Had a hands on
So I've had my hands on a live motorola XOOM and it's really nice. Comes with some brilliant widgets. I was a little baffled by the fact they opted to make the screen something like 100+ spaces. It feels like it will be very widget centric. You could fit all of your apps on one screen pretty easily otherwise.
The camera interface was definitely improved by capitalizing on the excessive screen space.
Swype was missing from the device that I could discern. Maybe I just couldn't find it, but it seemed weird for it to not be there.
The lack of capacitive/hard buttons is no biggie seeing as they've used on screen "firm" buttons that don't move, but can be reassigned/reformatted based on what you're doing, which seems to guide you through the interface much better. There is a dedicated "firm" button to view recent apps that I really liked.
The build quality feels excellent. The back seems to be mostly a brushed metal type feel, but the upper quarter that houses the camera, power button, and speakers is more of the familiar soft touch like the back of the droid x/2. Weight is good, not heavy but doesn't feel flimsy.
The SD card slot and 4G card slot share a door and are both filled with plexiglass dummies. The menu button is relative with Honeycomb, and is app based instead of riding with the new home/back/recent app buttons on the bottom left.
I was a little disappointed that the google search is locked into the upper left. It kind of felt like google pulled an apple with that, making absolutely sure you knew google was in your hands. Not saying I don't like google, but it's not an essential function of the device so I would rather have the option to leave it out. Google generally feels like a top tier participant in a device, but this one move makes me think they're trying to prove something.
Tapping the clock on the bottom right pulls up a small clock box, and tapping that expands it to show a toggle menu for airplane mode and what not, along with access to the device settings.
I'm kind of left wondering where notifications will show up, but I suppose that's more a cell phone basic, so maybe it will end up being app based instead.
All said and done Honeycomb makes it feel like you're using a different device, and not just an over sized cell phone. I give it an 8/10 for first impression, and i'm pretty judgmental.
My .02, if you don't like it go check one out and feel free to offer a counter point.