Honeycomb 3.1 (first take): Small changes, missed opportunities

When Google announced Android 3.1 Honeycomb was coming to the Xoom last week, I was pretty excited. Honeycomb's already a great tablet OS, so any improvements could only add to its functionality and efficiency. Unfortunately the version 3.1 update was released over the air and was rolled out in spurts. Our Xoom didn't receive its update until earlier this week. Google detailed changes to expect, but I wanted to check and see just how well some of them were implemented.

Browser
Aside from a few annoyances, I thought the Chrome browser in Honeycomb 3.0.1 was well-made, but there's always room for improvement. The biggest change in version 3.1 is the updated Quick Controls feature.

With this enabled, swiping either left or right from the edge of the screen and pressing down will bring up the menu. Through Quick Controls, you can quickly get all the functionality of the normal browser, with the added benefit of being able to preview open tabs before selecting them.

Although I was dubious at first, after using Quick Controls for a few minutes, I actually now prefer it to the normal interface. It makes for a cleaner screen, and you still have quick access to options.

One of the cosmetic differences between Honeycomb and iOS is the smoothness of Web site scrolling and zooming. With version 3.0.1 the Xoom's performance was choppier in comparison. I liken it to watching a game run at 30 frames per second (fps) versus one running at 60fps. The 30fps game looks great, until you see the much smoother 60fps game running next to it. Google has addressed this by improving the smoothness of scrolling and zooming to a level comparable with the iPad 2.

Some sites default to their mobile or Android version, and the only way around this is to access the UA String by typing "about:debug" in the address bar, navigating to Settings>Debug>UAString, and then switching to Desktop. Unfortunately, with Honeycomb 3.1, if you're typing in the address bar, the colon key is unavailable. It's available in other fields, like Google search, however. Our workaround? Type "about:debug" in the search field, then copy it to the address bar. I'm still baffled as to why this particular detail was changed.

Read more: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19736_7-20061523-251.html#ixzz1MobbRAfK