[hugh]

Lots of positives in this review from Toms Guide.

Downsides

However, the Xoom and Honeycomb are suffering from the same issue that plagued the original iPad: a lack of dedicated applications.

Most of the apps we downloaded were built for Android 2.X. They work on Android 3.0, but they aren’t optimized for the hardware or the bigger screen.

and

There are two glaring holes for the Xoom right now: No Flash and no LTE. Both are promised upgrades, but they won’t arrive for another few months.

and

Simply put: The Motorola Xoom does not support High Profile HD video playback.

Another Review: CNET ASIA

 

[hugh]

I'm not sure if the non-support for High profile video playback would be an issue for me but the shortage of Android 3.0 apps would be.

Still it appears to be a worthy competitor to the iPad 2.

 

[hdtvi]

I'm still trying to figure out if one of these things would improve my life or just give me more hassle and reasons to spend money.
The iPad / Apple's closed system and proprietary hardware turn me off but the Xoom and Android appear to be a work in progress.
The dedicated iPad apps were not there when it launched so I know they will appear for Android over time. As for LTE, not an issue with our Canadian non-competition system.
Flash will never appear on an iPad but it will likely appear on the Xoom or other Android based devices.

This is still early in the tablet game, I can hold out until next year at least. (I think)

 

[hugh]

I debated getting an iPad. Now that I have it, I wonder how I ever lived without it!

Our household now needs a second tablet since everyone is using the iPad. I am now debating an iOS/WebOS or Android Honeycomb tablet for our second device.

 

[JohnnyCanuck]

I'm a huge Android fan and think Honeycomb will be a superior platform to iOS, but why would you rule out QNX? The Playbook looks like the tablet home run and better than anything built on any of the other platforms. Unless there's a specific need for a 10" tablet (and I am using a 7" now with no real sense that I need more real estate), RIM's solution looks like the best by virtually any measure, as long as the app developers don't let us down.

 

[hugh]

I should not have mentioned the iPad, I was simply relaying to hdtvi that a tablet (in our case the iPad) is now an indispensable part of our consumer electronics inventory and well worth investigating.

Let's keep this thread on discussing the Xoom.

 

[JohnnyCanuck]

Fair enough ... my fault too

I have an Android 2.2 tablet (Archos 70it), rooted, running a custom ROM (UrukDroid) and the thing is pretty amazing. The shortcomings are already relatively few. The prospects of Honeycomb as an OS and the hardware power of the Xoom is really appealing.

Flash will be available (it's readily available on 2.x hardware). Apps will be plenty. And, the ability to tether an Android tablet to any smartphone (except as locked out by Apple) means that one doesn't need to pay for multiple devices or data packs on a WiFi unit. That is, in my mind, a massive advantage.

 

[audacity]

I don't care much (either way) about the Xoom from a hardware perspective, but I hope Google is successful in evolving Andrioid 3.0 (and the related ecosystems for apps and content) so that it is a great platform. It's that ecosystem that will be with us for years after everyone throws away their Xoom.

 

[Veee]

Is the Xoom on sale anywhere in Canada?

 

[hugh]

No confirmed Canadian announcements that I am aware of but speculation is that Bell will be the first to offer.

 

[redzone]

the biggest plus imo for the xoom is how every review i have read has said the web browsing experience is the closest anyone has gotten to a desktop equivalent and once adobe releases there new flash for it you cant ask for better then that.

i have not though seen anything on the ipad 2 browsing experience to compare it to.

Also IMO moto overpriced the thing...considering the competitions pricing and HUGE reputation you should not be more expensive then them. Its like shooting yourself in the foot..

 

[hugh]

I'm sure the dual core processor is the primary reason for the Xoom's speediness. The HP touchpad and iPad2 will also have dual core processors (don't know about RIM) so it will be interesting to see they all compare.

Motorola will have to price the Xoom (and HP will have to price the Touchpad) at the same price as the iPad2 or lower if they want to put up any serious sales numbers. By same price I mean Wifi/3G models of comparable capacity.

 

[Veee]

No confirmed Canadian announcements that I am aware of but speculation is that Bell will be the first to offer.

I'd only consider a Wifi-only tablet. Why pay for an extra data plan when I could just tether it to my phone or home network?

 

[james99]

....so it will be interesting to see they all compare.

A compare you say? http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=137503

 

[hugh]

I've seen that but it doesn't measure browser performance and how long it takes to render pages which is what redzone was discussing.

 

[james99]

You mentioned the dual core processors which is within the graph and reason for link

 

[TorontoColin]

No LTE is a much bigger issue in the US where Verizon Xoom users are stuck on EVDO speeds. If a carrier picks it up in Canada it will almost assuredly be an HSPA+ variant which will already be significantly faster.

I'm sure the app support will catch up relatively quickly. At the moment the Honeycomb market is so small that developing apps for it seems like a waste of resources. As long as the Xoom sales are decent, and once a couple of other Honeycomb tablets hit the market, I'm sure the number of apps will pick up quickly.

 

[audacity]

I'm sure the dual core processor is the primary reason for the Xoom's speediness. The HP touchpad and iPad2 will also have dual core processors (don't know about RIM) so it will be interesting to see they all compare.

I'm not so sure about that in the context of a browser since browser rendering engines are very much single threaded processes. You would only see serious improvements form multiple cores if you have multiple DOMs (pages) processing markup in parallel. A new item (which is talked about with HTML5, but is not included in the standard) is web worker threads. Those do add a little bit of multithreading to the browser environment, but they aren't able to access the DOM so they don't directly affect the page.

If you want a faster computer for browsers, you're better off going with high core speeds and lots of instruction level parallelism (e.g. by having a out-of-order "superscalar" design) instead of multiple cores. ARM Cortex A9 chips are out-of-order (whereas A8 and prior designs are in-order), so I suspect chips using the A9 design will provide a substantial bump for browser rendering performance.

 

[redzone]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4191/motorola-xoom-review-first-honeycomb-tablet-arrives/6

anandtechs review. as you can see it smashes the ipad 1 in browser speed.

ie engadget.com at 4.7 sec vs 23.8 sec on ipad.

but like i said we need an ipad2 review to be fair as the ipad is about a year old.

 

[audacity]

redzone:

I think that benchmark win for Android/Xoom is more attributable to Android having a faster/better browser than iOS. It's a software thing more than a hardware thing.