Howdy Am getting a payout for my motorbike being wrote off so have decided to treat myself to a tablet device, something I really want but not essential but I will actually use. I'm considering an ipad 2 (not spending on an ipad 3 as it's gonna be expensive), I have an iphone4 which I use for remote access PCs via logmein, I use SkyGo, convert films for watching, I play loadsa games and the obvious facebook/twitter etc However, I know Android is coming along and have used a few Android phones but have no idea about what tablets are good, I know there's loadsa cheap ones but they aren't updated like the big boys. (memory card slots are a definate positive) (might consider Windows tablets) So, for around £300, whats worth it and available now Thanks
You'll struggle to find anything worthwhile for about £300,--. Think more along the lines of £375,-- There is no reason to expect the iPad 3 to cost any more than the iPad 2 does now. The iPad 2 will drop in price. The iPad 1 even more so --bargain opportunity there. Android devices to consider are anything by Asus, Motorola and Samsung, with Android 3.x Gingerbread or Android 4.x Ice Cream Sandwich. The dark horse: HP touchpad with WebOS. You can still pick up a reasonably cheap one on eBay. WebOS is an excellent OS; officially abandoned now but about to be released as Open Source, with a whole hacking community backing it. And you can always hack it to dual-boot in Android.
£375 is exceptable (just setting a base price so I don't get carried away) Considering just an iPad 1 as long as video performace will work just as good Too many decisions
Ive been looking at tablets as-well, the one's that caught my eye are the Samsung galaxy tab 10.1 and the original galaxy tab gt-p1000 (or 1010). The original SGT can be picked fairly cheap now, ive even seen them go for as little as £160 2nd hand.
I can vouch for the Motorola Xoom. Love mine and they can be picked up for around £300 now. I paid £320 for mine in Sept last year. Superb for web browsing, games, kindle app, zinio for mags (My CPC and PC gamer subs are both zinio based now), watching downloaded TV and Movies. I've recently rebuilt my NAS with Ubunutu and install Plex media server on it. I now stream HD content to my tablet over my wireless. Great!! My kids love playing educational games and drawing/colouring apps. The ICe Cream Sandwich update has been released in the states and is slowly being released in other regions. UK expect by the end of April. One of my mates has unlocked and rooted his to install a custom Ice Cream Sandwich on it and from having a dabble it's certainly something I'm looking forward to arriving on these shores. The only problem you've got is you have a iPhone so you'd have to buy any apps again from the Android market. I have an android phone so have most of my apps on both phone and tablet with only one purchase.
I have a Samsung 10.1 WiFi and 3G having looking at the Sony, Viewsonic and Motorola - absolutely love the device and I really did my research! Although I continue to use the device especially on the road and away from home, I have been guilty of picking my laptop up more and more lately - be very sure if you plan to actually replace your current laptop/desktop!
Anyone got the asus transformer prime? Also what is multi-tabbing like on these tablets? I'm using a netbook at the moment and can quickly load loads of tabs up and flick between them; is it just as quick with tablets these days too?
I've not got the Prime but I have the original Transformer (TF101) and I love it. Very versatile little machine. Keyboard dock has extra battery and USB ports - awesome for gaming with a wired Sixaxis or 360 pad Edit: HDMI out + SNES emulator + 32" TV = geek heaven! Great for movie playback too. Multi-tabbing is a breeze with the stock browser but, IMO, even better/easier with Opera Mobile. The Prime is packing even more punch than the TF101 too... although do your research as I hear some of the original batches have hardware GPS issues Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
At work we tested the iPad2, Asus Transformer Prime and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 as we were looking for a tablet for our sales guys out and about. The iPad was nice but we are also having some specialist software written so an Android platform was thought to be more flexible re. phones and tablets. The iPad's battery life was easily the best of the 3. The Asus was easily the quickest and slickest tablet and the docking station keyboard is very good quickly turning the tablet into a mini-laptop. Battery life was so-so - you would need to charge it everyday if you intended to use it a lot. Biggest problem with the Asus was it was wi-fi only so no sim slot so for guys/girls out and about not much use. You can "tether" it to a mobile but seems a bit naff. The Samsung was quite fast (probably just ahead of the iPad but behind the Asus). It was running Android 3.1 so we updated that to 3.2 which took ages. Nice and easy to use but again battery life is not as good as the iPad so we would need something like an in-car-charger for our sales people. Out of the 3 we decided on the Samsung. Had the Asus got a sim slot then that would have won.
Just buy an iPad 3 - rumours are strongly indicating a launch on the 7th March. It'll be introduced at the same price points as the iPad 2, so won't cost extra. On the flip side, that may mean cheaper iPad 2s for a short while as Apple flog off old stock, as happened when the iPad 2 launched.
