The Apple iPad may still reign supreme in the world of consumer tablets, but the Android side of the equation is quickly picking up steam. While early Android tablets only ran on blown-up versions of the smartphone OS, Android 3.0 Honeycomb introduced a tablet-centric version of the platform with several tablet-centric optimizations. And the first to take advantage of these optimizations was the Motorola Xoom.

Now that it’s been officially updated to Android 3.1 (some have even gotten up to 3.2) and it’s competing against several other Honeycomb tablets, how does the Xoom stack up? Let’s have a look.

Key Features and Specifications

The version of the Motorola Xoom that I had to review as the Xoom MZ604. This comes with 32GB of internal storage capacity and Wi-Fi connectivity, but there is no 3G radio to be seen. The juice comes by way of an NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor with a ULP GeForce GPU and 1GB of RAM.

As has become the norm for so many tablets in this range, the Motorola Xoom comes with a 10.1-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen with an effective resolution of 800×1280 pixels. That works out to 149 ppi pixel density, which is a touch higher than the 132ppi that you find on the current iPad 2. Other key specs include the 730 grams of weight, stereo speakers, gyroscope, accelerometer, microSD expansion, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP support, 5MP rear camera, 2MP front camera, mini-HDMI out, and microUSB port.

Overall Design and Usability

It won the award at CES 2011 and Motorola is quick to point that out on the packaging for the Xoom.

In terms of the device itself, you get a series of high quality plastics with a very smooth back. The screen is extremely glossy, so like so many other touchscreens, it gets riddled with greasy fingerprints very quickly. Since it is Honeycomb, most of what you’ll be doing is in landscape mode and everything has been laid out accordingly.

The (unlabeled) connection ports are on the bottom. Strangely, while there is a microUSB port, it cannot be used for charging; you have to use the provided wall charger to top up the internal battery. That takes away from a fair bit of versatility, especially when you’re on the road. The microSD card slot is on the top (which didn’t work until Android 3.1 update), as well as the 3.5mm headset jack. Volume buttons are along the left edge.

One thing that I didn’t like was the placement of the power button. It’s on the back of the Xoom, in the same part of the housing as the camera, flash, and one of the speakers. I suppose this makes for a more natural movement when holding the tablet, but I would have preferred they stuck to an edge like nearly everyone else.

General Performance and Battery Life

I can’t say that I was terribly displeased with the Xoom, but there really wasn’t much else going on that would make me choose the Xoom over the several other Honeycomb alternatives out there. It is on the heavier side of things at 730 grams, which is 50 grams more than the Asus Eee Pad Transformer (sans keyboard dock, of course) and nearly 200 grams more than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. That’s some serious extra heft.

The orientation sensor seemed to be a bit on the laggy side, as it could take some time before the screen would switch between landscape and portrait modes. Similarly, swiping between the different homescreens wasn’t quite as smooth as I had hoped. This seems to be a common concern with several Android tablets and it’s something that I hope is addressed in future updates; maybe it’s just a software/firmware thing.

As far as battery life is concerned, your mileage will certainly vary. Under moderate usage, I was able to get a little more than a day out of the Xoom. This is with Wi-Fi turned on and a couple of apps constantly running in the background. Lighter usage could see about three days.

Quadrant Benchmark Score

To test the performance of the Motorola Xoom, I ran the full benchmark on Quadrant Standard v1.1.7. This benchmark measures the performance of the CPU, memory, graphics, and other related areas. The overall score achieved by the Xoom on the first try was just 1593 (as pictured), but I ran the test again after rebooting the device and got a score of 1739.

Some people have argued that benchmarks for Android devices can be a little unreliable, but that’s what we have to go with. That range of scores puts the Xoom right in line with other Tegra2-powered Honeycomb tablets; I ran the benchmark on an LG Optimus Pad for comparison and got a score of 1700 even.

Conclusion

The Motorola Xoom is a solid product, but it is difficult to recommend it over similar Honeycomb tablets. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a lot lighter and the Eee Pad Transformer has that optional keyboard dock, for instance. I do like the slightly smaller footprint that the Xoom has (compared to the Eee Pad), but if you wanted smaller, you likely would be considering an 8.9 or even 7.0 inch tablet instead.

The placement of the power button will be hit and miss, depending on your preferences, but I really dislike the lack of support for USB charging. The speakers are reasonably loud, but because they are in the back, the directionality of the sound may not be ideal. I like Android tablets and I think they have a bright future, but the Xoom is very middle of the road for me right now… which is pretty much the story of most $399-$599 Honeycomb tablets these days.

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The world of Android tablets is about to get a little more crowded. We first saw Sony’s ambitions into this realm earlier this year, but the official launch of the Sony Tablet S and the Tablet P is just around the corner. So, let’s take a quick preview of what you can expect.

With the Tablet S, you get a more conventional “slate” style design, but they’ve opted for an unconventional 9.4-inch TruBlack display to go along with the NVIDIA Tegra2 processor. There’s a full size SD card slot, dual cameras, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and your chocie of 16GB or 32GB of internal storage. From the side, you get a unique “angle” or tapering to the design too. The display is “very good” and Android 3.1 has been customized by Sony. They’ve also included something called “Quick View” that’s supposed to expedite page load times in the web browser, plus a new home screen with your favorite content.

Like the Xperia Play, the Tablet S is also PlayStation Certified, though you don’t get the hardware controls. While it’s not like the Eee Pad Transformer’s dock, there is also an official Bluetooth keyboard available too. In any case, the Tablet S will ship next month for $499 (16GB) and $599 (32GB) and preorders are being taken now.

Personally, I’m more intrigued by the Tablet P, the dual-screen Android tablet that we had previously known as the Sony Tablet S2. There are two 5.5-inch TruBlack displays, Android 3.2 Honeycomb, dual cameras, 4GB storage, full size SD slot, and “Sony Services.” And yes, it does the PlayStation Certified thing too, which totally lends itself to a DS/3DS comparison. No pricing info has been announced, but they are planning a release later this year.

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A friend of mine recently expressed a great deal of interest in the Toshiba Thrive tablet. I took a look at the spec sheet and I didn’t see a heck of a lot that made it better (or worse) than the competition. Then, I saw the initial pricing of $599 and got turned off. As it turns out, the Thrive can be cheaper.

Powered by Android 3.1 Honeycomb, the Toshiba Thrive is currently being offered for pre-order through Future Shop. If you go all the way down to the 8GB model, this Android tablet can be yours for $429. The 16GB and 32GB variants are being pegged at $479 and $579, respectively. All of them are expected to ship starting August 12th.

Yes, that’s cheaper than the price points that were originally rumored, but it still doesn’t beat the Asus Eee Pad Transformer for value. That’s still selling at $399 for the 16GB model and Asus really didn’t cheap out on build quality or materials. For now, that’s the benchmark, seeing how just about all these tablets are doing 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra2 and dual cameras. The one selling point that differentiates the Thrive from the rest? You can swap the back cover for different colors, including Blue Moon, Raspberry Fusion, Lavender Bliss, Silvery Sky and Green Apple. Tasty? Personally, I’m more interested in the SD Card slot, plus Mini-USB, USB, and HDMI ports.

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Even though Archos was already well established in tablets before Apple came around and popularized the format, the company has fallen a little bit behind the competition lately. That has now changed with announcement of the Archos G9 tablet range, because they are said to be the fastest.

The Archos 80 G9 and Archos 101 G9 come equipped with 8-inch and 10-inch displays, respectively, but both get their juice via an OMAP 4 processor with an ARM Cortex A9 dual-core chip running at 1.5GHz. That’s some serious performance, considering that it’s the same kind of power running your full laptop not that long ago. They say this offers 50% more raw computational power than Tegra2 at 1GHz. They’re backing it up with a 250GB HDD from Seagate to boot.

The other knock I had against Archos? Their Android tablets were still only running blown-up smartphone operating systems. The G9 changes that too, as they’ve bumped their way up to Android 3.1 Honeycomb. This includes full access to Android Market, as well as Flash support. Also, the G9 will work with a standard PC 3G stick for wireless connectivity and the $49 Archos G9 3G Stick “has been specially designed to fit perfectly into the back of any G9 tablet.”

With real Honeycomb, real Android Market access, and some real performance, you’d think that Archos would price the G9 tablets in line with the Xooms and Eee Pads of the world. Well, they’ve gone cheaper. The Archos 80 G9 starts at $279 and the Archos 101 G9 starts at $349. Look for them this September.

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While Toshiba’s late change of plans might be frowned upon, Google’s update on the Android software might just make it worthwhile. The Android 3.1 Honeycomb has both increased performance as well as added new features. For example, Android 3.1 tablets with USB ports will offer support for USB connected joysticks and game-pads, possibly attracting more users who are interested in gaming with their tablet. Also, Android 3.1 added Google Movie access for renting new and old movies, buy-bye Netflix.

Unfortunately, except for the update in Android software versions, the Regza AT300/24C is the same as the AT300/23C. The two tablets both feature 10.1-inch 1280 × 800 capacitive touchscreens, dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processing chips, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of built-in storage, not to mention the fact that the Japan exclusive Regza tablets are similar to the global Toshiba Thrive tablets which should still ship this July.

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In case you haven’t already noticed, the naming of Android versions have not only been all sweet dessert-type words, but they’ve also been in alphabetical order. We got Cupcake (1.5), Donut (1.6), Eclair (2.1), Froyo (2.2), and Gingerbread (3.0).

It makes sense that the next Android, likely a 3.1 rather than a 4.0, would once again be named after some delectable food and that it would start with the letter H. I suppose Honeycomb isn’t so bad. The only other sweet thing I can think of is hot chocolate. Android 3.1 HoChoc, anyone?

With this in mind, who wants to have some fun naming the next half dozen Android versions? Start with I (or H, if you want) and go from there! Ice Cream? Jelly? Karamel ;)

Next version of Android to be called Honeycomb? [BGR]

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