Power broker
To round up, battery life is good but difficult to evaluate accurately. Constant use without turning off seems to deplete the battery in about 8-10 hours. Regular on-off use was an entirely different matter: I found myself recharging the unit only every 2-3 days.
Holds its charge in standby, which is more in keeping with the iPad than the Galaxy Tab
Most impressive of all is the standby time: the Xoom does not discharge much battery power at all while not in use. You can leave the tablet alone for a week and still have plenty of power left for another day or so of active use. Other tablets (Samsung, take note) would be dead by then.
In return for long battery life, you have to put up with a lot of weight. At 730g, the Xoom is a heavy tablet: certainly not a one-hander. And compare this to the equivalent iPad 2, which is barely over 600g.
The real elephant in the room, however, is price. The Xoom is expensive, costing exactly the same as a 32GB iPad 2. OK, so it has a higher screen resolution, a couple of output ports and a card slot that may or may not work one day, so what? The Xoom can’t kill iPads without a killer price.
Verdict
Despite the weight, despite the price, despite everything, the Motorola Xoom has the power to move me. It feels so solid and performs so reliably that I increasingly find myself using it in preference to my iPad 2 whenever Apple compatibility is not an issue. The problem is that it’s an intellectual love affair. While I adore my iPad, I admire and respect my Xoom. Should I seek help? ®
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Motorola Xoom
COMMENTS
Correct me if I'm wrong ...
"Motorola has opted for an on-screen navigation bar, occupying 46 pixels that can never be recovered.
This means the Xoom’s effective screen area is not 1280 x 800 but 1234 x 754, so 720p content at 1280 x 720 won't be full screen after all."
Yes, but the menu bar isn't at the side _and_ at the bottom is it ? It certainly isn't in the picture, so you would be getting 1280 x 754 ( or 1234 x 800 in portrait ) which is 720p ... ( but it wouldn't be full screen - I agree with that, but would play at full resolution as 1280 x 720 is less than 1280 x 754 ... )
Asus Transformer
Should be out soon with the keyboard for even less money.
Review Soon???
Some odd design decisions
I've had a Xoom for about 4 weeks (walked into PC World on day of release and bought one off the shelf). Its a nice chunk of hardware, but Motorola seem to have made some stupid design decisions that will irritate over time :
a) No charge from USB - even if it took longer, this should be an option. Carrying a charging brick around is stupid.
b) Charging socket is on top.....and headphone jack is on bottom. Its awkward to use when charging.
c) The Motorola folio case prevents charging when closed. So my screen has to be left at risk when I leave it charging.
d) No support for device level http proxy (without third party software).
I really want this class of devices to succeed on Android - Apple need the balance to keep them in check. The OS is close, but some of the built in apps (eg. calendar) are lacking that bit of interface magic that Apple supply.
I'm developing for both honeycomb and iOS platforms but the iPad2 is the one I take home to use personally.
re: facepalm
So, you suggest that rather than buying the iPad or Xoom, the Scroll is a good alternative with a 800x480 resistive screen, Android 2.1 (with no plans to upgrade), an unidentified processor speed and a 4 hour battery life?
In this case I'd suggest that a fraction of an iPad is not worth a fraction of the iPad's price - as it's obsolete before you even unwrap it. There's a base level of functionality, below which a device is only of interest to people who collect pocket calculators.
I imagine
that the reviewer has taken that into consideration. Not to mention the fact - shock, horror - that some people prefer to use iOS even so.
Reviews have to be objective, not pandering solely to the pro or anti Apple mobs.
