Has anyone properly tested the Motorola Zoom?

Hiya,
I have the Motorola Xoom...only reason I actually got it was that I sold my ipad gen1 to get the ipad2 and then I couldn't get it so had to settle for the Xoom as I was travelling.

Hardwise the xoom is practically identical to the ipad 2, The ipad2 has a more powerful video processor but the xoom has double the ram of the ipad2.
Weightwise it's about 150g heavier and you'll feel it alright but nothing major.

Things I like about it :
1) It's designed to operate in landscape mode so feels more natural to hold than the ipad I find.
2) The browser is miles better than safari, even better is Dolphin HD broswer (free) , had favorites on the side (just swipe left), tabbed browsing etc.
3) Drag and drop- My main hate for my iphone and ipad. I love that I can just hook up my xoom, drop some e-books, tv shows or movies onto it and ur done.
4) Google talk/gmail integration- Really nice option and I only became aware of google talk when one of the mates spotted me online and rang me...was surprised when the video option came up and it worked pretty well., on a par with facetime.
5) Screen is made of gorilla glass so pretty much ok to go without a screen protector as it's pretty tough. On a par with the ipad2 screen but likewise suffers from sun glare.
6) Motorola Dock- Yes it's expensive at €60 but it allows you to dock the xoom and charge at the same time, so what I hear you ask? Well since your xoom operates in landscape mode you can easily put it on your bedside locker and watch movies on it without having cables hanging off the side of it...I love it..I've watched the last 2 seasons of Malcolm in the Middle on it rather than on my tv..

Thinks I don't like
1) Still waiting on Motorola to release Honeycomb 3.1 update to Europe.
You can root it and manually update it but it's not a one click process like jailbreaking the ipad or iphone. You need to install about 4 pieces of software on your pc etc plus sign up as a Android dev, Motorola dev and Java dev so I didn't bother in the end.
2) Honeycomb does feel a small bit laggy compared to iOS, not much but for ayone used to Apple's iOS they will spot it asap. Apparently 3.1 really speeds this up
3) My pet hate about the ipad was that I had to decoded HD mkv and then use itunes to copy it over and still it didn't look right.
I thought all my problems were sorted on the xoom but the nvidia tegra 2 gpu is underpowered for this so you need to encode your HD mkv rips to a basic HD profile etc so that the xoom can display it back perfectly.
I purchased an app for it (dvd catalyst 4 or something- €10) and it works perfectly. What's even better is that I found it also supports the ipad and does an excellent job of converting and resizing resolution etc for the ipad
Normal standard definition movies etc can be just dragged and dropped and it plays perfectly.
4) E- Readers, iBooks is way ahead of anything that Android offers.
I started using akikodo whatever it's called and it's constantly crashing on HC3.0 as it still needs to be updated for it...which is a pity as it's pretty good when it does work (think it's the auto screen rotate that causes it).
I found a free app called FBreader which does work perfectly but the page turning is nowhere as smooth as ibooks.
5) Android Market- There's only about 200 Honeycomb apps compared to the thousands for the ipad. And they're not labelled or anything so impossible to find. And don't bother trying to find anything like the excellent Sunday times app , Android simply doesn't have it. Google has a hell of a long way to go to catch up to the app store for the ipad, while they might match it on smartphones it's pretty bad for tablets.
Hell I even have to install AVG antivirus just in case I download a dodgy app on the market as Google do barely any quality control on the market currently..hopefully they change that and get it under control.


Overall...the xoom is a pretty nice piece of kit...web browsing is fantastic on it as well as watching movies etc.
The only reason it wasn't more a success was due to Motorola really overpricing it compared to the ipad..

However also look at the Asus e-pad transformer.....way cheaper by about €100-200 and it's practically identical in every way to the Xoom..

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4277/asus-eee-pad-transformer-review


So what would I pick if I had my choice....
It's a really hard decision...
Motorola are getting ready to launch the Xoom 2 around September it's rumoured and it's going to use the Tegra 3 from Nvidia which is hugely improved GPU wise and is quad-core so it might be best to hold off.

I honestly can't pick one if I'm honest...both have features that I love ...and hate so in the meantime I'm sticking with the Xoom to see if Google/Motorola update it etc..

nedd wrote: »

I don't have a Xoom but was thinking of getting one. While checking up info online about it I found this:

http://www.intomobile.com/2011/03/28/how-to-root-your-motorola-xoom-one-click/
One Click Root For Xoom.

One last point, there is absolutely no need for AVG or any other anti virus on Android. There are no "Viruses" only dodgy apps that will try and hijack your connection. Just don't install those dodgy Pron apps in the market. I'm sure this has been covered in another thread on here so I don't want to start a debate about it. Just putting it out there for info.

Do not use the one click root for the UK or europe xoom!!!....it will brick it..there's been loads of reports of people bricking their xooms trying this method and having to go back to the shops and trying to get a replacement.
It's grand if you can source a US model but you need to be very careful with it.

See here for more up to date information

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1011196

Hay Sc@recrow, i got the 3.1 update about 3 weeks ago on my Xoom, so im not sure why you haven't received it yet........

I love my xoom, use it everyday for email,music,browsing and watching tv show's in bed One think I have to say is that the battery is really fantastic too, 8 hours is not a problem for it.

Ah I see, humm. Yeah mine is from the US alright, got the wifi one in bestbuy over there. Yeah the UI is a little snappier and the resizeable widgets are really nice addition, tho more devs need to get the finger out and implement it. There's lots of nice little things in the update, hopefully you'll get it soon.

Its still stock android, I think I would cry if they put "Blur" on it

Oh and my advice to the OP would be to go into pcworld and try out all the tablets and see what you think.

think we definitely need a sticky thread for "Apps for Honeycomb or Android Tablet".

For an e-reade use FBreader...it works perfectly on HC..
Akikode premium crashes on screen rotation so a pain having to find your page again,.

Sc@recrow wrote: »

think we definitely need a sticky thread for "Apps for Honeycomb or Android Tablet".

For an e-reade use FBreader...it works perfectly on HC..
Akikode premium crashes on screen rotation so a pain having to find your page again,.

Started one here.

Not a lot of interest to put it mildly!

Got sick of waiting for Motorola to release the 3.1 to Europe so went ahead and flashed my xoom to the US stock version.
Picked up the 3.1 update and working perfectly.
Note that I didn't need to root etc, I just used the dev tools to update it.
Now that it's on this version it will pick up all US updates from now one.

What you need?

1. Create a free account at Motodev which allows you to download the dev stock images. Download the US stock image.
2. Create an account at Google Dev and download the latest android-sdk tools.
Run it and update it if required. For those getting an error about winapi.dll you can google it and download. Place in your SDK folders.
3. Download java JDK (not the JRE)
4. Download fastboot.exe and place into your SDK tools folder.
5. download motorola usb drivers.

Unzip the US stock images into your android\android-sdk\tools folder

Follow the below instructions.---Taken from XDA dev forum


Instructions to return it to stock
1) First you need the Moto Drivers - Read this thread to START you - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=981578
Should have these drivers installed if you have rooted your Xoom before.

2) Make sure you have the latest SDK - adb and fastboot should be in /platform-tools - http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
Should have the android SDK if you have rooted your Xoom before.

3) Place all the downloaded stock image files into the SDK Tools folder.

4) If you are booting up from scratch, you can get the Xoom in fastboot mode by doing the following. Use command prompt to perform the rest of the steps
Hold VolDown and Power button will boot unit for fastboot mode

fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot flash userdata userdata.img
fastboot erase cache
fastboot oem lock

Anyone not sure and it took me a while to figure it out pm me and I can walk you through it.

It actually looks way more complicated than it actually is. It's late now but I'll update with the full links over the weekend,

Sc@recrow wrote: »

One app I highly recommend especially for HD movies is actually a windows program.
It's called DVD Catayst 4..costs about a tenner but well worth it.
The tegra 2 gpu chip in all andoids is pretty poor for HD playback unless your movie is using a base profile so basically this app encodes it with this profile so the Xoom and any other Android tablet plays back HD content without stutter.
However it all encodes for a lot more devices including the ipad
I also had problems getting a proper encoder for my ipad and movies tended to look stretched etc on it which is why I went the Android way for tablets.
Little did I realise about this limitation of the Tegra 2 but this app solves it.
I also encoded some movies for my mate's ipad2 and they look a hell of a lot better than some of the normal encoders around.
Plus it's quad-core optimised.

* I've nothing to do with this app ..I just saw it recommended on the xoom forums.

Looks good. I'm trying it out at the moment. What sort of file sizes does it output?

Edit/ I can answer my own question. A 700MB avi file converted to a 1.2GB MPEG-4. Ouch!
But a 1.45GB mkv file becomes a 677MB MPEG-4.

oo7tk wrote: »

Can you get these on o2 yet????

I think O2 started to sell the 3g model

http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/digital-life-a-xoom-with-a-view-how-android-is-taking-on-ipad-2801067.html

pickarooney wrote: »

Is it possible to export from the Kindle app (amazon purchase) to Alkido or FBreader? I don't like having multiple apps that do essentially the same job.

I don't think so unless someone hacked together an app to do so...kindle is fairly closed down...doesn't even support epub
Hopefully I'm wrong though as I'm in the same boat.

CombatCow wrote: »

3.1 update for Europe rolling out now....

typical...3 or 4 days after I mod mine they release it :mad:
I wonder did the US 3.1 update have the SD card activation?

edit..no it didn't ..

well at least Motorola gave the European users something worth waiting for...
It's very easy to flash back to the UK version anyway

just got the update last night haven't tried out the SD slot yet so can;'t really comment on performance etc..

This is going for a decent price now it would seem.

Looking to buy my first tablet - as its more of a self indulgent thing than a necessity thing...I'd feel happier if I kept the budget under 400 euro.

Is there anything bad about the xoom I should know about? Seems just as good as ones going for 400-450 no?

Don't need 3g. I presume I can just use the 3g on my smartphone if I do use the xoom while out and about.

Do want - hdmi, USB, SD card slot - Android honeycomb and ultimately a smooth user experience. Don't want a laggy device.

Thoughts?

www.fnac.com have them and you can get €100 off if you have the FNAC voucher they gave away for those who they oversold the HP TouchPad too.

Cheers,
M

I love mine for travelling.

Recently came back from Australia and it lasted the journey for me. Obviously not on 100% but I watched a couple of movies/TV shows and played some games. It lasted the entire time I wanted to use it.

It just seems to have the battery that will not die.