Motorola Xoom Review: The First Honeycomb Tablet Arrives
by Anand Lal Shimpi on February 23, 2011 11:57 PM ESTWireless Performance: Cellular & WiFi
The Xoom ships by default with an EV-DO baseband for use on the Verizon network in the US. In practice I saw download speeds of anywhere from 0.35Mbps all the way up to 1.89Mbps and 0.10 to 1.09Mbps upstream. On average I got ~900Kbps down and ~600Kbps up, which is pretty typical for Verizon in North Raleigh.
By comparison the iPad 3G averaged 1.3Mbps down in the same locations as I tested the Xoom, but only 0.2Mbps up. Remember the iPad 3G has the same modem as the iPhone 3GS - it has HSDPA but not HSUPA so the theoretical max upload is only 384Kbps.
Motorola and Verizon will be offering a free upgrade to an LTE modem later this year. The modem will have to be physically soldered onto the motherboard so it’s not an end-user upgrade. There’s already an LTE SIM slot and tray built into the Xoom for use post-upgrade.
The Xoom also features an integrated 2.4GHz 802.11n WiFi radio supporting a single spatial stream at up to 72Mbps. In practice I measured a peak transfer rate of 36Mbps, which makes the Xoom the fastest device we’ve ever tested over WiFi (the original iPad was the previous king at 30Mbps).
Like all other Android 2.2 or later devices, you can create a personal hotspot with the Xoom and share your cellular data connection with other devices over WiFi.
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punjabiplaya - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
Looks good, I'm really tempted to pick one up (wifi model) if it truly is $600. Any word from Google on any updates to fix the crashing? I assume with updates (including driver optimizations) it can only get faster and there's no way that Google/Motorola isn't aware of the crashing apps.LeftSide - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
Don't hold your breath. I have an Epic 4g and just now got the 2.2 update. Google needs to standardize their update system. Until they do, I will not buy another Android device. Waiting for months just for an outdated update, so that you can download and use the latest apps (skype) is unacceptable.Impulses - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
Blame Samsung, not Google. Most HTC & Motorola devices were running 2.2 as of last September. My EVO got Froyo (2.2) in August, a mere two months after it's release (and only like there months after Froyo itself launched). People need to start doing some research and stop rewarding manufacturers that are lousy with updates, like Samsung and Sony Ericson.daveloft - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
I say blame the carriers. All six carriers in Canada carrying the Galaxy S device released 2.2 before any of the American carriers. This seemed to be the situation around the world as well.Impulses - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
Yeah at this point it's their fault, it still took Samsung twice as long to release the updates as it took other manufacturers tho. Sprint and T-mobile recently updated their Galaxy S variants to 2.2 btw, so Verizon and AT&T are slacking off the most... Verizon has half a dozen other Android options tho, until today (Atrix) AT&T had no alternative to the Captivate, besides an iPhone.ph00ny - Monday, March 7, 2011 - link
At the same time, their devices came out later those other devices. Also all the international iteration of galaxy s had froyo long before any north america based galaxy S phones. Look at HTC Aria. AT&T is the worst carrier in terms of device update due to the fact that they want to restrict the device as much as they can. Look at the issues with hsupa with atrix.BTW i have a captivate running 2.2.1 and i had froyo running since last year which was based on the international version of galaxy s
kkwst2 - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
Blame Canada.Milleman - Sunday, February 27, 2011 - link
Blame Terrance and Phillip!punjabiplaya - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
The reason I was asking is because there is no manufacturer skin. Honeycomb is unmolested by Motorola, so Google should be able to get updates to the device without Motorola having to customize their skin, then the carrier customizing that.Enormously Hatworthy - Thursday, February 24, 2011 - link
Yep, since this is the reference hardware for the platform, you'll get OTA updates directly from Google. No carriers or OEMs to screw things up.No word from google though... I suppose they don't want to draw attention to the bugs on the first day of release. I'd bet there'll be a quiet update issued sometime in the next week or two.