Motorola Xoom

A slab of 10in Honeycomb goodness

Power broker

To round up, battery life is good but difficult to evaluate accurately. Constant use without turning off seems to deplete the battery in about 8-10 hours. Regular on-off use was an entirely different matter: I found myself recharging the unit only every 2-3 days.

Holds its charge in standby, which is more in keeping with the iPad than the Galaxy Tab

Most impressive of all is the standby time: the Xoom does not discharge much battery power at all while not in use. You can leave the tablet alone for a week and still have plenty of power left for another day or so of active use. Other tablets (Samsung, take note) would be dead by then.

In return for long battery life, you have to put up with a lot of weight. At 730g, the Xoom is a heavy tablet: certainly not a one-hander. And compare this to the equivalent iPad 2, which is barely over 600g.

The real elephant in the room, however, is price. The Xoom is expensive, costing exactly the same as a 32GB iPad 2. OK, so it has a higher screen resolution, a couple of output ports and a card slot that may or may not work one day, so what? The Xoom can’t kill iPads without a killer price.

Verdict

Despite the weight, despite the price, despite everything, the Motorola Xoom has the power to move me. It feels so solid and performs so reliably that I increasingly find myself using it in preference to my iPad 2 whenever Apple compatibility is not an issue. The problem is that it’s an intellectual love affair. While I adore my iPad, I admire and respect my Xoom. Should I seek help? ®

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