I spent about 30 minutes in a Verizon store today, while my wife got some things done with her phone.
Most of that time I spent with the Xoom. Granted, I only had 30 minutes. And I fully expected to like it--I am firmly on the side of supporting good competition within the market. I had considered picking up one for the house and to experiment with the platform.
I HATED it. Which surprised me. It felt cheap. It crashed 6 times in the 30 minutes I used it (asked the VZ guy there and he said the one I was holding had just been put out on display today).
The internet was alright, but crashed twice. it stuck a few times.
The screen was not as good in terms of resolution. Reminded me of a netbook screen. It wasn't as comfortable to look at. It didn't flip between viewing modes reliably, and when it did it showed how awkward it is to use in portrait mode.
The "home", "back" and other buttons did not always respond well. It could take a few hits to get them to respond, and at times led to a crash.
Speaker was pretty good, but when it was playing a song it was very sluggish to switch between portrait and landscape.
So, for my first half hour or so, I wasn't impressed. I am willing to amend my opinions if my experience improves, and I'll definitely be giving it another chance, hopefully for a bit longer than I got this time. But as of right now all of it's energy is potential, not kinetic. And I wouldn't put it in the same league as the iPad in terms of initial user experience.
Just my opinion.
