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Google Talk on the Motorola Xoom: Video Walkthrough

 & PJ Jacobowitz Analyst, Digital Cameras

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The Motorola Xoom is the first tablet to run Google's tablet-specific Honeycomb OS. This version of Android includes the first version of Google Talk with video chat, which is basically Google's answer to Apple's FaceTime. But with Google Talk, you can chat with other Android 3.0 device users as well as those on Windows, Mac or Linux PCs. With FaceTime you can only chat with Mac (and other iOS device) users.

Video quality in Google Talk looks good, it certainly won't blow you away, but it's easily good enough to hold a conversation, but to my eye, Skype and FaceTime look better. Google doesn't publish resolution specs, but I'm sure it's not higher than standard (640-by-480) definition. If you video chat in landscape mode, the video fills up the whole screen at 1280-by-800 (the lower-res video is expanded to fill the screen). It doesn't look warped, but it's blurry.

If you use the Xoom's optional HD Speaker Dock, the experience becomes very exciting. The dock allows you to plug the Xoom into your HDTV and video chat on that screen at 720p resolution, like you can with the Logitech TV Cam for Google TV.

Check out the video below to see Google Talk in action.

About Our Expert

PJ Jacobowitz

PJ Jacobowitz

Analyst, Digital Cameras

PJ Jacobowitz is PCMag.com's Analyst for Digital Cameras. He has been with PCMag.com since September of 2006 and has appeared on MSNBC, CW11, ABCNY, XM Satellite Radio and CNN Radio as a correspondent for PCMag.com. PJ graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Telecommunications and a minor in Business in 2004 from Indiana University at Bloomington. For more information on the photography lab, see "How We Test Digital Cameras."

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