Motorola Xoom 3G touching down in the UK in April with £600 price tag
Carphone Warehouse has confirmed it will charge a hair under £600 for the 3G model of Motorola's Xoom Android tablet, when it goes on sale in April here in the UK.
The Motorola Xoom tablet goes on sale in the UK in the first week of April in its Wi-Fi-only model, but what about the 3G edition? Retailer Carphone Warehouse has confirmed it'll be selling that version for £600 the same month -- £100 more than the Wi-Fi model, but with a free charging dock bundled in for your money.
Carphone is selling the 3G Xoom for £599.99 SIM-free, and at the time of writing there are no cheaper options subsidised by operators. The retailer says stock is due in "early April".
The Wi-Fi model is already available for pre-order from PC World with a £499.99 price tag, although the £34.99 charging dock is not included in that price. We're still waiting for UK pricing on the iPad 2, but we think the Wi-Fi and 3G Xooms will essentially match the price of Apple's new tablet.
The good news, as we reported last week, is that Flash Player 10.2 will be available for the Xoom when it goes on sale here, as part of an update pushed out by Motorola to owners of its tablet. Early buyers in the US found that the Xoom was lacking Flash, despite this being one of its selling points.
There are plenty of other selling points, mind. The Xoom runs Google's Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS, with a 10.1-inch screen, and an impressive 5-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front camera combo. It also scores over the iPad 2 with a built-in HDMI port and SD-card slot.
The Xoom can play videos at 720p resolution on the device, or pump them out to a bigger screen at 1080p using the HDMI port. 3D gaming is also expected to be a strong point, as developers optimise their graphically rich games for Honeycomb tablets.
In the US, Motorola has been fending off reports that sales of the Xoom have been disappointing, with one analyst telling ZDNet.com last week that, "Xoom sales have been underwhelming... We believe the device has been a bit buggy and did not meet the magic price point of $500."
Will it be a sales hit with us Brits though? Now we know the price of both models, let us know your thoughts on its prospects here in the UK.