Motorola Droid Xyboard 8.2: a small and media upgrade of Xoom
Droid Xyboard 8.2 is a media sibling to Droid Xyboard 10.1, Motorola’s upgrade to its Xoom Honeycomb tablet. The 8.2-inch tablet also marks Motorola’s foray into the mid range tablet market. The Libertyville technology firm has unveiled Droid Xyboard 8.2 with a clear aim to ensure its presence in the small tablet market.
Indeed, the device will remain a big competitor to the Galaxy Tab 8.9 from Samsung, chief rival of Motorola in the Android tablet market. The new Moto tablet has taken name for its great look and integrated 4G LTE connectivity. Like its predecessor Xoom, both Xyboards are marketed by Verizon, the best provider of 4G services in the U.S.
Motorola Droid Xyboard 8.2 tech specs
Form factor: Droid Xyboard 8.2 is a handy tablet with the dimensions of 139 x 216 x 9mm and weight of 390 grams. It is easy to carry around the tablet in your backpack.
Display: The tablet rocks an 8.2-inch HD-IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with 16M colors and 800 x 1280 pixels at 184 ppi. The multitouch display features Gorilla Glass protection. Meanwhile, Xyboard 8.2’s big brother comes with the same display size of its precursor, Xoom.
CPU & GPU: The Moto tablet is powered by a 1.2GHz Cortex-A9 dual core TI OMAP 4430 processor and PowerVR SGX540 GPU.
RAM: 1GB of RAM adds strength to its dual core processor.
Storage: You have 16/32GB built-in storage options for the tablet. It doesn’t sport a microSD slot for additional storage.
OS: Android 3.2 Honeycomb. The tab is upgradable to Ice Cream Sandwich.
Camera: The tablet is an ideal solution or both image and video capturing and video chatting. It comes up with a 5-megapixel rear camera with 2592 х 1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, geo tagging and 720p video recording. For making video calls, you have a 1.3-megapixel front camera on Droid Xyboard 8.2.
Connectivity: For connectivity, you have GPRS (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots) 32-48 kbps, EDGE (Class 12), Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, EDR.
Ports: Infrared port, microUSB v2.0 and HDMI port.
Battery: The tablet sports a standard Li-Ion 3960 mAh battery that provides only six hour video playback backup.
Others: The tablet comes up with lots of other features like splash resistant body, Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, G-Talk, document viewer, photo viewer/editor, organizer, voice memo and predictive text input.
What makes it special?
Great look: The new Moto tablet has a charming look. Small size and lightweight body make Xyboard 8.2 a challenging device to all small tablets out in shelves.
Integrated 4G LTE: Most analysts have extolled the integrated 4G LTE compatibility of Droid Xyboard 8.2. Thanks to the ultra fast connectivity of Verizon, you can enjoy blazing internet speed on the tablet.
Drawbacks
High price is one major drawback of the tablet. The off-contract price of the tablet is $600. But Verizon does not offer any compelling rate even if it sells the gadget for a two year contract. Battery life of the tablet is weaker as well. It can offer only 6 hours of video playback on a single recharge. Displacement of power button and volume rocker and a shoddily implemented aluminum back cover are other drawbacks.
What others say?
Tim Stevens of Engadget reviews that Xyboard 8.2 is special thanks to its integrated 4G connectivity.
“It’s (Droid Xyboard 8.2) light, comfortable to carry and to use, and reasonably quick. And, the integrated wireless connectivity makes it rather more useful for those who are frequently on the go.”
Meanwhile, PCMag’s Sascha Segan thinks that lack of apps will be a curse for Xyboard 8.2,
“In short, this is a perfectly adequate Android Honeycomb tablet with the usual faults, primarily a surfeit of poorly-programmed third party apps available in the Android Market that don’t look good on large screens.”
Wrap-up
Motorola might require some rigorous marketing efforts to succeed its new Xyboard line of tablets. The tablets have just landed in stores as Xoom upgrades. Xoom was a bitter experience for the company with its failure to influence the tablet market, though it was the first 4G LTE, dual core and Honeycomb tablet in the world.
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