

AnandTech Motorola Xoom Review - losvedir
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4191/motorola-xoom-review-first-honeycomb-tablet-arrives

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bane
_Am I more likely to use the Xoom than the iPad? Yes. The hardware is faster
but more importantly, the software is better suited for multitasking. I’m a
bigger fan of Honeycomb’s multitasking UI & notification system compared to
the double-tap-home and passive notifications you get with the iPad and iOS. I
can be more productive with the Xoom than I can be with the iPad as a result.
I don’t believe Honeycomb’s UI is perfect by any means, it’s just more
multitasking oriented than iOS is at this point._

It's like watching all the lessons we learned about multitasking in the early
90s coming true all over again...and once again Apple is running a hair behind
the competition due to various architecture decisions.

I have hope that we'll see a new iOS in a year or two though that does
multitasking and notifications correctly (or at least in an appropriately
Apply way).

There's still tons of room for Apple to leapfrog over Honeycomb without _too_
much work since I'd argue that Honeycomb is the first version of the OS to out
and out compete with iOS. iOS today is really a number of subtle tweaks to the
original, some refinements here, a new gesture there, etc. Apple has _got_ to
have something big in the works that'll push their stuff into the next
generation.

~~~
jbm
Can someone please explain to me why this was modded down?

I'm curious, as I am unaware of the Apple multitasking history. (Had an 8086,
and an Apple II at school; never encountered apple again until after I got an
iPod and then an iPhone)

~~~
ugh
Recently someone compared weird downvotes to cosmic rays. They are going to
strike but they are mostly harmless. Upvote back and carry on.

On topic: I’m not sure whether architectural decisions hamper iOS multitasking
– it seems to me that the UI for multitasking in iOS just isn’t very good [0].
There are some edge cases where true multitasking would be great but I think
that Apple is for the most part facing an UI problem, not an architectural
problem.

[0] There isn’t much of a multitasking UI, actually. There is this horribly
inaccessible row of recently accessed app icons and nothing else. If only it
weren’t beneath Apple to shamelessly copy WebOS or Android.

~~~
loire280
I suspect most people never noticed the addition of multitasking in iOS.
Suddenly Pandora didn't stop playing when they checked a mail message and
their apps reopened much faster, but they probably credited/blamed the app
developers for that. I wonder what percentage of users don't even know about
the double-click-home menu.

I think multitasking UIs on touch devices (where apps are usually 100% of the
screen) are more confusing for users than just going back to the icon on the
home screen. Users get that more than one thing is running at a time in a
windowed environment -- you can see both of them at the same time if you
position your windows properly. I'm not sure they bring that understanding
along when they pick up a tablet.

~~~
bane
I don't totally disagree but multitasking doesn't have to be only user-facing
apps. The notification system in Android is light-years ahead of iOS and it
relies entirely on having a good multi-tasking environment. Importantly, the
notifications don't have to just be from some specific set of things-that-can-
notify a user as chosen by Google. Pretty much any kind of app can notify a
user of anything.

In theory iOS is more than capable of supporting this on the backend, but the
front end architecture is a mess and would have to be significantly reworked
for even this kind of basic thing (well, it seems basic on an Android device
it seems so obvious there).

~~~
loire280
My main problem with multitasking on iOS is that there isn't a good startup
service implementation -- so for example if I restart my phone and don't open
Google Voice at least once, I won't get push messages from it.

However, one of the reasons the platform performs well (esp. with battery
life) is that the OS can kill a background process at will, and apps expect
that and are usually designed to handle that gracefully. Hopefully there's
more work coming to make this less of a trade off, especially as new phone
versions have more resources.

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saturdaysaint
Anand's browser benchmarks are the highlight:

[http://www.anandtech.com/show/4191/motorola-xoom-review-
firs...](http://www.anandtech.com/show/4191/motorola-xoom-review-first-
honeycomb-tablet-arrives/6)

The Xoom loads pages, on average, in about a quarter of the time of the iPad.

~~~
jkmcf
News at 11: New tech outperforms old tech!

~~~
ZeroGravitas
The tech's not that new. There's been Tegra2 tablets available for months.

I'm guessing the software has something to do with it as well though, so you
might see jumps similar to Android upgrades (visible here if you compare Xoom
and Atrix) on old iPads when the new one comes out (assuming it has a new iOS
rev too).

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blinkingled
I like Anand's reviews the best - quite a bit comprehensive and well
structured.

The two details I was looking for - Battery life and Display quality were both
covered - no loss of battery life vs. iPad even with the great performance
boost and Display isn't as good for $800 tablet.

Then there is attention to detail - the power adapter tip is very tiny and
likely prone to easy breakage which would mean replacing entire power adapter.

There is a section for content transfer - quite useful to know that they
switched to MTP which means no software requirement for Windows users to sync
content but Mac users need to download an app for that.

~~~
warfangle
Any idea why people aren't building inductive charging into their devices yet?
The tech has been around for years, and the only people using it are supplying
special cases for your devices to make the darn stuff work.

~~~
blinkingled
Speaking of which my Palm Pre II came with inductive back by default - just
had to get the Touchstone charger and its charging inductively on my desk :)

Once Touchpad is out that will be the second device - strange though that it
hasn't become THE way to charge.

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blantonl
Long time Apple fanboy here. I own just about every Apple device currently on
the market.

I headed out to the Verizon store this morning to check out the Zoom tablet. I
currently own an iPad, but after using the new Zoom tablet I'm just blown away
by it's speed and functionality.

Regardless of what Apple releases beginning of March, Motorola and Google have
definitely brought to market the first real challenger to the iPad.

Edit: I ended up purchasing a Zoom tablet and was the first to do so at this
Verizon store.

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nooneelse
AnandTech reviews make the things called "reviews" on many other tech sites
seem very misnamed. How about an HN embargo against some of the worst such
offenders around until they shape up?

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alienreborn
Honeycomb's UI looks amazing!

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levesque
I was a bit deceived to see that the display quality is lacking in comparison
to the iPad, which is already 1 year old.

I am going to hold my breath and look for reviews of the 10 inch Galaxy tab,
hoping they will bring in a better display.

~~~
smackfu
Is it really time that is making displays better, or money? The iPad has a
display using better tech than most desktop LCDs, new or old.

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snitko
I'm sorry, but no one seems to notice and explain this stupid thing: on all of
the Xoom photos I've seen, it's turned horizontally. Does that mean that
Android desktop wouldn't turn when I turn the tablet 90 degrees?

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TillE
It's perhaps worth noting that Motorola has a rather dismal track record when
it comes to updating their Android products. The Droid doesn't have 2.3, the
Milestone still doesn't have 2.2 -- and those were their flagship products.

If the Xoom is open and hackable, go nuts. I'm sure people will create good
custom ROMs (just don't expect any official ones beyond 3.1 or so). If it's
locked down like the Milestone, I'd stay far far away.

~~~
mquander
Three points:

1) There's no proprietary Motorola UI layer on top of Honeycomb in this
instance, in contrast to their Android 2.X phones. So one might expect updates
to be more prompt if updating said UI layer is a big bottleneck for their
other products.

2) It's my understanding that Google folks working on Honeycomb have been
using the Xoom as their reference device, so they might be inclined to make
sure that it can keep up with their OS updates.

3) The Xoom bootloader isn't locked down, which is a good start.

