The New Motorola Xoom Outshines Other Tablet Devices

The Motorola Xoom is just one of a number of tablet devices that has been released recently.  This is an area of the market that is highly competitive with the format predicted to sell 50 million units this coming year alone.  Although this is lower that the 346 million units that the traditional PC format sold in 2010, it does demonstrate how Tablets are slowly eating into the share of the home  computer market that laptops and PC's currently enjoy.  Although the Apple iPad is the unit that has been largely responsible for this boom a number of other manufacturers have followed in its footsteps with varying levels of success.  One of the better devices is the Motorola Xoom, a tablet that boasts some superb little touches that put it ahead of the competition.

The design of the tablet is an area where the Xoom really does excel.  There screen itself is surrounded by a minimal bezel which means the glass display almost touches the very sides of the chassis.   This enables the unit to get its large 10.1 inch screen into an incredibly compact frame.  It is evident that the developers spent a great deal of time designing this model as the whole arrangement seems well thought out.  Take the power/lock button for example, this is perfectly positioned just where one of you fingers naturally rests saving the user needing to tilt and swivel the device to lock it or shut the device down.  The various ports that the Xoom offers are also all conveniently located on the bottom edge of the body.  Not only does this arrangement keep them out of the way in everyday use but opens up the possibility of adding a docking station to improve presentation.  

A real attractive feature of the Motorola Xoom is that it runs on an operating system that is designed with tablet devices in mind.   Unlike units such as the iPad which basically offer the iOS that can be found on iPhones, the Xoom uses Android 3.0 which offers a wonderful graphical interface amongst a host of other features that are custom made for a large screen.   The multi touch aspect of the screen also exceeds what much of the competition can offer.  Multi Touch refers to the ability of the screen to register more than one touch at the same time.  It is a feature that is now common on mobile phones but is even more important on these larger screen units as it is often more practical to use two hands unlike on a mobile where you may do this only occasionally.  The multi touch on the Xoom supports up to ten individual touches enabling a much better interaction with the tablet.  

Despite lacking the prestige that is associated with the iPad or the sales figures boasted by the Samsung Galaxy Tab, the Xoom looks like the device of choice for the tablet connoisseur, the person who makes considered decisions and does not merely follow the crowd.  The unit offers some superb ideas that although individual are only small things, together they combine to offer a delightful all round experience.

The Motorola Xoom and the Blackberry Playbook are coming soon.