A week. That's all it really takes to form an accurate opinion of a new technology in my book.
A person might not be able to necessarily know all the tips and tricks and secrets of something in that time but they'll be able to answer a few high priority questions. These questions are threefold.
1) Useability - How easy is it to use?
2) Functionality - Does it meet your basic needs?
3) Potential - Will it improve over time?
First is useability. The Google Honeycomb operating system is nothing short of fantastic. The snappy feel, responsiveness and overall simple layout puts this tablet in the top tier of consumer electronics.
Functionality is up next. I was looking for a product that would allow me to surf the web, chat, check e-mail and run portable media well. Honeycomb is running Google Chrome for the browser complete with a tabbed browsing experience. I'm using a combination of IM+ and Google Talk for chatting with friends. G-mail and Google's standard mail apps are fantastic. They're easy to use easy to read and east to manipu.ate. other reviews have talked about these e-mail programs being the best of their kind on a tablet experience.
Finally is future potential. The Motorola Xoom is the first Honeycomb tablet on the market. This does show in the lack of support for native tablet apps at this point in time. The native tablet apps are great so far. Pulse is an impressive RSS reader. The interface is simple and more importantly, functional. But it's not what's currently available that matters as much as the level of support and the capabilities down the road. Three items stand out here - the eventual 4G access, Flash support, and the native Google app releases in the future. Add to that the inevitable third party apps and we're now talking about great forward looking potential.
So what's this thing missing? Well, the included micro-SD slot isn't active although the presence is a great addition to the tablet wars. The lack of USB charging is unwelcome but not entirely unexpected considering the power requirements for these devices. Finally, the current lack of a dedicated movie playing app is a bit of an oversight, but I have faith that this device will continue to grow in capabilities very quickly.
Overall, I can't recommend the Motorola Xoom to everyone just yet. If you're in the market for a tablet, the Xoom is the way to go in my humble opinion, but if you can wait a few months, I would prefer you do that. If you travel for a living like I do and you want to reduce your electronic load, this is the way to go. Google's a powerhouse player in software and the native apps are a step above the competition. Give this until June and you'll find my whole hearted recommendation.
Until then always remember,
It is the Geeks that will inherit the Earth
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