First Look: Motorola’s Xoom Sequel, The Xyboard Tablet

Motorola’s Xyboard tablet is the follow-up to its Xoom tablet. Image: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Motorola is taking another shot at the tablet game with the Droid Xyboard, the company’s latest Android device to hit Verizon stores. After getting our hands on one this afternoon, we found that it’s a solid, well-performing slate that’s easy on the eyes. Too bad it has such a stupid name.

The 4G Xyboard is Motorola’s follow-up to its pricey, not terribly popular Xoom tablet, which was released in February. Available in 8.2-inch and 10.1-inch versions, the Honeycomb-powered Xyboard enters the market hot on the heels of the super-hot Kindle Fire. It’s on sale today for $430 (for the 8.2-inch) or $530 (for the 10.1-inch) with a two-year contract from Verizon, with options for 16GB or 32GB of memory on the smaller version, and up to 64GB on the larger one.

The first thing that struck me about the Xyboard is its industrial design. Rather than being perfectly rectangular in shape, the 8.2-inch slate has clipped corners, which actually makes it fit more comfortably when you hold it one-handed. The back, too, shows some stylistic creativity. A rubberized outer rim houses a power button and volume rocker, while centered in the back of the tablet is a sheet of dark gray brushed metal held in place by six visible screws. Think robot chic.

The positioning of the device’s only two buttons makes for a clean appearance, but leaves your fingers searching when it’s time to crank up the volume or send it to sleep. The 8.2-inch size, however, is a great compromise between the 7-inch ‘tweeners and 10-inch stunners. It’s small enough to wield in one hand with ease (the 0.86-pound weight helps with that too), yet large enough that watching a full-screen, HD YouTube video or a movie on Netflix is pleasant. Pair that with Verizon’s 4G speeds, and you’ve got great streaming video quality.

The overall experience is smooth, an improvement over many of the past buggy iterations of Honeycomb (perhaps the longer lead time gave Google the room to stabilize). Powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz processor with 1GB of RAM, app loading times are reasonably swift, and swiping from one screen to another on its Honeycomb interface is stutter-free.

Unlike HTC and Samsung devices, it’s not overly skinned, so you can actually experience the Android OS for what it is, rather than a bogged down, bloated mess. The Xyboard will be eligible for an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade at some point in the future, but for now, it runs Honeycomb very well.

Both the 8.2- and 10.1-inch models have a 1280 x 800 resolution display. After turning up the brightness from auto to full, the tablet’s battery life dropped from around 20 percent to around 5 percent in less than an hour, so it looks like you’ll need to be conscious of your 4G and brightness settings if you don’t want your tablet to die on you quickly.

If you’re one of those people who likes to take pictures with their tablet (read: you are a dork), the Xyboard has a 5-megapixel back-facing camera and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera on its face. The rear camera’s quality is relatively sub-par compared to what you’d get from other comparable cameras, and definitely shoddier compared to the 8-megapixel standard of most 2011 handsets. The colors are bright and close to true to life, but the overall image lacks sharpness. The camera does have some variable settings though, for white balance, color effects, and scene mode. Video quality was also just ‘meh’: a video taken indoors at the Wired offices was noticeably grainy.

Overall, the Xyboard seems like a decent tablet. The slate looks slick and feels good in your hands, and is powerful enough to provide a successful tablet experience. It’s a bit of a shame that it’s shipping with Honeycomb instead of ICS, but that’s certainly not a deal breaker. What’s a real shame, though, is that it’s available now, and not six months ago.

Look for the full review on Wired Reviews in the coming weeks.

The Xyboard features clipped corners and a more hardware focused rear design. Image: Jon Snyder/Wired.com


Motorola’s Tablet Do-Over Is Ready for Pre-Order

Look familiar? The Xyboard tablet is not all that different from the Xoom. Photo courtesy of Motorola

“Those who cannot remember the past,” George Santayana wrote, “are condemned to repeat it.”

Motorola must have a very short memory. This much is apparent in the impending release of the Xyboard, Motorola’s successor to the Xoom Android tablet. The Xyboard is up for pre-order on Verizon’s web site, but by most measures, the device isn’t all that different from its predecessor.

For one thing, it boasts markedly similar specs. The Xyboard comes with a slightly more powerful dual-core processor (1.2GHz instead of 1GHz), a 10.1-inch screen (same as the Xoom), and front and rear-facing cameras with the same resolutions as those in the previous tablet (5 and 1.3 megapixels, respectively). The only major difference that we can discern thus far is that the Xyboard will measure in slightly lighter and thinner than the Xoom.

And for those who want more than just Wi-Fi, built-in 4G LTE connectivity on Verizon’s network is also an option. That’s an update to the Xoom, which required sending the device back to the manufacturer for a 4G upgrade (sheesh).

But here’s the ugly kicker: Motorola is selling the Xyboard at premium (read: pricey) rates, starting at $530 for the 16GB version, and stepping up gradually to $630 for 32GB and $730 for 64GB. And those prices are after signing a two-year Verizon Wireless contract.

To be fair, these prices represent a $100 price cut relative to comparable iPad 2 models, and the Xyboard includes 4G instead of 3G. So it would seem that you’re getting a deal by choosing Android over iOS.

But as the past year has vividly shown us, customers don’t want to buy Android tablets at premium prices. We’ve only seen non-iPad tablets fly off the shelves when hitting bargain bins, and even then the parent companies have been forced to sell premium components at a loss. That’s no way to run a business.

So why not learn from previous mistakes? And further, why release another device — one that is, for all intents and purposes, identical to the previous flop of a tablet launch — when both quad-core processors and a new version of Android are on the horizon?

Maybe the company knows something we don’t? Or maybe not.

The Xyboard goes on sale nationwide on Monday, with pre-orders currently available on Verizon’s web site.


Motorola Xoom 2 officially priced at 400 Euros, coming this Christmas to Carphone Warehouse

For those unaware, Carphone Warehouse is a warehouse that sells carphones in Europe, Jupiter and other locales in the known galaxy. It also sells smartphones and tablets. And according to the leaked flyer that we’ve acquired, the long-awaited Motorola Xoom 2 (or Xoom II, as it were) will be landing in Ireland before Christmas. The price? €399.90, or around $545, for the WiFi-only edition with 16GB of inbuilt storage. Other specs include Android 3.2 (what, no Ice Cream Sandwich?), an 8.2-inch touchpanel, and much, much more. In fact, CW calls it “everything a tablet should be.” Truth in advertising? You be the judge.

[Thanks, Artyom]

Motorola Xoom 2 officially priced at 400 Euros, coming this Christmas to Carphone Warehouse originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Nov 2011 10:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mystery Motorola devices headed for Verizon, could be the long-awaited Xoom 2s?

Is Big Red gearing up for a tag team Moto tablet refresh? From the looks of this internal screen grab (and the oodles of pre-release leaks), that may very well be the case. Despite the lack of official confirmation from both parties, we’re pretty certain those two mystery model numbers shown above — MZ617 and MZ609 — belong to the oft in-the-wild spotted Xoom 2 and its 8.2-inch “Media Edition” sibling. Unfortunately, that listed October 23rd date has come and gone with nary a mention of the slates’ existence, so we’ll just have to content ourselves with evidence of their apparent 4G capabilities and storage configurations. Folks keen to snag the full-fledged 10.1-incher will purportedly be able to select from 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models, whereas lil’ bro Fleming offers up 16GB and 32GB options. With Google’s Motorola acquisition looming overhead, these could be your go-to tabs for an unadulterated Ice Cream Sandwich experience. And, hey, at least they’ll ship with LTE this time.

Mystery Motorola devices headed for Verizon, could be the long-awaited Xoom 2s? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 08:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mystery Moto tablet swings through the FCC, refuses to take any questions

Motorola mystery tablet

What exactly is this mystery device that just shuffled through the FCC? Well, it’s definitely a Motorola tablet and a member of the Xoom family, but beyond that we can’t tell you much. The FCC ID, which ends in 56MJ3, makes it clear that this is part of Moto’s flagship tablet line, but whether this an upcoming Xoom 2 or simply a souped up variant of the original Honeycomb slate is unclear. The filing makes no mention of cellular connectivity, only WiFi and Bluetooth, but that doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t any on board. We do know that, whatever this turns out to be, it sports an HDMI out, 1GB of RAM, a dual-core 1.2GHz CPU, a 1200 x 800 screen and comes in 16, 32 and 64GB varieties. If you’re in the mood to dig through the test reports yourself, check out the source link.

Mystery Moto tablet swings through the FCC, refuses to take any questions originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola Xoom will get updated with Ice Cream Sandwich, but when?

Now that Ice Cream Sandwich is real, the inevitable next step is a parade of announcement that certain devices will / won’t experience the latest and greatest flavor of Android. Xoom owners can breathe easy however, as a support forum mod (totally reliable source) confirms Moto will issue an update for its family-friendly tablet, but can’t say when we’ll see it. Feel free to check out our emulator-powered Android 4.0 tablet demo until then, but considering how long it took to slide LTE into those slabs, you should probably grab a Snickers.

Motorola Xoom will get updated with Ice Cream Sandwich, but when? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Oct 2011 20:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola’s Faster. Thinner. Smarter. Stronger. event liveblog!

The countdown is almost at an end. And that means it’s time for some serious Daft Punk-referencing Motorola action. What can we expect today? The Spyder / Droid RAZR handset? The sequel to the Xoom? Perhaps an early taste of Ice Cream Sandwich? All of these answers and more will be revealed at 12PM ET.

Psst… and toss your own time zone / day in comments below!

06:00AM – Hawaii (October 18th)
09:00AM – Pacific (October 18th)
10:00AM – Mountain (October 18th)
11:00AM – Central (October 18th)
12:00PM – Eastern (October 18th)
05:00PM – London (October 18th)
06:00PM – Paris (October 18th)
08:00PM – Moscow (October 18th)
01:00AM – Tokyo (October 19th)

Photos by Zach Honig.

Continue reading Motorola’s Faster. Thinner. Smarter. Stronger. event liveblog!

Motorola’s Faster. Thinner. Smarter. Stronger. event liveblog! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 11:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola’s Android future to be revealed later today, get your liveblog here!

Promising us something faster, thinner and stronger later today, Motorola has paired up with Verizon to make some big announcements. We’re going to be smack dab in the middle of it all, chronicling every little detail on our liveblog. “Sandwiched” between Blackberry’s DevCon and another dynamic duo, we’re still intrigued as to what (or even how many) phones and tablets Moto has crammed up their capacious Google-monogrammed sleeves. Could it spoil Samsung’s party with some Ice Cream Sandwich news of its own? Who knows, but it’s going to be a hectic day for tech news. Best grab another cup of coffee, and bookmark this page to keep up.

Feel free to throw your time zone and day in the comments below, we may even +1 you if you do.

06:00AM – Hawaii (October 18th)
09:00AM – Pacific (October 18th)
10:00AM – Mountain (October 18th)
11:00AM – Central (October 18th)
12:00PM – Eastern (October 18th)
05:00PM – London (October 18th)
06:00PM – Paris (October 18th)
08:00PM – Moscow (October 18th)
01:00AM – Tokyo (October 19th)

Motorola’s Android future to be revealed later today, get your liveblog here! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 09:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Refresh Resource: week of October 10, 2011

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging to get updated. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery from the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

Official Android updates

  • Motorola Xoom owners who swapped in their devices for one with LTE capability may have found an OTA enhancement waiting for them when the tablet arrived. It included a few minor changes, such as updates to Android Market and some additional browser security measures. The full changelog can be found at the link. [AndroidCentral]
  • The update to the Motorola Droid 2 Global was pulled last month due to an Exchange encryption issue, but we’re hearing reports that it’s once again resuming the rollout with that concern resolved. [Droid-Life]
  • Motorola’s Photon 4G on Sprint is on the receiving end of a minor bug fix update, which includes video chat capability for Google Talk. [PhoneArena]
  • The good news for unlocked Dell Streak 7 users: the official update to Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) is now rolling out and you should see it over the course of the next couple weeks. the coming weeks. [Dell]
  • The bad news for T-Mobile Dell Streak 7 users: Honeycomb isn’t coming to your tablet, for unknown reasons. [Android Community]
  • According to a tweet from LG, there’s a small refresh in the works for the Optimus 7 which will finally enable WiFi tethering. [WPCentral]

Unofficial Android updates, custom ROMs and misc. hackery

  • A new piece of firmware for the AT&T Galaxy S II was leaked via RootzWiki, and includes a few bug fixes. Sadly, it adds some bugs as well. [Android Community]
  • Samsung’s officially released the kernel source for the Stratosphere, Transfix and Galaxy Y Pro. [Android Community]
  • And now for the best news for TouchPad owners: after several weeks of progress, it appears that CM7 is now ready to roll on the HP TouchPad. As always, download and install at your own risk — we have a feeling this may be a bit more involved than your typical Android custom ROM. [Redmond Pie]

Other platforms

  • Redsn0w 0.9.9b5 is here, giving you the go-ahead to jailbreak iOS5. Up for the task? Head to the link for all of the details on how to make it so. [Redmond Pie]
  • Some Windows Phone users have noticed a few bugs popping into their updated devices ever since they received Mango. The main concerns seem to be found in the keyboard and live tiles, though the reported issues are much more numerous. Have you experienced any of these on the list at the link? [WMPowerUser]

Refreshes we covered this week

Refresh Resource: week of October 10, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 16 Oct 2011 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola teaser counts down to ICS event date, ends a few hours early (video)

Motorola just unleashed a countdown clock for its Daft Punk-esque tease: Faster. Thinner. Smarter. Stronger. We already knew the Spyder was on its way, but we noticed that the clock stops dangerously close to the Google / Samsung Ice Cream Sandwich event set for this Tuesday, missing the mark by only seven hours. We can’t say for sure that Motorola is trying get in on the Google magic, but if it wants to push its news during the same business day, it makes sense for them to reveal their goods ahead of the event’s 10pm showtime. The teaser’s epileptic flash of buzzword images doesn’t tell us much, but it ends with a speedy bullet smartly slicing through the event date. Hit the break to see for yourself, we’ll let you make your own connections between that date-slice happy bullet and the Droid HD’s alternate names.

[Thanks, Robert]

Continue reading Motorola teaser counts down to ICS event date, ends a few hours early (video)

Motorola teaser counts down to ICS event date, ends a few hours early (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 23:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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