Motorola Xoom 2: Tablets Coming in November

By Daniel Distant, Christian Post Reporter Friday, November 04, 2011

Motorola, the American communications giant, announced Thursday the release of two Xoom 2 tablets in Ireland and the United Kingdom sometime this month.

The Xoom 2 is nearly the same size as the original Xoom tablet and sports a 10.1-inch Gorilla glass display, although it is thinner and lighter. It has a bunch of upgraded capabilities, like a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor, 10 hours of battery power, and dual cameras (a 5-megapixel main camera in the back, and a 1.3-megapixel camera in the front). The Xoom 2 also packs 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of storage capacity.

The second tablet, the Xoom 2 Media Edition, is almost the same as the Xoom 2 with a few minor tweaks designed to make it media-friendly.

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The first, and most obvious one, is its smaller size: the Media Edition has just 8.2-inch display. Motorola has managed to give the screen a 178-degree view so more than one person can watch videos at once. Its battery life is also less, clocking in around six hours in potential power.

Both tablets, however, come with the popular Android operating system. Android 3.2 is actually a variation of Honeycomb, however. Mark Cotton, product manager for Motorola, said that the tablets will eventually be upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, according to The Inquirer.

The two new devices are equally reinforced with Splash Guard, which is also found on the Motorola RAZR. Unfortunately, neither device comes equipped with 3G abilities, designed to run with Wi-fi instead. Cloud storage is more the tablets’ focus, said Cotton.

However, the tablets have both microUSB and microHDMI ports, which would help users retrieve data if the Internet isn’t available.

Motorola didn’t just concentrate on hardware for their redesign of the Xoom. The Xoom 2 comes with software to attract corporate clientele. Data encryption, VPN support, and Active Sync provide access to email, contacts, and appointments quickly. An Ethernet port is also an alternative to potential Internet issues.

A stylus pen is another one of the perks Motorola has made available (sold separately) to attract more buyers.

The hope of the Chicago-based company is that the Xoom 2 and Media Edition will do better than its predecessor, the Xoom.

Motorola sold only 100,000 units during the months following its initial release. Only 100,000 Xooms were shipped the third quarter of this year.

In comparison, Apple sold about 11 million iPads.

For the Xoom 2 tablets to successfully compete against the iPad, it would most likely have to reach a worldwide market. So far, that isn’t the case, as both new devices are available only in Ireland and the U.K. for now.

Both tablets will be about 300 British pounds, or nearly $500.