Thoroughly pleased.
Having been an early adopter of a wide variety of products, I like to go into things with an open mind. There is some missing functionality that updates have been announced for or could otherwise be worked around. The long range potential for this device is HUGE.
Soooooooo, fit and function? Good. The device has a nice solid feel to it. It feels as heavy as other tablets as I've used and personally I like a product that feels dense over something that feels empty and hollow. The device being orientated around landscape was a bit of an initial turn-off. However, after constant use, it feels good on the eyes. Things don't feel so cluttered. The location of the power button was a bit odd to me, initially, as well. but again, after having got used to it, it feels natural. The way the SD and SIM slots are hidden and the cover is flush is very nice. That's the only opportunity I feel Motorola has with the device: I would have liked to have seen a similar covering for the ports at the bottom, perhaps leaving the power port uncovered. I don't watch much TV so I won't be getting much use from the HDMI and between WiFi and Bluetooth, I probably won't be using the USB port much either. I think covering those areas would be a good preventative measure for this of us that may carry this around in a knapsack.
The display I find to be average. I am biased, however. I've gotten very used to the color and crispness of my Incredible (OLED). However, I don't find this to take away from the device at all. Web pages and text are extremely clear. Videos on Youtube on the high quality setting are very watchable -- changing the quality settings during a video really helps to show the screen off. The only issue around blurriness I've encountered is in Pulse. However, it appears to be related to the quality of the thumbnails that are used. I think display issues will be more an exception rather than the rule.
The GUI is FRIGGIN AWESOME. There's a learning curve for even the most experienced Android users, but it's only a itty bitty one. Overall, it just has a very natural feel to it. Applications and settings are easy to get to, the 'menu' button in a lot of apps (in the upper-right) just seems to be intuitive in its placement, and notifications are unobtrusive. The whole 3D aspect is a nice touch and really adds to the panache of the device. With Tegra 2 at the core, everything feels very fluid. A deal breaker for me on a future device would be for a manufacturer to deviate from the native interface (in its current form) a la Blur, Sense, TouchWiz, etc.
Being an early adopter is lonely as outside what is apparent (eg. 'Tablet Version'), finding apps that work in their current form is trial and error. So far, I've run into a few anomilies with the current version of Weather Bug and Facebook. However, other apps that I've used like Astro and Thinking Space (which is MUCH better on a tablet) perform flawlessly and look clean. I only expect more good things to come.
No hiccups with functionality such as WiFi, Bluetooth, or the GPS so far. Everything has worked with flawlessly. I feel as though some of the options relative to encryption, VPN, and administration will really force IT managers to take a hard look at this device relative to enterprise deployment. The only thing I was disappointed with, on the topic of amenities, was there doesn't seem to be any app that takes advantage of the barometer. Don't really have a practical need for it, but would be interested in seeing how it could be put to use. On a side note, I did find an app that can show raw data about and from the sensors but it just seems to be more for troubleshooting/testing.
Overall, couldn't be happier. I held off on the Galaxy Tablet after hearing rumblings about the Xoom, Honeycomb, and Tegra 2. Having used the Galaxy Tab at work a couple of times, I actually liked the 7inch size and wasn't too happy the Xoom was going to be 10 inches. Suffice it to say, my mind has completely changed. I'm no 'fan boy' of any device/manufacturer/platform by any means but I KNOW Apple has to come to the realization that real competition in the tablet market is here and its first competitor is an all-out beast!
