Motorola Xoom Screen Protectors

The Mototola Xoom is a tablet computer, developed by the cell phone manufacturer Motorola. As with many modern smartphones it is a touchscreen device. As this is both the controlling system, and viewing system of the Motorola Xoom, it is important that this is protected. There are various ways in which this could be done, but possibly one of the easiest, cheapest and most effective is through the use of a screen protector.  This page will provide an overview of what exactly screen protectors are and how they work, as well as links to where these can be purchased once available.   

Screen protectors are thin sheets of plastic which are used to cover screens on all sorts of portable devices, in particular those on mobile phones, cameras, mp3 players and lately tablet computers.  As the name would suggest, these pieces of plastic are tasked with protecting the screen of the device from chips, scratches and sometimes cracking. 

Screen protectors are designed to protect the screen of a device, such as the Motorola Xoom, in one of two ways (or sometimes a mixture of both).  It is important to realise the different ways in which screen protectors are designed to work, and therefore the impact this has on cost, before buying a screen protector.  

The first way in which screen protectors can be used to protect the screen of a Motorola Xoom is as a sheet of plastic which is designed to become scratched, chipped etc instead of the screen.  These screen protectors generally come with a low cost (perhaps a couple of dollars for cell phones, slightly more for tablets like the Motorola Xoom and iPad).  As they have a low cost, when they become scratched they can be removed from the device and replaced with a new one.  As such they are a sacrificial item.  This is useful for preventing slight damage from occurring to the screen.  However, since these screen protectors are often simple plastic, they do not resist scratches too much and so it is possible for damage to propagate through the screen protector into the screen of the Motorola Xoom.

The second kind of screen protectors cost more.  These are made out of tougher material which is designed to resist scratches etc.  In many cases these are claimed to be formed from tough material and one particular manufacturer, Skinomi Techskin, claim that the screen protectors has a material developed by NASA.  In addition, whilst these are more expensive, they can often be around $10 and so it is still preferable that damage happens to the screen protector than the screen of an expensive Motorola Xoom.  However, since the protector resist scratches, it provides more protection to the screen than the protectors mentioned above and so I recommend this option is used to protect the screen of a very expensive Motorola Xoom.  

If you are reading this article on screen protectors it is likely that you already have a Motorola Xoom tablet or are strongly considering getting one.  However, just in case you haven't heard of it, or have little knowledge of it here is some information on the device.  

At the time of writing there is the following key information known about the Motorola Xoom:

• The Motorola Xoom runs on Android 3.0 (Gingerbread)
• It has a 10.1 inch HD capacitive screen
• Dual core, 2 x 1Ghz processor 
• 3G and WiFi or 4G and WiFi tablet depending on version
• 2 cameras - a front facing 2 megapixel camera and a rear facing 5 megapixel camera
• Inbuilt gyroscope, barometer, e-compass and accelerometer
• Access to the Android Market and with it thousands of apps

At the time of writing, the Motorola Xoom is yet to be released.  At the same time, it also means that there are no accessories which have been released, such as screen protectors.  However, once screen protectors have been released for sale, these shall be referenced on this page once available.