Motorola Droid Xyboard 10.1
The Motorola Droid Xyboard 10.1 and 8.2 tablets pick up where the
original Xoom tablet left off. They both offer Verizon Wireless' 4G LTE
data speeds, large displays, and a stealth black finish that has been
updated to feel better in the hand.
It's regrettable that they run Android 3.x Honeycomb, like the
original Xoom tablet that they replace when Ice Cream Sandwich is
literally already here. Still, as far as Android tablets go, these two
devices are quite capable and aren't hard on the eyes. They are a bit
hard on the wallet, though, with on-contract pricing starting at $429.99
for the 8.2 and $529.99 for the 10.1, both with 16GB of storage.
Keep reading to learn what they do well, and what they don't do all that well.
Hardware
The two Droid Xyboard tablets are very similar in overall design and
components. Both feature 1280 x 800 pixel IPS touchscreen displays in
different sizes, and come equipped with a mixture of soft-touch black
paint and gun metal gray panels on the rear. The 8.2-inch model offers a
bit more rear-panel style, thanks to some visible bolts, but the
overall look of the devices is pretty similar, down to the "cut corners"
of their bodies and recessed volume controls and power buttons.
The 10.1-inch model, which is meant to be held horizontally, measures
253.9mm x 173.6mm x 8.80mm (10.0in x 6.8in x .34in) in size and weighs
603g (21.3oz). It's a large device, but it feels better in the hand
than the similarly sized HP TouchPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. It
features an IR port and 3.5mm headphone jack up top, near the
rear-facing speaker ports and camera, and offers users the convenience
of micro-USB based charging and a micro-HDMI output on the bottom.
The 8.2-inch Xyboard feels even better in your hands, weighing a
feathery 390g (13.7oz) while still offering a fairly large display. Its
216mm x 139.8mm x 8.99mm (8,5in x 5.5in x .35in) widescreen dimensions
make it particularly easy to thumb type on when held in its intended
portrait orientation. The location of the rear-facing 5 megapixel
camera is unfortunate, though, since it makes the device very hard to
hold in landscape mode without getting in the way of the lens. Like its
big brother, the 8.2 has top mounted IR and headphone ports and
micro-USB and micro-HDMI ports on the bottom. Unlike the 10.1, though,
the 8.2's speakers are located along the top and bottom edges of the
tablet, which is preferable for landscape-oriented video watching.
Both devices feature a dual-core 1.2GHz processor that is backed by
1GB of application RAM. The 8.2-inch model is available with either 16
or 32GB of internal storage. The 10.1-inch model is available in those
two capacities as well as a larger 64GB version.
I find the displays on the Xyboard 10.1 and 8.2 to be entirely
acceptable, if uninspiring. I had some issues with my first 8.2 review
unit's display (banding and interference), but the replacement that I
received had no such problems. Both tablets' displays are sufficiently
bright and colorful for easy indoor use and offer wide viewing angles.
Usability
When it comes to usability, most of the issues faced by a Motorola
Droid Xyboard user will be of Google's making, due to the rather poor
performance of its Android 3.2 Honeycomb operating system. The user
interface is disjointed feeling, sluggish at times, in spite of
available processing power, and just awkward in my opinion. The fact
that some apps only run in landscape mode while other only in portrait
means that no matter your preference you'll have to rotate a Honeycomb
tablet from time to time. Motorola would have done well to hold the
Xyboard 8.2 and 10.1 from market until they could be launched with
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich from scratch. For what it's worth, Moto
and Verizon promise that an update is forthcoming.
There are some differences between the 8.2 and 10.1-inch models that
impact usability. The 8.2 is easier to hold and use due to its smaller
form factor. Thumb typing, especially in portrait mode, is very easy on
the 8.2. On the other hand, the 10.1 is difficult to type on in
portrait mode due to its size, and darn near impossible for people with
smaller hands when its held in its intended landscape orientation. The
widescreen aspect ratio just makes for too wide a surface to navigate
easily when typing.
The 10.1 offers stylus and handwriting recognition capabilities. I
didn't find them to my liking (I rarely do), but at least Motorola
offers three distinct methods for on screen handwriting, so there's
something for everybody. What is lacking, however, is an easy way to
switch between handwriting and the virtual keyboard. The pop-up notes
function, which is accessible from the notification area, is also
available strictly on the 10.1. Both Xyboard devices support an external
mouse and keyboard (not included).
Motorola wisely saw fit to include a nice array of wallpapers on the
Xyboards - something that was sorely needed. The main applications menu
is stock, with its horizontally scrolling pages and dedicated "My apps"
view. The notification area is also mostly untouched, and still lacks a
way to clear all notifications at one time, which is odd considering
that Android smartphones generally lack a way to clear individual
notifications.
Calling / Data
If you want 4G LTE data, Verizon and either Xyboard tablet have you
covered. Sick of those measly 15Mbps download speeds you are seeing on
other LTE devices? I broke 20Mbps on multiple occasions using Ookla's
SpeedTest.net app, and even topped 28Mbps on one particularly thrilling
run. The Xyboards also support Wi-Fi but, who cares? Did I mention
28Mbps over LTE?
Messaging
While Verizon's Droid Xyboard tablets don't support text messaging,
they do offer good options for email consumption. Google's own
multi-paned version of Gmail is available, of course, but users will
also find a nice Motorola email client that supports multiple accounts,
contacts sync, and a combined inbox. Google Talk can be used for
instant messaging and video chat, but no other IM systems are supported
out of the box.
Apps / App Store
There are literally hundreds of thousands of Android applications
available in the Android Market. The issue is that little more than a
handful of them have been optimized for Honeycomb tablets, and some of
them won't run at all. The Xyboards attempt to deal with ill-fitting
apps by offering iOS-like app zooming, but that's a weak substitute for
the real thing. Motorola attempts to further address the situation by
linking to tested and approved apps from its MotoPack application.
Motorola includes the Citrix GotoMeeting client on both tablets, and the
10.1 also gets the Citrix Receiver application for business use.
Browser
The Android 3.2 Honeycomb browser on the Droid Xyboard 8.2 and 10.1
is largely unchanged from its stock form, but it's also more stable than
the versions found on earlier Honeycomb releases. It offers fully
tabbed browsing, Adobe Flash support, and an optional swipe based user
interface that many will find convenient. The browser seems a bit slow
in filling the screen when panning around, and zooming is not as smooth
as I'd like, but overall it provides a decent user experience.
Camera
Motorola's Xyboard tablets come equipped with 5 megapixel rear-facing
cameras and 1.3 megapixel, fixed-focus forward-facing cameras. The 5
megapixel cameras have an LED flash, and all of the cameras,
front-facing included, can record 720p HD video. That's pretty nice.
Image quality both with and without flash is generally good for a
tablet, though the 8.2's smaller stature makes it far easier to snap
crisp shots. The 10.1's massive size makes shooting a photo something
like walking around while holding a framed family portrait in front of
you. It's not easy to do, and it just looks foolish.
Music
The Motorola Droid Xyboard 10.1 and 8.2 use Google's Honeycomb music
app, the one that is integrated with its cloud-based Google Music
service. Users can play locally stored tracks as well as cloud-based
ones, and easily create playlists or view their music organized by
artist, album, song, genre, and "new and recent." Each option presents
music in a different view, and only the "new and recent" view offers the
cool 3D rendered scrolling flow of album art for some reason. Audio
output is good through 3.5mm headphones (not included), and reasonable
through the built-in speakers found on the tablets.
Battery
Motorola equipped its 10.1-inch Xyboard tablet with a large 7000mAh
battery, which is 75% larger than the 3960mAh battery found in the 8.2
model. The 10.1 is rated for 10 hours of Wi-Fi web browsing (8 over
LTE), while the 8.2 is rated 6 hours of Wi-Fi browsing (4.8 over LTE).
Motorola rates the devices as being good for 33 days (10.1) and 19 days
(8.2) of standby battery life. My use with both devices seems to
suggest that these number are roughly accurate (apart from standby time,
perhaps), and more or less on par with similar competing devices.
Final Thoughts
People that read my reviews frequently might have noticed about my
preference for smaller tablets over larger ones. I simply find a
10.1-inch tablet unwieldy, even if it is relatively light. As such, I
greatly prefer the cheaper 8.2-inch Droid Xyboard over the 10.1-inch
model. Both are very nice, or at least as much so as Android Honeycomb
allows, and they offer blazing LTE data speeds.
Price and required monthly data contracts will be their undoing
though. In a world where Apple's iPad 2 is available for the same price
as the Xyboard 10.1 and Amazon is offering a solid 7-inch Android
tablet for less than half the cost of the 8.2, Motorola will be fighting
uphill battles. Even if they are pretty nice machines.
Pros: Blazing 4G LTE speeds, attractive design, comfortable, dual 720p cameras.
Cons: Typical Android Honeycomb OS issues, expensive on-contract pricing. No microSD card slot.
Cons: Typical Android Honeycomb OS issues, expensive on-contract pricing. No microSD card slot.
source:www.techspot.com
