Android pulls ahead of Symbian in Indian smartphone market

NEW DELHI: The fresh numbers from India's phone market are in and it's not looking too good for Nokia's Symbian smartphones. According to IDC, a market research firm, the data for Q3 this year shows that Android, which is used by companies like Samsung and Sony Ericsson, has beaten Symbian in Indian smartphone market. 

"From an operating system (OS) perspective, Android overtook Symbian to emerge as the top platform in India for the first time, with a share of 42.4% of the smartphone market," G Rajeev, lead analyst at IDC. 

"Overall, smartphones shipment for the India market showed an impressive growth of 21.4% over the previous quarter and 51.5% year-on-year. This helped the segment grow its contribution to the mobile phone shipment to 6.5% in Q3 from 5.6% in Q2," added Rajiv. 

Nokia, which uses Symbian in its high-end smartphones, has struggled to make headway against Apple's iPhone and Android-powered phones in this highly lucrative segment. Earlier this year its CEO, Stephen Elop, described Symbian as burning platform and decided to join hands with Microsoft for the company's software needs. 

Lumia 800, a handset that the firm is currently shipping to retailers in India, is Nokia's first smartphone running on Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system. Microsoft too is struggling against iPhone and Android but hopes with the reach and channel of companies like Nokia it will be able to improve the situation by the end of 2012. 

According to IDC, Android saw a growth of 90% over the previous quarter. Apple iOS consolidated further, with a 3.09% share of the smartphone market, compared to 2.6% in Q2 2011. 

IDC said that overall Indian mobile phone market grew by 12% in units shipped, over the previous quarter, to clock 47.07 million units. Year-on-year, there was a shipment growth of 13.8%. 

"The mobile phone shipments witnessed a spurt, as vendors built channel inventories ahead of a long festival season. Dual-SIM handset shipments were notable with a sequential growth of 25.2% over the previous quarter," said Deepak Kumar, research director at IDC. 

The quarter gave both Nokia and Samsung - top two players - something to cheer about. While Nokia grew its share of overall mobile phone shipments in Q3 by 6.8% over the previous quarter, Samsung succeeded in increasing its smartphone shipment share by 5% over the same period. 

Overall, Nokia had 31.8% of the mobile phones shipment share in the Q3, followed by Samsung at 17.5%. In the smartphone segment, Nokia led with a shipment share of 35.3%, but Samsung came closer at 26%. 

"The slowdown of Nokia's smartphones shipment is in line with the expectations, that it would be prepping to transition some of its market share from Symbian to Windows," said Deepak.

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Motorola Droid Xyboard 8.2 Review

The Motorola Droid Xyboard 8.2 finally lands in the US, after being released in Europe last month as the Motorola Zoom 2 Media Edition. We don’t know why the name is different, but the hardware is almost identical. I say almost because this version is powered by Verizon’s 4G LTE network, which has no equivalent in Europe. Beyond its mobile broadband capabilities, Motorola pitches this device as being “tough”, praising its materials as “a force field of protection”. But this is not an armored tablet: it weighs 0.85lbs (13.75oz) and is equipped with an IPS LCD display and virtual surround sound, says Motorola. This sounds good, but I’m going to tell you how it feels to use one in the real world… ready?

Technical highlights

8.2” LCD IPS display, 1280×800, 16M colors
Android 3.2 (Honeycomb)
Dual core, 1.2GHz, TI OMAP 4430
1GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage
5 Megapixel camera with LED flash (back), 1.3MP camera (front)
216 x 139 x 8.9 mm, 13.62 oz (386 g)
3960 mAh battery
micro-USB 2.0
4G LTE (Verizon), WIFI A/B/G/N

Context

We all perceive the gadgets usefulness differently depending on our lifestyle, so let me tell you where I come from. Most of my (computing) time is spent using a powerful desktop computer (a PC) with large displays. If I need to get some real work done outside of the office, I use a laptop (Macbook Pro + Win7). On the go, I keep track of emails with a smartphone, but I tend to reply only moderately from it because typing long emails is a bit painful on a touchscreen. With the tablet, I check news websites and social networks a lot, and I often use a laptop or tablet on my couch.
Because tablets have such a long battery life, I have been searching for ways to use them as laptop replacement in some situations like trade shows and meetings where I don’t do anything drastic like programming or video-editing.

Design (very good)

The Motorola Droid Xyboard 8.2 has a clean design which feels substantially less bulky than the original Motorola Zoom, not only in terms if screen diagonal, which is obvious – but also in terms of thickness and display bezel. The front is pretty much all-glass, but the back is a mix of (what seems to be) magnesium with a rubber paint, and metal. Interestingly, Motorola has decided to go “all in” with the “tough” look, showing metallic screws in the back and all. This gives the Motorola Droid Xyboard 8.2 a solid look, which is a nice differentiation form the Galaxy Tab series, which chose to aim for thin and light.
On the back, you can also find the Power and volume buttons, along with the HD camera module, complete with an LED flash. From the buttons placement, I tend to think of this device as a “portrait” device that will be used vertically, but you can use it in landscape mode without a problem too.
Overall the build quality is solid and I may even suggest that the Motorola Droid Xyboard 8.2 is a tablet that has a “professional” look. Motorola is actually promoting the fact that this is a splash & scratch resistant design. We haven’t put that claim to the test, but we haven’t heard any competitor talking about their product in this way, so keep that in mind.


Display

In a relatively dim environment, the Motorola Droid Xyboard 8.2 IPS LCD display is great. the colors are well reproduced, it is very bright and using it on the couch or in a place is going to be a pleasure. On a sunny day, things are a bit different, and I find the screen to be a little shinier than the average high-end tablet.
This is a trade-off that is commonly seen in laptops: shiny screens make the image “pop” a bit more while indoors, but this also exacerbates reflections outside. You can crank up the backlight to compensate for that, but it affects battery life.
If you take the train, subway or use it indoors, it’s all good, but if you plan on using this outside on a construction area, or as a realtor, you may want to take a few seconds to think about it. To be fair, most tablets will have this issue to some extent, but the Motorola display looks shinier than most.

Software

Motorola is known to put a lot of efforts on the software customization of their Android devices, and recently, I really like the Motorola Smart Actions of the Droid Razr. On this tablet, the offering is more nimble, and Motocast and Motopack are the main apps that stick out.
MotoCast is the new name for ZumoCast, a Motorola app that lets you access content from your computer over the web. Each computer that you want to access needs to have a small MotoCast client installed. From there, your Motorola mobile devices (smartphones, tablets…) can access the files over the internet. Of course, you need a password and Motorola has made things as secure as it could.
This can be particularly useful for small businesses that have someone “in the field” with the tablet, and some else at the office who either collaborates, or updates the information from the office computer. You can image other situations like this, but given that the Droid Xyboard 8.2 is a 4G LTE device, it will not have much troubles with the network speed.
Motopack is a Motorola App Store of sorts. It contains apps that Motorola has tested and certified to run well on the Droid Xyboard 8.2. You can probably find the same apps on the Android market, but it is possible that from time to time, Motorola works with a developer to get something special for their hardware. I like the visual design of Motopack which is very graphic. They can because the “pack” contains about 30 apps, so Motorola does not have to take discoverability into account.
Ice Cream Sandwich upgradeable: while it does not ship with ICS, aka Android 4.0, the Droid Xyboard 8.2 can be upgraded to Google’s latest Android. Now, it’s not clear when the upgrade will happen, but at least we know that it is technically possible to upgrade.

Killer Apps

Email: the email app looks very much like the normal Android 3.x email app, and although I found minor differences in terms of design, the only functionality that comes in addition to the regular email app is Motoprint. As its name indicates, Motoprint lets you print emails, Microsoft Office documents, photos or web pages on your PC printer via WiFi. It seems like a small thing, but when you need to print something, it’s not always fun to be a tablet owner.
In terms of connectivity, most email service and Microsoft Exchange are supported, so this could be used for personal and professional purposes. If there’s an IT department, you may want to check with them as they may require additional security measures such as a virtual private network connection (VPN).
Skype: Skype works both in audio and video mode. Overall, the quality is quite acceptable for a mobile device, but laptops will perform better. The audio is usually good enough so that I don’t have to worry about it. It would be nice if Skype, chip vendors and tablet makers could come up with a way to hardware-accelerate the Skype video compression.
Browser: No problem here, the web browser performs well, and the sites that we tried were rendered properly without any issues. Of course, there is still Flash support and you can visit Flash-powered sites like wechosethemoon.org, which is a Flash-site about the Apollo lunar landing.

I've pre-loaded San Francisco to the local storage. No more tile downloads for a while

Maps: In terms of mapping, Android remains the best overall platform because Google has put more efforts and features into Google Maps for Android. Because the Motorola Droid Xyboard 8.2 is an 4G-LTE device, you can expect maps to load very quickly as both latency and peak download speed have been improved over 3G and non-LTE “4G” networks such as HSPA+. Note that although this unit works on the Verizon network, AT&T is also deploying its LTE solution, and Sprint has wowed to launch its own.
My favorite features of Google Maps is one of the “Labs” experiment: you can preload a 10-mile square on the internal memory and browse maps without downloading tiles over the network again. This is great because most people often use maps within the same city on a daily basis. This should be a permanent feature if you ask me.

Facebook: At the moment, the Facebook app on Android is still designed for smartphones, so you get a stretched view that is not optimum for Tablets. That said, the Facebook app gets the job done.

Entertainment

Movie playback: I copied some 1080p movies (.MP4) to the Droid Xyboard 8.2 and they all played without any problem. One is the Gran Turismo 5 trailer, and the other is the latest Starcraft trailer. this basically means that the tablet can decode very decent video (1080p 5Mbps+) that is usually above and beyond what you will find in streaming services like Netflix, or the Android Market.

Gaming (very good): the Droid Xyboard 8.2 is not really the fastest tablet when it comes to gaming. Graphics benchmark Nenamark 2 show that while it is comparable to Samsung’s offerings with a score of about 20 Megapixels per second, it is far from the astounding 51 Megapixel/sec that the Asus Transformer Prime achieves with its Tegra 3 chip.
That said, 20 Megapixel/sec is still equivalent to graphics performance that was considered “cutting-edge” just last summer. For example, Shadowgun runs well, and it’s completely playable, but you won’t get the 60 frames per second super-smooth frame rate. Instead, you will get 30 fps, which is still very good. (note: I’m eyeballing all the FPS numbers as there are no in-game counters)

Speakers (impressive): I’m impressed by the sound quality – It is known that having the speakers on the side can produce very nice sound and it is a technique commonly used on smartphones from several brands. However, it is easy to mask the speaker with the palm of your hand in landscape mode, so you’ll have to be careful about that. If you are, the sound is very good, especially if you take into account the size of the device. I think that this is the best sound that I have experienced form a tablet. Good job Motorola!

Camera (good)

Photo taken with the Motorola Droid Xyboard 8.2

The Xyboard has a tendency to have a tint that is a bit off

The Camera of the Motorola Droid Xyboard 8.2 is very decent and does well in most photos. However, I have noticed that out of the box, the tint is slightly off and the camera has a tendency to pick up the dominant color of the scene. Below are two examples: first, the Droid Xyboard colors go towards blue/green, probably because of that door and wall on the left. On the second photo, it picks up too much yellow. You can tell because in both photos, the concrete is supposed to be gray. I don’t know why it does that, and many people won’t notice, but I think that Motorola could tweak this.
The video recording is good, and I’m satisfied with the overall quality as it is very decent. However, it won’t equal or beat the iPhone 4S. If you want to compare different devices for yourself, we have made the original photos available on our Ubergizmo Flickr account. Check them out in their full glory, no resizing involved.

Performance (very good)

Antutu tries to measure broad system performance

Nenamark 2 is somewhat representative of a game

Performance-wise, the Motorola Droid Xyboard 8.2 does well for a current-generation tablet. As you can see, it is slightly faster than its nemesis, the Galaxy Tab 8.9 but not as fast as the Galaxy S2 (with OMAP4). However, when you factor the upcoming (Dec 19) Asus Transformer Prime, things get tougher. Because it is powered by a next-gen Tegra 3 quad-core processor, the Transformer Prime easily wins in both benchmarks.
Yet, there is currently no 8” tablet that offers that kind of performance, so for the time being, the Droid Xyboard 8.2 is the fastest tablet in that category. It will be up to you to decide if you like the 8” form-factor, or the absolute performance better.
When not using extreme performance applications like games or imaging, the difference in terms of user experience isn’t so noticeable. In the grand scheme of things, the Droid Xyboard 8.2 is very good, but the scale for “excellent” has just been raised.

Battery life (below average)

In a standard video playback test, the Motorola Droid Xyboard gets about 5 hours of video, which is “OK”, but far from the 10 hours that the iPad 2 or the Transformer Prime would get. While we could blame that on the smaller form-factor, we keep in mind that tablets like the Playbook or the Galaxy Tab 7+ get 7hrs or so, so in the grand scheme of things, this could be better.
I consider the video test as some sort of “worst-case” scenario that can be applied to most tasks because the display (one of the most power-hungry element) is ON at all times. Even if video-decoding is not considered to be “intensive” (it’s mainly done by a small co-processor), it still is more intensive than email, and many other things that you may do.
Only gaming and image processing remain a special category of apps that can deplete the battery much faster than this, and how fast really depends on the application, but polygonal 3D is expensive.

Conclusion (competitive in the 7″to 8” category)

In its own 8” category, the Motorola Droid Xyboard is a great competitor to the Galaxy Tab 8.9. Both share a comparable footprint, and both can differentiate themselves: the Droid Xyboard feels more solid and is a bit more compact and fast. The Tab 8.9 feels lighter and thinner but also feels a bit “plastic”.
Now, if you omit the size, it is clear that the Asus Transformer Prime is much faster, but unfortunately, it does not have a 4G LTE option despite customers clamoring for at least a 3G option. If you ask me, this comes down to the form factor. If you really care about compactness, then Droid Xyboard 8.2 is a very good option.
If a 10.1” tablet works for you, it becomes a matter of needing mobile broadband or not. If you need fast broadband, a Droid Xyboard 10.1 or a Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE will get the job done. If 3G/4G is not needed, getting a Transformer Prime is a no-brainer. Some would say that WiFi can be a good alternative to mobile broadband but I disagree: in my experience, there’s almost never a hotspot when I *really* need one.
I hope that this review has given you an idea of how it feels to use the Motorola Droid Xyboard 8.2 [product page]. If you have questions that I have not covered, please drop a comment, and I’ll try to address them ASAP. If you find this review to be useful, please “like it”, share it or drop a comment. We’re here to help.

[Via: Ubergizmo]

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Motorola Droid Xyboard 10.1 Review

When the Motorola Xoom was launched with Honeycomb, I was slightly disappointed by its hardware design and the below average quality of the display. Consequently, I was happily surprised when I saw the Motorola Droid Xyboard 10.1 for the first time, the chassis design is sleek and elegant and the IPS display offers high contrast and great color accuracy.
The Droid Xyboard 10.1, known as Xoom 2 outside of the US, has the advantage to offer Verizon 4G LTE connectivity, a convenient feature for road warriors who are tired to look for WiFi hotspots while on-the-go. With a 2-year contract, you will be able to purchase the 16 GB version for $529.99 and the 32 GB version for $629.99.
Now, let’s see what the Droid Xyboard 10.1 has to offer in terms of design, software and performance.

Specifications

Processor: OMAP 4 Dual Core 1.2 GHz
OS: Android 3.2 software (Honeycomb)
Display: 10.1” 1280 x 800, IPS LCD capacitive touch screen, pinch to zoom, light responsive, with stylus support
Connectivity: 4G LTE, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, Micro USB, HDMIout, 3.5 mm jack – data transmission rate: USB 2.0
Multiple Networks: WCDMA 900/2100, CDMA 850/1900, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, 4G LTE Band 13, HSDPA 21.1 Mbps (Category 14), CDMA EV-DO Release B/LTE, EDGE Class 12, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
Camera: backside 5 MP camera AF with LED flash and digital zoom– frontside 1.3 MP camera (webcam)
Video: 720p HD video capture – 1080p full HD video playback – playable formats: AAC, H.263, H.264, MP3, eAAC+, OGG, MIDI, AMR NB, AAC+
Flash support: Adobe Flash Player
Memory: 16 / 32 / 64 GB built-in, 1GB RAM
Sensors: accelerometer, gyro, compass, barometer, ambient light, AGPS (autonomous)
Battery: 7000 mAh Li Ion
Battery Life (manufacturer estimates): browsing over WiFi, aprox 10 hours – Video Playback
Weight: 603 grams
Size: 253.9 x 173.6 x 8.8 mm
Thinness comparison: Xoom 1: 12.9 mm – iPad 2: 8.8 mm – Galaxy Tab 10.1: 8.6 mm – Asus Transformer Prime: 8.3mm
Weight comparison: Xoom 1: 730 grams/1.6 lbs – iPad 1: 680 grams/1.5 lbs – iPad 2: 590 grams/1.3 lbs – Asus Transformer Prime: 586 grams

Context

We always have a hard time ensuring objectivity in our reviews, since different people use electronic devices in drastically different ways depending on their needs and lifestyle. By telling you how I use a tablet, it will be easier for you to decide which aspects of this review will be useful for you to help make up your mind. I have used the Motorola Droid Xyboard 10.1 for a few days as an additional device to my desktop computer, my MacBook Pro (running Windows), my Macbook Air (running Windows) and my Smartphone. Since I have bought the Macbook Air, I do not use a tablet for meetings as much any more, it has become more of an entertainment device from which I watch movies in my bed or in the plane, read news and books, play with apps (ie Angry Birds, Music Sreaming apps), Skype/chat with friends, check Facebook updates, play music on a mini Bluetooth speaker.

External design (good)

I am pleased to see how well the second 10-inch tablet from Motorola has been improved compared to the first bulky Xoom, the device features the same thinness as the iPad 2.
The chassis looks sleek and elegant and gets a unique design with its angled corners, offering a refreshing differentiation in a world full of black flat screens under 9 mm thick. Overall the built quality is solid and
The start screen’s preloaded wall paper is easy on the eyes and consistent with the robotic-inspired graphic style of the Droid branding. The Droid Xyboard 10.1 is narrower and a hair wider than the iPad2 for a comparable weight, it features similar proportions as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Personally, I am not a big fan of the back cover made of two different materials, in the center, a gray brushed metal rectangle with rounded corners is encased in rubberized edges. The rubberized outer rim offers a good grip and a soft touch, which feels good in the hand, however the color combination is not very elegant. The design attempt of combining two different textures and colors is better done on the Droid Xyboard 8.2-inch version because the shapes are symmetrical.

Display (very good)

This time, Motorola got it right on the display side, the company has surely learn its lesson from the first Xoom which featured a super reflective and below average display, an unfortunate design decision knowing that tablets are primarily content consumption devices.
The touch LCD delivers high contrasts, accurate and bright colors, similarly to top tablets on the market such as the iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab. However, it is a little bit more reflective than other high-end tablets in direct sunlight, which could be annoying when you watch dark background screens while outdoors. To be fair, most tablets will have this issue to some extent, but the Motorola display looks shinier than most.

Audio (very good)

The two speakers are located at the rear of the device close to the top. When I played the first video, i was instantly surprised by the good audio quality compared to other high-end tablets. The sound is more powerful and clearer than on the Samsung Galaxy Tabs or the iPad. I tested all devices with the volume set to the maximum. We have noticed that Motorola usually delivers good audio quality on its mobile devices.

Software / OS (good)

Android 3.2 and Motorola design customizations

The Quick Access is the original from Android, only the font has been customized

The Droid Xyboard 10.1 runs Android 3.2 and features a few design customizations on the OS side. The Browser, Email, Contacts, calendar, Gallery,Camera and Settings icons has been redesigned to be consistent with the ones found in the Motorola smartphones. The system icons (bottom left corner), and the Apps icon on the action bar (top right corner) have been redesigned as well.
The Tron-style typeface and icons seem to be highly disliked by design team across the industry, just like Samsung did, Motorola has replaced it by a more neutral font. Other than that, the quick access panel that pops up at the bottom left corner with settings access and notifications looks to be the original one featured in Honeycomb.
In case you would like to know more about the Android 3.2 update, read the official page on the Android site.
No Pre-loaded Task Manager
I wish a task manager would have been pre-loaded. Samsung offers in its Galaxy Tab tablets, it is accessible from its TouchWiz Mini App tray, the ability to close the apps from the Recent Apps tray is not available on Android 3.2, Asus made the customization in its Transformer Prime. (comparison picture). I advise you to download a free task manager app from the Android Market, we usually like to get Advanced Task Killer from Rechild.
Motorola and Verizon Custom Software
Motorola is well known for its software customization of Android, which genrally add great features on the user experience side, think Motoblur or the most recent Motorola Smart Actions developed for the Droid Razr.
On the Droid Xyboard 10.1, custom software has been kept to a minimum with the MotoCast and the MotoPack applications.
MotoCast is the new name for ZumoCast, a Motorola app that lets you remote access content on your computer over the web. Each computer that you want to access needs to have a small MotoCast client installed, and you need to create an account (a MotoCast ID) with password protection. From there, your Motorola mobile devices (smartphones, tablets…) can access the files over the internet. This would be particularly convenient for road warriors or small businesses with employees dispatched in the field with 4G-connected tablets.
When I tried the application I had issues to make it work on the tablet, I was able to successfully install the PC client and register my account on the website. I will have to take a second look and I will update the review.

Motopack appstore with beautifully designed user interface - it could be more responsive

MotoPack is the Motorola app store that features a very small number of applications certified by Motorola. The user interface is graphically beautiful although a bit slow. The app store is supposed to hsot 30 apps, but it looked like my version displayed only six. (to verify)
Verizon V CAST Apps: The Droid Xyboard 10.1 is a Verizon 4G LTE tablet, and the carrier could not resist to pre-load its own app store as well. You will find it as a shopping cart icon labeled “Apps” in the app section, oddly, when the splash screen launches, the complete app store name is V CAST Apps. I like the user interface a lot, it is graphically appealing and makes it easy to search a few applications by category. Similarly to the Motorola app store, all the apps featured in V CAST Apps can be found in the Android market, Verizon made it easier for regular people to get the most useful and well developed ones. The application is slow and the user interface is not fluid.
Other Verizon applications: Verizon Media Manager and VZ Navigator
Pre-loaded applications
It is always interesting to look at the pre-loaded application list, since people might rely on the manufacturer and its good judgement to select the most useful software for its users.
Preloaded apps list include: Amazon Kindle, BlockBuster, Dijit (universal digital remote control), Evernote, Fuze meeting, Citrix receiver, GoToMeeting, Netflix, Polycom (porfessional video conferencing), Quickoffice HD, Skitch (photo editing), VideoSurf (video discovery) and SlingBox.
Games: Let’s golf 2 and Madden NFL 12.
Google Apps: Talk, Books, Music, Maps, Navigation (beta), Latitude, Places, Voice Search.

Vital Applications

Emaill application with MOTOPrint - in the blue nav bar, see the printer icon

Email
The email application look similar to any other Android 3.x email app, and it now features search (it was not the case at Honeycomb launch). The nice addition offered by Motorola is the ability to print via MOTOPrint and compatible shared printers over a WiFi network or Ethernet with a WiFi access point. MOTOPrint lets you print other documents stored in your tablets such as Office docs, photos, web pages and more…
Most email services are supported, and setting up Exchange is quite easy when you know all your account specifications (domain name, user name, password).
Virtual Keyboard
The Android keyboard is the default input method, and the Droid Xyboard 10.1 comes with Swiftkey Tablet X and Swype directly available in the settings. Personally, I like the easy access to Swiftkey since this particular keybaord application deliver awesome predictive capabilities, can learn your typing habits from your Facebook, and Twitter updates, and above all features, can handle simultaneously three languages, a most needed feature for me.
Stylus
The Droid Xyboard comes with a stylus, I have not had the time to try it yet, I will update this paragraph when I do.
Skype
Video calling is possible with Skype for Android 3.x, and the quality is acceptable for a mobile device, the application delivers better result on a desktop or a laptop computer. When it comes to video calling on Android you can try alternative application such as Tango.Hopefully the video quality for mobile calling will be enhanced in the near future.

Browser
As you may know, I have a slight preference for the Chrome-based browser featured in Honeycomb over Safari in the iPad, thanks to its handy tabs and its sleek interface. On the performance side, the websites I tried loaded pretty rapidly, with a comparable speed as any high-end tablet we tried. Flash is still supported, so if you are a fan of the conquest of space you can visit Flash-powered sites like wechosethemoon.org and play with Apollo.
Maps
The Google Maps app on Android devices packs more features than on iOS, which is understandable on a business angle, Google is pushing its own mobile platform. The user interface is very responsive as well as moving the map around.
The layers feature is great, it allows it adds tons of information on top of the map including traffic, terrain, transit lines and Wikipedia information. When you click a Wikipedia icon on the map, you get a pop up window with a description and additional information about the of the point of interest and you can get access to Street view or directions from your current location at the click of a button.
Facebook
The Facebook app for Android is the smartphone version and has not been optimized for tablets yet. It get the job done, but honestly, using it is not fun. The user interface, the aesthetics and the navigation could be a lot better.

Entertainment

Movies
I played some 1080p movies (.MP4) that I have stored on the Droid Xyboard 10.1, and the video playback was fluid with a great audio quality. One is the Gran Turismo 5 trailer, and the other is the latest Starcraft trailer. This basically means that the tablet can decode very decent video (1080p 5Mbps+) that is usually above and beyond what you will find in streaming services like Netflix, or the Android Market. Additionally, it is important to note that the display offers good color restitution and high contrast for the video playback.
Netflix
Netflix comes pre-loaded in the Droid Xyboard 10.1, which is a good idea knowing that 10-inch tablets are perfect for watching video. I tested it over WiFi, although you can try it over 4G, it is recommended to use WiFi, depending on your plan and the bandwidth limitation per month.
Netflix delivers a fluid HD video experience overall with a good image and audio quality.
YouTube
The YouTube application was revamped for the Honeycomb launch on the Motorola Xoom in April 2011, I have described it in the review and you can check out our video demo. To make sure the Xyboard 10.1 would play well HD video from YouTube, I tried it with the Avatar HD trialer and the result was perfect. Again, the audio quality and the display high contrast makes the experience enjoyable.
Games
The Droid Xyboard 10.1 is not really the fastest tablet when it comes to gaming. Graphics benchmark Nenamark 2 show that while it is comparable to Samsung’s offerings with a score of about 20 Megapixels per second, it is far from the astounding 51 Megapixel/sec that the Asus Transformer Prime achieves with its Tegra 3 chip.
However the gaming experience tested with a 3D game is fine, we tried it with ShadowGun, the rendering is fast at 30 fps, but upcoming tablets like the transformer Prime can reach 60 fps.

Camera (good)

The backside 5 MP camera with AF and LED flash of the Motorola Droid Xyboard 10.1 is very decent and does well in most photos.
The video recording is good, and I’m satisfied with the overall quality as it is very decent. However, it won’t equal or beat the iPhone 4S, and the Galaxy S2.

Photo taken with the Droid Xyboard 10.1

Photo taken with the Droid Xyboard 10.1

Performance (very good)

Antutu tries to measure broad system performance

Nenamark 2 is somewhat representative of a game

Performance-wise, the Motorola Droid Xyboard does well for a current-generation tablet. As you can see, it is slightly faster than the Galaxy Tab 10.1 but not as fast as the Galaxy S2 (with OMAP). However, when you compare to the upcoming (Dec 19) Asus Transformer Prime, things get tougher. Because it is powered by a next-gen Tegra 3 processor, the Transformer Prime easily wins both benchmarks.
When not using extreme performance applications like games or imaging, the difference in terms of user experience isn’t so noticeable. In the grand scheme of things, the Droid Xyboard 10.1 is very good, but the scale for “excellent” has just been raised.

Battery life (average)

Charging time (long)
The charging time is similar to what is available on high end thin tablets, after two hours the Xybard was charged at 40% which is equivalent to the Samsung Galaxy Tab’s charging time (10.1 and 8,9 versions). The iPad also requires a long charging time.
Battery life (average)
I still need to test the battery life further, we expect it to be 7 hours of video playback,.

Conclusion (good)

What’s good
- 4G LTE
- Delivers good video playback experience and decent gaming experience
- Overall performance is very good
- Custom design of the default wallpaper with the Droid-style, it looks great
- Custom design of the Android apps and system icons
- Build quality is great, the rubberized edges feel good
- Audio quality is very good
- IPS display quality is good, with bright colors and high contrasts, which is a nice upgrade from the previous Motorola tablet
- WiFi printing capability with MOTOPrint
- Remote control of your home or office computer via MOTOCast
What could be better
- the display could be a bit less reflective
- the Motorola applications and the Verizon app store could be more responsive
- a pre-loaded task manager would be great

[Via: Ubergizmo]

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LG Marquee and Samsung Replenish Leaked For Boost Mobile

Looks like Boost Mobile is about to get a few new very adequate Android devices in the coming months. The LG Marquee (Optimus Black) and Samsung Replenish will be joining their Android lineup of which the LG device is the most interesting. Both devices have been made available for months now on Sprint and were leaked for Boost Mobile in the promo images you see above. Still no word on pricing or availability just yet but as soon as we learn more we’ll let you know.
[Via Pocketnow]

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Android Powered DragonBot Is Quite Possibly The Coolest “Toy” Of The Year

If the idea of a child’s “toy” actually learning from you and uploading that information to the cloud to share with fellow toys scares you — you’re not the only one. But you gotta admit. It sounds pretty cool.
That’s exactly what these Android powered DragonBot’s do. These cute little fellers were first designed to help pre-schoolers learn language by researchers at MIT, Harvard and Northeastern. But they don’t just teach language, they actually take visual cues using an Android phone’s built-in, front facing camera to display animations for the eyes and mouth with unique expressions. I know, this is blowing your mind right now. Me too. When attached, the phone is actually the brains of the “toy,” acting as its central nervous system, moving it around and most importantly… learning. And as I mentioned before, when it learns, it uploads the information to the cloud so the other DragonBots can learn too.
The DragonBot can also be controlled using an app and an Android and pricing for the DragonBot should come in at under $1,000 which means unless you’re a rapper waiting for your next multiplatinum album to drop, you may have to wait a couple more years for the price to drop. At the very least we know our DragonBot is out there. And waiting.
Now… if only I could make it love me. At least something would… (sniffle)
[MIT Media Lab | Spectrum IEEE | Via Gizmodo]

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Browser Face-Off: iPhone 4S, Galaxy Nexus, Rezound, Razr and Galaxy S II Compared [Videos]

As a long time Android user since the G1 days, I have to say having a choppy browser has been one of the areas that has really irked me about Android devices. Watching all those smug iPhone users with their super fluid browser, scrolling up and down, in and out, I have to admit — I was jealous. Now, with this new generation of dual-core superphones, you would expect all the browsers, across all devices to be nice, smooth and silky, right? Wrong.
If you’re sitting on an upgrade, on the fence about which new device to get, maybe this collection of videos from our very own Android Forums member, Medion, will help push you over the edge. Who comes out on top? Who’s cuisine reigns supreme? As a reference, we’re including the iPhone 4S because… c’mon — it’s damn smooth.
Apple iPhone 4S


Galaxy Nexus


Samsung Galaxy S II


Motorola Droid RAZR


HTC Rezound

After watching these videos, have they possibly changed your mind at all on a future purchase? Granted, there are other factors that influence value like camera and manufacturer UI’s. But when it comes to browsers, I can tell you I’m seeing things in a whole new light. I’m talking to you, Rezound. Get your choppiness together.
[Via AndroidForums]

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Motorola XOOM graced with Android 4.0.3 build

We just saw Android 4.0.2 officially roll out to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus today, and even confirmed what would be in the Android 4.0.3 update to come. Well it seems the latest AOSP build has been pushed and supports the Nexus S and Motorola XOOM [WiFi]. Even better, the guys at XDA Developers have a bootable version of the ROM up and running for the XOOM.

Many features such as the camera are still broken, and there are a load of bugs that will need to be fixed – but that’s normal when taking an AOSP source. This is more of an extremely early Beta (or more appropriately an Alpha) of ICS for the Motorola XOOM, but their developmental community is strong, and this push should offer a great start. Of course, Motorola will eventually update the XOOM themselves; even if development starts to slow down.




From the clip you can see the obvious glitches when transitioning from screen to screen, but it’s extremely smooth. Even debatably smoother than the XOOM’s initial Honeycomb release. It’s great not having one universal OS to rule them all, and I have a feeling the developers are going to love it.
[via The Verge]

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Verizon Galaxy Nexus: Significant signal issues arise

Many of us, including myself, have been waiting months for the Samsung Galaxy Nexus to finally hit the US. And now that it finally has on Verizon Wireless, my experience has been less than perfect. The signal has continued to drop since purchase, and my previous 4G phone on Big Red had great signal strength.

When the signal doesn’t drop – it just hangs in 3G and an “Airplane Mode” toggle is required to get 4G back up and running. But here’s the catch, the signal was excellent for the 4 hours I used it before installing the 4.0.2 update. I thought it may have just been my device or even area, but many others are experiencing these issues over in a thread at XDA Developers.
Now one user, mastibeta, spent time on the phone with Verizon tech support and they seemed to not only fix the 4G lock on his device, but also double his data speeds. Lets hope it’s a software issue and not hardware; the Nexus S 4G had its share of signal issues and hopefully the Galaxy Nexus doesn’t follow suit. All of us here at Android Community using Verizon’s Galaxy Nexus are having similar signal problems – so we know there is an issue at hand.
Are any of you having signal issues? If so, please let us know in the comments below.

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Samsung Nexus S Android 4.0 update officially rolling out today

We heard a rumor about this last week that never went very far but today it’s officially official. Google has started the update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for the Google Samsung Nexus S. We are assuming this will be Android 4.0.3 that was detailed earlier today — This was confirmed by Google over on Twitter this afternoon.

A few weeks ago a couple Google employee’s received the OTA update and were commenting on Google+ but those were all quickly removed. It looks like the testing phase has been completed as Google themselves have confirmed to be started today and rolling out over the next few weeks.

Google has also put together a neat set of tips for those moving from Gingerbread to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The update should start hitting both the T-Mobile and the non GSM versions of the Nexus S soon. I’m sure it will be plastered on XDA any minute now so be sure and start checking your favorite developer forums. I’d be hitting menu > settings > about phone > check for updates right about now. Enjoy that Ice Cream Sandwich and feel free to look over our ICS hands-on and more below from the Timeline.

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