ROGETRAY wrote:(Image)

So is little Link free-ballin' it or what?

madisn wrote:Kindle fire and xoom are two totally different animals. The fire is a bad ass e-reader, but with only 8G storage, no cameras, no speakers it just cant compare to the xoom. The Fire I ordered for my wife will be great for books and internet browsing, but the xoom is a power packed tablet that can also be an e-reader. I have had my xoom since day one and love it.

8GB of built in storage but "unlimited" cloud storage for free. Also, it has speakers, and access to the Amazon Appstore for Android. It's an Android tablet with a shiny skin.

I have been wanting one of these!

I've read thousands of comments, reviews and comparisons to iPad to the point I want to gouge my eyes out! Bottom line tabs are cool. Sure the iPad is sexy and sleek, but when it comes to functionality my Xoom is just as good if not better than anything else out there. I've read lots of people trying to turn their Xoom's in to missile command for the European front, get disappointed because it won't and blast the heck out of it as useless. A tab is not intended to replace your laptop/PC/Mac. Sure you can do a lot of similar things on a tab like most of the "general" stuff like email, Facebook and surfing, but try doing intense design work or reporting on a tab. It ain't happening. Maybe some day, but today its a stop gap between lugging around a laptop, a portfolio of papers, books and using your smartphone.

The Xoom works and that's what matters. For those that compare Xoom to iPad, if you read carefully the things they are talking about are minuscule and really preferences more than fact. Apples to apples (excuse the pun) Xoom's hardware is superior to iPad. It all comes down to software and how the hardware is utilized! It's a little heavier and it doesn't have the bejillion accessaries an iPad has available, but who cares? I didn't buy the thing so I could pimp it out! And if you haven't invested hundreds or thousands of dollars in Apple products to run iTunes, then an Android Xoom tab is right for you. I have a Macbook, Apple TV and I use iTunes exclusively. But when I need to crossover, there are alternative ways to doing things. iPad, Mac and iTunes play nice with each other. So if that is the world you live in and you don't want to rig or have the know with how to "hook-up" your non-Apple products to work with Apple, then BUY an IPAD!

Performance rocks. As for apps...I have not come across one they don't have that I need. Sure a lot of apps are bad, but do your research, read the comments of other users, make an good educated decision and you will be happy. Crappy apps do not = Xoom sucks. A crappy Android app will suck just as bad on a Xoom as any other Android tab or phone out there. It means the app sucks!

My battery lasts forever. Every once and while i will hear something ding in my work bag letting me know that I need to take the Xoom out and use it more often! Then I rememberI haven't charged the thing in a week...yet it still has most of its juice. So standby time rocks!

My personal uses for the Xoom -
surfing the web (reading news mostly)
Listen to music
Watch videos/movies
Check email
Fantasy Football
Facebook
Skype
etc.etc. etc.

My work uses for Xoom -
Check email
Meeting notes, todos, action items
Mind mapping
Review docs, excel, ppt or PDF files
Listen to music
surf the web (read news mostly)

My Xoom is wifi only. Picked up the EasyTether app and I bluetooth with my Droid X to get 3G when outa wifi range. No rooting necessary! Actually if I can't bluetooth with something I find I don't usually need it. Picked up the dropbox app and the files I need physically sync to my Xoom automatically when wifi connected from any PC I use it on. You really need to think CLOUD when using a tab. USB memory sticks, SD cards and connecting to your computer via USB are laptop/pc legacies. I have access to thousands of songs, videos, docs and files and only a handful are on my Xoom. Wifi on this little bugger rocks and you will find you won't need all those legacy relics of the past once you get used to going without.

Is Xoom the best tab out there? I wouldn't look at from that perspective. It's an Android tab running pretty much the same Android every other tab does. Most people just get irritated at idea another tab has something they think they need! Trust me...been there done that myself. In reality though, as long as you can run the apps you feel you need, connect via wifi or even tether to your smartphone for cellular wifi, this tab is just as robust and good as the rest.

I prefer high end Pioneer over Denon for my stereo equipment. Does that mean Denon is not as good? No. Apples to apples they pretty much do the same thing. What it comes down to is what sounds good to MY ear, what features it has and for the value/price it sells at. Show me an Android tab running Honeycomb that can do something my Xoom can't do just as well and I will admit I'm wrong.

Should I have waited for the Xoom 2 to come out? I'm a new tablet user and always wanted one.

I've had the Wi-Fi Xoom for months - it has replaced my laptop for meetings. Battery lasts for a couple of days of moderate use. The Wi-Fi works great tethered to my EVO with wireless hotspot, or I just connect to the building wireless on campus.

There are Flash apps which work fine, so that's no issue at all. Yes, the screen gets smeared up, but I carry a small square of microfiber tucked into the carry case and just wipe the screen off when it gets lots of fingerprints.

The Xoom is only one notch short of a netbook, and the main issue is the solid glass keyboard - not easy to type accurately. But it's a great tool and the only thing it competes with for my use is a netbook. It wins that matchup because the battery lasts about 10x as long.

I'm considering this for my wife. She wants/need something to be able to sync her outlook calendar/emails and keep notes from meetings and such.

I've had my droid phone for ever, and sync contacts/email/calendar with outlook. This is nice for me. Can I do the same with android on XOOM?

I understand it is WIFI only, but with drop box, and some other apps, I think it would fit the bill, but wanted an opinion before I pull the trigger....

toadfish63 wrote:Pre-ordered Kindle Fire yesterday, in for the Xoom today, my wife is gonna kill me if she catches these transactions. All I need for Woot to do now is put up a BMW GS1200 Adventure and I'm all set!

If they put up the Beemer I am definitely in for two.

needa wrote:these things aren't exactly popular among tech people. full of bugs and still waiting on an update that was promised months ago.

I've had my Xoom since March '11, and absolutely LOVE it! I don't know what bugs you are talking about. I've seen absolutely none on mine. The update to 4G is being released today, if that is the update you are talking about. The microSD card and Flash updates were released several weeks ago. The Xoom makes the iPad look like a kid's toy. If you are considering the Xoom (WiFi only), I suggest you jump on this deal!

Stlheadake wrote:I'm considering this for my wife. She wants/need something to be able to sync her outlook calendar/emails and keep notes from meetings and such.

I've had my droid phone for ever, and sync contacts/email/calendar with outlook. This is nice for me. Can I do the same with android on XOOM?

I understand it is WIFI only, but with drop box, and some other apps, I think it would fit the bill, but wanted an opinion before I pull the trigger....

Absolutely, it does incredibly easy full sync with Outlook.

So basically this is a Honeycomb Android 10" tablet. It does not compare with the new Amazon reader, it's features blow that (pathetic little 7") one out of the water. Nor does it compare with the HP Touchpad running WebOS, Android Honeycomb makes that seem like a petulant child in comparison and good luck with that Android port.. how's that working out for you? It also doesn't compare with the iPad because it's multi-tasking and iPad is NOT. You don't even need to hack Honeycomb to be better than those other tabs OS, it just is on it's own. I have the ASUS Transformer which compares with this on many features and I would NEVER trade it for any of the aforementioned tablets... ever. If I didn't have my ASUS, I'd have no problem dropping the cash because this XOOM has 32 GB for about the same price as I paid for my 16 GB Transformer. Buy it, you won't be sorry. It has so many uses I'd never even considered before I'd started browsing the thousands of free Android apps on the marketplace.

ckingtw wrote:(Helpful post you need to read - mod)

WORD! That is the BEST post I've read yet! Forget my previous question, I'm pulling the trigger.

onelove16 wrote:Should I have waited for the Xoom 2 to come out? I'm a new tablet user and always wanted one.

If you wait on the "next version", you'll never purchase anything. That is true for all electronics.

I got the Xoom for testing in our college tech department, my office partner got the iPad2. They're pretty much tied for every function you can think of. She likes hers because she's a Mac user. I am a PC guy and the Android makes more sense to me than an iPad does.

Even better, Apple doesn't get to control my life - I can pick from thousands of free and incredibly low cost apps on the Android market.

We both got Wi-Fi versions and mine connect to my Droid EVO using hotspot. Gives me full 3G functionality without paying an extra $200 for the 3G tablet. If you don't want to pay for hotspot service, use PDANet and connect to your phone with a cable. Data charges apply...but I have unlimited data via Sprint.

AlyssaMuller wrote:CNET compares the Ipad2 vs the Zoom here: http://reviews.cnet.com/2722-3126_7-1085.html

To be fair, Cnet seems to be heavily biased in favor of Apple.

They had the iPad win the round after saying something close to: "Honeycomb brings a full fledged browser experience with flash support, tabbed browsing, and basically touching google chrome. On the iPad, safari remains a solid browser.."

I think they underrated the Xoom, and Honeycomb by a heavy margin.

madisn wrote:Kindle fire and xoom are two totally different animals. The fire is a bad ass e-reader, but with only 8G storage, no cameras, no speakers it just cant compare to the xoom. The Fire I ordered for my wife will be great for books and internet browsing, but the xoom is a power packed tablet that can also be an e-reader. I have had my xoom since day one and love it.

I agree with you in general, but perhaps you can answer this. Have you EVER taken a photo with a tablet? If you have, why?

nikescar wrote:So is little Link free-ballin' it or what?

The winds of Hyrule are very refreshing...

DrWu wrote:I've had one of these since release, and I love it. It's definately heavier than some of the newer tablets coming out (ie Galaxy Tab 10.1) but you can't beat it for this price.

To answer a couple questions people had:

Usb host mode - yes it does have this, you can buy cheap cables on amazon or you can buy Motorolas expensive cable

The screen - The screen is awesome - durable and bright - yes bright. There is an "auto" brightness mode that is default and when you see them in the store that is usually what they're set on - in auto, it looks dim, take it out of auto and this thing is brighter and crisper than my wife's ipad. Also its Gorilla glass - I don't use screen covers, I hate them. I have no trouble keeping my screen clean and to date I don't have a single scratch.

SD Card functionality - sucks. no better way to say it. you can only WRITE files to the sd card by copying them from your computer while tethered. untethered, the sd card is read only. this is fail imo, on the other hand - ipad doesn't have any sd card at all.

updates - they were slow to come at first, but there has been 2 recently, one that enabled the SD card and another that provided some other fixes.

4G - this is a wifi only xoom - the 4g update will only be available on 3G xoom's. I have the 3G xoom but don't use the 3G, if I could go back I'd have waited and saved a few bux and gotten the wifi.

HD - doesn't need to be docked, cables are cheap on amazon.

charging - this thing holds a charge much longer than my wifes Ipad and charges much quicker.

more on this vs ipad - my wife is litterally pissed that I bought her an ipad and then bought myself this. She loved her ipad when I got it for her and then hated it 3 months later when she saw my Xoom. I don't really use the ipad so I don't have much more to say on that, but missing flash is a big thing, she talks about it all the time. You don't realize how much flash is out on the web unntil you start trying to surf without it.

Apps - in almost every Cnet article they knock android for not having as many apps as the ipad - well its time call BS on that -almost every decent app available has both an ipad and an android version. more and more when I see ipad new ipad apps being reviewed I look in the android market and sure enough - find a the same app there. Sure there are some DUMB hold out developers that still only develop on the ipad but really they're just being short sighted and dumb.

Bottom line - at this price, this is a great tablet. I'm considering getting one for my wife and selling her ipad.

Can you tell me if you can purchase an American Sign Language (ASL) App? I'm looking forward to ebooks, internet browsing, and apps for sign language and professional documents. The pandgital 9 is slow and the apps are less selective and without an upgrade in sight, I loss money on that one. Now I've learned to read the reviews of consumers like you.

Thanks!

I have had this tablet since a few day after it came out and it ROCKS !!!

Best android tablet on the market worth every penny (I paid $900.00)

mottuv wrote:$329.34 at The Electronic Superstore no tax & free shipping

Can you give me the website?

Own it, love it--a true laptop replacement.

It's connectable (USB micro, HDMI out), expandable (micro SD), and my old bluetooth keyboard works perfectly with it for extensive typing jobs.

I paid for Documents to Go, so that I can edit Office documents, but all my other productivity apps have been free or offered free through the Amazon App Store or GetJar:
Android Sync Manger-wirelessly syncs Outlook;
WiFi File Explorer Pro-wirelessly syncs both the internal memory and the SD card;
Bluetooth File Transfer-ditto, via Bluetooth;
DropBox-ditto, and possibly the most awesome file management app ever. And don't tell [insert wireless carrier here], but PDANet has a tablet version that proxies the tablet through a cell phone when no wifi is available.

Battery life is ~10 hours when actively working, and DAYS on standby, it boots in seconds, and the display is beautiful.

My one gripe is the proprietary charging cable--no USB charging.

bmrbill wrote:Here's a video review from Cnet.

Hmmm....

This video review is more than a little outdated.

If you are on the fence here are 2 great videos of the XOOM in action.

http://youtu.be/VsqTQKJTN0U
http://youtu.be/2PzSJv3Pcsk

I've always said that tablets, to someone like me at least, seem fairly ridiculous and not all that useful. I mean, I have an Android phone already for portable Androidiness, and I just don't see much use in what, to me, looks like an oversized phone that may or may not actually work like a phone (in this case, definitely not, as it's the wifi version).

But that said, I do once in a while write Android apps. And the Android emulator for anything in the tablet line of Android devices is, to put it charitably, borderline completely unusable (though I've heard they're trying to fix that). Although I might not have much use for a tablet, I'd like to make sure anything I make DOES work well on them for people who DO.

So, if anyone knows, does the Xoom make a good development device or effectively a reference model for Android tablets? Might be worth picking one up if so.

DrWu wrote:I don't really use the ipad so I don't have much more to say on that, but missing flash is a big thing, she talks about it all the time. You don't realize how much flash is out on the web unntil you start trying to surf without it.

Hear, hear. So tired of the 'hide your head in the sand' mentality when it comes to not being able to view Flash on the iPad. There's a ton of Flash content out there, and that fact isn't changing anytime soon.

roadhunter wrote:I agree with you in general, but perhaps you can answer this. Have you EVER taken a photo with a tablet? If you have, why?

Maybe the rear camera for pictures isn't all that important, but I think the front camera for Skype or other video chat is pretty essential on a full-featured tablet.

Felicia wrote:Can you tell me if you can purchase an American Sign Language (ASL) App? I'm looking forward to ebooks, internet browsing, and apps for sign language and professional documents. The pandgital 9 is slow and the apps are less selective and without an upgrade in sight, I loss money on that one. Now I've learned to read the reviews of consumers like you.

Thanks!

seems to be lots of ASL apps, I don't use any of them so can't tell you how good they are -
https://market.android.com/search?q=asl&so=1&c=apps

toadfish63 wrote:Pre-ordered Kindle Fire yesterday, in for the Xoom today, my wife is gonna kill me if she catches these transactions. All I need for Woot to do now is put up a BMW GS1200 Adventure and I'm all set!

you can cancel the Fire order if you want.
I'm guessing you don't want to cancel.

madisn wrote:Kindle fire and xoom are two totally different animals. The fire is a bad ass e-reader, but with only 8G storage, no cameras, no speakers it just cant compare to the xoom. The Fire I ordered for my wife will be great for books and internet browsing, but the xoom is a power packed tablet that can also be an e-reader. I have had my xoom since day one and love it.

I agree in principle with everything you said, except "no speakers". From the Fire's specs:

3.5 mm stereo audio jack, top-mounted stereo speakers.

That doesn't change the fact I DO agree with you, just want to make sure that the information presented is accurate.

I'm not buying one - because I already have two of them... But just want to let you know that this is an awesome tablet! The reason I went with this one is because you can add a 32g microSD card to it. Very nice if you like to use your Xoom to watch movies!

CaptainSpam wrote:I've always said that tablets, to someone like me at least, seem fairly ridiculous and not all that useful. I mean, I have an Android phone already for portable Androidiness, and I just don't see much use in what, to me, looks like an oversized phone that may or may not actually work like a phone (in this case, definitely not, as it's the wifi version).

But that said, I do once in a while write Android apps. And the Android emulator for anything in the tablet line of Android devices is, to put it charitably, borderline completely unusable (though I've heard they're trying to fix that). Although I might not have much use for a tablet, I'd like to make sure anything I make DOES work well on them for people who DO.

So, if anyone knows, does the Xoom make a good development device or effectively a reference model for Android tablets? Might be worth picking one up if so.

The Xoom is a GED - "Google Experience Device" and as such it gets android updates quicker and isn't subject to motorola messing around too much with the code so I think it makes a good reference platform for development. (this can be good and bad - for instance, Asus and other tablets had SD card access WAY before the Xoom did because Asus implemented their own hack to get it rather than wait for Googles implementation)

TweetyBear wrote:is this not a good price?

No, search the Web, about the going rate for a referb.

OK, I'm sold on the Xoom. What's your opinion of the warranty? Is it worth getting the Square Trade extended warranty?

My laptop just died this morning. Personally I like the laptop for sitting on the couch and browsing the web, (we do have a desktop in the other room) but being on a tight budget, could this be a possible replacement for a laptop?

DrWu wrote:seems to be lots of ASL apps, I don't use any of them so can't tell you how good they are -
https://market.android.com/search?q=asl&so=1&c=apps

Thank you! Isn't there an issue if the app was designed for a mobile phone instead of a tablet? it seems, this is the only deal breaker if accessing the apps on a full screen instead of 16:9?!?!

I was able to test the apps out on Amazon's Android App Market and they are the same on the link you provided. Sot that's cool points!

Quick question, which has held me back from purchasing a tablet (it may be dumb, but I am not a techie).

Is it truly $200 or so more expensive to outfit these tablets with 3g or 4g capabilities? ideally I would want a tablet with 3g, on a pay as you go plan for the few times it will leave the house and be needed in a non-wifi area. However, the added cost doesn't seem to justify it.

Someone, please enlighten me as to why the 3g tablets are so much more expensive and whether i should just give up and stop assuming the price differences between the models will ever decrease

Thechavo09 wrote:Looks like the Xoom will get a 4G update soon.

http://gizmodo.com/5844931/xoom-owners-can-finally-upgrade-their-obsolete-tablet-to-4g-lte

do they update the one you have or do you have to buy a new one?

I can't pry my wife's Xoom out of her hands... I had to get my own. I love it.

Best Tablet out there.
Smokes the IPad

Dual Core
Multi-tasking
32GB
USB
HDMI
Java
Flash
it does it ALL !

Bought a 3G Galaxy Tab on here months ago and loved that thing but I really wanted a 10" screen so I'm pretty pumped to get this! Probably gonna go sell my Galaxy for a couple hundred bucks on ebay now.