iPad competition

A lot of people around here have been talking highly of the iPad, mostly as an ebook reader. Well here it is, the Android version of the iPad.

It?s a Tablet. It?s Gorgeous. It?s Costly. - Yahoo! Finance

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MentholMoose

I think the Galaxy Tab is too expensive. If it had a beautiful AMOLED screen like the Galaxy phones it would be tempting, but having the same old screen as every other tablet means a price premium is not justified. Also, a tablet locked to a cellular contract is not an option for me. Maybe if it was free with the contract it would be OK, but paying $400 with a 2-year contract is just ridiculous. In a tablet I want Android 2.1+, 7" screen, 1GHz CPU, Wifi, USB and SD ports, decent battery life, and decent build quality for $300. The Viewsonic ViewPad 7 is the closest I've seen to meeting my needs, but it's not quite there, so I haven't bought one yet.

QHalo

I still don't think Android is ready to be a phone OS much less a Tablet one. It still feels extremely beta to me even on my Galaxy. My wife's G2 has hard locked 4x in the last 2 weeks. Obviously that could be hardware issues but I digress.

demonfurbie

im waiting on a ubuntu based tablet

Pash

QHalo wrote: »

I still don't think Android is ready to be a phone OS much less a Tablet one. It still feels extremely beta to me even on my Galaxy. My wife's G2 has hard locked 4x in the last 2 weeks. Obviously that could be hardware issues but I digress.

Im very happy with my HTC desire HD. Works really well.

I have connectbot for my ssh app, angry birds for my gaming

, ebuddy and gmail for all my messaging. Phone is fast and I havent paid a penny for any apps.

tiersten

QHalo wrote: »

It still feels extremely beta to me even on my Galaxy.

I think that is more the fact that it is a Samsung Galaxy as everybody I know that has tried a Samsung Android phone has hated it. Its just weird and they've done odd things to it.

QHalo wrote: »

My wife's G2 has hard locked 4x in the last 2 weeks. Obviously that could be hardware issues but I digress.

Issue with that particular model or handset.

I've got an Android phone and it works fine. Its still on 2.1 so the firmware is a bit old but I've not experienced any issues with it. A couple crashes since I got it back in April or so but it just rebooted.

QHalo

I had the G1 and Android played out the same on it as well. It's obviously a relativity thing. As far as Samsung phones go, I have to admit the Galaxy S has been a much better implementation than previous attempts. I don't hate Android or the Galaxy at all, I just feel that improvement is still needed with Android overall and I certainly don't think it's tablet ready.

tiersten

QHalo wrote: »

I had the G1 and Android played out the same on it as well. It's obviously a relativity thing. As far as Samsung phones go, I have to admit the Galaxy S has been a much better implementation than previous attempts. I don't hate Android or the Galaxy at all, I just feel that improvement is still needed with Android overall and I certainly don't think it's tablet ready.

What Galaxy is it? The original or the Galaxy S? If its the original then you're officially stuck on 1.6 which does have some usability issues. You shouldn't get often crashes or lock ups tho. Something is wrong somewhere if it is doing that.

The issue with Android on a tablet is that there just aren't that many Android tablets out there and they're not particularly popular at the moment. The Galaxy Tab is pretty much the first big mainstream one that does actually give you access to the Google applications and the Market. The no name random Android tablets and ones from companies like Archos generally don't give you Market access or if they do then its a hack as they supply their own app store system.

Once more big brand tablets start appearing and it becomes more popular, the Android tablet experience should get much better. More developers will target the tablet for their applications as well. It works the same way as the iPad in that it will run applications designed for phones but it'll just scale it to fit the screen. A purposely designed tablet application however will be much better.

QHalo

I have the Vibrant from T-Mobile, so the Galaxy S. I don't doubt it will get better. But in competition against the iPad, I have to say the iPad beats it right now from an OS and Market standpoint. I'd love to see some competition but I've been patient about purchasing a device such as this and I'm probably just going to buy the iPad.

tiersten

QHalo wrote: »

I have the Vibrant from T-Mobile, so the Galaxy S

Ah okay. Maybe its because I used to use an 1.6 phone that I'm okay with my current 2.1

QHalo wrote: »

I don't doubt it will get better. But in competition against the iPad, I have to say the iPad beats it right now from an OS and Market standpoint.

I agree. Apple tend to decimate the existing devices when they release something new and then it takes awhile for everybody else to catch up. Once they do catch up though, you'll find that the non Apple devices can be better.

If you want a relatively smooth and easy tablet experience then get the iPad. If you can wait then I'd wait for whatever comes out after the Galaxy Tab.

Amazon UK appears to have cut the price for the Galaxy Tab already. The 16GB model started at £599.99 then dropped to £529.99 and now it is £479.00 which is still expensive but much more reasonable than the ludicrous £599.99. The iPad is £529.00 for the 3G 16GB model and £429.00 for the WiFi only 16GB model.

Devilsbane

tiersten wrote: »

If you want a relatively smooth and easy tablet experience then get the iPad. If you can wait then I'd wait for whatever comes out after the Galaxy Tab.

There will be much competition in the next couple of years. Different companies putting out Android style devices, as well as other OS's getting in the mix. HP recently bought palm, presumably to bring WebOS to a netbook/iPad type device. And other companies will also follow with their OS.

So if you can hold out, you will see many new features as well as massive price cuts when the market tightens up.

QHalo

I'd love to wait longer, but the train ride to work missed reading some lab manuals or watching some training video's I've downloaded is starting to be wasted time. I welcome competition so that we don't have to pay some of these outlandish price points.

If I'm waiting on anything it would be retina display and facetime for the next iPad if they're going to toss those in. Otherwise I'll probably take the dive just after X-Mas.

tiersten

QHalo wrote: »

If I'm waiting on anything it would be retina display and facetime for the next iPad if they're going to toss those in

A "retina display" for the iPad would mean they'd end up with a 2560x1920 LCD which I doubt is going to be cheap and you'd need a powerful GPU to drive that. The iPhone 4 is only 960x640 so the requirements aren't particularly high.

I've never found Facetime or video calls to be that useful. All my iPhone 4 owning friends don't use it either. We've had 3G video calls here for years now and I've used it a total of once ever. The restrictions on WiFi only for Facetime are also strange considering people have hacked it to run over 3G and it works fine. Apple must have gotten grief from people like AT&T who are fearing the meltdown of their crap network if everybody used it over 3G