Motorola Xoom Tablet from Verizon Wireless
When I got the call to review this I couldn’t wait, and being on the road all the time I thought what an awesome tool to be able to have in a pinch when I need to show a client something and there is no computer near by.
There are things that I really enjoyed about the Xoom and there are things that drove me crazy. Being on the road the compact size and light weight made it so easy to carry with me everywhere, which I made sure to do! This tablet was tested all over Mid-Michigan and was only out of service one time, pretty incredible if you ask me! Getting a case as well as a screen protector is a must, the glare on the tablet is bad when in the car or outside. When pulling the Xoom out of your purse, briefcase, or bag you don’t want it to get scratched so you need to make sure you have a cover.
I really liked the fact that it was for the most part a larger version of a device that I already have attached to my hip at all times, my phone. That made it very easy to get used to because the OS is similar to my phone.
Design
The Xoom tablet is a 9.8 Inches Wide and 6.6 inches tall which is slightly smaller then the counterpart the IPad which measures in at 7.34 inches tall and 9.34 inches wide. The Xoom runs predominantly in landscape mode. It also runs the five various home screens just like its smaller counterpart in that of the Android phone. I enjoy this because then I can set up each page to run something different.
When I first got the Xoom, it took me some time to figure out where all the important buttons were. I found that the on-off switch was in a horrible spot, on the back right next to the camera. Sometimes in the midst of playing with the tablet I would touch the on-off switch and didn’t even realize it and off the screen would go. I think that the main on-off button should be on the top or one of the sides. Also, there is no “quick launch” button like it’s competitor the IPad, which I think would be a great feature to include.
Display
The Xoom has a beautiful bright screen. It does however need some sort of screen protector as well as a case of some sort to take it out on the go with so that the screen doesn’t get scratched. The screen protector would also serve two purposes…
1. To reduce availability to scratching and
2. To help reduce the glare
When the Xoom goes out on the road with you for work, without the right screen protector the glare makes it a useless tool for the on-the-go person as it turns into a rather large expensive paperweight. (I recommend the Zagg the Offical InvsiableSHIELD)
Camera
There is a 2.0 megapixal front and a 5.0 megapixal rear facing camera which is a nice feature when wanting to skype with friends; however I found it to be slightly useless when out on the road needing to use a camera.
The tablet is too big and too bulky to make it easy to take pictures and I found that steadying the tablet was more difficult also. When I had it propped up against something that was holding it steady for me it was easier to take pictures.
The video camera shoots in 1280x800 which is HD, but that isn’t much different then any basic cell phone now days.
3D Experience available also, on the latest versions of the Motorola Xoom.
Music
There are several ways to get music onto the Xoom if you don’t want to use a service such as Pandora or Slacker Radio. It can also, either connect via USB and drag and drop or use an app like doubleTwist to sync with iTunes playlists and pod casts. You can also buy music for the Xoom through Amazon’s MP3 Store. Mac fans should try Tune Sync for syncing iTunes. It’s $3.99 through the market.
Battery Life
The battery on the Xoom is fabulous; it can go days without recharging with moderate use-age. This is for the Nerds out there, it seems to have everything to do with the dual core chip and it makes it so that the Xoom isnt pulling twice the power that the android phones pull which in turn causes the phone batteries to die in no time flat.
Interface
The Xoom is running Android 3.0 Honeycomb, which could be a good and bad thing because some of my favorite apps would download but I was unable to run them. Come to find out after the fact that most of the apps haven’t been optimized to run Android 3.0.
Back to as I previously stated in the Battery Life section, the Xoom is powered by the dual-core Tegra 2 system (SOC) and it runs an ARM Cortex-A9 processor at 1GHz. It also has a NVICIA’s low-power graphic processor, which helps run with the most effectiveness but does so without draining the battery.
The Xoom also is 4G LTE upgradeable.
Conclusion
For the price is the Xoom worth it. I would have to say defiantly!!!!
I would love to have this tool on the road with me all the time. It made quick and easy work pulling up information that being discussed in the “meeting” at that time. The only time I ran into problems with it was when I was in an area that didn’t have service or where the service was sketchy. That (in our area) ranged anywhere from the Thumb area where “Thumb Cellular” has cornered the towers or heading up north toward the Alma area, where the service gets a little sketchy, but if you can pick up someone’s wifi it’s irrelevant.
I would have loved to check out the difference between the 3G and 4G speed sense it was just released in our market, but maybe I can check that out on my next devise review.
Specs
Processor: NVIDiA Tegra 2 Dual-Core ARM Cortex-A9 processor at 1GHz
Storage: Internal Storage 32 GB – 1GB LP DDR2 RAM
Screen: 10.1 1280 x 800
Camera: 5MP rear camera with dual LED flash: 2MP Front camera; 720p 1280-by-800-pixel video
Audio: 3.5mm headset jack/MicroHDMI Port /USB Port
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi
Dimensions: 10.1” 1280 x 800 / 0.51” Thick / ~1.5 Lbs
*Review Author: Kristina Russo, NBC25
