My first month with Xoom...wants versus needs

It's been a month since I purchased my Motorola Xoom Wi-Fi, Moto's first (and only) entry into the ever-growing tablet market. I may discuss a bit of the Xoom's specs in this post, but I won't bore you with all the details as this tablet has been reviewed numerous times across the Web. If you'd like to see the full specs, check out Motorola's website here.

I purchased the Xoom mainly because I got a deal...like most Americans, I'm a sucker for a good deal. I would not have considered a Xoom at the full retail price of $499 for the same reason I wouldn't consider an iPad purchase at full retail price; and that reason is I didn't need it. With access to many different computers, an Android smartphone, and my Kindle I feel I have all the tools I need to work, surf, and play.

But the Staples coupon for $100 off changed my mind and I chose the Xoom because at $399 I felt I was getting a lot of tablet for the money. High-Def display, 32 Gigabytes of storage, a microSD card slot, front and rear cameras, Android 3.2...an iPad with the same amount of storage would cost at least $200 more and wouldn't have a microSD slot. In my mind, a bargain...sucker!

What do I like most about my Xoom? For starters, it's small, lightweight, and very portable. The battery life is very, very good and will stay alive on standby for what seems like forever. For these two reasons alone the Xoom would make a great companion on a long flight provided you didn't need to get any work done (covered in the next paragraph). I love how fast it wakes from sleep...just like my Android phone. If I'm on a Wi-Fi network, the Xoom is the quickest way to jump online and get information. The browser is commendably quick and uses tabs a la Chrome, but many times I am directed to mobile versions of websites when I want the full version. I downloaded Opera which is doesn't tend to do this, but using Opera isn't as easy as the stock browser. What really makes the Xoom fast at getting Web info are individual apps. Not all are created equal, but many such as the USA Today app work very well and give you near instant access to both video and text. Two more of my favorite apps are Pulse, an app for reading news and information from many different sources around the Web, and Zinio, the magazine reader app that has been around a very long time. The Google + app for Android is also packed full of features, all of which work great...on a phone. You can huddle with it but not hangout, even though you have a front-facing webcam. The webcam, by the way, works pretty well and is primarily there to let you video chat via Google Talk. The Youtube app is also well done and HD videos look great on the Xoom. I had to do a mild hack, but I even have Netflix on my Xoom now. Music, movies, books, magazines, games...it really is a multimedia powerhouse.

What do I like least about my Xoom? I've found out my mild ADD hates fingerprints, and that beautiful display is made of shiny glass gets full of fingerprints as you use the device. That being said they clean off very easily (hint: a soft microfiber cloth like those that come with sunglasses works very well). I hate the keyboard, or do I hate the lack of a keyboard? Ok, I hate typing on the virtual keyboard on the touchscreen which is QWERTY only in the sense of the word. It seems typical Android but I think the keyboard on my Evo 4G is better laid out. No matter which way I try to orient it, typing on the Xoom is a pain. To be fair, I don't think I would enjoy typing on any tablet computer. Many would point out that they aren't made for that and I'm not stating otherwise, I guess I'm just saying I type when I'm online more than I previously realized. There are bluetooth keyboards that can be used with the Xoom which would make this a moot point, but I haven't tried them yet and I'm not sure the tablet itself is ideally suited for creating text documents. Which leads me to my next complaint, lack of either an office suite or proper access to Google docs. There are some apps available that will allegedly produce and edit documents that are compatible with Microsoft Office (the still reigning champion of office suites...that's for another post) but my past experience has been that rarely are these "compatible" software suites fully compatible with Office. I however am a user of Google docs, which should come in on a giant white horse and save the day at this point, right? Nope, the Google docs app for Android is just horrible. You can use it for viewing your files in the cloud and that's about it. When you try to create a new text document you don't even have any of the formatting options available so you're essentially writing in Notepad. Go to the browser on the Xoom and you're taken to the mobile version of the Google docs website which again doesn't let you format anything. Click on the bottom of the page to go to the desktop version of the site, and you see the full Google docs website...but you can't type anything in the document! At this point, there's no way (that I can see) that anyone in school, college, or a writing profession could use a Xoom as a replacement for a laptop or desktop.

Ok, so after a month I've formed some opinions about tablet computing, which is what this post is mainly about since I haven't used any other tablets and can't objectively compare the Xoom with the others on the market. There are others with more cash flow than I who have done the comparisons, just do a Google search.

First off, in my opinion, no one needs a tablet...there, I said it. They are very cool, hip, sleek, portable, stylish...and no one needs one. I will maintain this opinion as long as there are cheap laptops and netbooks on the market that will do everything a tablet will do and as long as the tablet computer remains ill suited for work.

Secondly, if you spend any time at the store messing with tablet demo models, you will probably want to buy one...not because you need it, but because you want it. There's something intrinsically intriguing about holding a small, thin, lightweight device that holds more computing power than desktops did 10 years ago. When holding a tablet and flicking through apps and screens you immediately see yourself sitting in a Starbucks with an overpriced coffee beverage wearing the latest styles from the Gap while pretending to enjoy reading the New York Times on your trendy new device.

What I would like to see is a tablet with real capabilities. I believe I would enjoy tablet computing more if it had a real operating system a la Linux or even the new Chrome OS. This improvement would allow users access to more powerful productivity suites either locally or in the cloud and would make any tablet equally great for work and play. I now have to decide if what I like about the Xoom is enough to keep it, or if I should sell it and my netbook and step up to a MacBook Air. The Air is a fast boot/long standby device that is lightweight and extremely portable, just like my Xoom...but it's also a real computer that has all the capabilities that my Xoom lacks, albeit for a much higher price.

So, it comes down to wants versus needs. After my bargain purchase I had ideas of selling or giving away my Samsung netbook...I thought my tablet would be a viable replacement. I was wrong.