Motorola Xoom will ship without Flash

[anthonymoody]

I for one look forward to trying the Xoom (and other nicer android tablets) as well as the rim playbook, and the webOS tablet as well. The chances of any of them providing an overall experience great enough for me to switch is quite low as I am fairly baked into the apple ecosystem and switching costs would be high for me.

But it's not completely out of the realm of possibility, even for me. And if you see my signature that's saying a lot...

 

[spinedoc77]

I for one look forward to trying the Xoom (and other nicer android tablets) as well as the rim playbook, and the webOS tablet as well. The chances of any of them providing an overall experience great enough for me to switch is quite low as I am fairly baked into the apple ecosystem and switching costs would be high for me.

But it's not completely out of the realm of possibility, even for me. And if you see my signature that's saying a lot...

See how nice this is? Someone who is firmly entrenched into Apple hardware, but who is not afraid of what else is out there and even enjoys the decisions.

Honestly, you are being MUCH too reasonable for these forums..

 

[MrWillie]

There are already tons of android tablets cheaper(250/350) with just 16GB (or less) and wifi.

Motorola already announced those as well.

So no, like with smartphones they get it.

You already know the WIFI version of Xoom will be released in the future that will be a couple hundred bucks cheaper. But then again, being such a big fanboy, you just can't be rationale, right?

Yep, I have heard rumors. But when?

Other tablets? So someone buys an Archos and Motorola makes a profit off that sale because... ??? Help me out here, I don't understand how Moto is going to turn a profit if someone buys a less expensive tablet from Archos.

Kennypowa, I am being rational. If I want a Xoom on release day, its one price. If I wanted an iPad on release day, It was three prices, the only waiting was for 3G. And then again three prices on 3G. Apple didn't force me into buying a competitors model. They gave me choices.

 

[Dorkington]

See how nice this is? Someone who is firmly entrenched into Apple hardware, but who is not afraid of what else is out there and even enjoys the decisions.

Honestly, you are being MUCH too reasonable for these forums..

I agree with this.

 

[kdarling]

USA Today gave a nice review to the Xoom:

With new Motorola Xoom, tablets keep getting cooler

 

[jsbaugh]

Engadget gave it a 7/10. Not a very good review. Claimed it was a bit laggy and felt it was still in beta which is typical Google. Only a few apps built for the xoom.

 

[Mark K]

I'm surprised that they can claim 10 hours of "video viewing" for battery life.

With all that hardware, I'm impressed. Unless video viewing and normal use are vastly different numbers.

Time will tell.

 

[jsbaugh]

I'm surprised that they can claim 10 hours of "video viewing" for battery life.

With all that hardware, I'm impressed. Unless video viewing and normal use are vastly different numbers.

Time will tell.

I've read two reviews that said they got 7 hours of straight video compared to the iPads 10-11 hrs.

 

[sciwizam]

I'm surprised that they can claim 10 hours of "video viewing" for battery life.

With all that hardware, I'm impressed. Unless video viewing and normal use are vastly different numbers.

Time will tell.

Anandtech has battery life with numbers, he said he'll be adding more tests.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4191/motorola-xoom-review-first-honeycomb-tablet-arrives/14

 

[spinedoc77]

"Battery life on the Xoom was excellent. Beyond excellent, actually -- some of the best performance we've seen on a slate. Running a video on loop with the screen set at 65 percent brightness, we were able to get playback for nearly eight and a half hours (8:20 to be exact). Motorola claims up to ten, so we weren't far off the mark at all. We had a few background tasks going on, and both WiFi and 3G radios were active. "

from http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/23/motorola-xoom-review/

Which amusingly enough has a Flash preview of the Xoom. I must say the more I read and hear about the Xoom the more I'm impressed with it. Sure it's kind of a bit unfinished in the software and the apps are few at the moment, but it's got some incredible potential. Just basic stuff like real true multitasking, the widget system, notifications, etc. just feels like the things I've always sigh and accept not having on my ipad. The major plus for me is I've been steering away from all these plastic android tablets, but from what I read the Xoom is a metal case similar to the ipad, even to the point of being close to copying the ipad, which is a good thing IMO.

I'm still going to wait until next week and see what Apple releases. But it's becoming more and more clear that I don't necessarily want a lot of hardware upgrades to the ipad2, what I want are software and OS upgrades.

It's great to have competition, it makes ALL the devices that much better.

 

[Dorkington]

Engadget gave it a 7/10. Not a very good review. Claimed it was a bit laggy and felt it was still in beta which is typical Google. Only a few apps built for the xoom.

I got the impression that they liked the XOOM and Honeycomb, but it was a first generation device/OS that needs a bit of cleaning up.

 

[shen]

I am a bit nervous about the number of reviews that mention repeated crashing. That isn't a good sign.

The battery life claims are all over the map so far. 8 hours of video? 6? 10.5? I even saw 12 on one review.

 

[AppleScruff1]

I am a bit nervous about the number of reviews that mention repeated crashing. That isn't a good sign.

The battery life claims are all over the map so far. 8 hours of video? 6? 10.5? I even saw 12 on one review.

The crashing obviously isn't a good thing at all. It sounds like it still needs a little more work to be stable and work out a few of the minor kinks. It will probably be fixed in an update, but when?