Motorola Xoom Android Honeycomb Tablet: Hands On

LAS VEGAS— Motorola announced the tablet everyone was anticipating yesterday before CES 2011 officially kicked off. Now, PCMag shares exclusive photos from a hands-on session this morning with the world's first tablet running on Google's Android 3.0 (Honeycomb). Available on Verizon in early 2011, pricing is still unknown. Check out the slideshow below for an in depth look at the latest—and perhaps strongest—competitor to the iPad. For a look at RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook, the other major iPad contender being shown off at CES, check out our hands on.

Motorola was only willing to show the Xoom running an animated demo. While Honeycomb looks every bit a multi-tasking, tablet-friendly OS, actually operating it will have to wait for another day. That RIM showed a full hands-on demos of a working tablet OS on the BlackBerry PlayBook certainly gives them the early advantage over Motorola, but the real test will come when the devices are in the labs at PCMag for review.

Specs for the Xoom:

Operating system: Google's Android 3.0 (Honeycomb)
It will start off on 3G in 1st quarter of 2011; upgrades to 4G in 2nd Quarter. Available through Verizon
The 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 resolution multi-touch screen offers support for 1080p HD playback—but it's unclear if the files will be scaled down on the device to a lower resolution.
Adobe Flash Player 10.1 fully-integrated support
Video recording at 720p
Dual core processor with 2GHz worth of processing power
It measures 249.1mm by 167.8mm by 12.9mm and weighs 730 grams
Video file support: H.263, H.264, MPEG4
Audio file support: AAC, AAC+, AMR NB, AMRWB, MP3, XMF
Connectivity: 3.5mm headphones jack, micro USB port, BlueTooth 2.1 + EDR +HID support
Email support: Corporate Sync, Google Mail, POP3/IMAP embedded, Push Email, Yahoo Mail
Motorla claims up to 10 hours of battery life
It supports 802.11n wireless signals
32GB of storage, and SD slot for card support (after a firmware update); 1GB DDR2 RAM
The rear facing camera is 5MP with a dual LED flash; the front-facing 2MP camera works for video chats, Google Talk
HD camcorder with 1080 playback
E-reader app and store that graphically looks comparable to Apple's iBooks
Acceloremeter and gyroscope built in for better gaming, app use
Maps app comes with 3-D graphic renderings of buildings when you zoom in
Google maps and GPS built-in

There are over 80 tablets being showcased at CES, but the two that stand out the most are the Xoom—because it's running Google's first tablet-focused version of Android—and the BlackBerry PlayBook, because it has its own operating system, the BlackBerry Tablet OS. Both tablets are the first truly viable competitors to the iPad, which will likely get an update of its own in early 2011.

About Our Expert

Tim Gideon

Contributing Editor, Audio

My Experience

I've been a contributing editor for PCMag since 2011. Before that, I was PCMag's lead audio analyst from 2006 to 2011. Even though I'm a freelancer now, PCMag has been my home for well over a decade, and audio gear reviews are still my primary focus. Prior to my career in reviewing tech, I worked as an audio engineer—my love of recording audio eventually led me to writing about audio gear.

My Areas of Expertise

Headphones and earphones
Wireless and computer speakers
USB mics
Bluetooth headsets

The Technology I Use

Probably because of their prevalence in the recording studios I worked in a long time ago, I am most comfortable on Macs—I'm writing this on the 2019 iMac I use for testing. I also have a MacBook Pro that gets plenty of similar use.

My workspace has a mini recording studio setup, and the the gear I work with there is a mix of items I've used forever (Paradigm Mini Monitors and a McIntosh stereo receiver) and newer gear I use for recording and review testing (such as the Universal Audio Apollo x16).

I'm obsessed with modern boutique analog synths—some of my favorites instruments in this realm are the Landscape Audio Stereo Field and HC-TT, the Soma Enner, the Koma Field Kit, and the Lorre Mill Keyed Mosstone.

From my studio days, I'm comfortable using Pro Tools, and in recent years have branched out to other realms of creative software, like Adobe Premiere and After Effects.

I stream music, but I also still buy albums, digitally or on vinyl, and encourage anyone who wants fair compensation for musicians and engineers to do the same.

I also play lots of Wordle.

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