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 Channel Futures

Open Source


30-Second Review: The Motorola Xoom

  • Written by Dave Courbanou 1
  • April 26, 2011

Motorola billed the Xoom as the end-all, be-all of tablets, sporting an Android Honeycomb OS and a plethora of apps for both business and personal use. And despite early reports that it wasn’t selling well, our 30-second test of the Xoom revealed at least a few redeeming qualities. Read on for some flavor:

The main problem with the Xoom is the power button. It’s not located on the outer edge, nor is it a touch-button on the bezel. Instead, Motorola chose to put the power button on the back of the device. It’s a bad idea in general, especially if it’s on display for sale. If prospective buyers can’t figure out how to turn on the device within a few seconds, they’re going to walk away.

Aside from the power button issue, the Xoom is actually quite nice. The screen is high resolution (1280×800), making it look more like a detached netbook screen than a tablet. The comparison isn’t stunning, however, when compared to the iPad, and for some, the resolution may even be a little too high, which could make things smaller and difficult to read. T

The plastic back that adorns the Xoom is smooth and feels slightly rubberized, so it’s easy to grip with two hands and non-slippery if you’re holding it with one. And while the plastic makes the device more lightweight, it raises questions about the Xoom’s durability. Still, that’s nothing to complain about, since the tablet feels far from cheap. The build quality is solid.

The Xoom has a a 10.1-inch screen with a 16:10 wide-screen resolution, so holding the tablet in portrait mode feels awkward, like a slightly too-tall magazine. This tablet was designed to be used horizontally. Motorola also provides a separate cord for charging the device, which means users can’t charge via USB — at all. That’s a bit of an inconvenience for those who plan on doing a lot of traveling with this.

So, then, how does Honeycomb stack up against the iOS and regular Android?

It’s sexy, no doubt. Instead of  having “pages” of screens like iOS and the phone-versions of Android, Honeycomb is set up as a cube, with users rotating the “walls” to access apps. The effect is subtle, but it’s just enough flair to excite. But even with what the Motorola Xoom has under its hood (dual-core 1GHz CPU), Honeycomb doesn’t run smoothly. Some effects — such as multitasking through apps — are gorgeous, but rotating Google Maps is hardly responsive. Browsing through a web page before it’s fully loaded produces page scrolls that are jittery or completely unresponsive. The good news: Flash works great.

As futuristic and cool as it is, the biggest problem with Honeycomb is that it’s unintuitive. Honeycomb puts things all over the place. A multitasking menu is available by tapping on the lower left corner, and a lower-right corner tap shows what’s happening with the apps that are running. Tapping the upper-right corner from the home screen gives users their applications. Tapping and holding the home screen zooms the screen out and users can look at their running applications and all their home screens. It definitely needs an instruction book. Non-geeks need not apply — this consumer device is high-tech and not for moms who want to check their e-mail and look up recipes.

The bottom line is? Stick with an iPad unless you want the bleeding edge. The potential is there, without a doubt, but the Xoom feels a little half-baked.

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Tags: Cloud Service Providers Digital Service Providers MSPs VARs/SIs Mobility Open Source

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2 comments

  1. Avatar pj April 27, 2011 @ 5:48 pm
    Reply

    Your joking right? Anyone that has worked a computer can understand the home screen navigation, especially if you previously owned an Android phone. Even non geeks can operate it.

  2. Avatar Dave Courbanou April 27, 2011 @ 8:13 pm
    Reply

    Hi PJ,

    I’m very much not joking. When you turn on an iPad, it’s not very alienating. It’s immediately apparent what the little icons do. When you turn on the Xoom, you have icons, mixed with widgets, mixed with status bars. There is no central ‘home’ button, and it’s not immediately obvious how to move through applications or even quit from them. It’s not even obvious how many applications are on the Xoom, because the home screen is independent of the app drawer.

    it’s still a mess. If you think that “anyone” who has worked with a computer can understand it, you’re over-esitmating the general public. I had difficulty using Honeycomb, and I’ve owned an Android phone which I had running custom ROMs and a plethora of other hacked things.

    But geek, or not geek, user interface design is an extremely important part of these devices. If it’s not intuitive, it’s not going to bring even the smartest people on board. Who wants to struggle with using their $500+ device? Even if the interface issues were addressed, this doesn’t detract from the general sluggishness / choppiness that Honeycomb exhibits, even on such ‘powerful’ hardware.

    Again, the potential is there, but the general public appeal is limited. And I think the sales figures show that, despite all of Motorola’s advertising and the appeal of Android-based phones.

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