Motorola sets Xoom tablet launch for next week - Inquirer

TABLET MAKER Motorola has confirmed to The INQUIRER that its much anticipated Xoom tablet will be launched next week in the UK.

The Xoom is Motorola's entry to the tablet market and has a 10.1-inch widescreen HD display with 1280x800 resolution. It runs Android 3.0 Honeycomb and could be the first tablet released in the UK with that operating system.

To achieve this Motorola will have to release it before 6 April, which is when Asus' Eee Pad Transformer, another 10.1-inch Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet is set to go on sale. This looks unlikely though, with pre-orders for the Xoom being taken by online retailers who are quoting an expected date of 9 April, while Motorola is unable to give an exact date.

The price online for the Xoom is £499 for the WiFi only 32GB model. This is more expensive than the Transformer, which is priced at £429 for the equivalent model. The two tablets have similar specifications across the board with a 1GHz dual core Tegra 2 processor and 1GB of RAM. Both are 12.9mm thick and have 5MP rear facing cameras.

The Transformer is slightly lighter at 680g compared to the Xoom at 730g, but the Xoom has a slightly better 2MP front facing camera compared to the Transformer's 1.2MP front camera.

What does set the two apart is the optional docking keyboard that you can purchase for the Transformer, hence transforming it into a netbook. The keyboard also adds a further 6.5 hours of battery life to the tablet.

The Xoom will also be going up against the Acer Iconia Tab W500, a 10.1-inch Windows 7 tablet and we can't forget the Apple Ipad 2. The W500 is set to go on sale from 8 April for £449 and the equivalent Ipad 2, though currently out of stock, is on sale now for £479. µ