Basking Ridge,
N.J. –The first two Droid-brand Android tablets, both made by Motorola, will
appear sometime this month in Verizon Wireless-owned stores, and the carrier’s
indirect channel
Both come with embedded
4G LTE/3G cellular and Wi-Fi. Plans by Motorola for a Wi-Fi-only version
weren’t disclosed.
The two tablets,
available with two-year data contract, are the Droid Xyboard 10.1 and 8.2 with
10.1- and 8.2-inch high-definition in-plane switching touchscreens. Both
feature processors upgraded to dual-core 1.2GHz from the previous Motorola Xoom
tablets’ dual-core 1GHz processor, and both are Motorola’s first tablets with in-plane
switching for a wide viewing angle. Both use the Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) OS but
are upgradable to 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).
The 10.1-inch
model will be available in three versions: 16GB at $529, 32GB at $629, and 64GB
for $729.99 with new two-year data contract. The 8.2-inch model will be
available in two versions: 16GB for $429 and 32 GB for $529 with two-year
agreement. The minimum plan needed to buy the tablets is a 2GB plan at
$30/month.
The two tablets
will also be available at an unsubsidized price with month-to-month prepaid
data plans, a spokesman said.
For a limited
time, Verizon will offer $100 off one of the tablets and $50 off select
Motorola accessories when customers buy a Motorola-made $299 Droid Razr 4G
smartphone with new two-year contract.
Besides sporting
different screen sizes, each model is also targeted to different users. The
10.1 is optimized for productivity, offering an included stylus for notetaking
and markup. The 8.2 is designed for portable entertainment with 2.1 adaptive
virtual surround sound. It also accesses Netflix movies in up to HD quality.
Both also come
with 1GB of RAM, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, and a Dijit app that turns the tablets
into universal remote controls for home electronics products, including TVs.
Dijit also displays local programming guides.
Other features
common to both include Motorola’s MotoCast, which enables remote access to non
DRM-protected music, pictures, videos and documents stored on work or home
computers. Both also feature scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass and a
coating of water-repellent nanoparticles to resist to accidental spills and
splashes.
Other features
common to both include magnesium-reinforced bodies with aluminum housing and
such business features as enterprise-grade security and business apps. The
business apps include Quickoffice HD for document editing and creation, Citrix
GoToMeeting for collaboration, and Google Talk for video conferencing.
Both also feature
mobile hotspot capability to share a 3G/4G connection with up to eight
Wi-Fi-enabled devices, 1.3-megapixel HD front-facing cameras for video
chatting, and 5-megapixel rear-facing HD camera with digital zoom, autofocus
and LED flash.
Accessories
include an HD station to connect speakers and a larger display, an HD dock to
send content via HDMI to HDTVs, and Bluetooth-enabled keyboard and mouse.
With 700MHz LTE,
the tablets download data over cellular at 5 to 12Mbps and upload data at
speeds up 2 to 5Mbps in LTE coverage areas.
Separately, Verizon announced availability
this month of a white version of the Motorola-made Razr.
