Tablets that aren't the IPad

[KingPK]

I've been eyeing the Samsung Galaxy tablet lately. I've read that it is one of the better IPad alternatives and it is about $150 cheaper. I checked one out the other day and was impressed how nice the display is. Anyone have any experience with one of these?

 

[Tino Standard]

Depends on what you want the tablet to do. If you're looking for something comparable to the iPad, just at a lower price point, you might be fine with a Galaxy Tab. If you're willing to give up some features to save a lot more money, there are other options...

- For what it does, the Kindle Fire is a great deal.

- I bought an HP Touchpad during the fire sale last summer. For $500, I'd have been disappointed, but for $99, it was a steal. I think there are still some floating around out there under $200. And if you don't mind tinkering, you can install CyanogenMod 9 on it and have a very usable version of ICS. I did that a couple months back and it was like getting a new device.

 

[Jaxxxson Mayhem]

I also bought a touchpad during the firesale for $150. You can get one refurbished for $200 now. Woot had them up for that price a week or so ago.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[SFH]

I"m bout to flood this conference vendor hall with business cards and win all sorts of tablets.

 

[tekcop]

http://eee.asus.com/eeepad/transformer-prime/features/

Have. Love. Never bothered to get the keyboard, but it does look like a great addon.

 

[Ripper]

I don't see tablets, any manufacturer, worth more than 250 bucks. All the Android Tabs are pretty much the same when talking about the ones from good companies(Sony, Toshiba, Samsung, Asus etc.)

The Ipad is a great buy if you can find a 2 for 250. I have a touchpad, and its great.

But seriously, remember these things are big smartphones, nothing more and nothing less.

 

[Precious Roy]

I like my Kindle Fire but I use it primarily for e-reading, touchscreen games and apps, and the occasional video. It's basically just a really nice e-reader that can do other things. It's a great deal for the price and if you're into reading books or magazines or comics on a device you can't go wrong, but if you're going to be using your tablet heavily for web browsing or as a primary computer device you're better off with an IPad or an Android device. I have an Android phone and I love how customizable it is and how many apps are out there.....you can torrent and zip/unzip files on your phone if you're so inclined....but you need to jailbreak the Fire to modify the interface and the system to your specific needs and to get access to the regular Android marketplace.....the Amazon one is really limited

 

[AnonymousBroccoli]

I got a 32GB firesale TouchPad, and it's just OK. I don't like having to agree to a TOS just to browse the app store, so I haven't done that, and consequently only have the default software. The browser likes to randomly refresh, which is a giant pain in the balls. When I'm browsing Kijiji, it does it... well, not every time I load a page, but sometimes it'll do it twice on the same page, so it pretty near averages out to once a page. And it's not a quick process, either; the OS in general is not exactly snappy. Or I'll be typing a message of some sort, and it'll refresh, and I'll lose what I was typing. I've gotten used to typing things in the Sticky Notes app—kind of like I'd use Notepad on my old Win98 machine that crashed all the time—but that has its own issues. Also, YouTube videos won't play on YouTube.com, but usually will play embedded elsewhere.

By now, I just want a Windows laptop, so I can use a thing the way I want to use it. I don't know if I'd call myself a power user, but I'm definitely closer to that than the experience I'm getting with the tablet.

 

[Sabre]

http://eee.asus.com/eeepad/transformer-prime/features/

Have. Love. Never bothered to get the keyboard, but it does look like a great addon.

Its only sold in the UK with the keyboard which is fantastic. I got my Prime about 3 weeks ago and havent really touched my laptop since (besides downloading or burning stuff to disks).

The office-esque programs are not too shabby, but the Excel knockoff is very slow when processing cells etc when working out formulas.

 

[Just Burny]

I like my Kindle Fire but I use it primarily for e-reading, touchscreen games and apps, and the occasional video. It's basically just a really nice e-reader that can do other things. It's a great deal for the price and if you're into reading books or magazines or comics on a device you can't go wrong, but if you're going to be using your tablet heavily for web browsing or as a primary computer device you're better off with an IPad or an Android device. I have an Android phone and I love how customizable it is and how many apps are out there.....you can torrent and zip/unzip files on your phone if you're so inclined....but you need to jailbreak the Fire to modify the interface and the system to your specific needs and to get access to the regular Android marketplace.....the Amazon one is really limited

Personally I want a tablet so I can primarily use it as a glorified ereader/ read comics, but also have some other abilities. As the technology is now I don't think I'd spend more than $100-$150 for one, which sucks because all the ones that are around that price generally seem to be tiny or shit.

 

[KingPK]

It's been a year, but I finally settled on the Nexus 7. I bought an ASUS netbook two years ago and it's still working great, plus they expanded the storage to 32GB in the new Nexus model for $250. A bunch of places had it near the top of the best tablets of 2012.

 

[KingPK]

Holy shit, this thing is incredible. The screen is super sharp and it is fast. Well worth the price.

 

[tekcop]

I'm probably going to be buying one in the near future to replace my now dead Transformer Prime. More updates as you play with it, please.

 

[KingPK]

buy it! I am typing this post with the voice recognition feature. It's awesome. purple monkey dishwasher.

I can look up sports scores with my f****** voice! It even bleeps out the swear!

 

[KingPK]

One more gush: the battery life is awesome. I watched video, played games and surfed and the battery still went for 9 hours.

 

[Jaxxxson Mayhem]

My Touchpad with ICS on it is baller as fuck. Loves it.

 

[Tino Standard]

My Touchpad with ICS on it is baller as fuck. Loves it.

Same here, although the battery life is considerably worse than when it runs WebOS. Still, for $99, I won't complain too much.

 

[JAxlMorrison]

I'm usually years behind when it comes to technology, so the Kindle Fire is the one and only tablet I've had, so consequently I think it's the greatest thing ever.

 

[Captain of Outer Space]

Hungover non-tech journalist tries to describe Panasonic's new tablet.

All of my notes are based on the activity of the journalists around me. I write down what I believe is important. I write down the most interesting words that I hear, too. They are “RUGGEDIZED” and “ROBUSTNESS” and, deliciously, “SACRIFICATION.”

Jan stops for a second and says there will be a demonstration. He says “With the nice police ladies we are to make some watersports,” and half-laughs, half-smiles awkwardly. He says that onstage in front of the world’s press. He seems to think that is fine. The women come forward and pour water from a jug over a toughbook sat in a perspex case. People take pictures.

A man in charge of something important just made a SEX PISS JOKE at the Panasonic Press Conference and that’s all fine. I don’t understand. I don’t understand. Is that fine? Is this just what happens at tech events? I want to have a lie down.

 

[AnonymousBroccoli]

I'm probably going to sell my TouchPad soon. I'm likely to go pick up a small, modest, but not-that-old laptop from a guy tomorrow night, and use that as my portable thing. I'm just not a mobile OS guy, from what I've experienced with webOS, and Android 3.something.