As with the HTC Thunderbolt, I’ll be dropping my Xoom testing notes here. This isn’t a full review (though Laptop Mag has a nice thorough one if that’s what you’re looking for). These are just a few thoughts I had while using the device (and waiting and wondering when the 4G upgrade will be come available).

Notes

• The Xoom seems to collect dust and fingerprints very well. More so than other devices I’ve used. The Xoom may lack an olephobic coating that is designs to reduce the amount of finger oils that stick to the screen. The dust attraction could be from a slight static charge building on the screen.

• Auto-correct is mostly invisible and doesn’t correct very well by default. If you go into the keyboard options, you can enable ‘show suggestions’ and increase the agressiveness of the auto-correct which improved the typing experience for me.
• The lock button (on the back of the device) works well when the tablet is in your hands, but it’s a pain when the device is flat on a table or in your lap (which it usually is when you’re typing). People that I give the Xoom too (even those familiar with technology) usually spend at lest 20 seconds looking for the lock button, which easily marks it as being not placed in an intuitive place.

• The screen is glossy and highly reflective; a pain to use with bright overhead lights found in office and school environments.
• The portrait keyboard is a better size than the iPad’s (ie: easily thumb-typable but the aspect ratio and weight of the devices makes it harder to use than I’d prefer. The option to float the keyboard in the middle of the screen (like the iPad will do with iOS 5) would distribute the weight more evenly and make for a better portrait typing experience. Extended portrait typing with the current keyboard layout will likely cause strain as you have to hold the weight of the device with your palms while typing with your thumbs.

• Quick controls on the browser is great for maximizing screen real-estate and making navigation quick and easy. Just swipe onto the browser from the left or right of the screen and you’ve got all of your browser controls quite literally at the tip of your finger. Android Honeycomb 3.1 updated this to offer even more comprehensive controls from quick controls. Be sure to activate quick controls in your browser’s settings menu under Labs.

• The familiar four Android buttons have moved into software which is good because they change with the orientation of the device. The ‘menu’ button has been removed in favor of putting things that would otherwise be hidden by the button into the software of the application itself.
• Keyboard input can be slow on ‘heavy’ sites like Facebook which makes typing a pain.
• Auto-rotation on the screen is was slower than it seems it should be doesn’t feel responsive.
• Lack of portrait support in the Market app is annoying!

Benchmarks

So there you have it! If you’re interested we’ve got some other great coverage on the Xoom:

• Editing HD Video with Movie Studio on Android 3.0 / Motorola Xoom
• Android 3.1 Hands-on Testing: Performance, Browser Quick Controls, Flash Playback, and More

You may recall our post about the Droid X2 announcement from the other day. I was somewhat perplexed at the fact that the Droid X [tracking page] and Droid X2 [tracking page] were nearly identical on the outside, except for the fact that the dedicated camera button had been removed. I was wondering why exactly they did this so guess what I did? I asked. Crazy, I know.

Here’s what Motorola had to say about the matter:

Design decision was based on consumer and carrier feedback. Also, when combining the display shutter button and continuous autofocus, it allowed us to deliver much faster camera performance; the DROID X2’s shot-to-shot performance is 44% faster than DROID X.

As I mentioned in the prior post, it looks like Motorola was trying to avoid any major design changes from the Droid X. ‘Consumer feedback’ was likely complaints like mine in our Droid X review that called the camera button out as being wobbly and feeling scarcely attached to the phone. If they were making more significant design changes, I think we would have seen an improved camera button, but it would seem as though removing it was the easier route in this case.

Fortunately users are actually gaining some performance from the removal of the button so it’s not a lose-lose scenario. Increasing the speed in which you can take photos by nearly 50% is nothing to scoff at. And we also now know that the Droid X2 has continuous autofocus, that’s a plus!

You may recall our post about the Droid X2 announcement from the other day. I was somewhat perplexed at the fact that the Droid X [tracking page] and Droid X2 [tracking page] were nearly identical on the outside, except for the fact that the dedicated camera button had been removed. I was wondering why exactly they did this so guess what I did? I asked. Crazy, I know.

Here’s what Motorola had to say about the matter:

Design decision was based on consumer and carrier feedback. Also, when combining the display shutter button and continuous autofocus, it allowed us to deliver much faster camera performance; the DROID X2’s shot-to-shot performance is 44% faster than DROID X.

As I mentioned in the prior post, it looks like Motorola was trying to avoid any major design changes from the Droid X. ‘Consumer feedback’ was likely complaints like mine in our Droid X review that called the camera button out as being wobbly and feeling scarcely attached to the phone. If they were making more significant design changes, I think we would have seen an improved camera button, but it would seem as though removing it was the easier route in this case.

Fortunately users are actually gaining some performance from the removal of the button so it’s not a lose-lose scenario. Increasing the speed in which you can take photos by nearly 50% is nothing to scoff at. And we also now know that the Droid X2 has continuous autofocus, that’s a plus!

So this is interesting. Motorola and Verizon officially announce the Motorola Droid X2 which seems to be a very well speced phone, but the external design appears to be identical to the original Droid X [tracking page][review] except they apparently decided to remove the dedicated camera button. Is that weird to anyone else?

Sure, I complained about the quality of the buttons in my review of the device saying “the volume rocker and lock/power buttons are top-notch in their firmness and clickability, however, the longish camera button could be used as a mini-seesaw and the four front buttons aren’t much to write home about either,” but I was asking for it to be improved, not removed!

The only reason I can think of that would have led to the removal is if Motorola was seeing a high breakage rate on the button – because they didn’t redesign the phone, the button was removed to fix the issue instead of improved. They may have also needed a tiny bit of space inside the phone that would have been saved with the removal of the button, but that seems less likely.

I’m also very surprised to find the Droid X2 lacking a front-facing camera as we don’t often see top-end phones launching without one these days (I blame the lack of redesign).

Anyway, the Droid X2 is here and should be available for purchase online from Verizon by the time you read this. The phone will not surprisingly run you $199 on-contract. The X2 will hit stores a bit later than its online availability; be on the lookout on May 26th for the device in your local Verizon store.

Now what you’re probably really interested in is the specs. The X2 is nearly identical to the Droid X in appearance, but the internals have been beefed up, big time. As usual, these are all official — check it:

• Android 2.2 (with a promised 2.3 update down the road)
• Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU/GPU @ 1GHz
• 512MB of RAM
• 4.3” “qHD” capacitive touchscreen display @ 960×540 (Gorilla Glass with glare reducing coating)
• 3G EV-DO
• 8MP rear camera with dual-LED flash (captures up to 1280×720 video)
• Micro HDMI-out with 1080p-capable display mirroring
• 8GB of memory onboard, 8GB MicroSD card pre-loaded

Those a the major details, but we’ve got a full page in our database dedicated to tracking detailed specs, links, and more on the Droid X2. Be sure to check it out for additional details. Oh and don’t forget to see the Droid X2 gallery. It wouldn’t hurt to look at our original Droid X gallery as well considering the circumstances….

Looks like there will be an updated version of Motorla’s Android skin included on the X2. On the original Droid X It was one of the first things I found a replacement for from the Android Market, so I really hope they make the widgets more space conscious this time around.

So this is interesting. Motorola and Verizon officially announce the Motorola Droid X2 which seems to be a very well speced phone, but the external design appears to be identical to the original Droid X [tracking page][review] except they apparently decided to remove the dedicated camera button. Is that weird to anyone else?

Sure, I complained about the quality of the buttons in my review of the device saying “the volume rocker and lock/power buttons are top-notch in their firmness and clickability, however, the longish camera button could be used as a mini-seesaw and the four front buttons aren’t much to write home about either, inch but I was asking for it to be improved, not removed!

The only reason I can think of that would have led to the removal is if Motorola was seeing a high breakage rate on the button because they didn’t redesign the phone, the button was removed to fix the issue instead of improved. They may have also needed a tiny bit of space inside the phone that would have been saved with the removal of the button, but that seems less likely.

I’m also very surprised to find the Droid X2 lacking a front-facing camera as we don’t often see top-end phones launching without one these days (I blame the lack of redesign).

Anyway, the Droid X2 is here and should be available for purchase online from Verizon by the time you read this. The phone will not surprisingly run you $199 on-contract. The X2 will hit stores a bit later than its online availability; be on the lookout on May 26th for the device in your local Verizon store.

Now what you’re probably really interested in is the specs. The X2 is nearly identical to the Droid X in appearance, but the internals have been beefed up, big time. As usual, these are all official — check it:

• Android 2.2 (with a promised 2.3 update down the road)
• Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU/GPU @ 1GHz
• 512MB of RAM
• 4.3 inch “qHD inch capacitive touchscreen display @ 960×540 (Gorilla Glass with glare reducing coating)
• 3G EV-DO
• 8MP rear camera with dual-LED flash (captures up to 1280×720 video)
• Micro HDMI-out with 1080p-capable display mirroring
• 8GB of memory onboard, 8GB MicroSD card pre-loaded

Those a the major details, but we’ve got a full page in our database dedicated to tracking detailed specs, links, and more on the Droid X2. Be sure to check it out for additional details. Oh and don’t forget to see the Droid X2 gallery. It wouldn’t hurt to look at our original Droid X gallery as well considering the circumstances….

Looks like there will be an updated version of Motorla’s Android skin included on the X2. On the original Droid X It was one of the first things I found a replacement for from the Android Market, so I really hope they make the widgets more space conscious this time around.

Our Motorola Xoom [tracking page] has finally managed to find the Android 3.1 Honeycomb update that Google pushed out the other day. We gave you a thorough overview of the 3.1 update based on the official information provided, but there’s only so much that text can say. To understand the changes sometimes you just have to experience them. Often times a lot of the little changes go largely undocumented. So to answer that call, we’ve got a hands-on video for you. Have a look:

WARNING: Please turn your volume down before 14:20. I forgot to enable airplane mode on my phone and the subsequent vibration is frighteningly loud. My apologies!

Tablets increasingly seem to want to go from companion device to dedicated device, but there’s a lot of catching up to do in terms of productivity before that can actually happen. Today, most modern smartphones are capable of capturing 720p video, that means that if a tablet wants even a chance at being a standalone device, it’s going to need to at least be able to edit those files.

Android 3.0 (honeycomb) comes pre-baked with a Movie Studio application which wowed the press with what appeared to be full-fledged video editing on the tablet. But now that the Xoom [tracking page] is available to the public, we have to ask (and I can’t believe I haven’t seen people be more critical about this): Is the video editing really up to the task? You be the judge:

Incidentally, this video was shot, edited, and processed on an iPhone 4 (but not uploaded, damn YouTube file size limitations!).

We’ve got the Motorola Xoom [tracking page] on hand and have a nearly 30 minute-long overview session for you on video. You’ll be taken around the hardware of Motorola’s first slate and then we’ll dive into Android 3.0 (Honeycomb).

WARNING: please turn your volume down around 0:30, 16:06, and 17:24. My phone vibrated during recording and it came out very loudly on the video, my apologies!