Hi Folks,
Seems that this summer is going to be that of the Droid Tablet with many new entries into the market.
I've been researching and trying them out for a few weeks now and I notice mention of a few on the forums. So just wanted to kick of a topic discussing the pro's and con's you guys feel must be considered when buying a new tab.
Here's my impressions:
Motorola Xoom: Tried it out in Currys, first impression of Android 3, I liked it a lot, it was slick and intuitive. Some stability issues were crashing browser and Market liked to bomb out half way through installs and not tell you when an app was installed. Flash 10.2 also cuased crashes, video, fine, apps and games, not reliable with Flash. Rumour the SD slot isn't plumbed in on the Xoom(?)
(OK so I was specifically trying wgt.com and that bombed on me every time)
ASUS Eee Pad TF101: Faster and more reliable than the Xoom for sure, look and feel were great and because it was WiFi only, came in cheaper by £100+ but less storage but of course an SD Card. Has real full size USB 2 ports when you attach a keyboard/dock onto it and make it into a laptop, takes a USB mouse (good for games as the touch response for games seems to be rubbish across the board).
ACER Iconia A500: Again, much like the ASUS, really slick and perfromed well and stable. Has USB on board without needing a dock and looked great in brushed Alu cover.
Samsung Glaxy: Droid 2.2, felt a but slow and clunky, not near the graphics perfromance of the Tegra CPU devices. Share really, likes the screen size.
But it's the yet to be released lot I'm keen on:
LG Optimus Pad: 3D twin cameras.
Toshiba Tab: Seems to have everything, changable bettery a real+
HTC Flyer: Only Droid 2.3 but the features and power of this are amazing for a 7" tab. Definately would be my favourite if it ran Droid 3.
Notion Ink Adam: Bit of a dark horse this one, looks great and was in rumour mill for a couple of years, finally out in the US and having some reliability issues.
Sony S1 and S2 Tabs: Again look great and will be the Rolls Royces after iPads I think.
Creative ZiiO 10" Tab: £270 for the 16GB version, Android 2.2 though hence the rather good price for that spec. http://uk.store.creative.com/entertainment-devices-mp3-players/ziio-10/948-20230.aspx
There's a start so if anyone has any comments or advice, would be preciated. :blink:
I had a good think over why I was wanting a Tablet PC and came to the conclusion that it is basically for the convenience and ease of transporting it around with me. It didn't have to be Apple, or ASUS or HTC, just a decent spec well reviewed and received device would do.
So I concluded that a 7" tab was the way forward and I decided to research the OEM Android tabs out there and came up with this Tabtech M7 also called the HaiPad C8 or Herotab A8 or Droptab A8 due to the fact that OEMs just buy this thing in from the manufacturer and sell it on with the bare bones Android OS. Good thing, 4 times as many chances of updates!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B004S61EPC/ref=ox_ya_os_product
I decided to get this one from Amazon for a mere £159.99 + £16 for an SD Card as it seems to meet all my requirements and is like £400 cheaper than the HTC Flyer will be which was my favourite for a purchase until I decided to keep most of my cash.
It gets good reviews, has lots of forum support and there is are plenty rooting tips with 2.3 images out there and the hacking community loves this thing so there have already been discussions about an efficient Android 3 version for this.
It basically has a 1GHz Proc, 512MB or RAM, the same SGX540 3D Chip that Apple use a variant of in their iPad 2. It has HDMI out, full, working SD Micro card and USB slots that take a USB mouse and a Capacitive Screen.
The seller on Amazon was very helpful and responded to 4 heafty emails loaded with techie questions from me. So far so good.
I'll let you know how it pans out.
Sounds good. I'm always worries with budget tablets that the screens will have terrible viewing angles or an insensitive touchscreen. Specs are important, but the most important part of a tablet for me is the screen/touchscreen interface. I'm interested to hear more. I'm more after a 9" so I can ditch my netbook. 7" too big to carry round all the time, but not big enough to ditch the netbook.
Yeah T, that was my worry, so I spent like 4 days with OCD checking this out and basically the Capacitive screen is a must for dual touch and quality visuals.
iPads have Capacitive screens: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchscreen and the reviews of the screen on this cheap thing were great. It seems ot have a good reliability record and the seller was really helpful so I'm quietly confident of having made a good choice.
Plus I get to try Android 2.2, 2.3 maybe 2.4 and then 3.0 when it's working on this thing.
Additional bonus, I found you can remove the cover and replace the internal SD card with anything up to 32GB so add the external SD slot at 32GB, handy increased storage.
Albert makes a solid point when he mentions OEM tablets. One of the worst things about smart phones and tablets is potential vendor lock in. We need to be running something that get picked up by the modding/rooting community. If I buy a tablet I want to be running Honeycomb, Ice Cream, jelly, Klime. Lemon Cake, Meringue etc. etc. Basically I want to throw it away when it's hardware specifications become completely redundant and not when it's OS does.
Yup, the resistive touch screens are the sort that used to come with a stylus (single recognised touch at a time, and generally needed the stylus for accuracy because they weren't very sensitive) like the Nokia 5800. Capacitive then took off on the iPhone and phones since (except for a few LG or Sony erricson). Most tablets are capacitive bar the ultra budget ones which you should steer well clear of. The one you've picked has the makings of a good buy, I just want to hear about build quality and the screen. Not all screens are equal, and if I can't see it in a shop I'm very reluctant buying something without an in depth review from a source I trust. If the viewing angle is small it rules it out as a media player which I see as one of it's main uses for me.
I've been trawling the web for useful reference material for the tab and it's a goldmine of info. Slatedroid has a great section:
http://www.slatedroid.com/forum/139-herotab-c8/
http://www.slatedroid.com/topic/17530-noob-step-by-step-summary/ - A nice new user advice topic
http://leeyuentuen.byethost15.com/blog/?p=1690 - This guy Blogs the good things he does with the device and has optimised the apps so he gets "After I have done this, I can stand-by my device about 48+ hours with 20% battery remaining." Which was one area I had of concern about such devices, crappy battery but of course you can put a new better battery in them easily.
http://www.slatedroid.com/topic/15721-romwip-updated-1504-c8lean-v051-cleanersmallerrooted/ - Nice clean rooted ROM, seems to get good feedback.
The only thing I can't see being simple is replacing the internal SD to increase it's capacity. But I'm sure it'll become clear.
Tablet arrived already, ordered 2pm yesterday arrived 10am today. So far everything is as a expected. Great screen
glad it worked out for you, im looking at a duel core atm
maybe this 1
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/tablets/366970/acer-iconia-tab-a500 (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/tablets/366970/acer-iconia-tab-a500)
Quote from: sulky_uk;324440glad it worked out for you, im looking at a duel core atm
maybe this 1
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/tablets/366970/acer-iconia-tab-a500
I tried the Acer out, it's great. Loved the casing and screen, worked quickly and never crashed or stalled. The Windows version is s train wreck though :p
Just for reference sake, a few peeps asked how my tablet was and what model it was last night on BlackOps.
Here's what I bought: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tabtech-M7-Multi-Touch-CAPACITIVE-supports/dp/B004S61EPC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=miscellaneous&qid=1306225192&sr=8-1
It was £159.99 when I got it. Basically it has several names but is made mostly in the same factory and rebadged. eBay has them for cheaper: Herotab C8, Dopad A8, Haitab M7. There is also a C8+, A8+ and M7+ out now with double the internal storage, lighter shell and physical volume buttons. There is an offically release 2.3.1 Android verison out and 3 is in the pipeline. As well as several good ROMs. It's as easy as removing a file from the install ROM and running a simple app to root the device.
Here's a decent deal on eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/7-Dropad-Samsung-PV210-A8-Android-2-2-FROYO-tablet-UK-/130500045218?pt=UK_iPad_Tablets_eReaders&hash=item1e6268a9a2
Cases don't come with much choice as the buttons aren't at the same place as the Galaxy Tab so their cases cover up the buttons, although there is a good graphical button app so if you really want a plush leather case then it's still possible.
My model claims to have a 2MP front facting camera as opopsed to the 0.3 or 1.3MP these others have, I have no idea how I can confirm it is 2MP. But that's the only difference.
What they call the NAND flash isn't actually implemented on Froyo 2.2, the 8GB or 4GB you see adertised is an SD card. NAND is 2GB and does work on Gingerbread although you don't actually ever access it directly.
I opened up the casing and installed a 16GB internal SD (you have to image it first so it is recognisable by Linux, dead easy with USB Image). And I have a 16GB external SD both are Class 10 micro SD cards. I have a case that contains a little keyboard that fits the tab into nicely and is useful for doing documents from. (£7.98 from eBay). I got a charger from Maplin (£22.99) but I should have waited, it was well over priced but good quality. I picked up a 3G dongle for £14 from ebay which works a treat if I need direct network Internet on the road. (spent 99p on eBay to unlock although they were so slow I had done it myself by the time they replied after the buy it now payment, see me if you want 3G dongles unlocked :D).
All in all I've spent about £250 for the tab, two SD cards, 2 cases, an additional charger, 3G dongle.
I have reinstalled mine 20 times for the fun of it and I have a rather nice setup now that is stable and looks great, performs great.
The best thing is it's 100% geekery :woot2: for cheap and it works.
I give the tablet 4.5 out of 5.