Google Android 3.0 and Motorola Xoom: Hands-On, Awesome

02.02.2011

Beyond my gripe about the smoothness of text, the screen displayed gorgeous photographs. Looking at images of NFL football on the Sports Illustrated app, the players practically leapt off the screen. The capacitive multi-touch screen was super-responsive in conjunction with Honeycomb; speedy swipes and light touches only, thank you.

The Xoom's design is optimized for use in landscape mode. The front-facing camera sits in the middle of the display, along the top (or, the right-hand side, if in vertical position). The volume buttons are on the top left corner (or upper right side in vertical position). Along the bottom (in landscape position) are what appeared to be mini-USB and mini-HDMI ports, with no port cover. On the opposite side appeared to be a covered micro-SD card slot.

The rest of my observations on the Xoom reflect the redesigned Android 3.0 and how zippy the functionality was. I could move amongst the five homescreens lickety-split, and even the 3D carousels for music, YouTube, and Google Books moved smoothly and sharply.

I liked the lack of capacitive touch buttons in the bezel; on the Android 2.2 (Froyo)-based tablets I've tried with buttons, I find the buttons tend to get in the way depending upon the orientation of the tablet-I'd activate a menu or go back when I had no intention of doing so. By integrating the navigation buttons into the interface, so it appears on the screen with your content, Google eliminates the annoyances of upside-down home buttons, let alone the concern of buttons being in the way of your palm or forefingers as you hold a device.