First Hands-on with a Honeycomb tablet, and not sure if I like it...

[xaueious]

Had the chance to play with the Xoom at BestBuy (finally). I could get used to it, but the fact is that it feel like a completely different device running Android. I did enjoy the higher resolution display, visually engaging interface, and how fragments works.

Anyways, some things I would have to get used to:
* lack of physical buttons
* task switching is completely different
* full screen always has section of bottom part of screen visible for soft buttons
* several force closes with apps going into background
* some lag noticed with launching apps, probably due to running background services
* The top menu is another feature that is inconsistent, only appearing in Honeycomb apps and disappearing altogether in older native Android apps. But this will get better with time.
* default keyboard is awful in landscape mode on a 10-inch widescreen. Really should have gone for a split keyboard.

 

[Woodfiend]

I agree on the absence of physical buttons. As far as the on screen keyboard I downloaded one of many options for "thumb" split screen keyboards. When I am holding the Xoom with both hands I use the split keyboard and when I have it in front of me on a table I switch back to the normal full keyboard.

The soft keys that "always" remain on the bottom do in fact stay on for any of the main screens.....however if you are watching a video or other tasks that require a full screen they almost disappear into 3 small light dots until you touch them and the full buttons appear again.

As far as playing with it at best buy...... yeah I did that too and almost didn't buy one. I think you almost have to restore it to stock to get rid of all the random settings that people apply as they fool around with it. But I decided to go ahead and buy one (and a viewsonic gtab as well the same day) to compare to my S7.

I am glad I bought it. I love the Xoom. There are a few things I would change.... but most of it blows the others away. eg. I love how easy it is to rearrange your apps between all your home screens......you can bring up popular apps on the bottom of the screen and have all five main screens lay out side by side in the upper portion. Then you just move the apps to whichever of the screens you want them on and presto!! And if you touch any of the 5 screens you can go directly to that screen and manipulate them further if you like. Plus I like being able to pick up an app icon on one screen and drag it to the side and be able to move from screen to screen until I drop it. Most other tablets I have used I had to move it to the discard bin then move to the screen I wanted it on and pull it out of my app list again.

This thing is only going to get better.

 

[Woodfiend]

I think Honeycomb does take some getting used to but once you do it is more intuitive than 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2 that I have used. Plus some of the stylings and functionality of things like the stock music player (with the album covers moving on an arc as you swipe them) remind me of some of the nicer looks and quality of the current generation of XBMC.

 

[xaueious]

The thing was, the BestBuy Xoom I played with was pretty much stock. It had no apps on it except for Angry Birds, and a few home screen widgets - nothing out of the ordinary that would make the performance be bogged down, especially with the hardware in mind.

Actually, on older versions of Android, you could move icons from homescreen to homescreen already. It was just a little finicky. I am not the type to always change my homescreen though.

I was never a big fan of the stock music player. I use directory playback via Mortplayer. But I did like the graphical enhancements I saw. I don't really have a lot of fancy HQ album art to make it all pretty if I did get myself the Xoom though.

 

[Woodfiend]

I'm enjoying playing with mine. The screen definitely kicks the pants off of my other tablets! I can't wait to see how much better it gets with updates as well.....