Granted, what I looked at was a pre-production unit. Still, I was concerned by the fact that much of the text sometimes didn't seem as smooth as I'd have liked to see. That said, Google developers said tweaks are ongoing to the Honeycomb OS; and, it's hard to tell at this early stage whether this is a display question (Motorola didn't announce the pixel depth of its screen), a driver question, or an OS rendering question.

The other thing that jumped out at me was the size. At 10.1-inches, the screen is gorgeous for displaying images, and gorgeous for presenting content. However, the unit felt heavy in-hand, especially for when I'd switch to a single-handed view. That observation tracks with the Xoom's announced 1.6 pound-weight, which is 0.1 pounds more than Apple's first-generation iPad. Its physical dimensions didn't feel awkward, though, in spite of its size; Motorola says the Xoom will measure 9.8 by 6.6 by 0.5 inches. That depth puts it right in line with the iPad, and slightly larger than the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

The third thing that didn't wow me was Honeycomb's newly redesigned camera app. On a device as large as the Xoom, the on-screen button placement and navigation felt awkward, at least to my smaller hands. I need to spend some more time with it to see if I can make it work for me in the long-haul, but my first-blush impression is that this new camera interface could use some more work.

These observations are only based on my limited hands-on with the Xoom tablet. I'm sure I'll find more pros and cons to the device after I spend hours with a shipping review unit. But until then, this early taste leaves me tantalized for more. Xoom + Android 3.0 look set to be a winning combination, one that makes me actually look forward to using an Android tablet.