Maximum PC

Thinking of getting a Tablet but wondering which one?? Very confusing descriptions everywhere! Would like to get a 32gb one but not knowing what the best price/features/brand to get. Thanks very much for your help.

Charlie

I would go with the Microsoft Courier tablet...Oh wait Microsoft has never released it. WAIT a MINUTE!! Hmmmmmmmmmmm, seems to me, that it would be PERFECT for Windows 8! I wonder, could it of been shelved till Windows 8 came out? Seems, since it looks like a book, and how the Metro User Interface looks hmmmmmmmm??? SOMETHING that should be investigated I think..MaximumPC?

I think there are a lot of different opinions and there isn't really one "best" for the money. It kinda depends on a lot of stuff like what OS you like, what options/accessories you like, and of course what hardware and software options do you need? I personally would say that the Asus Transformer Prime is the best android tablet but like i said it will depend on what you are looking for and what kind've price range you can afford.

Kindle Fire is the best for the money. You can pay $200 more for useless fluff though. The best out there is the Asus Transformer Prime, but that's $600 when you could be fine with a Fire.

HP Touchpad... best for da money... LOL

I was about to jump on the tablet bandwagon and was about to get the Kindle Fire (specially since they have it rooted and running ice cream sandwich), but then Blackberry's Playbook tablet went on sale last week and I couldn't pass it up. 16GB tablet for $150-200? yes plz. Hopefully I'll get it in the mail soon, but of what a lot people have said, it works pretty good; although it lacks a lot of apps and games that the other platforms have, but for productivity, browsing and video, it hits the spot and at the right price.

I would have considered the asus transformer prime, but damn if I'm willing to pay $500 for such a device, then $150 for the keyboard/2nd battery pack. For that kind of cost, I would almost be willing to spend more on a proper tablet PC like the x220t and have a fully featured win7 laptop.

I've played with the kindle fire and its pretty nice. Pretty slick looking and decent amount of features, plus amazon's ebook market is pretty good. If I was looking for an ebook reader and an avid book club member, I would have selected the kindle fire; they offer free monthly books that you can "borrow", but most of my books are already in pdf format for me to enjoy. I just needed something to display manuals and textbooks (stuff that most people find boring).

ultrabooks hit a different price point and usability requirement, You are talking about a $200-500 media consuming devices vs. a more practical ultra light laptop that aren't suited for book reading.

Ultrabooks are cool for kids and people who travel. I like the fact that I can take it with me on the road. Are they rugged? Not as much as other models in their class (the mc75 comes to mind). But heck, one day, we're all going to have a chip in our brains, right?

iPad2 is now the best tablet for the money.

I would go for a iPad anytime. I have used Samsung Galaxy Tab and Blackberry but all time favorite will be iPad

best for da money... andro

there's a new tablet in town - microsoft surface tablet. The following specs might interest you:
-come with a 10.6-inch display,
- a kickstand for tabletop viewing,
- a super-thin keyboard case that attaches to the device with magnets.
- 2 types - Surface with Windows RT and Surface Pro with Windows 8 Pro.
- micros slot, USB 2.0, and a Micro HD port
- 32GB or 64GB of storage
- cost about $1k but not yet sure as Microsoft is eyeing to compete with the Ultrabooks.
- coming this october 2012

Great tablet for $ 150
Model: Zenithink ZT-280 C91 Tablet PC
Display: 10 inch, capacitive sensor, multi-point to 5, 1280 × 768 resolution, 170 degree viewing angle
Operating System: Android 4.0
CPU: AMLogic 8726-M, ARM Cortex-A9, 800MHz; GPU: Mali 400
RAM: 1 GB
ROM: 16GB

Want a couch computer or do you really need the portability of a slate type device?

You can consider convertible laptops. I picked up a used Fujitsu p1630 off fleabay for ~250 and tossed in a SSD. The result is a convertible laptop, the size of a netbook, with core 2 duo ULV procs, that unlike current ARM procs, have enough power to decode HD video that doesn't conform to a particular format the GPU's hardware decoder recognizes.


Old thread (albeit thirds from the top...) but it's an idea worth considering.

>>>Ultrabooks are cool for kids<<<

I'll have to agree to disagree with you on that one. I think of tablets as being kids' toys and ultrabooks as being more productivity-oriented. ARM doesn't cut it even running Win8. I want to be able to run all my full i86 apps on all my devices and not have to buy ARM programs from some goofy "Apps Store".

>>>Are they rugged? Not as much as other models in their class<<<

Again I beg to differ. My Zenbook UX21E is extremely rugged. The only damage it incurred from being knocked (while running) from table height onto a concrete floor was a slightly flattened corner, which required only a couple of strokes of a file to make it close up tight again. The only other book I've used that's this sturdy was my old Panasonic Toughbook, although my first 7" EeePC came close.

Amen. The only reason I ever considered getting an ARM device instead of a real i86 computer was the always-on quick start-up. Now that ultrabooks start up in two seconds, that's no longer a consideration.

Ultrabooks are so much faster and more powerful, run more OSes and apps, and are equipped with more connectivity options than any pad, pod, phone, PDA or tablet. Once the Haswell 10w ultrabook CPU arrives with its integrated southbridge, the performance disparity will be even greater.

The most compelling reasons to get a tablet are trendiness (although that peaked a couple of years ago) and price. Yes, tablets are still cheaper than ultrabooks but the gap is closing fast and if cheap is what you're really after, get a netbook.

This is the MaximumPC forum though, not the MinimumMobileDevice forum so hopefully performance reigns over price and stylishness.

If you already have a laptop, then a tablet doesn't make sense. However, I do have one reason that convinced me to get a tablet. I travel for work enough times now, and more often than not I take a work laptop with me. This being the great country of the United States and their wonderful TSA, I really don't want to take two laptops with me (personal and work). Mostly because 1. I have to take both out and now I've got like five baskets to shuffle through and 2. I might be on the wrong side of TSA if I have two laptops for whatever reason. Anyway. Don't want to deal with TSA more than I have to.

The funny thing is, they don't consider a tablet a computer. So it doesn't have to come out of the bag. And I bought a Transformer. So I can get the benefits of a laptop, without dealing with TSA poking at it. Hopefully.

That and it's more convenient to show some content to others with a tablet than a laptop.

I luv luv luv the Nook color tablet it is light weight it has all the functionalities of a real tablet... real meaning not an e-reader because that is really what the Nook is. But you can watch movies, listen to music, there is even a place for an sd card. I luv it AND it's under $200 I think it is going for $179 now.

It should be noted that the concept of a tablet doing less work is mostly because of the limits of the software and window manager presented to you.

If you were say, running ubuntu on your tablet, perhaps most of you would consider it more "laptop like" in capabilities - multitasking and app availability. I'm curious what you guys think - what makes a laptop more productive for your couch computing needs? Obviously, if I have to login to my work machine and work, a laptop is better, but what holds back a tablet - in your opinion for casual computing?


In *my* opinion, I think there are a few weak points in tablets that prevent it from being accepted by us as a laptop replacement.

• Crappy "free" software that does HALF of what's available for free on the pc/laptop. SOOO many examples. Gimp, OpenOffice, Compilers and IDEs. On the PC Free means no annoyances. On android, Free (mostly) means marketing gimmicks.
• Lack of multitasking ability - android isnt' a great multitasking environment. Even if windows were help side by side as in samsung's touchwiz, it's only visual effect. The "background" windows isnt' really updating.
• Current lack of power - Arm is a relative newcomer in the performance race against x86. It's always been there in mobile, but never had mobile so often been compared against what we do on the desktop. It's going to get even closer to mainstream performance. This is happening for a few reasons.
  
  • Uniform OS - android for all
  • "Acceptable" power - we're sold chips with an incredibly wide range of processing power today - ULV/atom through multicore i7. ARM can tackle the low end to work it's way up
  • Arm has gotten some BIG boosts. cortex A8, A9 and soon A15 are big leaps for ARM, and how it fares compared to x86. I'm particularly excited about seeing A15/A15+A7 in action.
• The Penis mighter! But noone really seems to want to use a pen. See the finger isn't that accurate. it means when your laptop is utilizing high resolution for finer text since your mouse can click with pixel precision, your tablet's interface looks like a 10 foot hdtv GUI, not making the best utilization of space.

If certain apps get ported without ad fluff (or if you pay for better apps) maybe that would work for you?
How about a pen/mouse for more accurate selection?
More powerful chip? Krait is about as powerful as it gets today. Not a full on cortex A15, but close.
Or is it simply you just gotta have keyboard and mouse?

I've got laptops, but I AM considering a tablet since I have to lug my work laptop constantly. My back is winning over the wallet
I'm waiting to see what multicore krait and upcoming A15 devices are coming though. I think cortex A9 designs are going to be outclassed soon.

Are you talking about free as in beer or free as in speech? Two of those you listed fall into both. Most Android apps don't follow GPL or similar. Anyway, yes, free usually means ads, but they're usually out of the way or there are no ads because it's included (Polaris Office Suite for instance). Not to mention you mentioned three of the four programs that work well with a keyboard, which a tablet is not expected to use as a "primary" interface.

As a few examples of where ads are out of the way (and I'm usually weary of ad based content)

• On the loading screen of many applications.
• For a game, at the start of a round, usually out of the way. For instance, in Angry Birds, ads usually appear center bottom... where 5%-10% of vertical space is dedicated to the ground.
• If you're in a menu, usually on the top or bottom. In the MX Video player ads only appear when you're selecting your stuff or sometimes if your movie is paused. It never shows when you're watching a movie.

Well, the problem here is that usage patterns of tablets and smartphones aren't the same as desktops. Background content isn't updated because the expectation is that you're only going to run one thing, and that one thing should be where the CPU spends most of its time. Besides that, even in my case with desktops, the most "multitasking" I ever do is sit in a chatroom while I go watch a movie or play games.

That and current multitasking interfaces on desktops don't lend themselves very well in small real estate where the precision of your "pointer" is now 20px at best. I guess the best thing we could do is Mac OS's Dock or Ubuntu's app bar.


I'd argue it's the other way around. x86 is a newcomer in the performance/power ratio against ARM. Mobile devices are not meant to replace desktops and laptops like all the marketers want us to think. It's to supplement them. This is where I think people have a problem. Tablets and smartphones can cover what most of the world uses a computer for anyway: go online, connect, and consume media. Those are very basic things and even the latest Pentium processors I would consider overkill for such a use-case. I ran a laptop with a ULV 1.3GHz Core 2 Duo, and it did just fine for surfing the web and stuff.

Content creation should be left to desktops and laptops. Content consumption however, can go either way, and tablets just make this more convenient.


I'd really like you to comfortably read text meant for 96ppi on a 300ppi+ display.


Sure. But are those certain apps free as in beer to begin with? Free as in speech sometimes isn't free as in beer, as Red Hat will show you.


Why carry an extra peripheral around? There's a reason why laptops have trackpads/nubs to begin with. And again, try to work with 96ppi content on a 300ppi+ screen. That means everything is 10x-14x smaller. Even with a ~250 screen, that's still something like 6x smaller. To go play around with this, screen cap your desktop, then shrink it by about 25%-38%. Tell me that's legible.


Power comes with two things: energy consumption and heat. I think I saw that Krait's still pretty good with both, but still. There's no free lunch. Besides that, power also comes with cost.


I've come to realize that a majority of people suck at UI design to begin with, myself included. It's doable, but people are too damn lazy, stubborn, etc. to do anything about it.

But again, at the end of the day, tablets are marketed towards users who consume content. You want something to create content? Don't buy a tablet. Do you grill steak with a salad fork, or with tongs? Do you eat a salad with tongs?