We have tablets, tablets, tablets coming from all sides, these couple of months. From el-cheapo tablets from China to high-end tablets from established brands, tablets are fast becoming the darling of the ICT world. Hence, the reason why more and more manufacturers are coming out with tablets to fill in the demand. Motorola not wanting to be left behind in the race, now have come up with their own answer – the Xoom.
Look at it!
Looking at the design, the Xoom looks like the iPad. Well, mostly. The screen is a 10.1-inch gadget with capacitive touchscreen feels good being used on a daily basis. The front of the tablet is devoid of any physical buttons of any sort, which gives it a very clean look. The back of the device meanwhile is also minimal, with it made out of mainly aluminium. The only break in the clean back is the module where both the camera and power button is located. Yes, you turn on the tablet from the back of the tablet. It feels very natural actually – the button is located where your finger falls when you grab the Xoom in a landscape orientation.
Roboting around.
As this is also an Android Honeycomb tablet, it feels quite the same as the Acer and the ASUS tablets we have tested so far. Google did the right thing, reining in the fragmentation of their tablet OS. You get the usual list of apps plus a few games to take advantage of the built-in Tegra 2 processor.
You also get connectivity options – headphone jack, HDMI cable and wireless support like WiFi and Bluetooth are the standard fare. There is also an accessory port at the bottom for you to connect it to the optional keyboard that comes separately.
Weeping Wallet Syndrome
While the tablet feels nice and all, I feel the price brings it down a few notches. The recommended retail price for the Xoom is RM2499. When compared with the other Honeycomb tablets that have come through our labs recently, it feels overpriced. Yes, the build quality is top notch, but then so are a few other tablets. Better yet, I can think of two, that by the virtue of price are much more of a value buy than the Xoom.
If you are looking for a tablet, you can’t go wrong with the Xoom. Alas, because of the high price, I can’t really recommend it to anyone.
