Holiday Gift Guide »

Details about how the Motorola Xoom will get 4G connectivity leak [Mail it in, wait a week]

Categories: Android, Motorola, Verizon
By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, February 24th, 2011 at 3:09 AM
xoom

When the Motorola Xoom was announced it was understood that at some point in time it would be getting access to Verizon’s 4G LTE network. How exactly was that going happen though has remained a mystery … until now. Documents that have been leaked to Droid Life suggest that customers who purchase a Xoom when it launches today will have to wait about 90 days to get their devices upgraded to become 4G LTE capable. You’ll have to ship your Xoom to Verizon, at no cost to you, and then wait up to 6 business days for them to crack open your beloved tablet, put in the necessary chips, and upgrade the software. You’ll be warned that you should backup your data before shipping the Xoom off for the upgrade.

Curiously the leaked document also says that the monthly data plan you’re subscribed to will not change in price, so it looks like 4G LTE is going to come at no additional cost, to tablets at least. Whether or not the same thing will apply to smartphones is something we’ve yet to see. Sprint used to charge a premium to get WiMAX data on their devices, but they’ve recently changed their minds and made it a part of everyone’s data plan.

The deeper question here is whether or not you should even get the Xoom. Many of the reviews that have slowly been trickling out to the net say that Android 3.0 Honeycomb for tablets feels like Android 1.0 for smartphones, meaning buggy, lots of inconsistencies, and an overall feeling that the product was rushed to market. Personally, the rule of 3 has always served me well. Wait until the third generation of any product category before cracking open your wallet. Forget about the Xoom successor, get the one after that, which we’re assuming is an early 2013 product.

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • Xoomer

    “Many of the reviews that have slowly been trickling out to the net say that Android 3.0 Honeycomb for tablets feels like Android 1.0 for smartphones, meaning buggy, lots of inconsistencies, and an overall feeling that the product was rushed to market.”

    Have you used a Xoom at all? To say it feels like Android 1.0 is a real insult and is way off course. The main two reasons it seems rushed is because of the unactivated SD slot and 4G modem. I got mine the day it was released and love it. It has only rebooted on me once. Mine is incredibly stable. I have a Droid 1 and is fully rooted/rommed so I am pretty familiar with the territory. The OTA update took care of a few minor things. I think you should read some more reviews about the Xoom as it is head and shoulders above all tablets except the iFad. I wouldnt buy an iFad but I respect what it is. Honeycomb is the first software designed exclusively for a tablet and it is certainly more stable than Android 2.3 on my phone now. Im not saying its perfect, but I feel the bugs are few. I will admit one major bug is the Facebook app has never worked, even after the recent update (4/19ish).