We have a couple of iPad2 threads going and some Apple/Android but we don’t have (to my knowledge) a catch all tablet thread so I thought I would start one. I had no urge to get a tablet until I started reading The Walking Dead comic on my laptop and couldn’t help thinking, ‘I would enjoy this a whole lot more if I was reading it on an iPad or something.’ So now I want to buy a $600 machine to read a $3 comic!
So what’s good so far? I’m interested in:
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[li]a viable OS (iOS or Android)[/li][li]a decent app store (see above)[/li][li]a pretty screen with a better resolution than what the iPad currently has[/li][li]expandable memory-ssd’s are expensive[/li][li]can use flash[/li][li]etc, etc I don’t know enough about tablets right now to know exactly what I should be looking for-I hope yall point out the pros and cons of different products for me[/li][/ul]
The contenders right now as I see it are:
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[li]Asus Eee Pad Transformer[/li][li]iPad 2[/li][li]Galaxy Tab 10.1[/li][/ol]
In my brief research it seems that if you’re going to get a tablet it would probably be one of these three. What are the biggest strengths or drawbacks of each?
I would be using it purely for personal consumer purposes-watching videos, browsing the internet, reading comics/books, checking email and hopefully watching The Daily Show/Colbert report.
To be honest I think I’ll probably wait for the next generation as I think the competition is going to generate a lot of technological leaps and bounds. But I’d still appreciate your opinions since when I do get a tablet it will probably be from one of these three companies.
Feel free to add any other tablet related news here as well!
They’re all nice, but none are as accomplished as the iPad2 and the Android Apps for tablets are still incredibly slim pickings. If the others were cheaper by a far margin, but I don’t think they are.
With your wait and see attitude, you could wait for the Android tablets (and the market) to catch up, but if you want a tablet right now, then nothing beats the iPad.
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I think the only con for the Asus Transformer are the lack of tablet-specific apps. A lot of mainstream, such as newspapers and shows, have special apps and shows optimized for the iPad.
The iPad 2’s resolution is 1024x768, whereas the Asus Transformer is 1280x800.
The Asus Transformer supports Adobe Flash and has ports for micro-SSD (and other memory cards on its keyboard dock).
The Transformer is at least $100 cheaper than a similar iPad2 at $399 for the 16Gb Wifi version and $499 for the 32Gb Wifi version.
Lastly, the iPad uses iTunes. I personally despise iTunes and the sync everything mentality.
Hmm the only problem with the iPad is that I have an irrational dislike of Apple. 1200x800 gives you a longer screen than 1024x768 right? I think that would display comic books a little bit better. Of course there probably isnt the choice of comic reader apps on the Android store that Apple would probably have. I like Android because it feels a little bit more like using a personal computer without actually having Windows 7 on a tablet (that sucks, I’ve tried it.)
There are several excellent Android comic readers. I use ACV and even though it isn’t ‘tablet native’, in practice this means I had to manually toggle between landscape/portrait the first time I used it.
I’ve got the Transformer and would have no issue recommending it. I think it should meet your needs easily. and the ability to extend the storage as well as the optional keyboard (with extra battery life) are nice too.
Warning and Wendelius thanks for your feedback. Wendelius, if you have the time would you mind giving a bit more feedback about your Transformer? (can’t go wrong with a name like that!)
Happy to provide a bit more feedback on your questions from a Transformer perspective. Our use cases are not perfectly identical, so there will be some unanswered questions though.
Also, please don’t take my focus on the Transformer as saying that tablet is good and all others are bad. I’m just talking about what I know personally.
Viable OS: I like the Transformer because it’s a pure Honeycomb implementation. Asus does provide some additional apps, but having pure Honeycomb means you are less likely to suffer delays upgrading the OS. It’s currently running 3.1, which is noticeably slicker than its predecessor. The tablet is responsive. The OS doesn’t tend to crash. I’ve had to restart it twice over the past 5 weeks though (loss of wifi connectivity and an app that wouldn’t start). This might be twice more than I’d have had to restart an iPad. But it’s far from unacceptable for me.
Also, the OS comes with widgets (and I can easily customise my background), which I find very useful.
Some Apps, like Pocket God, are more unstable on Android than on the iPad though. iOS is slick and obviously well understood by the devs.
Decent App Store: The Android app store doesn’t quite compete with the Apple one in sheer volume. And I guess it all depends in what you are after. The Market App itself is slick (and an upgrade is coming soon to integrate book and movie rental into it as well). And, unless you have some very niche requirements, you are likely to find most of what you need on it. But I’d say that there are more iPad optimised than Android Tablet ones. I’d recommend you think about some must have Apps on it and we can help you figure out whether they are available or if the iPad would be a better bet.
Pretty screen with a better resolution: The Transformer has an IPS screen (good for accurate colour rendition, similar to the iPad) and 1280x800 resolution. Not a major leap ahead. But how much do you really need on a tablet? Certainly, performance wise, I wouldn’t want anything higher until the quad core tablets arrive…
expandable memory-ssd’s are expensive: The transformer lets you insert a micro-SD card on the tablet itself and a full SD card on the keyboard. The keyboard also comes with a USB port, which could be a convenient way to transfer storage in and out when you go away for a while.
can use flash: Yes
3 excellent choices from what I read. A quick pro for the iPad2, it is more powerful than the Android equivalents. I believe my Transformer is situated somewhere between the iPad 1 and 2 performance wise (bit closer to the first iPad but pushing more pixels). Now this hasn’t been holding me back one bit browsing the web, watching Hi Def videos on Youtube or reading Comics. It’s got an Office suite that runs quickly too, but I haven’t really pushed it with large documents. Performance is definitely a plus of the iPad 2 right now though.
A plus for Android (for me) is that I can fully access the file system both from the tablet and when I plug it into a USB port. It’s still easy enough for my 4 year old to use her Apps on, but it gives me added flexibility and control. The downside being that you have more room to wreak havoc, I guess. :)
Finally, what swayed me for the Transformer is the keyboard. It’s nice to have a trackpad and keyboard when you need it and a simple tablet when you don’t. The 16 hours of battery life when plugging in the keyboard are also liberating. That was my main draw above the Xoom (besides the fact it felt a bit sluggish when I tested it) and the Galaxy Tab.
When it comes to videos, I do Youtube quite a bit. However, I haven’t spent time encoding my own or anything like that. I know my wife’s iPad lets her purchase a movie on iTunes and watch it on the iPad easily. It’s great when we are off on holiday and need to keep the children occupied. I haven’t investigated how easy that is to do on the Transformer. But it’s likely to be a bit more work. On the plus side, the USB connection and added battery life can make a nice difference if you want to use it as a media player.
I don’t know if the iPad has Apps that help you watch shows like TDS or The Colbert Report. I don’t think Android does. Is the web OK for that?
Finally, for Comics, I use ComiXology ( http://www.comixology.com/ ). It’s nice and works very well on the screen format, but doesn’t have all the comics. So you might need something else depending on what you read.
This is a biggie in my opinion. I think the rumours I’ve read on Kal-El (the quad core tablet processors from NVidia) place it around September time. Here, we’ve got to make do with a mere (I would never have believed I’d say that a few years ago :) ) dual core tablet. It’s fine to push the pixels it currently does (it operates smoothly, no stuttering), but it probably couldn’t do much more.
So a couple more months of waiting could help future proof your tablet and put you more firmly at or above iPad 2 performance.
Personally, I’m off on holiday next month and the tablet works fine for all I need. I also really like the design and I don’t know how long we’ll have to wait for something similar in the next gen. So I went for the Transformer. And it’s proved to be a fantastic device for my needs.
As someone who bought an iPad 2 for comics – and absolutely loves the device – I’d say wait for this fall. 1024x768 is slightly too low a resolution to read comics zoomed out all of the way. If the rumors of a higher-res iPad coming in the Fall are true, that’ll be perfect. If not, you’ll probably see higher-res Android tablets by then, at least.
(The mere 32 extra horizontal pixels on the Transformer don’t make a significant difference in 100% magnification readability.)
That said, I’m not dissatisfied with the iPad as a comic reader. I just find myself wishing the screen was a little sharper.
He said he wants flash, but I bet he’d never even miss it. You can’t play most flash games without a mouse, and almost all videos you’d want to watch play on the ipad with html5 anyway. Hulu doesn’t, but there’s an app for that. You do miss out on the free hulu, though.
Actually, the main draw of google tablets for me is the superior browser with real tab support and that neat labs addon for side gestures navigation. The next iOS version is supposed to dramatically improve mobile safari, though.
Supposedly the amazon tablet was going to be introduced just before the July 4th long weekend with lots of fanfare, but was delayed for a month due to lack of screens. So hopefully we’ll hear something soon.
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I’d argue that despite its shortcomings, the TouchPad and webOS will probably end up being more viable for this generation of tablets than Android 3.x as an also-ran to iOS.
Of course, if you can’t get it in your country, then I guess that would be a limiting factor.
Based on the last 2-3 years of experience with Google and HPalm, I wouldn’t count on that. A webOS tablet today might be better than an Android one, in certain ways; but if you buy an Android tablet today, odds are that you’ll be running vastly better code a year from now. If you pick up a webOS one, you’ll be lucky if you get a minor update.
