Eight Things to Hate About the Motorola Xoom - PC Magazine

In my last post, I wrote about the 8 things I liked about the Motorola Xoom. But this time, I want to focus on the things I didn't like. Here are the top things that worry me about the device:

1. It's just not finished. There are too many features that are promised, but just don't work yet. At the top of the list is support for Adobe Flash, which is promised to arrive shortly. In addition, it has a microSD card slot that doesn't work yet, again pending a future software update. And it has a SIM tray for an upgrade to 4G service that again isn't ready. These are all great features and things that are notably missing from the iPad, for instance. But having features that don't work yet makes the device feel not quite ready for prime time.

2. There aren't many tablet apps. In some respects, this is similar to the issue that the iPad faced when it first came out. It just takes a while for developers to create tablet-oriented versions of their applictions. As of today, I count just 16 apps. This will improve, probably very quickly, but for now, it's a major drawback.

3. Some of the phone apps don't seem to work. Not surprisingly, most of the existing Android applications are designed for the dimensions of a cell phone, with a vertical screen and relatively limited screen real estate. Most of the ones I tried worked on the Xoom, but just by expanding out to the sides of the screen, leaving lots of white space. When I tried applications like the Wall Street Journal, I got messages saying the application wasn't supported. Again, I expect this to be fixed soon, but it seems like a little more testing would have helped.

4. You get too many "mobile sites" when web browsing. I understand why Web sites created mobile sites for phones a while back, but with a 10-inch screen, it's pretty pointless especially when surfing on a Wi-Fi connection. Yet for many sites--PCMag.com included--I just get the mobile site, not the full one. In part, the sites themselves should offer options, but I wish the device had a way of changing that (perhaps by offering an alternative browser ID).

5. It's really designed for horizontal use. The widescreen display (RESOLUTION) is more suited for HD video, and that's great. But when you hold it vertically, it just looks strangely elongated, and more importantly, some of the windows within applications just don't seem to "snap" into place properly, including Gmail. Magazine and newspaper apps really designed for this OS aren't here yet, but I wonder what they'll look like.

6. It can be confusing. As with Android on the phone side, you have a lot more control over the OS than you do with Apple devices, but that also means there are a lot of choices. You'll see icons on the bottom of the screen that list notifications, including battery and signal strength, e-mail messages, and operating system indications. That's great, but sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming for a new user. (Personally, I kind of like it, particularly how quickly you can get to the system settings these days--to quickly switch to Airplane mode, for instance--but I'm far from a typical user). And sometimes there can be too much multitasking. Overall, I like the way Honeycomb multitasks, but it's clear that when enough applications are running in the background, they can really negatively impact battery life. I'd like to see a much easier way of closing applications that you no longer want open.

7. There aren't enough hardware options. In general, there has been more diversity among Android phones than among iPhone or BlackBerry. But today, there's only one model of Honeycomb tablet, and it offers only one configuration: 32GB with a 3G modem and Verizon service. I'd love to see a Wi-Fi only device (at a lower price point) and configurations with more memory.

8. The charger is way too big. In general, I'd love to see all mobile devices powered through the micro-USB port, which is the case for most non-Apple phones these days. I can understand, though, that the tablet might need more power than that port can deliver. But the Xoom charger is notably big--it takes up about twice the space of the chargers for the iPad or the Galaxy tab and takes up more than one space on a power strip. And while I'm thinking about little things, the power button is awkwardly placed. It's on the back, and I often found myself fumbling around trying to press it to turn the screen back on.

Ok, some of these are pretty minor, but overall, the fit and finish wasn't where I'd like to see it. It didn't seem quite as intuitive as the iPad, but then again, I don't find Android phones in general to be as intuitive as the iPhone. (More flexible, perhaps, but that's another story.)

As I said in the previous post, there's a lot to like about the Xoom and about Android 3.0 Honeycomb in general. Some of these issues should be corrected in relatively short order, by Google, Motorola, and by third-party developers. But with new competition coming, both from other Android tablets and from other platforms, such as the BlackBerry Playbook, HP TouchPad, and the next generation iPad, it's incumbent on Google and Motorola to move as quickly as they can to address the shortcomings.

If they do, then Android tablets really should be ready to challenge Apple.

In the meantime, here is PCMag's full review of the Xoom.

Originally posted to Michael Miller's blog, Forward Thinking.