14 DAY TRIAL // Officially announced yesterday, the Wi-Fi only version of Motorola XOOM is now available for pre-order at Costco for $589.99, which is $10 cheaper than the manufacturer's suggested retail price.
Although Motorola stated that the Wi-Fi only XOOM will be available starting March 27th, Costco mentions that the tablet will in fact begin shipping April 1st.
Furthermore, the Honeycomb tablet has already been confirmed by other major retailers in the States such as Amazon.com, Best Buy, RadioShack, Sam's Club, Staples and Walmart.
Apparently the best deal is offered by Sam's Club stores which are expected to sell the Motorola XOOM Wi-Fi for only $539.99.
However, it looks like Costco will throw in a small bonus for customers who decide to purchase the tablet, in the form of a gel case, which will be offered for free.
XOOM is Motorola's first tablet to run on Google's Honeycomb mobile platform and comes with a large, widescreen 10.1-inch capacitive touch display with 16 million colors support and 800 x 1280 pixels resolution.
The tablet is powered by a high-performance 1GHz dual-core CPU and packs 512MB of RAM, 32GB of internal flash storage, as well as microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 32GB).
The rear-facing 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and dual-LED flash is suitable for capturing digital photos and HD videos. Also, the tablet's 2-megapixel front-facing camera can be used for Skype calls or for capturing images.
Motorola XOOM Wi-Fi comes with the full array of Google services, including a 3D version of Google Maps, Google Talk with video chat, as well as Android Market that offers users access to thousands of apps.
According to the manufacturer, the XOOM can operate for 4 to 10 hours on a single battery charge, depending on use, or up to 14 days in standby mode.
As a reminder, the 3G version of the tablet is currently available for purchase from Verizon for $799.99 unlocked or $599.99 with a new two-year agreement.
