Motorola Xoom Review: The First Honeycomb Tablet Arrives
by Anand Lal Shimpi on February 23, 2011 11:57 PM ESTOld & New Apps on Honeycomb
As we mentioned in our overview of Android 3.0, there are a number of features that Honeycomb specific apps are going to be able to take advantage of. For example the dual-pane view that we see in the Honeycomb email apps - we’ll see more of that in future Honeycomb apps similar to what we saw happen with iPad specific apps. We’ll also see developers use contextual action menus.
Existing Android apps should just work on Honeycomb (although some definitely have issues). Google runs these older apps by default full screen, just scaled up to fit the higher resolution of the Xoom.
The fourth button for backwards compatibility: menu
You’ll remember that Honeycomb does away with the menu button, however older Android apps are expecting it to be there. In these situations you’ll see a fourth button added to the lower left of the screen: a virtual menu button.
It’s Crashy
At MWC earlier this month I noted that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 running Honeycomb seemed to be unusually unstable. Given that the first tablet running the OS would be shipping in a matter of weeks I just assumed that it was due to Samsung not having access to the latest build of Honeycomb. After all, Motorola is Google’s device partner this time around.
After using the Xoom for the past couple of days I can say that while the experience isn’t horrible by any means, Honeycomb isn’t anywhere near as stable as Froyo on the Atrix 4G. I’ve had many application crashes in both older Android apps and native Honeycomb apps. For a while there I couldn’t get the Android Twitter app to work at all, even after a reboot.
As I mentioned, it’s not just third party apps. The Honeycomb Browser, camera app and even Marketplace have all crashed on me over the past two days.
There’s also no microSD support in Honeycomb yet, it’ll be added via a forthcoming OS update. And there are many bugs sprinkled throughout the OS (background data automatically enables itself after a reboot even if you disable it). Things like this combined with the instability I mentioned earlier makes me feel like Honeycomb was a bit rushed, perhaps to hit the streets before one other major tablet announcement coming this year?
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Impulses - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
Wow, it loads pages three to eight times faster than the iPad? I didn't realize Tegra 2 was THAT much faster. Did you run that same page load test during the Atrix review? I must've glossed over it.Impulses - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
Preview rather.dcollins - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
It's a combination of Tegra 2 and Chrome being much faster than Safari. I would assume Chrome for Android 3.0 was optimized even more heavily than Chrome for Windows, which remains the performance leader on the desktop.samirsshah - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
make that your SD Card reader SDXC rather than SDHC and just like that utility of Zoom increase twofold because you can store more media. Rumor has it that Apple is going SDXC in their new MacBooks.Impulses - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
SDHC should be good for most people's needs, they go up to at least 64GB no? I mean, even 32GB is a lot of music... Judging by MP3 player sales most people don't care to bring their entire collection of music with them, and if you're at home there's plenty of streaming solutions (or even if you aren't).Impulses - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
I like the intro... I also feel that at these prices tablets are a little bit too much of a luxury item for anyone that has or needs a laptop. For those of us, the tablet's still a third or fourth device (behind phone, laptop/netbook, and possibly a desktop); and at $800 I simply can't justify it. I'd rather upgrade one of my other devices. For people with just a desktop or a heavy desktop replacement laptop I imagine that tablets hold a higher appel, particularly if the don't need a portable system for work/study.Impulses - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
Honeycomb is certainly an impressive release tho, given how quickly after Gingerbread it arrived (had obviously been in the works way earlier)... I'm excited to see where future wifi only models fall. If they sold it at $500 or under with 16gb or even 8gb and no 3g radio they'd fly off the shelves... But just like when the iPad first arrived, I think Moto is well aware they have a superior product so they can charge whatever they want for now.Enormously Hatworthy - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
There's a wifi only 16GB version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 on the way. Pricing for the 16GB 3G version looks to be around €699 so that could come down to €599 without the 3G radio.Plus it'll have Samsung's screen tech and it weighs a quarter of a pound less than the iPad.
Sounds like a winner to me.
Enormously Hatworthy - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
Oh and if you have the pleasure of owning one of Samsung's newer wifi enabled TVs, you'll be able to stream live tv to your Tablet.Unfortunately I don't have the pleasure :(
mcnabney - Saturday, February 26, 2011 - link
And by purchasing Samsung, you can forget about getting updated to 3.1 or 3.2.