Slightly quicker
On a more positive note, the Xoom 2’s micro USB port doubles up as both the sync and charge port, and the device charges when connected to a PC over USB.
Motorola claims the Xoom 2's 1280 x 800 LCD panel has been improved but gives no technical details as to how. Not having both side by side, it’s a claim that is hard for me to quantify but I can tell you that there’s nothing wrong with the new screen. Despite lacking any trick IPS technology the viewing angles are impressive, there’s little if any backlight bleed, and it’s bright, crisp and colourful.
The 5Mp rear-facing camera is nothing special
Under the hood there’s little difference between the old and the new so you get 1GB of Ram and a dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 chip. The Xoom 2’s CPU is clocked at 1.2GHz, up from 1GHz before, but the extra speed has little if any discernible impact.
The AnTuTu benchmark app returned a score of 5666 which bears out Motorola’s claim that there's a 20 per cent improvement - well, the CPU's clock speed is 20 per cent higher - but the Xoom 2 doesn’t really feel any faster and still struggles to play 1080p video in any other format than MP4, just like the 1GHz Xoom.
While the original Xoom came with a Micro SD card slot that didn’t work until an update arrived, the Xoom 2 doesn’t even have a slot so you are stuck with the built-in 16GB, or 12 and a bit after the system's taken its share.
Actually, that bit about no slot isn’t strictly true. Next to the HDMI and USB ports is a flap concealing two blocked slots. From the shape and size I’d guess they were intended for Micro SD and SIM cards.
Next page: Insufficient upgrade?
COMMENTS
Normally I can't be bothered quibbling with review ratings (they're subjective and as a reader I'll take what I need from the actual text of the review) but this one fairly leapt out.
For a suggested price of £399 (per the review):
"A feature of the design that really gets my goat is the positioning of the micro USB and mini HDMI ports"
"the extra speed has little if any discernible impact"
"the Xoom 2 doesn’t really feel any faster and still struggles to play 1080p video in any other format than MP4"
"the Xoom 2 doesn’t even have a slot so you are stuck with the built-in 16GB, or 12 and a bit after the system's taken its share"
"File transfer is handled solely through the MTP protocol so anyone with a Mac or Linux box is up a gumtree"
"without a stylus writing a note is far very from easy and you can’t use the keyboard"
"the 5Mp main cameras has been yanked from the old Xoom parts bin because it’s equally mediocre"
"the Xoom 2 isn’t certified to make Skype video calls but I was still rather surprised to find that the 1.3Mp webcam couldn’t manage them anyway"
"[the price] is a lot extra for a machine that albeit lighter and slimmer is only faster on paper and lacks storage expansion"
"it’s no major leap forward from the original Xoom"
"The extra 200KHz of chip speed has little measurable impact on performance"
So a device with little improvement in speed, a poor camera, no Skype, doesn't play nicely with Linux or Macs, and has no expandable or swappable storage...
And this gets 75%? I'd hate to see what a bad tablet gets...
Strike Vomit; 200% the functionality? What are you smoking these days? "Kool-aid gulping twat", and you have the nerve to express disappointment in me for calling you a fuckwit? I know it's difficult for a fandroid to do anything rationally when one of the devices running their holy OS is criticised, but when you look at things *rationally* you'd expect the Xoom 2 to be significantly better at the that price point than than the iPad given that you constantly criticise Apple for being overpriced style-over-substance 'toys' with allegedly 200% less functionality. As an aside, if the iPad is a style-over-substance, surely these 'me too!' devices are only ever going to be worse than that? In fact the only truly original competing product is the Asus Transformer. The irony of your post will be lost on you of course; the very fact that you bemoan critics of Android devices as kool-aid drinking humourless sheep that can't take criticism of the beloved fruit is laughable in the face of your typical fandroid response. You can claim that you like to wind up fanbois all you like, but we can all see the flecks of spittle on the side of mouth...
On Macs you can use the Android File Transfer utility.
But let's admit it, relying on plugins or apps or plugins for transfers is not as convenient, fast or stable as native USB mass storage, so the reviewer has a point.
iPad2?
At least you can copy files to the Xoom 2 on ANY PC or piece of shit Mac WITHOUT having to use the effing iCloud or that piece of shit bloatware SHiTunes!
or the glass half full
Thinner
Lighter
Better battery life
Easier to hold
Re-charge over USB
I'd say docking 10% points over the original for it not being as far reaching an upgrade as it could have been is far enough.
Hope we get a review of the 8.2in version, that sounds QI.
