In the last twelve months, shelves in PC stores’ have been filling with the latest hip technology in the world of IT, the tablet pc. One of the latest arrivals is the Motorola xoom, the tablet pc that directly competes against Apple’s ipad 2 for the first place in the market.
Amongst its many functions, the Motorola xoom has an extremely fast processor of 1GHz, a 10 inch screen and a choice of either 3G & Wifi/ or simply Wifi connectivity. Motorola xoom prices range around £450 making it much more affordable than the ipad2, an important consideration during times of crisis.
Motorola xoom first won international attention and eventually praise at the Consumer Electronic Show, earlier this year, where it was actually awarded the CNET ‘best product of the year’ award. It promises to redefine the notion of tablet pc worldwide and challenges the already successful ipad by offering customers unique functions and applications.
As with all tablet pcs, the reason why you acquire it is so that you can work, have fun, browse the net, communicate, play music and watch films while on the move and without having to carry 5 different devices with you. As with other tablet pcs, it has a high screen resolution (1280 x 800), HD video support with HDMI output, and camera & camcorder functions, which also film in high res (1280 x 720).
However, where the xoom actually differs from other tablet pcs is that it is also a barometer, as well as a compass, and it contains an accelerometer/proximity sensor and a light sensor. On top of this, it can host all Google functions and Android applications and widgets, while also able to download files that require Adobe Flash Player, such as newspapers and magazines. You can therefore even use it to read the news, while you’re travelling or having your coffee in the morning. Perhaps, its most significant advantage over all other tablet pcs is its ability to play videos for 10hours straight, to browse the internet via Wifi or 3G for 9-10 hours and play music for 2 weeks non-stop.
The ipad2 and the Motorola xoom were in fact recently reviewed by CNET who named the latter ‘a great ipad competitor’, mainly thanks to its processing speed and ability to download 3D graphics.
However, Apple is not known to remain idle when competition rises and is expected to retaliate with an advanced model soon. Besides, Apple customers have long requested an improved design offering more battery life, more memory and higher resolution.
The tablet pc war is getting more and more ferocious, and the real winner –at the end of the day- can only be the customer.