Xoom 100K Sold. Good or bad?

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by madsquabbles

never had to nor will i ever need to search it as i can read words/books no matter what size the screen is. now font size could be limiting my enjoyability.

Good for you!

[wodin]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Now them's fightin' words, whatchu got 'ginst Kirk?

I dunno, I kind of liked Kathryn Janeway! 'Sides that she was HOT! But not as hot as Seven!

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by wodin

I dunno, I kind of liked Kathryn Janeway! 'Sides that she was HOT! But not as hot as Seven!

True that!

[jocampo]

I like the Xoom tablet a lot, but I think is not or was not ready for market yet. With so many features that are just "coming soon", I opted for an iPad 2 instead. It works out of the box and the market is much more mature than the Android Market for Honeycomb.

I would love to see how the Xoom changes over the time, let's say a year or so. I would consider selling my iPad and buying a Xoom instead.

[boswd]

Originally Posted by jocampo

I like the Xoom tablet a lot, but I think is not or was not ready for market yet. With so many features that are just "coming soon", I opted for an iPad 2 instead. It works out of the box and the market is much more mature than the Android Market for Honeycomb.

I would love to see how the Xoom changes over the time, let's say a year or so. I would consider selling my iPad and buying a Xoom instead.

I don't understand because the "coming soon" features are activated Sd card slot, Flash 10.2 (now here on the xoom) and 4G, these are all features the iPad won't every have.

so I'm puzzled by that comment.

[madsquabbles]

Originally Posted by boswd

I don't understand because the "coming soon" features are activated Sd card slot, Flash 10.2 (now here on the xoom) and 4G, these are all features the iPad won't every have.

so I'm puzzled by that comment.

it's b/c "soon" has passed. it's been over a month without a peep from moto about updates.

if you wait until the device has these features the price will probably have dropped, but instead the early adopters have paid full price for a partial functioning machine on an incomplete os.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by madsquabbles

it's b/c "soon" has passed. it's been over a month without a peep from moto about updates.

if you wait until the device has these features the price will probably have dropped, but instead the early adopters have paid full price for a partial functioning machine on an incomplete os.

Well the 4G was never intended to be "Soon". It was said to be by end of year.

Now the SD Card thing, I'm a bit upset about but it really is not that big a deal, not like I'm running out of memory storage.

Flash was rolled a few weeks after release as promised.

But still the point is that these things were know and they are things that the ipad did not and were not promised as part of it.

YMMV.

[Noah98]

I think sometimes we argue too much over personal preference. For example, I prefer a 4:3 ratio because I like to browse in portrait mode, and I like the way comic books display in that ratio. However, I don't think that 4:3 is better than 16:9, just different. It would be hard to argue that 16:9 is not better for video, but again it all depends on what features are important to the individual user.

[pphilipp]

Consumer Reports has given the Xoom a very high recommendation in their tablet comparison!!
As you can see from the image (below) it actually comes-in tied for second place (overall score 78)... not a bad showing in anyone's book. I believe most people who have handled various tablets would probably agree with CR on this one. 2010 was the year of poorly performing Android tablets attempting to enter the market but offering little bang for the buck (MobileRead forums are literally filled with reviews and opinions about such devices). The Xoom is the first to compete with quality equal to the iPad.



The biggest strike the Xoom had against it was the original $800 price, which crippled it as it came from the gate. They have lowered the price somewhat now, but if they are to truly reach large sales figures, they need to bring the price down obviously lower than an iPad. Apple has always had a reputation of high-end products at high prices. This is stuck in many people's head. They feel that if Apple is charging $500, then it only makes sense that the competition charge $350 to $400... and this is for devices of equal quality and build, not the cheap offerings we've found in this price range throughout 2010!

I do commend Consumer Reports on their comparison. I have spent much time handling and using the same devices included in their article, and their conclusions are very close to my own (for the most part). I personally attempt to be non-biased, and I feel they have been equally unswayed by brand or OS.

[jocampo]

pphilipp,

I do not have Consumer Report's subscription. I am not sure if what you posted is available on website or not. I wonder why they gave 81 vs 78 to iPad. Can you please elaborate more?

[pphilipp]

Originally Posted by jocampo

I do not have Consumer Report's subscription. I am not sure if what you posted is available on website or not. I wonder why they gave 81 vs 78 to iPad. Can you please elaborate more?

Consumer Reports has traditionally rated Apple products very high on build quality and performance, but they also have rated them much lower for the high price. The iPad has become the exception to this rule. They basically said that in the case of the iPad you're getting a well built device for what (so far) is an unbeatable price.

The lower priced units tested were summed-up as being 'mediocre at best'.

Additionally.... Consumer Reports states:
"Hardware specifications don't tell the whole story. Portability, storage capacity, and weight are important. But less obvious differences in software, connectivity, and upgradability are critical too."

[jocampo]

pphilipp,

Thanks! But that does not answer my question :-) ... in a short, why iPad2 scores higher than iPad1 as per Consumer Reports. Because the better CPU?

[madsquabbles]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Well the 4G was never intended to be "Soon". It was said to be by end of year.

Now the SD Card thing, I'm a bit upset about but it really is not that big a deal, not like I'm running out of memory storage.

Flash was rolled a few weeks after release as promised.

But still the point is that these things were know and they are things that the ipad did not and were not promised as part of it.

YMMV.

i didn't really need extra storage either. mine was wifi so 4g didn't bother me, that and the fact that 4g isn't really available everywhere.

to those of us that follow tech, of course most of the limitations are already know, but to the average shopper who's only education is the BB salesperson what's the chances they'd know?

what i dislike, and what so many people keep crying is something "early adopters" should expect, is faulty/buggy hardware and software. why should we keep expecting that? why is it our fault for looking forward to and buying a brand new product and finding out all the bugs and problems? why are some programs and games being shipped with patches to apply before you even play? i spoke up by returning my xoom. now, after i read more or possibly test a transformer, there's a chance i might come back to the xoom - even with it's faults i really did like the tablet.

imo things like this can only hurt android tablets' reputation.

[pphilipp]

Originally Posted by madsquabbles

what i dislike, and what so many people keep crying is something "early adopters" should expect, is faulty/buggy hardware and software. why should we keep expecting that? why is it our fault for looking forward to and buying a brand new product and finding out all the bugs and problems?

My three Android tablets this year had OS 1.6; 2.0; and 2.2. All were exceedingly buggy. I had to constantly go online to update firmware... which normally would correct one problem and cause another problem in the process. Because the OS were all developed for phones, they utilized worthless phone features in the system. Guess what this does to a device?? It eats up the battery with features that aren't even needed! Also, the app market is flooded with mediocre apps which in no way do justice to a tablet device.

To make it worse, the two with resistive screens had poor screen response and even the one with capacitive screen didn't fare much better... not all capacitives are created equal. (Just because it's capacitive doesn't mean it's any good.)

I found out that being an early adopter, I spent far too much time trying to get the dang thangs to operate the way I wanted them to. Not worth it. I also found out that I was practically living in the Android forums, along with all the other folks trying to overcome our buggy tablets.

Hopefully by 2012 these problems will be a thing of the past.

[boswd]

Originally Posted by pphilipp

My three Android tablets this year had OS 1.6; 2.0; and 2.2. All were exceedingly buggy. I had to constantly go online to update firmware... which normally would correct one problem and cause another problem in the process. Because the OS were all developed for phones, they utilized worthless phone features in the system. Guess what this does to a device?? It eats up the battery with features that aren't even needed! Also, the app market is flooded with mediocre apps which in no way do justice to a tablet device.

To make it worse, the two with resistive screens had poor screen response and even the one with capacitive screen didn't fare much better... not all capacitives are created equal. (Just because it's capacitive doesn't mean it's any good.)

I found out that being an early adopter, I spent far too much time trying to get the dang thangs to operate the way I wanted them to. Not worth it. I also found out that I was practically living in the Android forums, along with all the other folks trying to overcome our buggy tablets.

Hopefully by 2012 these problems will be a thing of the past.

Actually I think your case is a bit different. The fact that buying Android tablets that are running 1.6 and 2.0 can only lead one to believe that these are basically the bottom of the barrel Walgreen type of tablets . I wouldn't judge android as OS based on Craig, Hansui or Viewsonic etc.

Android being an open source OS is both a blessing and a curse. The curse part being any manufacturer can obtain any of the Android OS and throw crappy hardware and slow processors and crappy screens and then add the "Android" name to it for recognition.

Kind of like buyign a Blu ray player, the tech can be used by any manufacturer but If I bought a Craig Blu ray from CVS and it was a piece of crap I wouldn't say that all Blu rays especially by Samsung, Sony, Panasonic were crap..

So I don't think your case is as much as being an early adopter as it to choosing poor brands.

Before the Xoom and to a certain degree the Nook color, there really has been only one Tier 1 Android Tablet and that was the Samsung Galaxy Tab running 2.2. And really the only across the board knock on that device was it's initial pricing which was through the roof, otherwise, it's a high end performing tablet.

Everything else has been just cheap junk.