Gadgets & Gizmos

A year after the arrival of the first Apple iPad tablet, there’s finally a genuine, high-quality alternative. It comes in the form of the Motorola Xoom (£499), the first tablet to boast Google Android 3.0 (or Honeycomb), the latest version of the popular smartphone operating system, built specifically this time for tablets. In the past, Android, while intuitive on a smartphone, has felt strangely out of place on a tablet – a device it was never intended to run.
That has now changed with version 3.0 and numerous built-in features make Honeycomb a very cohesive experience. Firstly, we loved the interactive widgets. Sitting in a homescreen, they update live, so with email you get a miniature, simplified version of your inbox which refreshes itself automatically when new mail arrives, while the YouTube app shows the most popular videos currently being watched.
The new internet browser is seriously fast. There’s a new tabs feature that works similarly to the system you get on a normal PC web browser. This makes browsing the web easier and faster than ever before. We were also impressed by Google Maps 5. It looks gorgeous on the Xoom’s 10.1-inch screen and features Street view and, more excitingly, 3D maps. Various cities around Europe (including Birmingham and Cardiff) have had many of their landmark buildings rendered in 3D – viewing the Birmingham Bullring in the third dimension is like seeing it in person for the first time.
The Xoom is no less impressive on the hardware side. The device is very well built and features a titanium backplate that looks great and adds a touch of class. Two stereo speakers provide impressive sound quality when you’re watching movies or listening to music.
A 5-megapixel camera with a dual LED flash takes high-quality photos, while a front-facing a-megapixel camera provides decent quality for video chatting across the web. Bright screen
The 10.1-inch screen is bright, crisp and clear. It boasts capacitive touchscreen technology, but we found it wasn’t quite as responsive as we expected. It is still miles ahead of other Android tablets but,considering the level of quality the rest of the device exudes, it isn’t quite there.
The sample we saw was a pre-production model though, so this may be resolved. The dual-core nVidia processor provides smooth and fast performance, but it’s the graphical prowess that really impresses. High-definition video looks superb and runs without a hitch, and you can also output iosop video via the mini-HDMI port. The Xoom is the real deal and, finally, Apple has a genuine rival to watch out for. If you’re after a high-quality tablet and aren’t taken by the iPad, this is one of the best options worth considering.