Motorola Reportedly Working On New Android Tablet For Productivity

Sources are saying that Motorola is currently working on a new Android tablet that will feature the Productivity Mode from Lenovo’s Yoga Book. The tablet is said to have a “premium look and feel,” but most of its specs are unknown.

Motorola’s new Android tablet was first reported by Android Police after receiving the information from “a trusted source.” The source provided the site with a screenshot of the alleged device showing that it will have a new feature dedicated to productivity.

The screenshot provided by the source shows that the Productivity Mode allows users to pin apps in the navigation bar and then can easily switch between those apps by touching the app icons. Long pressing the app icon and dragging it upwards will close the app.

This makes switching between apps faster without forcing users to go back to the Android home screen. The Android skin that Motorola appears to be using also makes the user interface look a bit like Google’s Chrome OS.

At the time, the Productivity Mode seen on the screenshot was believed to be an entirely new piece of software. However, it was later spotted by 9To5Google that the feature, or some of its behavior, may have been pulled from Lenovo’s Yoga Book laptop-tablet hybrid that was released last year.

Lenovo is currently Motorola’s parent company, and it’s not so surprising that the companies would be sharing the same type of software for two different devices. That said, Motorola’s new tablet seems like it’s going to be marketed towards business users.

Android Police’s report also indicated that the upcoming Motorola Android tablet might measure 9 to 10 inches diagonally. Unfortunately, the source didn’t provide any information on the device’s other specifications like processor, storage or RAM. The only other relevant information that was provided about the device is that Motorola could offer models of the tablet with cellular connectivity. Information on when and where it’s going to be released were also not given.

Assuming that Motorola is indeed making a new Android tablet, this will be the first time that the company has done so in a long while. The last time Motorola made a tablet was back in December 2011 with the Droid Xyboard running Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

The Droid Xyboard came with a premium look, available in 8.2-inch and 10.1-inch sizes and was capable of 4G LTE cellular connectivity from Verizon. Although the tablet delivered on features and performance, its pricing may have turned off consumers. The lowest end 16GB model of the Droid Xyboard 10.1 costs $699, while the 8.2 starts at $430 for its 32GB model. Opting in for a contract with Verizon for the 10.1 set users back $30 a month for 2GB of monthly data, according to CNET.

Motorola’s new Android tablet will not only have to be extremely better than the Droid Xyboard, but it also needs to compete with the current tablets like Apple’s iPad Pro and Microsoft’s Surface products. Tablets are mostly for consuming media, but if it delivers on being a premium device for productivity, it might garner enough attention from businesses and schools, as pointed out by Android Authority.