While Xoom happens to be a very powerful little tablet, when it came to us it didn’t support Flash. This happens to be one of the listed features that makes Android devices more versatile than Apple devices like the iPad—so when Flash Beta 10.2 arrived, CNET Crave got their hands on it and have their first impressions for us to peruse. The overall gist of the run-down seems to suggest that Flash runs nicely in some aspects, doesn’t really slow the browser down, adds a lot of web experience, but appears to still lack in other unexpected areas.

Flash on the Xoom works. Games, video, and ads all deliver comparable experiences to what you’d have on a desktop or notebook; however, this update doesn’t transform your Xoom browser into something that inherently gives you a full Web experience.

You’ll have to do some tweaking and perhaps wait until Adobe releases the final version with a few much-needed optimizations to finally get the experience they’ve claimed is coming.

Of course, it can be argued that nothing on the market actually delivers the full Web experience and some of the issues found in the review seem to deal more with how websites react to a beta version of Flash 10.2 than Flash to them. What we’re probably mostly seeing here is the beta lacks optimizations—as the review notes—and those are precisely what a beta is expected to help shake out.

Embedded video looks to run beautifully (a big deal in HTML5 vs. Flash warfare) and switches to full-screen without a hitch. The reviewers tested CNETTV to their satisfaction.

As for video-games that run in Flash there’s a strange dichotomy to what runs well and what won’t. According to first impressions, Dragon Age Legends crushes itself under a mire of unplayable sluggish performance; however, games like Extreme Snowboarding run flawlessly. Perhaps there’s just different types of engine mechanics seen between the two Flash games that’s just not fully implemented in the beta and Adobe will fix them before the proper release of Flash 10.2.

The devices looks good so far, especially for the Motorola Xoom, which recently dropped in price and provides a powerful tablet alternative to the iPad. Already touted as spurring OS innovation, the addition of proper Flash support will only further push it ahead of the pack.