Whenever Motorola is about to rollout an update for the devices in its stable, be it a smartphone or a tablet, the manufacturer first conducts a soak test to check for the viability and feasibility of the said update before it gets rolled out. For the uninformed, a soak test is the process wherein Motorola rolls out the software update to a small number of testers so that bugs in the update can be isolated and taken care of before the software update is unleashed on a mass scale. This practice has proven successful for Motorola because it gives the manufacturer an eagle-eye sort of view on things while the test for the update is underway.
Just recently, it was reported that Motorola has once again sent out invites to the members of its Motorola Feedback Network to participate in a soak test for the Verizon Motorola Xoom. There is no clue however on the email invite sent to testers as to what the soak test is for but there are rumors that this could be for the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update for the Verizon variant of the tablet.
Looking back, the Motorola Xoom is the first tablet in the Android ecosystem to get Android 3.0 Honeycomb, the version of the Android operating system designed specifically for tablets. Sad to say, the tablet is still running this particular version of Android and is yet to receive the Android 4.0 refresh. And as mentioned earlier, there is no indication whatsoever as to what update will be tested in the soak test but there are speculations that it could probably be Ice Cream Sandwich because Motorola confirmed in the past that ICS will be unleashed on the Motorola Xoom this Q2.
Whether this be ICS or just some minor maintenance update, users of the tablet are still excited about it. We would like to remind you however that a soak test isn’t always followed by a fast rollout of the update. Still, if this soak test turns out to be for the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update for the Verizon version of the Motorola Xoom, I’m positive that users of the slate wouldn’t mind waiting a little longer so long as they are sure that their tablet will finally get its tasty treat of ICS.
As for the Motorola Xoom, the tablet relies on its NVIDIA Tegra 2 T20 chipset to power its operation while a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor is paired with a full gigabyte of RAM to deliver the computing muscle required by the device for a speedy and lag-free performance. The storage onboard the Motorola Xoom is pegged at 32GB but a dedicated memory expansion slot enables a user of the tablet to add as much as 32GB of additional storage via external means to the device. The display of the tablet on the other hand is a 10.1-inch TFT capacitive multitouch panel with a 1280 x 800 resolution and it also comes equipped with a 5MP shooter with dual-LED flash at its back panel while its front bezel houses the 2MP video chat camera of the Motorola Xoom.
