Have you actually used the Xoom at all?

[ZBoater]

I've had mine for almost three weeks now. I obviously decided to keep it. I appreciate the review. Different strokes for different folks I guess. For the most part I've found it very stable. I have experienced some instability while using experimental features (like Labs features in the browser) and non-honeycomb apps, but that is to be expected. I find the screen just as nice as my iPad 1, and I prefer the longer form factor. Reading books in portrait mode is very natural and comfortable for me.

Widgets and Live Wallpapers are great. Having a living fish tank or a moving starfield as your background is just a ton of fun over the boring static wallpaper. Sorry.

I have a network traffic widget, a clock/weather widget, and news. I find it extremely useful. And the weather live wallpaper, which basically gives you a living scene depicting the actual weather conditions in your area is fantastic.

I can understand why some would choose to return it. At least you tried it. I am having too much fun with mine, so I'm keeping it. Once I get the 4G upgrade this will be my travel tablet...

 

[jfyrfytr25]

Had mine for 7 days before it went back. I actually thought I was going to really like it when I bought it. The build quality is the only tablet so far I would compare to the ipad. However, just like the OP, after a few days of using it I found myself underwhelmed with the OS and the display just looked weird to me. i felt like I could see the capacitor grid of the digitizer while the display was lit up. just was not sharp at all.

So, I tried as well. Wanted to try android to see the perspective on the otherside of the fence (total apple guy) and I really wanted to like it. Unfortunatley, I felt like I was BETA testing the hardware and software.

 

[JohnDG]

And the weather live wallpaper, which basically gives you a living scene depicting the actual weather conditions in your area is fantastic.

That does sound kinda cool.

jdg

 

[patp]

I like the hardware.

Software just feels generally unpolished. Like desktop Linux distributions; everything is kinda thrown together and the GUI is badly inconsistent. (Desktop Linux is very powerful, but I don't think anyone will argue that the GUI is inconsistent and doesn't feel designed)

+1 I like the hardware and how it feels in the hand. But the OS felt like it needed some more refining.

Has potential, just not there yet.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[fertilized-egg]

This is why I think HP has a real chance. There's gotta be people who simply want something other than Apple for whatever reason, and Honeycomb in its current state, according to many reviews and users, seems unpolished and released prematurely. WebOS has always been known for its stellar UI and HP has an excellent retail power in the PC world, much more so than Motorola, Samsung or LG, so with the right amount of push it might become the biggest iPad alternative.

 

[zap2]

Yes, while searching for an iPad 2, the employees at a Verizon store tried to say hos it has better reviews then the iPad 2.

Sort of disappoint, a neat device but the apps didn't seem to be as plentiful (although I didn't look that much to be fair) and the UI seemed a bit complex. Also I felt like the device was too aimed at landscape usage(I like portrait for iPad 2)

 

[redshift1]

How many returning the Xoom owned or used the Ipad first I'm wondering how the primacy effect may have influenced your evaluation of the Xoom .

 

[ZBoater]

Sort of disappoint, a neat device but the apps didn't seem to be as plentiful (although I didn't look that much to be fair) and the UI seemed a bit complex.

I've read this comment many times and I can't understand it. What is complex about it? I mean, if I wanted to take the iPad approach I can just dump some app icons on the main screen and be done with it. You have the OPTION of doing Widgets and live wallpaper, but you don't have to. Actually I find the UI on the iPad a bit more kludgy. For example, if I want to erase the Safari cache, I have to exit the browser and go to the settings app and go to the Safari section. Settings on the Chrome browser are accessible from a menu right in the app. Not exactly sure what folks mean by complex UI.


Illuminate me please.

 

[f1restarter]

After trying the iPad original for about 2 weeks, I got the Xoom and have been using it for about a week now. compared to the iOS the web surfing experience is much better. Chrome browser on the honeycomb is much better than Safari IMO. Google free voice activated turn by turn navigation is just amazing on the 10.1" screen, now with live traffic updates for free. Notification on the honeycomb is much better than the iOS. Very solid build although as heavy as the iPad original. I installed the leaked flash .apk and while it was nice to see live video stream on sites like justin.tv, still it needs to be tweaked. I like the Xoom's multi tasking approach better than the iOS. Battery life on the Xoom seems to be really good but not as good as the iPad. Still I'm very happy with the battery life on the Xoom.

For the downside, yes the screen is a disappointment as the quality is definitely lower than the iPad. There seems to be a problem with the Xoom mic as people on skype complain about hissing noise while on the iPad they could hear me perfectly fine. The scrolling is not as smooth as the iPad for sure. Apps are more polished on the iPad as compared to Honeycomb. Wish it was lighter than it currently is. Have noticed some force close issues but I guess that's what we call "teething problems".

To be honest I think Honeycomb can definitely hold it's own against the iOS once google fixes the bugs and that's a win win situation for us the consumers because as we all know, competition is always a good thing. I'm still thinking about going for the iPad 2 simply because it's ready out of the gate but then I'm just really liking the web browsing experience plus there seems to be far more apps that are free on the android side.

 

[Shivetya]

I don't get the widget obsession.

I should not to open an app just to see the weather and other miscellaneous simple information. Items on the bottom bar act like widgets, like mail which displays how many items you have to read.

 

[blackNBUK]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)


John Gruber raised an interesting point about RIM's upcoming tablet. He felt that of the big 3 competing against the iPad, (RIM, Motarola, and HP) that RIM have the best chance, since a 7" tablet would be seen as more of an alternative to the iPad than a direct option.

I can see the point as it does provide a simple answer to "Why should I buy this instead of an iPad?". However the Galaxy Tab is also 7" and it hasn't really made much of an impact. Maybe there are other reasons for this (software is too close to that of a phone, too expensive?) or maybe the 7" form factor really isn't what people are looking for.