Motorola Xoom

June 24, 2011 – 5:15 am

The Motorola Xoom is the first of a whole new generation of Android tablets. Previous efforts at running an Android tablet such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab used Android Froyo 2.2 which was designed for smartphones but luckily for us the Motorola Xoom uses the new Android Honeycomb 3.0 operating system, making it the first true Android tablet.

The Xoom has a large 10.1″ screen which is closer to Ipad size than the 7″ screen of the Galaxy Tab. The screen has 1290×800 pixel resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio perfect for watching movies and streaming content over the web. The Xoom definitely couldn’t be popped into your pocket but the larger screen makes this tablet more usable than the Galaxy Tab. The Xoom is a well constructed and stylish tablet although it’s noticeably fatter than the Ipad2 and a bit heavier.

Browsing on the Xoom is fast and fun although the Android app logos are going to need to be resized for Android 3.0 tablets. There is enough processor power to making using the Xoom a whizz and it also has Flash Player which of course isn’t supported on Apple’s Ipads. There are multiple home screen options and you can tweak the tablet’s graphics to find your perfect match.

The Xoom has all the connectivity options you would expect including an HDMI port allowing you to watch the Xoom’s output on TV and a 3.5mm headphone socket. The Xoom is also PC friendly and will connect to your PC and allow you to share files with ease, no file format woes await you.

The Xoom has both a front and back camera to allow use of see-me-see-u software. The front mounted camera is 5-megapixel snapper whilst the camera on the screen side is a decent 2-megapixel cam.

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Acer Iconia Tab A500

June 23, 2011 – 8:00 am

A few days ago we looked at the Acer Iconia and loved its futuristic dual screen set-up, today we’re looking at another machine from the Acer Iconia range and this time its the Acer Iconia Tab A500, the Iconia’s little brother.

The Iconia Tab A500 is a Android Honeycomb tablet competing head-on with the Motorola Xoom and Asus Transformer for the title of top Android tablet. Like it’s competition the Iconia A500 Tab has a 10.1″ screen and inside it’s similar too with a Nvidia Tegra 2 processor running at 1Ghz and 1GB of RAM with 32GB of solid state storage. In terms of cameras the Iconia Tab packs two, the rear facing 2MP camera looks at the user and the forward facing 5MP takes the snaps and using both together will allow for some see-me-see-you webchats. The A500 doesn’t have 3G but the A501 model does, important to note this if 3G is important to you.

The Iconia Tab looks and feels well-made, the case is made of aluminium and perhaps will age better than some of the rubber-booted competition as a result, remember these tablets are going to get a load of handling and a wipe clean aluminium exterior maybe isn’t a bad thing.

Battery life isn’t too bad especially if you are used to getting 2 or 3 hours out of a laptop then you’ll be pleasantly surpised that the Iconia Tab is going to run around 10 hours on a full charge.

The Iconia Tab is a pretty decent performer too, it handles games well and generally gives swift movement through apps and general use. Where the Iconia Tab suffers in performanc is shared with all the other Android tablets so we’d expect performance to be pretty consistent and for these problems to be further ironed out with the next Honeycomb update.

In summary, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 is a real contender, make sure you catch the A501 if you need 3G but either way you aren’t going to be disappointed by the looks or performance.

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HP Touchsmart TX2

June 22, 2011 – 8:00 am

The Touchsmart TX2 from HP is a dual-mode laptop which has a conventional keyboard but allows the screen to be twisted thru 180 degrees and folded back onto the keyboard to become a tablet. With HP you expect a quality product and the Touchsmart does not disappoint, it’s both stylish and well made feeling and looking robust.

Touch input is through using your fingers or the supplied stylus pen which is slotted into the Touchsmart TX2′s case. Whilst using the stylus pen the TX2 intelligently ignores any contact between your hand and the screen, smoething which I’ve found really frustrating when using other tablet pc’s with stylus pens. Multi-touch input is provided for but a maximum of two fingers are recognised, this isn’t badly limiting but it reduces the effectiveness of the multi-touch compared to some other systems where 3 or 4 contact points are recognised simultaneously.

The Touchsmart TX2 has a generally rock solid performance in benchmarking tests the 4GB of RAM helps along the Turion X2 Ultra processor running at 2.3Ghz. With many machines opting for solid state storage now it’s unusual to see the Touchsmart packing a traditional HD with a tasty 400GB of room. In terms of battery the four cell is weak so the eight cell battery is a must-have and will return over 2 hours of mobile use.

So if you want a dual mode laptop then the HP Touchsmart offers good standard performance, great build quality and a touchscreen which in particular works well with the stylus pen, its a decent all-rounder.

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