaarden of content.
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djcruize
April 1st 2011
17. I JUST BOUGHT ONE LAST WEEK WITH A CONTRACT AND READY TO TAKE IT BACK I THINK THIS DEVICE IS VERY SLUGGISH THEN TO SEE YOU CAN GET THEM ELSE WHERE FOR THE SAME PRICE WITH NO CONTRACT I'M FEELING LIKE A RETARD. DON'T KNOW IF THEY WILL IMPROVE ITS SOFTWARE BUT LOTS OF APP DON'T REALLY WORK FORCE CLOSE'S TO OFTEN ONLY THING I LIKE ITS THAT PLAYS FLASH WITH NO PROBLEMS WE TALK ABOUT NEW GADGETS ON WWW.INTHEMIXXRADIO.COM SAT 2PM/4PM ANYWAY DO YOUR RESEARCH WITH THE XOOM BEFORE BUYING I'M ABOUT TO GET MY MONEY BACK AND LOSE $70 BUCKS ON OPEN BOX FEE
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mill999
March 31st 2011
16. The Xoom 3G version is now up for pre-order <a href="http://bit.ly/gw15Wp">at Carphone Warehouse in UK</a>as there it will be available by next week, presumably for 599 GBP!
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captaincameron
March 29th 2011
15. When you're comparing the price of this to the iPad, you're not taking the capacity into account. Indeed, the iPad starts at £429, but the Xoom has a 32GB capacity, for which you must pay Apple £479. The 32GB iPad 2 Wi-Fi costs £579, so the Xoom is only £20 more expensive. For a far superior piece of hardware this isn't too bad in my opinion.
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mill999
March 20th 2011
14. for those interessted in some <a href="http://www.motorola-xoom.co.uk/motorola-xoom-versus-apple-ipad-2/">iPad 2 vs Xoom benchmarking</a> take a look at the Motorola Xoom UK blob http://www.motorola-xoom.co.uk/
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tenancycleaning
March 11th 2011
13. no matter how hard they try,...they sure lack behind in innovation as Apple.
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calnoipad
March 10th 2011
12. I think the best feature in favor of the Xoom is that you don't have to deal with iTunes. I gladly sold my iPad because the golden cage of iTunes was too restrictive and very annoying to deal with. Android tablets give you much more and easier control over your content.
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delboy1979
March 8th 2011
11. I don’t know why the Xoom review (or any other non apple tablet) has to be hijacked by the “Apple is the best/worst” argument, it’s boring!!!!!!!!!
Every tablet forum is taken over by either completely blind faithful Apple lovers or completely blind Apple haters.
Who cares if the Ipad2 is better or not, even before any specs had been released or reviews written, these completely biased fan boys (Apple or not) have made their minds up.
Please, comment about the Motorola XOOM on its own merits. I personally think it looks like a cracking product!
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tomhtchero
March 6th 2011
10. I will admit that this does have a few problems like no flash yet, no usb and dnla streaming but these are just a few software issues which I am sure will be solved quickly so its is not going to put me off.
I am waiting to see who will be supplying contracts for the 3G version then I will be ordering mine.
This to me is the best alternative tab to the I-Pad. It might not beat the I-Pad but it should come second.
I think the problem all tablets are going to have is they are first generation and now the I-Pad is on its second gen so unless someone can come up with a super powerful tab with a great OS for cheaper than a I-Pad they won't beat the I-Pad.
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babyfacemagee
March 6th 2011
9. The XOOM is worth buying over the iPad2. Spec by spec the XOOM can beat the iPad2 from having a higher resolution display to better cameras with led flash, to stereo speakers vs. the iPad2’s one, built in HDMI and USB etc. So the iPad is a few millimeters thinner and lighter than the XOOM. In real terms the difference is minimal and functionally irrelevant. But a year from now if you buy an iPad2 you’re going to be kicking yourself and here’s why…Apple’s built-in obsolescence. Come late summer, when everyone is clamoring for the latest 4G phones and tablets if you own a XOOM you’ll be sitting pretty. On the other hand good old ‘Steve’ is setting iPad2 owners up to have to fork out ANOTHER $500 next year for the iPad3 to get the 4G that XOOM owners will have in a few months…and on this tablet…not the next. Oh...and did I mention flash support? So which really costs more if you think about it? I’d go with the XOOM. See more at http://MotorolaXoomForums.com
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phibo78
March 5th 2011
8. Expensive for an unknown product on a unproven OS.
To be honest, the simple fact that you randomly can't charge via USB rules it out for me, how can they ignore such a vital function?
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