Motorola Xoom Review: The First Honeycomb Tablet Arrives
by Anand Lal Shimpi on February 23, 2011 11:57 PM ESTWireless Performance: Cellular & WiFi
The Xoom ships by default with an EV-DO baseband for use on the Verizon network in the US. In practice I saw download speeds of anywhere from 0.35Mbps all the way up to 1.89Mbps and 0.10 to 1.09Mbps upstream. On average I got ~900Kbps down and ~600Kbps up, which is pretty typical for Verizon in North Raleigh.
By comparison the iPad 3G averaged 1.3Mbps down in the same locations as I tested the Xoom, but only 0.2Mbps up. Remember the iPad 3G has the same modem as the iPhone 3GS - it has HSDPA but not HSUPA so the theoretical max upload is only 384Kbps.
Motorola and Verizon will be offering a free upgrade to an LTE modem later this year. The modem will have to be physically soldered onto the motherboard so it’s not an end-user upgrade. There’s already an LTE SIM slot and tray built into the Xoom for use post-upgrade.
The Xoom also features an integrated 2.4GHz 802.11n WiFi radio supporting a single spatial stream at up to 72Mbps. In practice I measured a peak transfer rate of 36Mbps, which makes the Xoom the fastest device we’ve ever tested over WiFi (the original iPad was the previous king at 30Mbps).
Like all other Android 2.2 or later devices, you can create a personal hotspot with the Xoom and share your cellular data connection with other devices over WiFi.
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mrdeez - Monday, February 28, 2011 - link
I was gona wait for the wifi version but now, I am really thinking of just getting a new lappy for 350...I can still tether to phone and it is cheaper and no stupid data contracts. I am sure we wont see these wifi versions for awhile. It's almost starting to look like google is greedier than apple and thats very scary!IBM650 - Tuesday, March 1, 2011 - link
Mossburg ran a movie loop, IPAD was about 11 hours, Xoom about 7. So a big differenceprtech - Thursday, March 3, 2011 - link
AS per my understanding 'ADAM' is already out and hoping you got one. Can you give us Benchmarks and in depth review like you did for other products.mmullany - Friday, March 4, 2011 - link
Iin order to pass ACID, the 100/100 has to match the reference image and the animation has to be smoooth. The Xoom fails in three ways - it has a rendering artifact in the top right, the animation isn't smooth and the colors don't match exactly. In addition, many of the HTML5 features that the Xoom self-reports as having, do not actually operate correctly.AnnonymousCoward - Saturday, March 5, 2011 - link
Great to see some timed tests! Real-world loading time is directly understandable and relevant. Now please do the same in your SSD reviews :)JefTek - Sunday, March 6, 2011 - link
I ran the Sunspider tests multiple times on my Xoom and never seem to have received a number higher than 2100.Without doing a full on average, my results were closer to the 2050ms mark.
http://jeftek.com/1942/motorola-xoom-sunspider-res...
I wonder what was different?
Hrel - Sunday, March 13, 2011 - link
I'd really like to see a 24" 1080p touch screen with smartphone innards. Instead of using desktop or even laptop parts just cause it'd cost WAY less. Or better yet have a 24" 1080p touch screen with an empty slot so you can just insert your tablet/smartphone (would require a universal port or cable) and have that power the display. The display should also incorperate a hdd bay or two. Cause really, who wants to go around buying a tablet for each room in the house?I just think it'd be really nice to have a much larger touch screen in the kitchen on the stand where you can stream music, watch a youtube video, look at recipes while cooking. Or out on the deck grilling. 6-10" screens are great if you want something larger than a smartphone/archos tablet to carry around with you and get great battery life where you can basically just surf the web. But for in home use, anywhere a stationary device can be placed, a larger screen is almost always better.
turbobutton - Tuesday, March 15, 2011 - link
Apparently "Corning Glass" is one part of that equation that can make it happen, although clearly more technology needs to be developed for this to be feasible. You will really enjoy this video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cf7IL_eZ38
Hrel - Sunday, March 13, 2011 - link
"Google lets you "blank" if you want". That whole idea, giving YOU the choice of how you want it to work. I don't just want that, I NEED it. If Apple will never open up and give configuration options to users, then I will never use Apple anything. I will never recommend it and I will always fight their market penetration.Hrel - Sunday, March 13, 2011 - link
Wow, I was hoping for 400 bucks. I was thinking they'd probably jew us out and charge 500 though. 800?! That's just stupid, Archos it is then.