Which Tablet

[[GSV]Trig]

So, the Transformer has playback issues, I want Flash, I want 6+hrs battery life, I want GPS (actual GPS not the best guess from the 3G/Wifi GPS).

I keep looking at the Acer Iconia A500 and the Xoom, the Flyer I kinda like but think at 7" it might be a bit too small..

Thoughts?

[directhex]

HP Touchpad? It's out next month

[b0redom]

Just out of curiosity, what do you want/need flash for? I thought I'd miss it on my iPad, but the only thing I've found which doesn't work is the CBeebies website, and to be honest there's loads of kids games very cheap/free anyway.

[[GSV]Trig]

More for the kids games n stuff, tbh its not a massive thing for me if theres a working youtube app..

[Bunjiweb]

Playback issues on the TF? Like what. I think it depends what codecs you are using. I've had difficulties playing MKVs properly, but encode in the right mpg and 720p does play back fine, and any divx files have played fine using Qplayer or Rockplayer... Personally most of the video I watch on it is flash video / youtube tv shows / iplayer and all plays fantastically well.

Ben

[DannyM]

Playback issues on the TF? Like what. I think it depends what codecs you are using. I've had difficulties playing MKVs properly, but encode in the right mpg and 720p does play back fine, and any divx files have played fine using Qplayer or Rockplayer... Personally most of the video I watch on it is flash video / youtube tv shows / iplayer and all plays fantastically well.

Ben

When I had my Transformer, it was a widely seen problem that youtube HD play back was poor and the playback of HD content wasn't too clever either. Even with low profile MPEG4 files it still didn't playback perfectly (almost though, very watchable), now this is where I need to make a comment trig, so please take note.

From what I gathered via XDA:

This is a problem with the Tegra chipset, not the Transformer, so anything running the Tegra chipset will have issues with HD content playback. But this was when I looked into it maybe a month or two back, so things may have become better.

[[GSV]Trig]

Its pretty much your fault I didnt get the Transformer, so feel free to make comments where required chap, its fair enough getting loads of reviews of these tablets but most of them tend to be short term stuff not actual day to day useage, if all Tegra based units are poop then that could put me in the direction of a Win7 tablet, which would be useful but most tend to lack battery life and tbh my Atom based netbook was rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbish (even with ram upgrade and SSD) so I cant see a tablet being faster, the HTC Flyer seems to be looking brighter then no?

[directhex]

Its pretty much your fault I didnt get the Transformer, so feel free to make comments where required chap, its fair enough getting loads of reviews of these tablets but most of them tend to be short term stuff not actual day to day useage, if all Tegra based units are poop then that could put me in the direction of a Win7 tablet, which would be useful but most tend to lack battery life and tbh my Atom based netbook was rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbish (even with ram upgrade and SSD) so I cant see a tablet being faster, the HTC Flyer seems to be looking brighter then no?

HP Touchpad? It's out next month

[[GSV]Trig]

Yeah someone mentioned that already, tbh I've never used WebOS, how does it stack up against Android/iOS/Win7?

[directhex]

Yeah someone mentioned that already, tbh I've never used WebOS, how does it stack up against Android/iOS/Win7?

It's the OS that everyone else has been quietly trying to catch up to. WP7's new multitasking is a rip-off of how WebOS does it (as is pretty much everything on the Blackberry Playbook).

Me, I'm dumping Android for a Pre 3 as soon as they go on sale. Android's just ****ty by comparison.

[[GSV]Trig]

Argh, I hate tablets lol...

Anyone else got a tablet and actually tried it in day to day use?

[b0redom]

Yeah, I have, and know a number of people with iPads. It's great for email/web browsing/simple games etc, but will obviously not replace a real laptop.

I don't know a single person with an Android tablet, though - even the Linux zealots.

I know iPads don't have flash, but stuff like iPlayer and YouTube all work fine. The form factor seems to be the sweet spot for web browsing etc at least for me, and it integrates into GMail very elegantly.

Disclaimer: I have not used an Android Tablet, but the Mrs has an Android phone - allbeit a HTC Wildfire so not the top end - and I don't like it.

You can get a 1st Gen 16GB iPad with 3G for £389 now, or a 2nd Gen 16GB iPad with 3G for £499.

[[GSV]Trig]

I've got Android on my phone and Win7 everywhere else so those two would be the obvious choices as far as OS goes, we have one iPad user at work and it just gets used for email/web stuff.

From a work POV a Win7 based tablet would be useful at shows, but the battery life wouldnt cover a full day's worth, so even though it would do everything that I would need it to do it wouldnt do it for long enough and you seem to pay more for less spec and I havent seen one yet that has GPS/3G so Android is looking like a winner, just to find a decent one thats not Tegra based....

[directhex]

I've got Android on my phone and Win7 everywhere else so those two would be the obvious choices as far as OS goes, we have one iPad user at work and it just gets used for email/web stuff.

From a work POV a Win7 based tablet would be useful at shows, but the battery life wouldnt cover a full day's worth, so even though it would do everything that I would need it to do it wouldnt do it for long enough and you seem to pay more for less spec and I havent seen one yet that has GPS/3G so Android is looking like a winner, just to find a decent one thats not Tegra based....

Windows 7 is not a tablet OS in the sense of the word "tablet" that people expect in the era of the iPad.

x86 is too damn hot for the form factor. As a result, you can get keyboardless systems running Windows 7 like the HP Slate 500, but they consume batteries are are thick and heavy - e.g. the HP Slate is twice as thick and has half the battery life as the iPad, best-case.

If it's got x86, it's not an iPad-competing tablet, it's a laptop with the keyboard torn off.

[[GSV]Trig]

Ok, so Android, no Tegra (unless they fix the problems, some say its hardware some say its how HD is encoded using the wrong "base"), GPS, 3G..

[scaryjim]

Anyone else got a tablet and actually tried it in day to day use?

Yep, Elonex ETouch, 1GHz ARM11, Froyo update (but no flash, 'cause, y'know, ARM11 ).

Great for web browsing, listening to internet radio, reasonable youtube playback, casual gaming (but it has a few software issues with some games (trying to watch the first cut scene in Angry Birds causes a fatal crash which requires a factory reset )).

Decent for email / facebook / probably twitter although I don't use it myself. Music player's alright, but a 10" form factor is a bit big for a portable media player Nice e-book reader / pdf / document viewer.

Not great for productivity, although it supports USB keyboard / mouse (including hubs, so you can use several devices with it e.g. keyboard + mouse + usb storage) which makes it "usable" - no more than that. Haven't tried watching videos / media on it as I don't have much digital media ripped: I plan on ripping a lot of my DVD collection though, but probably to a lowish quality / bit rate format and I imagine it'll be fine for those - the few files I have watched on it worked fine.

The screen is resistive and sometimes misregisters - in particular it often reads a "click" when you're trying to "swipe" - but that's part of the price I was willing to pay for a cheap tablet.

It certainly isn't as flexible as a laptop / netbook, but it *is* much more portable: great to just stick in my bag for business trips to London, or carry round the house. I keep looking at it and thinking "you're nice, but I probably need a laptop as well" - BUT a couple of months later I haven't felt the *need* to buy a laptop. And this is with a device I picked up for £90 second hand - it's currently £130 new.

For me, the big issue is the lack of decent Android games / software. There's a few games I enjoy playing (the Angry Bird bug is probably the most annoying thing, as it plays the game *very* smoothly) but the software quality (rather than quantity!) just isn't there for me. I will be very torn between a better Android tablet and a laptop when I do come to replace it, though...