While the company's fortunes in the mobile phone market has dimmed somewhat since its Razr line of phones, Motorola may just be able to turn its fortunes around in the tablet scene with its recently announced Xoom slate. Awarded CNET's Best of CES 2011 award, the Xoom joins the upcoming wave of tablets as one of the first to sport Google's latest Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) operating system. Besides its sleek design, find out what else makes the Xoom stand out from the crowd of slates at CES 2011.
Upside: One of the most interesting features of the 730g Motorola Xoom is that it contains a barometer under the hood. Possibly the first to sport this features, the device measures atmospheric pressure. This not only tells you the altitude, but also predicts the weather as the larger the change in pressure, the greater the likelihood of rain.
Like the Dell Streak, the display is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass, which offers impressive scratch-resistance and toughness. The 10.1-inch 1,280 x 800-pixel multitouch display is powered by a 1GHz processor on the Nvidia Tegra 2 chipset, which allows the device to play full-HD videos smoothly. The system is also equipped with 1GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage that can be expanded via the microSD card slot.
The Xoom sports dual cameras, with the 5-megapixel rear shooter capable of recording 720p videos (the front camera has a 2-megapixel resolution). Charging and syncing go through a microUSB port, while a mini-HDMI output allows hooking up to external displays. Thanks to the Android 3.0 OS, the Xoom is capable of displaying Adobe Flash content.
The Motorola Xoom is slated for retail on the first quarter of 2011 with a built-in 3G radio, though future models may sport 4G mobile broadband chips. In the meantime, you can check out a demonstration of the Xoom at CES below.
Downside: While Motorola is a well-known name in the mobile market, the company is a bit player when it comes to portable computing. Considering the fragmented nature of the Android OS for smartphones, there is concern that this may happen to the tablets as well. Should that occur, Motorola's track record in this area with its Android smartphones is not exactly stellar. For example, the Motorola Dext is still on Android 1.5, the original version of Google's mobile OS.
Outlook: Sporting a sexy chassis and impressive hardware, the Motorola Xoom tablet is the device to look out for if you are in the market for an Android slate.
Upside: One of the most interesting features of the 730g Motorola Xoom is that it contains a barometer under the hood. Possibly the first to sport this features, the device measures atmospheric pressure. This not only tells you the altitude, but also predicts the weather as the larger the change in pressure, the greater the likelihood of rain.
Like the Dell Streak, the display is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass, which offers impressive scratch-resistance and toughness. The 10.1-inch 1,280 x 800-pixel multitouch display is powered by a 1GHz processor on the Nvidia Tegra 2 chipset, which allows the device to play full-HD videos smoothly. The system is also equipped with 1GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage that can be expanded via the microSD card slot.
The Xoom sports dual cameras, with the 5-megapixel rear shooter capable of recording 720p videos (the front camera has a 2-megapixel resolution). Charging and syncing go through a microUSB port, while a mini-HDMI output allows hooking up to external displays. Thanks to the Android 3.0 OS, the Xoom is capable of displaying Adobe Flash content.
The Motorola Xoom is slated for retail on the first quarter of 2011 with a built-in 3G radio, though future models may sport 4G mobile broadband chips. In the meantime, you can check out a demonstration of the Xoom at CES below.
Downside: While Motorola is a well-known name in the mobile market, the company is a bit player when it comes to portable computing. Considering the fragmented nature of the Android OS for smartphones, there is concern that this may happen to the tablets as well. Should that occur, Motorola's track record in this area with its Android smartphones is not exactly stellar. For example, the Motorola Dext is still on Android 1.5, the original version of Google's mobile OS.
Outlook: Sporting a sexy chassis and impressive hardware, the Motorola Xoom tablet is the device to look out for if you are in the market for an Android slate.
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