Gadget of the Week: Xoom-ing in

What is it?

Motorola's jump into the bustling tablet market: The Motorola Xoom. Yes, the tablet wars have well and truly begun.

What's so special about it?

For starters this funky device was crowned the best gadget at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas earlier in the month. That's not all, it was also chosen the best tablet of the many showcased at the event, all rushing to dip their hands in a segment Apple has already made a huge success of, and lots of money in.

The nicely named Xoom will also feature the 3.0 version of Android's operating system, nicknamed Honeycomb, specifically designed to power tablets.

What other specs are noteworthy?

At 10.1 inches, the Xoom is just about as big as the latest iPad. It comes with a 1080p video output via HDMI, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, a 5-megapixel rear camera and 32GB built-in storage.

The company has already announced a range of accessories, a segment it already has experience in, including a dock, speaker dock, Bluetooth keyboard and cases.

The Xoom will also be available as a 3G/Wi-Fi device, while a new 4G/Wi-Fi version will be launched later in the year.

So what would the Xoom's closest rival be?

Definitely the iPad, and potentially the iPad2. Also Hewlett-Packard's WebOS tablet and Research In Motion's BlackBerry PlayBook.

When will it be available in the UAE and how much will it cost?

No specifics on either, except for an availability hint of "the next couple of months" from the manufacturer. Some have slotted April as the first wave but it's yet to be confirmed. Analysts have placed price points to range from Dh3,500-Dh4,000. But, like all hyped devices, one can never really tell.