When Should I Buy an Android Tablet? 396
jpyeck writes "I've deliberately avoided the smartphone craze, due to the fact I've never utilized any phone (landline or otherwise) enough to justify the monthly fees. But the geek in me craves the 'smart' part of the equation, especially since I got a bonus this year-end that is burning a hole in my pocket. The iPad is out of the question because I need a bit more hack-ability in my gadgets. I am drooling over the Android Honeycomb demo from the CES. I've had my eye on the Galaxy Tab, though it sounds like it won't support Honeycomb. The Xoom looks great, but who knows when it will come out? The consensus seems to be 'wait a few months for Honeycomb.' If you were me, with limited patience, would you buy an Android tablet now? If so, which?"
Here's what I'd do (Score:3, Insightful)
Simple answers (Score:2, Insightful)
When the value of the tablet finally exceeds the trouble you go to claiming "how much better" your netbook is to your friends, and finally to yourself. Then you can make keeping the tablet customized and updated and flashed and jailbroken your new personal hobby for a few years.
Wait for Honeycomb (Score:5, Insightful)
When they finally ship one worth using (Score:5, Insightful)
Buy one that follows standards. (Score:2, Insightful)
Don't buy it unless it has a standard connector like USB.
Don't use a phone enough? (Score:5, Insightful)
Saying that you won't buy a smartphone because you don't use your phone enough is like saying that you won't buy a computer because you don't use a typewriter enough.
A smartphone is basically a universal data device at your fingertips at all times and all places. When was that movie out? How late is that store open? Where is Grandma's? What was that server's IP? It's Star Trek, man. Star Trek. A phone just lets you talk. The scale of functionality difference is several orders of magnitude.
Re:When they finally ship one worth using (Score:4, Insightful)
The iPad may be a good start, but it is still very crude, and doesn't even scratch the surface of what a tablet could be. A tablet should at the very least also support stylus input, and allow people to explore/develop alternative input systems. (Of which there are already a number that are far superior to fixed on-screen qwerty keyboards, or even miniature physical keyboards.)
No one is going to get it right the first time, and selling locked-down featureless hardware, which is guaranteed to be forever crippled isn't a winning strategy. (This applies not only to Apple, but tivoized Android systems as well.)
Re:Buy one that follows standards. (Score:3, Insightful)
That's not very good advice considering the best tablet on the market doesn't have a USB connector, at least not right on the device. The utility of a device is not governed by its connectors.
Re:When they finally ship one worth using (Score:5, Insightful)
The iPad may be a good start, but it is still very crude, and doesn't even scratch the surface of what a tablet could be. A tablet should at the very least also support stylus input, and allow people to explore/develop alternative input systems. (Of which there are already a number that are far superior to fixed on-screen qwerty keyboards, or even miniature physical keyboards.)
No one is going to get it right the first time, and selling locked-down featureless hardware, which is guaranteed to be forever crippled isn't a winning strategy. (This applies not only to Apple, but tivoized Android systems as well.)
Stylus input "tablets" have been around for over a decade - and they've mostly died off. The same can mostly be said for tablets with a so-called "full blown" OS (e.g. Windows tablets). The market has spoken, and it's pretty much disproven everything you said. Whether you choose to recognize that fact is an entirely different matter.
You didn't say what you were going to use it for (Score:5, Insightful)
That's really why you are getting a tablet - to do things, right?
So, are you going to be telneting around, or developing,t aking it wardriving, or trying to create art? Are you going to be using it to read email and surf the web from your couch, plus stream or watch movies on it? Do you want it to impress your friends?
See, that will answer your question. If you're going to be just hacking to hack, get a mid-level Android box (sorry, too many for me to keep up with). If you're going to be surfing and looking at email, get an iPad - unless you want flash, in which case get the top of the line Android tablet today. Want to impress your friends - well, the last recommendation covers it - Android if your friends are hard core linux geeks, iPad if your friends are anything else. Don't forget to ask yourself how big a screen you need. The 7" and smaller models do NOT work well for any sort of book use, save novels, unless you like squinting.
Based on your description of what you want (i.e. - you really don't know for certain) - put that bonus somewhere that you can't touch it for 6 months, and then decide next summer what you want after Honeycomb is out.
Wait for dual core (Score:3, Insightful)
Wait until dual core tablets become common. Current single core tablets are orphans -- they'll never run Honeycomb.
Re:Buy one that follows standards. (Score:3, Insightful)
the best tablet on the market doesn't have a USB connector
Thats strange, considering my definition of best would be one that has an USB connector.
Just get an iPad (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, this should get me some down votes. Karma to burn and all that.
I would say that if you want to have a nice tablet experience now, buy an iPad. If you can wait, wait for iPad2. If can wait even longer, then I think the second round of Android tablets after Honeycomb (Honeycomb 2?) should be awesome. iPad has literally one year head start vs everything else and iPad 2, presumably with video chat camera is just around the corner. Android is moving up fast, but it will take time to catch up to the quality and the quantity of apps iPad has/will have in the next 6 months.
Re:nookcolor, rooted (Score:4, Insightful)
Too bad, it does not come with 3G. That is a deal breaker for me.
I think of it not coming with 3g as a positive. I don't want to spend $30 a month to have access to very slow wireless, and the hardware to do 3g is typically an extra $100-$150 I would prefer to spare. If I need the internet that badly I'd tether it to my smartphone and not have to spend more money to use what I already have access to.
Re:When they finally ship one worth using (Score:4, Insightful)
That would be because you are implicitly qualifying that statement with "on crude devices for ascii text input".
Have you met any artists who hate stylus input? How about taking notes, drawing, or entering symbols not found on your keyboard, as with most non-latin languages including mathematics.
How about with alternative input systems like ShapeWriter or HexInput? Such technology has come a long way since the Palm Pilot...and yet has a long way to go.
Multitouch is great and also offers immense opportunity for innovation, yet that need not be mutually exclusive with stylus input. Rather, they complement each other, and would make a tablet a far more versatile device.
Re:Here's what I'd do (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you guys are missing the point. The 6 month CD isn't to earn money, the 6 month CD is so you can't touch the money for 6 months. That way you'll avoid making the mistake of buying one of the current (crappy) offerings on the market.