From Touchpad to Xoom...

[vrykyl]

So I thought I'd share my brief thoughts on my two most recent tablet experiences... the now infamous HP Touchpad, and the massively under-rated Motorola Xoom (version 1)

Having picked up a Touchpad 32gb in the firesale, and having never owned a 'tablet' before (I had owned / used a win xp based umpc though), first impressions were pretty positive.

It felt pretty quick, and I immediately loved the webOS interface and multi-tasking experience. True to form though, I used it religiously for the first month or two - overclocked it, did the whole pre-ware thing (which was a massive improvement) - BUT over time then started to find myself more and more find myself putting it down in favour of my mobile (galaxy s2) and the android OS.

Do I think android is the better os? No, but it did have the range of apps I use daily that the touchpad simply didnt have. Cyanogen mod7 was floating about, but I tried it and it left a lot to be desired (im sure cm9 will be great though).


So I sold it (plus accessories) for exactly what I'd paid for them, and scooped up a brand new original Motorola Xoom (no accessories) for the same amount.

Again first impressions - I much prefer the aspect ratio / size of the xoom, imo its much more comfortable to hold for extended periods. I've no idea if the weights are different, but to me they feel about as hefty as one another - its no ipad2 weight wise thats for sure. Build quality (like the touchpad) is spot on, and I'd rate the screens themselves as roughly the same quality too.

Honeycomb was pretty nice, but doesnt feel very 'smooth' on the xoom; there was plenty of lag in menus / transitions despite the tegra2 inside (which suprised me), though the android expereince itself was fine (bar the expected app compatibility).

What has absolutely MADE this tablet for me now though, is the official ICS update - flashed the US wifi only firmware as soon as the US ICS ota update went live; on reboot immediately got the download on my xoom - WOW what a difference!

Menu's etc are all buttery smooth, with no discernable lag. Everything works, and 95% of my apps are fine and scale beautifuly.
Took the plunge and rooted (retaining the stock IML77 update), and swapped in an overclockable kernel - Im now happily running a daily 1.7ghz, and am exceptionally pleased with the performance.

For the price I genuinely cannot recomend this tablet enough - if you want an 'entry level' android tablet, and can get one for under £250, seriously get one - you WONT be dissapointed.


Final word - I will say however, that for both tablets, with the touchpad at 1.6ghz OC and the xoom at 1.7ghz oc, my galaxy s2 is STILL faster than both.
Firing up an app on the xoom vs gs2, is still quicker on the galaxy, and its definitely smoother still for general use vs the xoom. However I appreciate that the xoom etc are a much higher res screen, and I bought them for times when a little screen just wont do

[Biscuit]

Thanks for posting your comments. Im keeping a close eye on the market at the moment to see if any bargains pop up so its good to see what different peoples experiences are like

[cookie365]

I'm waiting for the Win8 tablets. Well, I'm trying to wait for them. I might get a Transformer Prime if my patience runs out before Win8 does. Or I might get a Transformer prime and an ultrabook now and wait until next year for a Win8 tablet.

[[GSV]Trig]

Agree with the ics comments, running the eos nightly on mine and it's leaps ahead of hc...
I am too however waiting eagerly for the windows 8 tablets, etc I tried it on a laptop and didn't like it but on a tablet is think it could really shine if office and "work" related application are ready at launch..

[Biscuit]

As windows 8 will have an arm version, do you reckon you will be able to put it on existing android tablets if the bootloader is unlocked?

[[GSV]Trig]

I have no idea, but given that there are people out there running Unix, Android, Win98, WP6.5, WP7 and 7.2 on the old HD2 I wouldnt rule it out..

[MSIC]

Cheers for the personal review.
I'm much more inclined to make a personal buying decision on something like this than an official review.
Personally, i am unlikely to get a Xoom but it's coming down very strongly to either the iPad3 or something IceCreamSandwhich-y.

[HSK]

Which Xoom do you have OP - is it the wifi or 3g?

I have a 3g on - It was unlocked & rooted, but I locked it again when I installed the official update to 3.2. now I'm bored of that!

[vrykyl]

Thanks for the replies folks!

HSK - I've got the 32gb wifi only, but afaik theres a fully working custom ICS release for the EU variant 3g model (as an ota ICS update hasnt come out yet) HERE that seems to be very well spoken of.

ICS has made the world of difference to this xoom - ICS and the overclock are the two best things Ive done to my xoom, it barely feels like the original tablet I unboxed!

As for windows 8 - its my hope some clever folks will sort a way to maybe dual boot win8 arm and ICS... I'd love to have a go with one, even if its not the quickest on the xoom. I have a sneaking suspicion that win8 tablets will be horrendously expensive, and that MS might not even make arm variant win8 licenses available to buy seperate from tablet hardware...
Just a gut feeling mind you.

[[GSV]Trig]

That ROM you linked too is the one I run, the EOS guys certainly know there crap, they might not have all the features that some of the other ICS ROM's have but unlike the others they are more interested in getting the actual base OS down before they start tweaking for performance/battery life..

With the Xoom now being dropped to £249.99 and ICS ROM's being out there, either by custom ROM teams like EOS, or by changing your base firmware to that of a system thats already had an official ICS update it makes the Xoom soo much more viable, imho of course...

I agree with your thoughts on Win8, I think it'll be tied down on a hardware level and get nowhere near the support from the developers that Android has, it'll not be open source and if MS dont release proper dev tools before launch I think they'll have an uphill struggle...

[DannyM]

I've got a playbook at the moment, which I am very happy with hardware wise, however on the software side of things it isn't all that great. If these Xoom tablets come down to £250 again I'll snap one up now I know you can run ICS on it.

[Biscuit]

I wish HTC would hurry up and get a tablet out, the flyer is really out of date now and they have no entry into the market at all.

[scaryjim]

... if MS dont release proper dev tools before launch I think they'll have an uphill struggle...

I'm pretty sure the latest version of Visual Studio has the metro dev tools already incorporated, and I assume that if you're building in .NET the runtimes will either be binary compatible or you'll be able to choose ARM as a build target. The Win 8 developer preview was made available as a free download very early on, so I think it's fair to say MS are aware of their need to keep the dev community happy to make the new OS a success

[[GSV]Trig]

Aye, the dev preview is for x86 though, which isnt a lot of use

[scaryjim]

But both will have the same Metro UI, and I believe (well, assume!) that .net apps designed for Metro will be fully portable between x86 and ARM - either binary compatible or by a compiler profile. If I'm right, at worst a .net developer will have to compile the same code twice to make their app available for both x86 and ARM Win 8.

Of course, that relies on someone in MS having at least half an ounce of common sense...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

BTW,ICS is coming to the TouchPad too. WebOS is actually quite nice to use but is a performance hog and the number of apps is still limited.