Review: Motorola Droid Xyboard 10.1

By introducing the first ever Android Honeycomb tablet, the XOOM, Motorola couldn’t have possibly began 2011 with higher expectations. Sadly, the XOOM has been widely regarded as a failure; it didn’t sell well, it was priced too high at launch, no 4G LTE out of the box, and the list goes on. So, what does Motorola do to combat this small downfall? Well, they release a spiritual successor to the XOOM named the DROID XYBOARD! With a sleeker design, 4G LTE built in out of the box, a better screen and better cameras, is the DROID XYBOARD what the XOOM should have been? Or just another Android tablet amongst the masses? Read the full BriefMobile review to find out!

• 10.1 Inch IPS LCD Display, WXGA Resolution 1280×800
• Android Honeycomb 3.2 OS w/ Custom MotoBlur UI
• 1.2Ghz Dual-Core OMAP 4430 Processor
• 1GB RAM
• 7,000 mAh Battery – 10 Hours Usage, 30 Days Standby on 4G
• 4G LTE on Verizon
• 16, 32 & 64 GB Models for Storage
• 5MP Rear Camera w/ 1080p HD Video Recording
• 1.3MP Front Facing Camera
• 8.89mm Thin
• HDMI Out capabilities

Unlike it’s hefty older cousin, the DROID XYBOARD is a sleek and thin piece of machinery. In my honest opinion, the DROID XYBOARD is one of the nicest looking tablets I’ve ever seen. The touchscreen is Gorilla Glass composite while the backside features aluminum and soft touch plastic. In a market where almost all tablets look exactly the same, the DROID XYBOARD stands out amongst the crowd. It features slight angled corners that give the device some personality and the backside of the device is incredibly interesting. The subtle grey aluminum backing accents the black soft touch plastic perimeter almost perfectly. Other things like the camera module, speakers, and buttons just add to the devices very sleek look.

The DROID XYBOARD measures in at just 8.89mm thin and 1.32 pounds. It feels a tad heavy in the hand, but because it’s so thin I’m willing to overlook that. The construction is incredibly solid and there isn’t any creaking on the device. The power and volume buttons are relatively tricky to press; they’re pretty sunken into the shell and are coated with soft plastic so you don’t get good tactile feedback when you press them in. Often times I found myself rubbing the side of the device because I couldn’t find the buttons.

The front of the device is pretty clean; only the 1.3MP Front Camera and Motorola branding can be seen. On the bottom you have the Micro USB charging port, HDMI-Out port, and the Verizon 4G LTE sim card slot. The left side is where you’ll find those sneaky power and volume buttons while the left side is totally clean. Up top you have the 3.5mm headphone jack and just below that the 5MP Rear camera w/ LED flash and two loudspeakers surrounding it. Overall, I must say that Motorola did a fantastic job on the design of the DROID XYBOARD. It’s easily one of the best looking tablets I’ve ever seen and I’d like to see them take this same design language to all their products

The Motorola DROID XYBOARD features a 10.1 Inch WXGA (1280×800) IPS LCD display reinforced with Gorilla Glass. It’s a definite improvement over the XOOM’s display, but I wouldn’t exactly call it the best display on the market. In fact, it’s no where even close. Color’s look dry, whites have a strong tinge of yellow, blacks are closer to greys, and the overall picture is soft and lacks that crisp detail found in other displays. Also, I’m not sure if the screen lacks an Oleophobic coating of some sort, but it attracts finger prints like crazy. If you plan to use the XYBOARD for outside reading, I’d definitely invest in an anti-finger print screen protector or a microfiber cleaning cloth.

The DROID XYBOARD ships with Android Honeycomb 3.2 with a custom Motorola UI sitting on top. The UI overall is very light and doesn’t change much on Android. Besides a few small UI changes and a couple bundled apps, you’re basically getting Stock Android.

Motorola recently pushed out a big update for the XYBOARD and trust me, it was definitely needed. Before the update, the XYBOARD was definitely the most sluggish and buggy tablet I’ve ever used. I’m honestly dumbfounded as to how a multi-billion dollar corporation like Motorola could release such an unfinished and frustrating product onto the market. Even doing basic things like flicking through the homescreens or opening up apps would be unnecessarily laggy; the software and screen just didn’t feel responsive at all. I’ve also encountered a very high amount of force closes by just opening up apps and the web browsing experience has been maddening to say the least. Motorola’s recent update to the XYBOARD makes it slightly better to use, but overall it’s still not quite there. There’s definitely less lag, force closes, and the browser seems more stable now, but comparing it side by side to an iPad 2 or Galaxy Tab reveals a big difference in responsiveness. Oddly enough, gaming performance is quite decent.

Overall, the XYBOARD has been a frustrating experience on the software front. Given how buggy and laggy it’s been in usage, there’s no way the regular consumer would be satisfied with the software.

The DROID XYBOARD is packing a lot of juice with its massive 7,000 mAh battery and yes, it does deliver. The XYBOARD has some of the most insane battery life I’ve seen on any tablet. With 4G constantly turned on and using it as a 4G Wifi hotspot, watching hours of YouTube videos, browsing the web, and playing a few games hardly managed to put a meaningful dent in the battery life. It took me roughly 3 days to totally kill off the battery, and that’s with pretty moderate to heavy usage each day. I’ve been using the XYBOARD as a 4G Hotspot to power all the devices in my home and it’s been phenomenal. You have to hook most devices up to a charger while tethering because it just destroys the battery life. One day I forgot to plug in the XYBOARD and used it as a hotspot to power 1080p Netflix and YouTube video uploads for 4 hours, I came back and it had only dropped 27%. Most devices would nearly be dead after all that data tethering. Doing basic things like web browsing, games, apps, and the like will hardly affect the battery life at all unless it’s been several hours. The XYBOARD definitely ranks among the best as far as battery life goes, if not the best on the market.

I touched on this briefly earlier, but man, the DROID XYBOARD is an absolute screamer when it comes to data speeds. Being my first ever 4G LTE device, I was amazed at how fast the speeds were. I used this bad boy to tether those beefy 4G LTE data speeds to every electronic device in my house including my iMac, iPad, smartphones, and Xbox 360 for online gaming and Netflix. Under all this stress the 4G LTE data stayed constant and never dropped out, even after several days of doing this. In my house I almost always had between 4-5 bars of 4G and I’ve only seen that dreaded 3G icon one time this past week, and that was only for a few seconds. Speeds were always in the realm of 12-25Mbps download and around 8-14Mbps upload which is just fantastic. Combine this with the excellent battery life and you have a great machine to use for all your streaming and tethering needs. It’s just a shame data caps are set so low.

The DROID XYBOARD packs a 5MP rear camera capable of 1080p video capture and a 1.3MP front camera for Facebook shots and video conferencing. The rear 5MP camera is pretty decent considering it’s on a tablet. You’ll be able to capture some nice photos using it, but don’t expect anything extremely crisp, clear, and vibrant. It just gets the job done. Conversely, the front 1.3MP camera is on par with most other front facing cameras on the market right now. Pictures typically come out very dark and lack detail but hey, this is just a tablet right? Moreover the 1080p video recording produces a nice looking picture and the audio quality is surprisingly good for a tablet. Check out the samples below!

The Motorola DROID XYBOARD is a definite improvement over the XOOM. It has amazing build quality, 4G LTE out of the box, superior battery life, a better screen, and the list goes on. However, the laggy and unresponsive software nearly ruins the entire package. You have this great looking product with good enough hardware, but everything from keystrokes to using the web browser just lags beyond belief and has been incredibly frustrating. Motorola’s recent upgrades do improve things a little bit, but it’s still a ways off from feeling like a polished and stable product. Beginning at a price of $529.99 with a 2 year contract, I just can’t recommend the Motorola DROID XYBOARD to anyone out there. At least not until several more updates are issued that dramatically improve performance and stability. It’s a great looking product though.