Today’s Suck of The Day, the first post ever on this site, is more like a disappointment of the day for me. I’m an original Motorola Xoom Wi-fi owner and I love the tablet. Despite the better looking Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 or the cooler Asus Transformer with its optional keyboard, I stuck with my trusty Xoom. It has everything that I need and nothing of what I don’t need. My Xoom is already rooted, running on the custom Rogue kernel (version 1.4.1 dubbed “Electra”) and also has the custom Rogue recovery (version 1.2.0) along with Tiamat Rom 2.2.2 dubbed “Moray”. It has an overclocked CPU that’s stable at 1.6GHz as well as an overclocked GPU at 400MHz. Rooting your Xoom is a piece of cake. So what does the Xoom 2 have to offer and can it pry my fingers loose from my Xoom?
Nothing. And it won’t.
For the second generation of the Xoom I expected great things. I thought the Xoom 2 would try to compete with other second generation Android tablets such as the Transformer 2. I was hoping that at the very least it would be loaded with Ice Cream Sandwich. But not only will it not ship with ICS, the rumored Kal-El quad core won’t be in it as well.
Motorola coming out with the Xoom 2 reminds me of the time I owned a 4th generation Mitsubishi Eclipse. I bought the 2006 model when the redesigned 4th generation body was first showcased. It looked gorgeous. Sticking with the new voluptuous body design, Mitsubishi supposedly made improvements to save weight, or some other lame excuse, starting with 2009. The “changes” ended up cheapening the appearance of the car with the plasticky-looking bumpers. Why am I comparing this to the Xoom, you ask? Well, it’s because I believe that what Mitsubishi did with the 4G Eclipse might be similar to what Motorola did with the Xoom.
I know for sure, though I can’t think of any examples at the moment, that this is a common practice with many manufacturers. That is to say, they come out with a good product, become popular, sell boat loads of them, and then take advantage of their success by maximizing profits with a sub par, mediocre successor. It’s almost like a bait and switch. They sell something good, then they spend nothing on marketing or R&D on the successor –they just basically let it ride on the success of the predecessor. Instead of making refinements and improvements, they cut corners. Hey, these companies don’t get rich by being honest. The victim: you.
In my opinion, such is the case with the Motorola Xoom 2. It looks stupid. The corners, albeit it won’t catch the attention of the litigation-happy Apple, are ugly. If their goal was to make an ugly tablet so they don’t get sued by Apple, like Samsung, they definitely succeeded. The stupid, ugly holes on the sides for the speaker further cheapen the appearance. In fact, it looks like the bottom of a B&N nook, only it’s uglier. Another red flag for me was the naming of the different flavors of Motorola’s offering. Media Edition? Family Edition? What is this? Microsoft Windows?!
Don’t misunderstand, I do like the fact that “Media Edition” is a smaller 8.2″ tablet. That’s a good thing. If in fact if the Xoom 2 will be as popular as the original Xoom and that the 8.2″ version will be cheaper and contain the same specs, I believe it will outsell the 10.1″ model. My beef is with the naming. It just sounds desperate and wrong. Is the 10.1″ not a media tablet then? Is it only for family use and not business use? Conversely, is the 8.2″ version not for families or businesses?
Now back to the other specs, and why I said it’s the same as the original Xoom, it’s said to be sporting the same dual core processor except it will be clocked at 1.2 GHz this time. In other words, the exact same processor but with a half-assed determination to overclock it. But let me tell you why 1.2GHz is the magic number. Notice how most current Android phones all have 1.2GHz dual core processors? What was the standard right before that? It was dual core 1.0GHz. And what is to follow 1.2GHz? You guess it, 1.5GHz. The average consumer is fooled into thinking that the device in their hand is “obsolete” with an inferior processor making them consider buying the new model, not knowing it’s the exact same thing except one is simply tweaked a little. And when the next device comes out (with dual core 1.5GHz CPU), they sell it as a newer and better product to take your money and laugh at you. This is as much marketing as it is taking consumers for suckers. Did you know that changing the clock speeds of a CPU is just a tweaking in the kernel once you have root access?
As for the RAM, you guessed it, they’re the same. What I said above may only be my opinion, but I hope you’re seeing the pattern, too. Add a bit here and there, put it in a new box, and BAM! you’ve got a brand new product with a brand new price tag when in fact it’s the same exact one. You might say, well the current Xoom is bulky and heavy and the Xoom 2 is 100 grams lighter. Well what did you expect? When you shave off the corners, cut costs by using cheaper shit and lots more plastics, wouldn’t it get lighter? And doesn’t that sound familiar yet again? They make it seem like they’re doing you a favor, making their sneaky questionable changes a positive selling point to lure you into buying it. Like Microsoft making a bug sound like a feature (if you have to ask which, you really are a sucker). The new Xoom 2 will also be 20% brighter and have improved viewing angles. Once again, is it worth letting go of your current tablet at a loss? Is it worth dropping more money for the newer device than the slightly older and cheaper, but pretty much the same, tablet?
At the end of the day, the product will be released, many sites will review it whether for ad revenues or to inform the gadget-lusting masses. We will see charts and benchmarks and side by side comparisons. It will show that the newer model did in fact make enough changes to warrant the the “2″ after its name. And sadly people will buy it.
The Solution
Keep your current tablet especially if it’s holding up just fine. Consider rooting it if it’s supported over at XDA Developers, if you haven’t already. If you don’t own a tablet and you’re in the market for one, I’m sorry to say but you’re stuck in a limbo right now. If you don’t like the current selection of first generation Android tablets (Acer Iconia Tab, Toshiba Thrive, Samsung Galaxy, Asus Transformer, Motorola Xoom, etc.) or the Apple iPad 2, and can’t wait, that’s too bad. The best advice I can give you is to just wait.
The Transformer 2 has Tegra 3 “Kal-El” (a move up from the current Tegra 2 flooded market of tablets) and Ice Cream Sandwich. It is considered the most anticipated Android tablet right now, but talking about that tablet is a whole other topic.