Hey.
I am Donald Bell.
And this is a first look at the Droid Xyboard 10.1 from Motorola.
Now, Motorola kicked off 2011 with the first Honeycomb Tablet.
Now, they're closing the year with what might be the last Android 3.2 tablet anyone cares about for Android 4.0 still is a show for 2012.
And you're gonna have to care an awful a lot since the Xyboard will set you back $529 for a16-gigabyte model on a 2-year contract with Verizon.
$100 more gets you a 32-gigabyte model and $200 can take you all the way up to 64 gigs.
What you get for the price is a 4G-compatible tablet that plays like the greatest hits of 2011.
You get the thinnest of an iPad2, an IR blaster up top that can act as a remote control, micro HDMI output, a dual core 1.2 gigahertz processor, front and rear cameras, micro SD memory expansion, digital pen compatibility, bluetooth, peripheral support and tons of bundled for activity software.
The IPS screen quality is nice but it's not the brightest we've seen.
Placing the volume and power controls on the back is also a nice touch and keeps them out of the way but having them so close together can make them difficult to operate by feel alone.
Motorola rates the battery life at 10 hours of video or web browsing which is the magic number we like to hear but if you're browsing up a 4G or have the brightness up, you're gonna take a hit.
The big problem here is at with the price of the contract, you are practically guaranteed to spend at least a $1000 on this.
They're also locked in for 2 years which is a bad deal for any tablets.
So that is the Motorola Droid Xyboard 10.1, a fine tablet with an absurd price.
For cnet.com, I am Donald Bell.
