The Motorola Xoom is one of the many new dual core Android tablets on the market which runs version 3.0 of Google's operating system and boasts a plethora of premium features to differentiate it from its smartphone siblings. The obvious comparisons with the Apple iPad 2 are bound to cloud many Motorola Xoom review scores, but this is a tablet which deserves to be considered in its own right.
Motorola Xoom- The first thing that will strike you about the Motorola Xoom is the display, which measures 10.1 inches across the diagonal and provides plenty of real estate to let you use your fingers to interact with homescreen elements, apps and web pages. Onboard a dual core processor with two physical cores clocked at 1GHz apiece gives it the kind of oomph that is required to run multiple apps and complex programmes without a hitch.
The rest of the hardware is suitably future-proof, with 1GB of RAM sitting alongside a 32GB storage allocation. If you pick the top range model you will get 3G connectivity and the promise of an upgrade to superfast 4G LTE as soon as the networks are available and Motorola has delivered an update to enable it.
Photography is a big part of the Motorola Xoom, with a five megapixel camera mounted on its rear surface to go hand in hand with the two megapixel lens located above the main display. Video recording, web chats and photo uploads should all be easy to achieve and with tablets now integrating cameras as standard it is good to see Motorola keeping in step with its rivals.
Wi-Fi only or full 3G ready models of the Xoom are available, giving you plenty of ways to get online. The widescreen aspect ratio is definitely suited to web browsing, but it really comes into its own when you start watching movies or streaming video from the internet. Unlike the iPad and iPad 2 you will not have to deal with black bars when viewing your favourite shows and support for Flash content means a world of online services are available at your fingertips.
If you have made the most out of the native apps provided with the Xoom then you will be able to download thousands more from the Android Market, many of which are free of charge. Gaming is another area of excellence for this tablet, as the dual core CPU can chew through complex graphics with ease whilst the screen gives you lots of room to see what is going on in your favourite titles.
Our review has found the device to be solidly constructed, although it is chunkier than the iPad 2 and heavier than smaller Android tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab and HTC Flyer. However, as a multimedia powerhouse it is difficult to match Motorola Xoom and with the promise of continued updates it will persist in its role as your constant companion wherever you choose to use it. Hopefully solid sales will help it to sustain its position as a viable tablet PC.
Eric Muhanji is an expert author of Telecommunication industry and contributes his valuable thoughts for telecoms industry readers. Get the best deals on tablet PC from dedicated sites like mobiles.co.uk.