Gadgetory

hey I'm Donnell Bell and today we're taking a first look an official first look at the Motorola Xoom this is an android-based tablet with a 10.1 inch screen 32 gigabytes of storage and a price tag of 800 dollars off contract or $600 with the two-year commitment from Verizon it's around the same size as the original iPad although it has more of a wide screen dimension and the bezel around the screen isn't as wide it's definitely heavier than the iPad which sounds like a small complaint but tablets are something you spend a lot of time holding on the bottom you have connections for microUSB and micro-hdmi though you'll need a dock if you want to get video out from this thing on the top you have a headphone out and the door that covers up the microSD memory card slot for additional storage and a 4G SIM card slot for the 4G support that's coming later this year there's volume control on the left side and on the back you get a 5 megapixel camera and flash and a pair of stereo speakers you also see the power buttons over here on the back now it's a little weird to have the speakers blasting out away from you but it's nice that you don't actually run the risk of covering them up with your hands you also get a 2 megapixel camera on the front that works with video chat apps like Google Talk one of the biggest differences between the zoom and all the Android tablets we reviewed in 2010 is the lack of tactile navigation buttons on the homescreen this is a good thing controls for back search and menu have all moved on to the touch screen thanks to the latest version of Android made specifically for tablets Verizon and Motorola are the first to have Android 3.0 and it's a big part of why this tablet is so special you get all the stuff that makes Android great there's full support for Android Market official Google Apps for Gmail Maps GPS navigation and calendar a lot has changed though the browser has this tabbed interface that works more like a desktop browser than a smartphone you get this nice big keyboard notifications and settings are down here on the bottom and generally all the included apps have been overhauled for the largest screen of the tablet so now the big question is this thing a real competitor to the iPad from my perspective there's no doubt it's fast it's pretty and you can see that a lot of I went into the execution it's not cheap though and with so many tablet options coming out this year I stay away from contracts like the plague rising to Motorola how the lock on android 3.0 for now but there are many eager contenders on the horizon so that's the Motorola Xoom from Verizon for cnet.com I'm Donald