Motorola Xoom 2 review

The original Xoom didn’t quite deliver on the promise of an Android tablet capable of competing with the iPad, but has Motorola got it right second time around with the retooled Xoom 2? Kevin Pocock puts it through its paces.

IT Pro Verdict

The Motorola Xoom 2 is one of the best Android tablets currently available — it’s stylish, well made and packs a performance punch. It’s not without its foibles and the specification changes from the previous model don’t make much sense, but it’s still one of the more viable alternatives to the Apple iPad.

By
published
in Reviews

These are impressive results for an Android 3 device the 1.2GHz dual-core Samsung Galaxy S II scored 2977 and 3423ms, respectively.

It's reasonable to expect browser performance to be faster still once Android 4 is installed too, since the Samsung Galaxy Nexus with the same processor as the Galaxy S II scored 1890ms in the SunSpider test. Battery life is also healthy, with the tablet lasting for almost 12 hours when playing video on a loop.

In fact media playback is one of the Xoom 2's real strengths. The screen is crisp, bright and well saturated and is ideally suited for use the home network video streaming offered by Motorola's MotoCast app.

We lamented Motorola's failure to include any kind of productivity software in our original Xoom review, but the Xoom 2 isn't quite so undernourished and it comes with Quickoffice for creating and viewing Microsoft Office-compatible documents.

The Motorola Xoom 2 ships with Android 3.2 Honeycomb and, at the time of writing, manufacturers are only just beginning to roll out Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich'. Motorola has yet to commit to a specific date for its upgrade, though.

The Xoom 2 is certainly one of the better Android tablets we've seen and, despite the peculiar specification rejig, Motorola has addressed the main deficiencies of the original Xoom.

At 380 inc VAT for the 16GB model though, the Xoom 2 is priced perilously close to the 399 inc VAT iPad 2 16GB and that's still a far more capable tablet.

Verdict

The Motorola Xoom 2 is one of the best Android tablets currently available — it’s stylish, well made and packs a performance punch. It’s not without its foibles and the specification changes from the previous model don’t make much sense, but it’s still one of the more viable alternatives to the Apple iPad.

Operating system: Android 3.2 Honeycomb Processor: NVIDIA Tegra 2 (OMAP 4430 ARM dual-core, 1.2GHz) Storage: 16GB Screen: 10.1” (1280 x 800) capacitive multi-touch Connectivity: 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3, Stereo Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR, DLNA, microUSB; 3.5mm headphone socket Other: Accelerometer, e-compass, AGPS Camera: 5MP rear; 1.3MP front Battery: 7000mAh Li Ion Size: 253.9 x 173.6 x 8.80 mm Weight: 603g

Latest News