OK, so I've had the Xoom 2 for a few days now...

[steveboswell]

Hello everyone, I've had the Xoom 2 for a couple of days now and I thought I'd share a couple of questions with you. I've not had an Android tablet before, so I don't know if these are Xoom 2-specific issues or if they are Honeycomb problems.

Firstly, Flash is causing me a few issues. Videos embedded in webpages, including YouTube videos, only play audio. Obviously this is quite annoying - for YouTube I can just click on the video and play it in the app or from the video's page, but for other videos (such as those on the Guardian or BBC) I have no such option.

Speaking of the BBC, there's also no iPlayer app, so that rules out using the service altogether. Does anyone know why its unavailable?

Secondly, the browser. Apart from having sites default to the mobile phone version of their website, it's pretty quick, although scrolling through large or image heavy sites isn't the smoothest. Typing into text fields (like this one!) can be very sluggish with some text not appearing unless you "refresh" the screen by moving the page.

 

[steveboswell]

There's also no (Google) Videos app at present. I've flagged this up with Google Movies' technical support team, and they say the Xoom 2 "is not compatible with movies" and a "future software update is needed to remedy this situation". They don't make clear if it's a Google or Motorola issue causing the problem, though.

 

[sundance2011]

I heard that the MicroSD slot is covered (disabled) and that you can't add memory. Is that true?

 

[steveboswell]

Yeah, that's right. The slot for the SD card is concealed under a flap on the bottom edge of the device, but its filled in with a plastic insert. For me, 16GB is enough memory, but it does mean that getting media onto the device is more difficult (Honeycomb doesn't support USB connections with Linux or Apple devices natively).

 

[harrogate22]

Hi

I've had the XOOM-2 for a few days now and am very pleased with it, though initially the lack of the SD facility seemed odd. However I've had no difficulty at all using USB storage; I simply ordered the micro-USB to .... whatever it's called - the big one, let's say, and it worked absolutely fine. Last night I connected it to a USB-hub and had a number of USB sticks running. The only slight hiccough was one of the Android-market File-managers that did not work. I simply downloaded a couple of others and they were fine. I must try it next with an external hard-drive (external power, of course). I must admit, I foolishly tried it with a hard-drive and no separate power and the device crashed dead! I re-booted by holding the "on-off button together with the "sound-down" button (40-second) and it sprang back to life.

Incidentally, the MOTOCAST facility works great; I have it tied to my work PC and my home-PC, a so can swap files over any distance.

Ben

 

[Liamo_210]

were did you get your micro usb cable

 

[harrogate22]

[FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica][SIZE=-1] "Micro-B USB HOST OTG Cable For Samsung Galaxy S2 I9100 I9101,MOTO XOOM TG01"
Electronics;

 

[Spagman]

I got a Xoom 2 yesterday and being an iPad owner, the shift to Android is surprisingly not very smooth. It's taken me the best part of a day to get my head around how Android does things, what I can and cannot configure etc etc.

Initial thoughts.

The build quality is great. The Xoom 2 is lighter than I expected.

The screen is excellent, but it picks up smudges and finger marks more than the iPad.

WiFi speed over my network is great. It detected the 5Ghz and normal networks I run from my dual band router.

The video camera is complete rubbish and Motorola deserve a big F**K you for putting something so completely useless in such a high end device. Seriously, wtf are they thinking?

Not to harp, but the camera is completely unusable its so poor. If I could gouge it out with a rusty spoon, I would.

The default apps for photos and video are rubbish. These were removed asap and replaced with QuickPic and DoubleTwist asap.

I'm enjoying using it, comparing iOS and Android is clearly like comparing the proverbial oranges and apples, but I think iPad is still the superior tablet.. Maybe my thoughts may change over the next week or so, but if it hasn't, i'll be selling the Xoom 2.

*update* some further thoughts.

the screen is the biggest attracter of finger prints and grime that i've ever seen, and i've seen how dirty windows in a kindergarten filled with toddlers gets. this this is ridiculous, you have to clean it after almost every use.

the YouTube app is complete rubbish. Side by side with my iPad 1, i'd try and watch the same video, iPad buffers and plays it back without missing a beat, the Xoom 2 sits there buffering and doesn't even start playback.

wtf is up with that Motorola? could the wifi radio in the Xoom 2 be subpar? it consistently gets one bar less of wifi signal all around my house compared to my dell laptop, iPhone and iPad.