Motorola Xyboard 10.1

“The Motorola Xyboard 10.1 is not quite enough tablet, for too much money. While it's much more handsome than the Xoom tablet it replaces, the Xyboard can't overcome its high price or Google Android Honeycomb's ongoing trouble with third-party apps.”

“Frankly, the Motorola DROID XYBOARD 10.1 is a respectable tablet within the Android sphere, even more when it packs additional goodies such as an IR blaster and stylus, but when it’s pitted against the newly available iPad, its cost is by far its kryptonite. Consider this, that the iPad rocks a starting price point of $630 for the base 16GB LTE model, which is less than the full $700 outright cost of the comparable 16GB LTE version of the XYBOARD 10.1. The more we think about it, they both have their standout features, but when first impressions make all the difference, the iPad has the distinctive advantage in capturing our attention from afar.”

“When it comes right down to it, it’s a tough choice to choose a Verizon 10-inch tablet. When comparing he Motorola DROID XYBOARD 10.1 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, both offer an array of high-end features and have the exact same price ($629 for the 32GB models with 2-year contract). We prefer the DROID XYBOARD 10.1 as it has a better overall feel to it, due to the premium materials used, which gives it extra durability for daily use. However, it comes a few months later but doesn't bring any significant improvements. In addition, with technology continuing to improve, it seems like there’s always a new tablet coming out, making it only a matter of time until the next big thing.”

“And that is ultimately why the Xyboards are not worth the cash — their pricing is just as out there as their names. The 8.2 and the 10.1 aren’t bad tablets, in fact, they are solid pieces of hardware (despite the button and expandable storage issues) with software that’s decent, but still held back by an ecosystem. But half a grand and $720 over the next two years seems like an outrageous combo for a piece of hardware that isn’t even the latest and greatest on the market today. Next week the first quad-core tablet hits — the Transformer Prime — and it has double the performance, a better display, and camera for just $499. It doesn’t have built-in LTE, but you can get a $50 LTE Novatel MiFi 4510L from Verizon (with a two-year contract) and it would cost the same amount as the 10.1. Yes, the Xyboards are some of the fastest LTE tablets around and they even have some neat features, but ultimately, Verizon needs to rethink its tablet pricing strategy, or at least throw a skateboarding robot in the box.”