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Thread: Tablet advice

  1. #1
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    Default Tablet advice

    Hey all,

    Going to get a tablet for watching movies or playing games on the go, and to connect up with a Boxee Box and a WDTV Live+ I'm going to get.

    I was thinking of an Android tablet or a PlayBook. I have a Blackberry Bold 9900, so it'll have hotspot capability in a software update. So either tablet will hook up to it.

    The WDTV connectivity isn't important, and apparently there's a PB app for Boxee.

    Question is, a friend told me that sometimes when an Android update comes out, the manufacturers don't publish it cause they want you to buy a new tablet. He said PB might be better, especially because prices are dropping.

    Any thoughts?

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    The Playbook is going to end up like the HP Touch pad. The prices will continue to drop, RIM is a sinking ship.

    As for Android updates and tablets, all the tablets out there have been receiving the Honey Comb updates. Some take longer than others but that's just the way it is. Your friend doesn't sound very knowledgeable about Android to be honest.

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    Your friend is high.

    They push the updates to the tablets when they are ready to after some testing. I'd pick any android tablet over a PB anyday.
    -U

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    TBH, the best tablet in terms of ease of use and speed is probably the iPad 2. Also notable would be the Galaxy Tab or the Motorola Xoom.

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    Don't get the Xoom to play movies, the Tegra 2 chip is awful for video. Like A790 said the iPad is in my opinion your best choice.
    I like cars.

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    xoom 2 is due soon if you're interested in waiting 1 or 2 months. Leaked images are just starting to appear
    It will ship with hardware updates, and ICS which is rumoured to me a much more polished and fully baked OS than 3.0 was.

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    Well, we've got an iPad in the family already..this tablet is going to be more for me, and I'm sort of...biased against Apple.

    When I say movies, its really only going to be entertainment when I go on vacation. Mostly for playing around with it at home, plus the Boxee and Control4.

    I know asking what Droid tablet is best is a bit like asking what car manufacturers everyone likes...but my knowledge is a bit limited. Anything to watch for?

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    Originally posted by ryanallan
    xoom 2 is due soon if you're interested in waiting 1 or 2 months. Leaked images are just starting to appear
    It will ship with hardware updates, and ICS which is rumoured to me a much more polished and fully baked OS than 3.0 was.
    ICS?

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    Originally posted by A790

    ICS?
    Ice Cream Sandwich - the new name for the upcoming Android update

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    Originally posted by Stealth22

    I know asking what Droid tablet is best is a bit like asking what car manufacturers everyone likes...but my knowledge is a bit limited. Anything to watch for?
    Its Android, not Droid. :P Droid is a Verizon branding.

    Anyway, check out the Galaxy Tab 10.1, the Asus Transformer (the best bang for buck tablet), the Acer and Toshiba are not bad either. The xoom has a complete shit lcd display compared to the others which have ips displays. Not sure about xoom 2. You are best to go to Best Buy or Future Shop and checking them all out.

    Originally posted by dennisaur


    Ice Cream Sandwich - the new name for the upcoming Android update
    The current tablets and likely most current Android phones will get ICS also.
    Last edited by ZEDGE; 09-25-2011 at 08:34 PM.

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    Dang it...the Galaxy Tab looks good, but no SD card slot??

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    I am an android guy through and through and pretty much have a constant hate on for apple in general.

    Work forced me to get an Ipad2 and to be quite honest I end up using it 90% of the time and letting my Transformer sit there. Yes the OS on the Ipad is extremely ugly and dated but Apps are 100X more polished and things like Orblive and Netflix work without hitches. (don't know why netflix is so useless on android)

    Normally I would make fun of you and call you all kind of names for buying an apple product but right now no one is where apple is when it comes to tablets IMO. And trust me it really really pains me to say it.
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    Galaxy Tab if you must do Android

    But I recommend iPad 2. It just works, and all the apps are polished because the hardware specs is consistent, unlike Android products where it's too fragmented.

    Don't bother with Playbook, it will be a useless brick like the TouchPad.

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    Originally posted by Zephyr
    Galaxy Tab if you must do Android

    But I recommend iPad 2. It just works, and all the apps are polished because the hardware specs is consistent, unlike Android products where it's too fragmented.

    Don't bother with Playbook, it will be a useless brick like the TouchPad.
    This. The app gap between iPad and Android is still pretty wide. Even if there's an Android version, it will come later than Apple's.

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    When I was looking at tablets, the iPad was the easiest to use and most intuitive. However, I ended up with a netbook as performance and storage/dollar, it makes a lot of sense.
    Ultracrepidarian

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    Originally posted by msommers
    When I was looking at tablets, the iPad was the easiest to use and most intuitive. However, I ended up with a netbook as performance and storage/dollar, it makes a lot of sense.
    Yeah, just picked up one of those Gateway Dual-core Netbook for $200 to run VCDS. Sure it's not a tablet but can't argue the value of 250GB+6cell+2GB of RAM for $200.

    Especially I sold my 3 year old Netbook that won't run Win7 on Ebay for $100+.....

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    I too, refuse to drink the Apple Koolaid. Like I said, the house already has one, and if this tablet is going to be mine, I'm not getting an iPad.

    The options I was/have been considering were...

    BlackBerry Playbook - I'm a BB guy, but the price slashing has me worried. Its rumored to have Android compatibility soon, but still...you know that gut feeling you get when something isn't right? Yeah.

    With the Android offerings, the no SD Card slot in the Samsung is a deal-breaker for me. I looked at the Lenovo ThinkPad tablet...I have bought a few ThinkPad laptops, and have always been happy with them. But its a bit higher in price, and it looks more geared to businesses. Yes, more so than the laptops. I've read a few things about the SD slot in the Xoom being disabled by Motorola...can anyone confirm?

    As of now, it looks like its going to come down to the Asus Eee, both the Slider and Transformer, and the Sony Tablet S, and possibly the Xoom if I can find more on what I read about the SD slot.

    I appreciate all the advice, guys. Please, keep it coming!

    EDIT: Just to clarify...USB, SD card slot, and HDMI are all going to be highly preferred in this tablet.
    Last edited by Stealth22; 09-26-2011 at 02:28 PM.

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    Originally posted by Stealth22
    I too, refuse to drink the Apple Koolaid. Like I said, the house already has one, and if this tablet is going to be mine, I'm not getting an iPad.

    The options I was/have been considering were...

    BlackBerry Playbook - I'm a BB guy, but the price slashing has me worried. Its rumored to have Android compatibility soon, but still...you know that gut feeling you get when something isn't right? Yeah.

    With the Android offerings, the no SD Card slot in the Samsung is a deal-breaker for me. I looked at the Lenovo ThinkPad tablet...I have bought a few ThinkPad laptops, and have always been happy with them. But its a bit higher in price, and it looks more geared to businesses. Yes, more so than the laptops. I've read a few things about the SD slot in the Xoom being disabled by Motorola...can anyone confirm?

    As of now, it looks like its going to come down to the Asus Eee, both the Slider and Transformer, and the Sony Tablet S, and possibly the Xoom if I can find more on what I read about the SD slot.

    I appreciate all the advice, guys. Please, keep it coming!

    EDIT: Just to clarify...USB, SD card slot, and HDMI are all going to be highly preferred in this tablet.

    IIRC one of the recent updates from Motorola enabled the SD slot as read only. If you are willing to unlock the bootloader on the Xoom, you can fully enable the micro SD card slot to read and write by flashing a custom rom. I looked at this tablet fairly extensively. The deal breaker for me was the poorly designed charging port. It looks very fragile in general. I noticed most of the display models at Futureshop and Bestbuy have issues with the charging port due to wear and tear.

    If you don't mind a slightly heavier tablet compared to Xoom, the Toshiba Thrive might be another option. It has a full size HDMI port and standard SD card slot. You don't have to mess around with HDMI micro to full size adapters.

    I went through a similar decision a few weeks ago. Initially I had my mind set on a Android Honeycomb tablet. I tried both the Acer Iconia A500 and Motorola Xoom and later returned them due to browser crashing, incompatible tablet apps, and other hardware flaws. Decided to stick with the iPad 2 for now.

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    Originally posted by Stealth22
    BlackBerry Playbook - I'm a BB guy, but the price slashing has me worried. Its rumored to have Android compatibility soon, but still...you know that gut feeling you get when something isn't right? Yeah.
    This is a good concern. When the Playbook came out, RIM was all excited over the new OS, QNX. But now they have to alter it to be able to use Android applications. That's a bad sign. Plus none of the Android applications were originally designed to run on the Playbook, thus they won't use the Playbook's hardware correctly as an Android device can be different in comparison to a Playbook. Resolution might not scale properly, buttons might not work properly, etc

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    Buying a BB Playbook would have to be almost the worst option when it comes to tablets.

    No native anything.......then a promised update that keeps getting pushed back and pushed back.

    I will echo whats already been said, if you have to go android go Galaxy 10.1, if you want netflix, orb, slingbox go Ipad2.
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