I love the tablet form factor, but I’ve gone through 2 iPads. On the 1st the GPU just up and died and on this second one I’m not sure what is going on, but my wild guess would be bad memory.
I don’t really feel like giving Apple any more money since they have screwed me twice (to be fair the 1st time I was under warranty, so they replaced it no questions asked – so I guess it is only once, but it really did infuriate me). But as far I can tell I have no options. Everyone is telling me that the kindle fire is, ATM, a honking piece of crap (with an attractive price tag), and the quality of the offerings seems to fall precipitously after that.
Is there really NO OPTION? I really don’t care one itoa about the price, I just want four features: (1) e-mail that works with exchange and gmail, (2) a browser that can competently render (ie: snappy and correct) and doesn’t crash, (3) a decent form factor, (4) long battery life.
Is there some android tablet somewhere that meets those requirements? Or do I just have to take it up the pooper from Apple?
If you’re willing to go with Android then sure, there’s the new Asus Transformer Prime and various new Galaxy tablets from Samsung, but you’re not going to encounter higher reliability going to Android.
I don’t know how you’re diagnosing the bad memory thing, but that doesn’t seem to be a very common problem with iPads, so it’s likely just a software issue (do a reset, etc.)
I’m guessing it is a memory issue since I did a reset and it didn’t help and it crashes whenever it needs to do anything that consumes the tiniest amount of memory, but really how do you diagnose anything on a tablet. They are simply supposed to work.
If you’re prone to breaking shit, it’s always a lottery draw whether or not you want to buy extended warranty. They’ve provided excellent service to me and friends who have been well out of warranty.
Some people with Apple products have reported getting free replacements from the Apple store even out of warranty, a sort of secret warranty program. It’s worth it to bring it in, since the worst that happens is you walk out without buying a new one and waste 20 minutes.
Unless you literally can’t prevent yourself from buying another iPad once you’re in the store. Which is probably a different problem.
If you’re determined to buy a different one though, people seem pretty excited about the new Transformer Prime.
Well that is cool. I didn’t think that they would (possibly) replace the HW out of warranty. I’ll make an appointment. It does cost considerably more than 20 minutes, which is why I was hesitant unless there is some decent shot at a payout.
Even if they don’t, there is a also the possibility that they can fix it for a lot less than the price of buying a new tablet. So unless you have your heart set on a new one, it’s worth it to at least bring it in to let them take a look at it.
Re: Extended warranty: My personal rule is that I never buy one for something that costs $500 or less. The iPad is sort of toeing the line, depending on which model you have, and the Apple Care service is generally quite good, so it could go either way.
My friend’s son just dropped her out-of-warranty iPhone into the toilet while he was taking a dump. She took it to the Apple store and told them what happened and they replaced it without asking any questions. So… you never know. Maybe you’ll have a brick on your hands, but if the iPad boots and has some functionality, then they’re more likely to try to help you troubleshoot the problem than to piss on you for having broken it.
So to answer your original question, I doubt that there’s going to be any statistical betterness in terms of reliability between any first-tier electronics company, but if you’re looking at another high-end tablet right now, the Transformer Prime is the only non-iPad option to be considering.
Well, my lucky streak’s come to an end. I’ll tell you what’s not covered by Apple warranty or AppleCare.
Pouring cola into the speaker grill dammit. The one day I have my airtight waterproof LifeProof case off…$199 poorer after a 10 minute appointment at Apple Store, I have a replacement iPhone 4S 64GB.
People are rock stupid in dealing with retail too. The guy ahead of me had an old (non-recalled) iPod nano (purchased elsewhere years ago) that he wanted to “return” to Apple for trade-in credit on a new iPod/iPhone.
