The original Motorola Xoom was supposed to be the tablet which unseated Apple's iPad and established a glorious new era of Android-powered slate supremacy. It was running Google's first truly tablet-focused OS - codenamed Honeycomb - and offered blistering dual-core processing power.

Despite the considerable hype, the Xoom ultimately failed to live up to expectation. Compared to the slim and elegant iPad, it appeared chubby and unattractive. Google's software felt unfinished, and a worrying lack of tablet-specific applications - a problem exacerbated by Google's continuing insistence that developers create downloads that are able to function across both phones and large-screen devices - made it a hard sell. Within months, the Xoom was being heavily discounted by retailers, and other Android tablets swept in to steal the limelight.

Motorola is in this game for the long haul, though. Having recently been acquired by Google in a deal worth $12.5 billion, the American telecoms veteran is back in the ring with two new tablet devices: the Xoom 2 and the Xoom 2 Media Edition. Both boast dual-core processors and 1GB of RAM, and sport PowerVR SGX540 graphics processing units. In fact, the two tablets are practically identical, save for one fairly significant detail: the Xoom 2 has a 10.1-inch screen, while the Media Edition has a smaller 8.2-inch display.

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