Review: Motorola Xyboard Tablet Boasts Fast LTE Speeds & Attractive Design for …

Name: Motorola Xyboard

Specs: 8.2-inch widescreen IPS-enhanced HD, 1.2GHz TI OMAP4430 dual-core processor, Android 3.2 Honeycomb OS, LTE-compatible, Dual-cameras, 1080p video playback, 1GB of RAM, Wi-fi, and Bluetooth.

Price: $430 (16GB), $530 (32GB)

The Back Story: Motorola’s no foreigner in ushering a subsequent call of unstable inclination as it’s finished this past year with a initial dual-core handset (the Atrix 4G) and a many absolute smartphone out (the Droid Bionic). The hardware specialists had another initial impulse behind in Mar when it expelled a first-ever Honeycomb tablet: the Motorola Xoom. While a Android powerhouse tender many, it unsuccessful to gain on a transitory tablet-craze due to a high price, complicated weight, and inapt software. Seeing how manufacturers like Samsung went behind to a sketch house and found success in a States with a revamped Galaxy Tab series, Moto’s jumped behind into a inscription fight with a inheritor to a Xoom dubbed a Xyboard.

While in a state of bewilderness over a name change, we pennyless giveaway from a tab’s foolish moniker to concentration on a features. It’s an considerable set. With LTE high-speed Internet, wireless streaming capability, absolute LCD display, and an alluring redesign, a Xyboard sounds like a earnest square of hardware on paper. Can Moto’s new baby right a wrongs of a Xoom and turn a widespread Android inscription on a market? Or are we feasting a eyes on a device with teenager enchancements cut from a same cloth?

Dope

• Lighter, some-more industrial design: We’re not alone when saying a biggest emanate with a Xoom was a rude size. Thankfully Motorola came to a finish that going smaller was a improved fit for a Xyboard. It’s scarcely featherweight during 0.85 pounds and distant slimmer than a prototype during 8.89mm. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab is a daintier option, though Moto’s add-on isn’t distant behind in weight class, and is many sturdier. The streamlined aesthetics are enticing, as a contoured edges give a device a neat display and make for smoother transitions when switching from mural to landscape mode. Plus a steel image in a behind enclosed with soft-touch rubber cloaking offers well-spoken and secure in-hand grip. Overall, a Xyboard’s form cause is a immeasurable improvement.

• Awesome LTE connection: After contrast a series of wi-fi-only tablets and fast occasionally tie issues, it’s lovely to bask in a high-speed of Big Red’s LTE network. Our Speedtest.net research showed us pulling a plain 16.81Mbps in download speeds and 3.1Mpbs for uploads around a Tri-State area. Web pages non-stop instantly, while mixed Android Market downloads finished within 5 to 10 seconds simultaneously. Some competence cruise those numbers basic in comparison to some a carrier’s absolute smartphones, the Droid Bionic in particular, though a information speeds are still flattering impressive.

• Multimedia features: Moto did a good pursuit with a Xyboard’s underline set. The 2.1 practical approximate sound complement pumped out impossibly shrill sound and clever drum levels of that we’ve never gifted on a tablet. Bonus points there. We were also held off ensure with a IR emitter sitting atop of a device, afterwards detected it worked in and with a preinstalled Dijit app—allowing a Xyboard to work as a concept remote to control your TV, stereo, or DVD player. The record still has a few kinks to work out, though it’s a bone-head underline to have onboard. You’ll also find a micro-HDMi pier to counterpart inscription calm onto any concordant HDTV. Finally, Motorola includes a streaming MotoCast app for users to wirelessly tide media files and playlists from any concordant PC or laptop.

• Powerful and clever display: Shielded by Corning Gorilla Glass, a 8.2-inch widescreen IPS LCD touchscreen produces colourful visuals and is one of a brightest screens we’ve ever laid a eyes on. Seriously, we can set a display’s liughtness on a lowest turn and still have a transparent perspective of everything. It’s able of generating 1280 x 800-pixel fortitude and accurate colors that glisten when checking out images and prisoner 720p clips around behind 5MP camera. Netflix videos and videos games demeanour sharp, too.

• Ice Cream Sandwich-ready: As promised, Motorola skeleton on rolling out an Android 4.0 (ICS) ascent someday in 2012. So we know a inscription has a tolerable shelf life past Q1 of subsequent year.

Nope

• Too costly and no expandable memory: Considering a infancy of a Xyboard models possibly roomer or surpass a iPad 2 cost tag, it’s intensely formidable to sell a consumer on a Android tab, generally one that requires an additional information use contract. On tip of that, a device lacks additional memory options such as a microSD label container and a 32GB indication in existence usually has 26GB of accessible memory.

• Poor USB compatibility: Don’t design to drag and dump media files or papers onto a device in a jiffy. Before we can even make that leap, you’re promptly forced to implement MotoCast and go by a vapid routine of formulating an comment in sequence to sync files. And even afterwards it gets treacherous since there’s no instruction or superintendence on how to entrance a tab’s inner memory.

• Sluggish performance: We gifted some occasional stumble with Honeycomb. Our Angry Birds gaming event demonstrated occassional lag, a practical keyboard misinterpretted a hold commands during times, and we beheld some hiccups when navigating by menus and a browser.

• Button placement:  Call us aged fashion, though we’re accustomed to carrying a authority buttons on a side or tip of a tablet. Motorola should have schooled a doctrine with a Xoom after confronting several complaints about fixation a energy symbol on a back. Yet instead of ditching a initial layout, it pulls a same stunt, and this time adds a volume rocker; both of that are super little and frustrating to locate.

Final Say: We give Motorola a ton of credit for holding several risks with a Xyboard. The initial being that absurd name. All quips aside, carrying LTE use is a blessing for any inscription (let alone any device), and a new multimedia facilities assistance weigh it as both a business- and entertainment-centric tool. And like a predecessor, a Xyboard tackles a concerns that harm Moto’s initial child. As is a box with many Android tablets, Honeycomb binds a Xyboard from being able of stepping into a inscription Octagon with Apple’s gem. That and a teenager nuisances like a symbol chain and additional information fees. In a end, a Xyboard falls among a rest of a throng as a inscription best matched for Android conformists seeking a latest trend.

Tags: motorola, motorola-xyboard, tablets, honeycomb, android, verizon