Motorola Xoom 3G

Motorola Xoom 3G

For: Good value, Honeycomb 3.1, dual core, HDMI, Good camera.

Against: Average battery life, no customization for Motorola’s end, not

very slim .

Motorola’s Xoom was the first

commercially available tablet

to rock Google’s Honeycomb

OS. The Xoom comes with Android 3.1,

which is lot faster and smoother than

the 3.0. An aluminium frame makes

up most of the body which is smooth

and does not attract finger prints. The

10.1-inch screen sports a 1280x800 pixel

resolution and the Xoom is powered by

Nvidia’s Tegra 2 CPU which runs at 1 GHz.

The internal memory is 32 GB and is the

same for both, the Wi-Fi and 3G models.

The video player only supports MP4

and WMV file formats along with codecs

like H.264 and H.263. 1080p videos play

just fine provided they are in MP4 format.

The music player is very basic too, with

no equalizer presets or enhancement

options. The supported file formats

include MP3, WAV, WMA and AAC+.

Sound quality is once again just average

so if you’re serious about music, look

elsewhere.

The 3G version supports quad-band

GSM and HSDPA, HSUPA, dual-band Wi-Fi

n and Bluetooth v2.1. The 3G SIM can only

be used for data since the Xoom does not

have any telephony functions. The default

WebKit browser is good enough for casual

surfing as it supports tabs, full Flash 10.1

support, etc. Also, once connected, the

Xoom does not show up as a removable

drive, but as a ‘Media Device’.

The 5 megapixel auto-focus camera

on the Motorola Xoom 3G is capable

of 720p video recording at 30 fps. The

picture quality is strictly average for

indoor shots while it fares slightly better

outdoors. The dual-LED flash is powerful

and easily illuminates the subject in a

pitch dark room provided you maintain

a distance of 5-6 feet. The captured

image is clear, with good amount of

detail. 720p video recording is smooth

for most part, but while panning, slight

jerks are present. Motorola didn’t mention

what capacity battery they’ve used in

the Xoom, only that it will deliver up to

10 hours of video playback. In our video

drain test, the tablet managed 7 hours

15 mins, where as our loop tests lasted

close to 10 hours.

At a street price of roughly Rs 34,999,

the Xoom’s only other competitor is

the Samsung Galaxy Tab 750. Both are

almost equally powerful and have similar

feature sets, except for the fact that

the Tab 750 has only 16 GB of internal

memory as opposed to 32 GB on the

Xoom. We can’t say for certain which is

better until we’ve tested the Tab 750.

Motorola hasn’t done any

customizations of their own, so out of

the box, the Xoom’s feature set is pretty

limited until you install apps. This is

where Samsung’s TouchWiz UI may turn

the tables in their favor. If it’s anything like

their mobile version, then we can expect

wider video and audio format support out

of the box, DLNA, etc.

Specifications
Rs 41,490
www.motorola.com

Dimensions (HxWxD): 249.1 x 167.8 x 12.9 mm;

Weight: 730 g; Processor: Dual core 1 GHz;

OS: Android 3.1; Display: 10.1 in, 1280 x 800;

Camera: 5 megapixels; Internal storage: up to 32 GB;

Connectivity: 3G, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, USB,

EDGE, GPS

Currently, the cheapest 3G tablet
with 32 GB storage in the market.