CES 2011: Motorola Xoom 4G Tablet with Android Honeycomb
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CREDIT: Motorola |
It's official: The Motorola Xoom tablet has been unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show, showing off features in the new Android Honeycomb interface and the potential for 4G data speeds.
We caught just a glimpse of the Xoom and Android Honeycomb (version 3.0) working together at a technology conference weeks ago. Now Motorola is giving an in-depth look at the sleek new Xoom.
"Light, powerful and fundamentally different than anything else on the market, Motorola XOOM leverages the very best technology available today to redefine what a tablet experience can be," said Bill Ogle, chief marketing officer of Motorola Mobility, in a company statement. "The first device to feature software designed specifically for tablets, Motorola XOOM goes everywhere you do and delivers everything you need."
The "software designed specifically for tablets" he refers to is the upcoming Android Honeycomb, which caters specifically to tablet-size touchscreens.
The Xoom is a 10-inch Android tablet running on a 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor, meaning it should have some incredible media capabilities. And that's not even mentioning the new benefits that Android Honeycomb will also bring to media and data management for tablets.
The touchscreen display has a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution, which is capable of full 1080p HD playback. The rear 5 megapixel camera can record 720p HD video, while the front-facing camera does video chat. Also included is Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 32GB of storage and a battery rated for 10 hours of video playback, which means it might be the first tablet to keep up with the iPad.
The Motorola Xoom is launching exclusively on the Verizon network sometime in the next few months (no official launch date beyond "first quarter 2011"). That means it will likely be available with a data contract. To start, the Xoom will only use 3G networks for connectivity, but starting in the late spring it's supposed to be upgradable to 4G. There's already a SIM-card slot built-in along the top that will be used to access the Verizon LTE network.
Neither Verizon nor Motorola have yet announced official pricing or even plans for data contracts.
