It was back in November 2010 when we first took an in-depth look at the Android tablet pc alternatives to the Apple iPad, and to be honest we weren't really that impressed with any of them. The new Motorola Xoom, however, promises to change all that. The Xoom is the first tablet to feature the latest Google Android 3.0 'Honeycomb' Operating System, and was the Best of Show winner at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year. But how does what some have been calling the first Android-powered tablet that deserves to be taken seriously stack up against the new iPad 2 which we also recently reviewed here at DaniWeb with some mixed emotions? Let's find out...
I like Android 3.0 Honeycomb and I like the Motorola Xoom, and if it had been launched on to the market last year in direct competition with the original iPad then my money along with my recommendation of where to spend yours would have been firmly with the Xoom courtesy of the cameras, the superior web browsing client and the added processing power. But does that still hold true now that the second generation iPad is out, complete with cameras and a lot more processing power itself?
Perhaps the most important part of the Xoom is not the hardware, or even the apps, but rather the OS. Android 3.0 Honeycomb is the first version of Google's Android operating system that comes properly optimized for tablet devices. What that means, of course, is that the Xoom is really the first proper Android tablet on the market. Having used pretty much every previous version of the Android OS on a whole host of tablet devices, there is no doubt at all that Honeycomb raises the game into an entirely different league. This actually feels like a tablet now, rather than a super-sized smart-phone. I was particularly enamored with the 'widgets' that work so seamlessly and provide an almost desktop-alike experience on a tablet which is both strange, cool and useful all at once. The widgets even stack on top of each other to preserve screen real estate which is nice.
Nice is also a word I would use to describe the Xoom web browsing client which will immediately appeal to anyone who is a fan of the Google Chrome browser client, sharing some of the look and feel including tabbed browsing. The addition of thumb control is brilliant as it enables you to perform the most common functions required during browsing, such as opening tabs or moving between pages, simply by placing your thumb at the edge of the screen and using a curved menu overlay.
OK, so what about the all important optimized for tablets Android OS? Well, Android 3.0 Honeycomb can multitask better than the iPad, in actual fact perhaps I should say it can multitask rather than task-switch and leave it at that. Honeycomb is perhaps a little confusing to experienced Android users, with things like the hardware 'home' and 'back' buttons being replaced with virtual ones for example leading to it taking a bit of getting used to, but this will not be a problem for newcomers to the OS of course. What will be a problem for everyone, and comes in stark contrast to the Apple iOS experience, was the relative instability (error messages and freezing Acer Aspire 5920 battery ) I experienced with the Xoom. The micro SD storage card slot doesn't work out of the box either, although that will be enabled at some point in the future by a system update it gives the impression of a device rushed out before it is really finished.
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