We were expecting to see the WiFi-only Xyboard make an appearance at CES this week anyway, but apparently Motorola wanted to get out ahead of the madness; they’ve already popped up for pre-order on the Motorola’s store.
For our European readers this is old hat. Motorola has offered them over there as the Xoom 2 and Xoom 2 Media Edition for a couple months now.
Just like their European counterparts the Xyboards are both going to be running Android 3.2 at launch with the 4.0 upgrade a promise for the future.
Pricing remains par for the course with the 10.1-inch models coming in at $499 and $599 and the 8.2-inch models at $399 and $499, depending on whether you want 16 or 32GB.
Both models offer an IPS display at 1280×800, 5MP rear camera with LED flash, 1.3MP front-facing camera and a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor.
Motorola faces much the same difficulties as they did with the original Xoom in that the Verizon versions seems too expensive at the moment and the 10.1-inch model is simply outclassed by the Transformer Prime at $499. The 8.2-inch model has a more compelling story to tell with it’s unique size, and at $399 it competes favorably with the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus. But there’s every indication that a wealth of more budget-friendly 7-inch tablets are incoming that could really cut the legs out from under the current smaller screened offerings.
I’m sure we’ll be able to get some hands-on time with them this week. If you have any questions just give a shout in comments, but there shouldn’t be too many surprises here.
