Ask Slashdot: Why Do Most Tablet Specs Suck? 231
Slashdot reader Qbertino describes himself as a "happy tablet user," moving from an old HTC Flyer to his Yoga 2. But he notes that most other tablets "have laughable battery times," and "I've yet to find a tablet that does not give me storage or memory problems in some way or other, lasts for a day or two in power and doesn't feel chintzy and like it won't stand a month of regular everyday use and carrying around..." He asks why none of the manufacturers seem willing to offer more than one gigabyte of RAM -- and why they're so stingy with storage. "Where is the rugged 16GB RAM / 1TB Storage / 20-hour battery tablet?"
So leave your educated opinions in the comments. What are your thoughts on the current tablet market? And are they the ultimate all-purpose "convergence" device that Apple and Ubuntu seem to think they are?
So leave your educated opinions in the comments. What are your thoughts on the current tablet market? And are they the ultimate all-purpose "convergence" device that Apple and Ubuntu seem to think they are?
people want cheap (Score:5, Insightful)
apparently these days cheap is all that matters - quality doesn't
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apparently these days cheap is all that matters - quality doesn't
I'm super satisfied with my new iPad Air 2. Good performance, good battery life, good storage, good build quality.
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I don't think it's about costs, it's about demand. Having a tablet with such specs would be like cramming a 5 liter V8 into a moped. It can be done, but there likely aren't many people who'd want an unstable and unbalanced vehicle.
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That's becoming a technical possibility. If the tablet outputs Displayport then dual monitors is a thing, if you use daisy chained monitors or a hub. That's special hardware though. In other cases you might need to carry the HDMI dongle or the DVI dongle etc.
Even VGA CRT and PS/2 keyb and mouse might be possible with the right dongles, cables and hubs.
I think the issue is the general public will not order dongles and crap from the internet(*) or want to put research into which hardware supports what. Even,
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My tablet is big, clunky, but has both a micro and a full size USB port, along with the HDMI, microphone, power, and sd card, and I love it.
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You have somewhat of a point, but size is not the same thing as fashion.
Sure, the iPad Air is "sexy", but it's also amazingly compact and lightweight - I can take it on short trips instead of my laptop without carrying a backpack. And I can hold it up to read for extended periods without making my arms tired.
I just don't see the need for a tablet having most of the specs of my laptop (minus decent graphics, I guess) without the usability of a real keyboard, mouse, Ethernet, etc.
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>apparently these days cheap is all that matters - quality doesn't
Oh shut up. First of all, the tablet the OP wants exists [microsoftstore.com], go ahead and pay three grand for it if you want. The battery won't last two days of usage because there's no battery technology that is dense enough to allow that without making the tablet enormous and/or super slow.
The claim itself is of course extremely stupid, but I'm not going to spend time on it as I'm getting a feeling that this was a very masterful troll that got modded up so
Re:people want cheap (Score:5, Insightful)
apparently these days cheap is all that matters - quality doesn't
This.
Nobody is interested in making a good product, only a cheap product.
The issue is that nobody is willing to pay for high-end tablets. A few years ago, there were more premium tablets around, and they didn't sell.
The fact is that high end phones sell because a) many people get them on contract with low up-front cost, and b) people carry their phones around and use them a lot every single day, so it's easier to justify. By constrast, you mostly have to pay up-front for a tablet, and for many people it's used a lot less than a phone, and so for the majority, a cheap tablet is just fine, especially since today's premium tablet will be outperformed by budget tablets in less than two years.
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apparently these days cheap is all that matters - quality doesn't
This.
Nobody is interested in making a good product, only a cheap product.
The issue is that nobody is willing to pay for high-end tablets. A few years ago, there were more premium tablets around, and they didn't sell.
Tablets are a niche product with limited usefulness and as a result nobody is willing to pay a lot for them.
The iPad is well made and has good specs, but offers no expandability and you have to buy the most expensive one to get a decent amount of storage. For the same price as the top of the line iPad I bought a laptop with a bigger screen, faster more powerful CPU, a lot more storage, 4 USB ports and an HDMI.
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I still don't own a a smartphone and instead use a very old now Asus Transformer TF201. I don't own a smartphone because even basic plans cost me around $90/month and I just don't need mobile data much at all (I almost entirely use wireless at home and use the tablet when I do). My talk and text is astronomically low to the point I have over a 'thousand minutes' built up on my pay as you go feature phone and I spend like $22 every 3 months. However I take my tablet everywhere and have for years with ~8 hour
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Cyanogenmod doesn't support the transformer series, most likely due to the custom interface (which includes a locking mechanism to hold it in place) for the keyboard/battery attachment. Though for the TF201 specifically the GPS chip is also not supported at all.
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> The issue is that nobody is willing to pay for high-end tablets.
I think that it's a chicken-and-egg issue. Tablets are considered media consumption devices, so nobody makes a tablet studly enough for real work, so the expectation is that tablets are media consumption devices, and consumers don't expect tablets to be studly enough for real work.
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I think that it's a chicken-and-egg issue. Tablets are considered media consumption devices, so nobody makes a tablet studly enough for real work, so the expectation is that tablets are media consumption devices, and consumers don't expect tablets to be studly enough for real work.
Tablets were actually like that before - basically laptops with a touchscreen that you could swivel around to use without the keyboard in the way. But they never gained much traction in that form. They cost more than the same laptop sans swivelling touchscreen, and few had that much use for it over and above a standard laptop.
Since the introduction of the current standard format of tablet, there have been a few here and there that try to be a tablet for "real work" from the other direction, by adding a deta
Re: people want cheap (Score:2)
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Welcome to 2016! The major providers have for the most part abandoned lock in contracts for cell phone discounts already.
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Re:people want cheap (Score:5, Informative)
We have three tablets for the two of us. One in the kitchen for recipes, and a personal one for us to use around the house.
I often hang out on the couch and listen to music while I read e-comics, browse Reddit or Imgur, or use the tablet to look up IMDB entries. A laptop is just cumbersome and hot in those circumstances. An 8" tablet like my Samsung (1600p, beautiful display) is perfect, easy to read -- easier to read than a 4" phone screen. Laptop too big, phone too small.
Also works fine in the bathroom. Easier to read than a phone.
I have a crappy Nook HD for recipes and music selection in the kitchen -- it's a lot more portable than a laptop, fits everywhere, lasts a week or more on a charge just sitting there, and I don't have to worry about getting anything in a keyboard or using a mouse or crappy touch pad. Laptop too big, phone too small.
I was skeptical about getting a tablet, but for us they've worked out great in these scenarios.
Everyone has different needs.
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I don't own a smartphone so I know I'm an odd duck, but my tablet goes with me everywhere and has for five years now. It's much smaller and easier to take with me than a laptop (of which mine is gathering dust and was a giant paper weight and internet tv long before that). Mine lasts more than 8 hours on a charge (even now five years on), has a keyboard which is nicely sized (no squished fingers trying to type on it) which even has a extra battery should I need it, Is perfectly fine to write things on or ev
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It's not that nobody is willing to pay for high-end tablets, it's that not enough are willing to pay.
The same phenomenon has affected many other products. You can either buy a low-end and cheap product or an ultra-high-end and very expensive version.
The pool of natural buyers of mid-range devices (the middle class) is being hollowed out with increasing wealth disparity to the point that the middle class do not buy enough mid-range products
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The issue is that nobody is willing to pay for high-end tablets. A few years ago, there were more premium tablets around, and they didn't sell.
Not exactly. The "High End" tablets came preloaded with crapware and were hard to root. The China knockoffs had the same specs and had no preloaded crapware and were easy to root if not pre-rooted. I will pay more for more ram, and flash. I will not pay more for Samsung Update Utility and backup!
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Ah, the old "I hates me some capitalismz!" argument...
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I own a Asus Transformer TF201 , which must not be a 'media consumption tablet' as I do a lot of 'media creation tasks' on it. Heck I've done video editing on it a few times, though recent updates have made that more painful. But I balance my checkbook (spreadsheet), keep notes, have written a couple novels (at least in part, though that has more to do with the limitations of formating in the app I had that made it cross platform with PC and autosynced it wirelessly). That said I do read a lot on it and wat
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Nope. The Asus Transformer is a Tablet/Laptop hybrid that skews heavily toward laptop...
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Um, no. Their are 2 transformer series of devices from Asus. One is a series of laptops with 'tablet' style features. The other are Tablets with laptop style functions (through the keyboard/battery attachment).
This is what I own: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] or go here for the original page: https://www.asus.com/Tablets/E... [asus.com]
Asus seems to have been brain dead when creating the marketing for these, which has lead to the confusion.
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try rereading what was said.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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I don't think it's that nefarious. I think it's because tablets are treated as toys and therefore priced as such.
Convergence device? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Tablets have a nice niche as a media consumption device, just don't try to use them as a convergence device. I hope the convergence bubble eventually pops as devices like Surface Pro are kinda crappy if used as notebooks, and or the most part hardly qualify or are usable as a tablet. I personally don't understand the unhealthy interest people have in those things. I'd take a Lenovo Yoga any time over Surface.
My Recommendation... (Score:5, Informative)
"Where is the rugged 16GB RAM ... tablet"? (Score:4, Informative)
In fairy land with the unicorns and super-dense LiPo batteries that don't explode when you sneeze really hard.
Because what do you need in order to power 16GB RAM and a 1TB SSD??? Lots of power. Which don't exist in batteries with the density required at prices that are affordable.
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It's pointless having 16GB of RAM anyway, because tablet apps don't need it. Anything that needs 16GB RAM would be better run on a laptop with a keyboard and mouse. You can get laptops that are under 800g with a good 12" screen and good battery life.
1TB of storage is more useful if you are really random and can't plan far enough ahead to whittle your HD movie collection down to a 256GB SD card.
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It's pointless having 16GB of RAM anyway, because tablet apps don't need it. Anything that needs 16GB RAM would be better run on a laptop with a keyboard and mouse. You can get laptops that are under 800g with a good 12" screen and good battery life.
1TB of storage is more useful if you are really random and can't plan far enough ahead to whittle your HD movie collection down to a 256GB SD card.
Remember netbooks? There were lots of slashdot arguments that netbooks have to be used for content consumption only or lightweight browsing and such ; even after they came with a hard drive and Windows, so people ran Photoshop (cracked) and video games on the thing if that's what they wanted to do.
There's less highly pressing need but some could rely on the tablet like those weird peopke that had a laptop and no desktop all those years ago.
With a 16GB/1TB tablet you could even ssh or RDP in from a crappy ol
Re:"Where is the rugged 16GB RAM ... tablet"? (Score:5, Informative)
This is the dumbest comment on Slashdot today. There's almost no difference in power consumption between small and large SSDs, likewise with the additional RAM. For example: standby power difference between a 120GB 850 pro and a 500GB 850 pro is in the order of 5mW. For those that don't understand what five milliwatts is let me put it for you in an example:
An iPad has a 43Wh battery in it. The power difference between the SSDs would drain the battery in 8600 hours, or to put it in numbers that are easier to understand, if you iPad currently lasts 10hours, with the upgraded SSD the iPad would last 9h 59m 18s.
During write these numbers are worse but the standard tablet usage scenario does not include continuous writing.
Here: (Score:4, Informative)
Here [emperorlinux.com].
Not even a LMGTFY.
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From 4000 to 6000 dollars. No, maybe something in between.
Re:Here: (Score:5, Funny)
Interesting. But I am amused to see that the SSDs are listed as "Shock mounted MIL-STD-810G ". You really ned to shock mount an SSD and not the rest of the electronics?!?!?!
Re:Here: (Score:5, Funny)
I don't see what sexual orientation has to do with this.
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Yeah, but that one in a million is busting a gut right now.
The perfect tablet is impossible. (Score:5, Insightful)
RAM: the more you want the more power it uses. Every one of those bits in RAM being used or not needs that charge to keep its state.
CPU/GPU: the faster the more power it uses. Every tick is a pulse of electricity
Video: The higher the resolution the more RAM and CPU/GPU needed.
Now what happens to this power once the calculation is done. Most of it becomes heat. Excess heat from these devices can damage components in the table. As well damage your body as well.
Then we have battery life. Battery storage capacity has been improving linearly, while computing power has been growing exponentially. So while the computer components get smaller leaving more room for battery, however it will rarely allow doubling the power capability.
Your Desktop PC can have loads of performance as you can burn energy right off the grid, filled with big empty spaces for heat dissipation
Your Laptop PC has less space and weight, however due to the space needed to type on a keyboard they are allowed much more room for battery power, as well some air pathways to keep the device cool.
Tablets are self contained computing devices. with nearly 0 room to spare. So any components are often underpowered or under clocked to keep heat down and extend battery life.
Normally this is a good tradeoff as they are normally just browsing web pages, or running simple apps. or more complex apps off of the could.
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RAM: the more you want the more power it uses. Every one of those bits in RAM being used or not needs that charge to keep its state.
That's not true and ignores the differences in manufacturing various RAM chips. True adding a whole second stick of memory to a PC will double the amount of power, but going from 1x 4GB stick made up of 8 chips to 1x 16GB stick made up of 8 chips changes nothing due to manufacturing differences in the chips themselves.
CPU/GPU: the faster the more power it uses. Every tick is a pulse of electricity
Assuming constant use, yes, assuming low power no not at all again.
The rest of your post is right on the money.
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The DRAM sticks in a PC have nothing to do with the SRAM in a tablet. The SRAM idle power consumption is almost purely leakage, and will be proportional to the number of gates - thus doubling capacity will double power consumption. Active power is unlikely to be significantly affected by doubling the memory, however.
As far as faster CPUs, even on the same process a CPU is synthesized for a target speed. If you want a slower CPU, the synthesis creates smaller (lower-power) transistors, and uses fewer buffe
Convergence devices suck anyway..... (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously, I work in I.T. for a company with a highly mobile workforce, and we're both Mac and Windows friendly on top of that. So our environment is mixed, with a lot of emphasis on trying out various portable options and cloud offerings, while still supporting some traditional server "back end" for our financial system and shared network drives.
Long ago, we switched all of our users from desktop systems to laptops, and we had a policy of issuing corporate iPads ever since the iPad 2 came along. (For a long time, we had a division of our company doing iOS software development - so it made sense to issue hardware to run the stuff we made.)
Right now, we're starting to issue the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 to new hires who request a Windows PC instead of a Mac. And that brings up the question of whether its time to stop issuing iPads - if the Surface Pro is supposed to double as a tablet.
What we're seeing though is that generally no, the "one solution fits all" model is a big compromise and doesn't really work that well. Out of all of the different computers we've issued over the years, from HP Elitebooks to various Dell machines to different Macbooks -- the only one that's held up over the years as the "gold standard" that users really liked AND worked reliably was the Macbook Air 13". It's light and thin enough so people can throw it in a backpack or whatnot and take it with them without a care. Battery life is great. It's about half the price of the high end Macbook Pro laptops. The basic look stayed the same from the first year of production through current models - meaning there's no stigma about someone pulling out and opening an older 2011 or 2012 model in a meeting with clients. And repairs are pretty reasonably priced. (With Apple doing a "flat rate" repair program on them, you can have one with 5 or 6 things wrong with it and it's still cost effective to have it serviced rather than trash it.)
With the Surface Pro 4, by contrast? Yes, people think things like the pencil are cool, and it's a very capable machine when plugged into a dock and used like a desktop. But as soon as you take it with you to use like an iPad, you run into a lot of downsides. Battery life NOT so great, for starters. And because it runs a full Windows 10 OS, it has the inherent problems that come with a full blown, more complex OS. Issues not always waking from sleep properly, for example -- leading to a long wait to reboot the whole thing, or apps that aren't designed for the hi-res 4K display so fonts display so tiny, they're unreadable. The keyboard cover is too flimsy to allow typing on it like laptop if you actually have to use it in your lap. (It's designed assuming you have a solid surface like a table underneath the whole thing.) Lastly, I think it's a big omission that you can't buy a Surface Pro 4 with a built-in LTE cellular modem like you can an iPad. Having a cellular data plan on the devices goes a LONG way towards feeling "always connected" and ensuring your cloud-based data or apps are always available "on the go".
Re:Convergence devices suck anyway..... (Score:4, Interesting)
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4 hours will barely get me between major airports. It is not worth the risk to believe that I can find a place to plug in while in the boarding area. What happen when I have to be in three cities that day? when is the device getting recharged.
re: complaints relatively incorrect? (Score:4, Informative)
I have to disagree that "all of my complaints are relatively incorrect". I'm glad you haven't experienced issues typing on the MS keyboard cover, but it's a fact that many of our users have. The Surface Pro is designed so it props upright along the edge of the cover, and the cover is a plastic and fabric combo that's slightly flexible. That means if you're sitting on a train or other form of public transportation and it's vibrating/bouncing around, the Surface Pro 4 can't really be held still by the keyboard portion - unlike a laptop with a traditional hinged lid firmly attached to the bottom half of the shell. That doesn't even begin to discuss such questions as why MS feels the need to sell the keyboard cover as an *option* for over $100 on a computer this expensive? Seems to me it should be included, as I've never met anyone who bought a Surface Pro 4 and decided to skip the keyboard cover.
As for the font scaling? Try any of a number of older apps developed using Java 6.... It's typically not compiled to be "scaling aware" (even if Java 6 technically did offer the option to compile source that way). Our Fonality VoIP "HUD" control panel is one such example. On a Surface Pro 4, if you launch it - you can't even see the phone extensions you're trying to click on because it draws them so tiny. There's no way to get Windows 10 to tell the app to draw it larger in proportion to everything else. All you can do is drag it onto a regular (non 4K) external display where it will display properly.
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I am glad there are people like you who can think rationally about devices like Surface Pro 4. Those "tablets" suck. They're too bulky and heavy for any real tablety application. Try to hold an iPad Air or Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 and then tell me after that that surface pro 4 is actually a tablet. Moreover, Surface Pro 4 is also a _bad_ notebook. For one, it's very clumsy to be used as a laptop, since the screen won't stand on its own without the rear hinge. The keyboard bends like its made from carboard. And
Gee, I wonder... (Score:2)
If it could have something to do with the fact that more ram, more cpu, more storage increase power usage, heat production, and weight. And more battery life means more weight.
I'm not sure there is a very large market for heavy tablets that melt your fingers. Though gaming laptops exist so I'm probably wrong...
Supplies in Guangdong & Shenzhen (Score:3)
It's the same reason why 1366x768 laptop displays aren't going away. There's a huge supply of them, they work, and they're cheap.
Guangdong and Shenzhen are mass producing cheap and common tablet parts like mad. You can find and buy them yourself on Alibaba; there's tons of cheap 8 and 16GB eMMC chips [alibaba.com], 1GB RAM chips [alibaba.com], and ARM processors [alibaba.com]. Companies like Samsung make higher quality and newer, pioneering products, like chips that integrate the storage & RAM together [techspot.com]. Soon, the Chinese generics will add these to their lineup, making tablets even smaller and cheaper.
If you want something different, vote with your wallet and buy something different. Then, if enough people do, that's what will become cheap and mass-produced.
The Rules, Break Them (Score:3)
A tablet camera must be barely acceptable.
A tablet with a pen must be updated rarely.
Android cannot be upgraded; You are allowed only one newer version or 2 years, whichever comes first.
A tablet cannot have removable main storage.
A tablet must use expensive MicroSD even if there is room for a full sized SD card.
The number of SD cards must only be 1.
Android must not be vanilla; it must be larded with crap so updates come slow.
Early Apple updates must break your device.
The tablet screen must be so shinny that you cannot use it outside.
You may not put a volume knob on anything.
Tablet must all look the same.
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A tablet must have only one data port that is also used for charging.
A Windows tablet must not act as a USB storage device, only as a USB host or use USB for charging, even if the hardware is capable.
The form factor sucks (Score:5, Informative)
I have yet to come up with a reason why I would want a tablet.
Tablets are meant for consumption, not production. Touchscreens are a regression in human interfaces: sloppy, imprecise, immediately unintuitive kludges for meta input. Tablets are one side of a power grab by the industry because PCs offer too much freedom, privacy and repairability; the other side is app markets and cloud services. Tablets are too convenient; to achieve that they must sacrifice any spec based on volume: battery capacity, storage, RAM, cooling, etc. Except screen size... gotta keep packing more pixels.
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Tablets are meant for consumption, not production.
Interestingly enough computer are meant for both, so at least a portion of your computer load can be served with a tablet and in great comfort too.
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Exactly. Tablets are primarily information and media consumption devices. I use a smaller 8 inch tablet to browse the web on a living room couch or in the kitchen, and a larger 10 inch android tablet more like a portable screen that I can take to a gym, motel or a flight to watch my favorite shows. But trying to do any productivity work with such device? Please. I have used a surface pro 4, and I can tell that it is both lousy as a laptop and lousy as a tablet. It's much easier and more effective to buy a c
Laptops (Score:5, Funny)
Old junk (Score:3)
A lot of companies that make Android tablets over-estimated the market size and rushed to marked with less than stellar devices. Then the market turned out to be a lot smaller and a lot more crowded than most of them had predicted. So they stopped investing in Android tablet hardware development. I think most of the Android tablets that you seen on store shelves now are probably basically 2012 models with some slight modifications. Of course they're under-powered compared to smartphones from 2015 and 2016 that have much more RAM and more powerful CPU:s.
Some exceptions:
Lenovo's new models. Their screens are not great, but they're okay for indoor use.
The Nvidia Shield K1.
Samsung's high end models, if you want to spend iPad-levels of cash on an Android tablet.
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most of the Android tablets that you seen on store shelves now are probably basically 2012 models with some slight modifications
That's a slight exaggeration, but roughly speaking you are correct. Most tablet manufacturers, including Apple and Samsung, are effectively on a 2-year model cycle. They may refresh their products more often, but a lot of those refreshes are basically marketing tricks to keep consumer interest going at all. I recall Apple's re-release an iPad Mini 2 as an iPad Mini 3 in 2014, with
Browsers SUCK CPU (Score:2)
I was shocked when I saw how much CPU scripts take on many websites. Even an 3 GHz i5 can get 75% loaded. Small wonder the little tablet ARMs get overwhelmed. Also seriously missing is [mini/micro] HDMI output on nearly all.
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Indeed, for most PC/tablet users who don't crunch numbers, don't game, and don't encode media files, the number one CPU hog is with web browser. Some of that problem can be mitigated by installing an adblocker, and configuring the flash and silverlight plugins to "always ask to activate". Noscript can improve speed further, but it's actually a big pain to use on daily basis.
They don't (Score:2)
You're buying the wrong devices.
Amrel tablet? (Score:2)
Maybe you should look here: http://computers.amrel.com/rug... [amrel.com]
Tablets for media consumption (Score:2)
Tablets, with enough resources, and an intelligently designed GUI and intelligently designed apps, could really revolutionize content creation. We have the technology now to do this. But it's not done because of the perception that tablets are only for media consumption.
But it's not just about tablet hardware -- serious applications must become more touch friendly. And by this I do *not* mean clipping the optional $114 keyboard to the tablet in order to do real work.
What I want is the equivalent of an Al
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Yet, sadly, it seems samsung has abandoned their Note line of tablets; I was hoping for them to go this direction :/
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Well, it would be great if you invented an email client, an calendar, word processor, and the rest of productivity apps that don't need either a keyboard or a mouse.
Re: Tablets for media consumption (Score:2)
I don't even care about that. I can do most of that on my *phone*. I want a tablet that runs adobe lightroom, photoshop and premere without a stupid keyboard or mouse, in some reasonable fashion. That's my primary use. Office suite is a far far distant second. You can do that on a $200 laptop.
Why the hell should you have to spend all your time scraping your rat just to move sliders around?
The Entire Post Explained: (Score:2)
Where have they gone (Score:2)
A few years back you could buy a decent name-brand 10" tablet for $300. Toshiba made the Excite 10, Samsung and Sony had direct competitors. Now you start at $500 and up for a name-brand 10" tablet, that is laptop territory.
I love the Excite 10 that I bought, two issues Toshiba no longer updates Android for it and refuses to unlock the bootloader so I can install Cyanogenmod.
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There is always some kind of deal going on allowing you to buy a Google Nexus 9 or Samsung Galaxy Tab S/S2 for around 400USD. But the way I see it, 400USD retail price for a large table is sort of a price that forces the manufacturers to cut corners. The Galaxy Tab S/S2 have the best screens, build quality, and SD card slot, but also come with poorly performing SoC (probably worse than some 200USD tablets) and poor battery life. The Nexus 9 comes with good SoC and better battery life, but there is no sd car
FREE MARKET (Score:2)
>" A Huffington Post article notes that this behavior has contributed significantly in "generating heaps of e-waste." Citing many advocates, the publication claims that Apple has "opposed legislation that could help curb it." "
It is a free market (or it is supposed to be, anyway, mostly). Yes, Apple prices suck. Yes, they do things to lock people in and charge an arm and a leg to keep people from fixing things.
AND YOU ARE FREE TO NOT BUY APPLE PRODUCTS. We don't need "legislation", we need INFORMATION
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And if you think Apple is a monopoly and there are no other excellent products in every category in which they sell, you have your head in the sand and are buying Apple products as a fashion statement. If that is what you want to do, fine, but stop complaining about it. Yeesh.
Apple does have a monopoly - on Apple products. I'm always amazed how people can overlook this fact.
As long as enough people like the products and the price is still within their financial means, Apple will do well financially.
Of course, there's a limit on how much Apple products and services the average household can buy before the monthly bill becomes existence-threatening.
When begging the question, beg a stupid one. (Score:2)
They don't. They're sufficient for their intended purpose when you take into account all the inherent tradeoffs.
You might as well complain that an A10 is slow or an MX5 has poor towing ability.
Tablets are supposed to be LIGHT... (Score:2)
"Where is the rugged 16GB RAM / 1TB Storage / 20-hour battery tablet?"
My answer would be "That's easy: They're hidden under their battery-packs!".
Seriously. Not every stinkin' thing that has a CPU/MCU/SoC in it is EQUIVALENT!
No matter how the industry tries, they just can't get a computing device with an integrated display, 16GB RAM, 1 TB SSD and under TEN hours of battery life into a package weighing less than about TWO pounds.
And then you want it to be "Rugged", whatever that means...
Fine. But people whine about "too heavy" when a Tablet is barely over HALF of that
Duh. (Score:2)
Tablets are not going to do any heavy lifting until they figure out a better battery tech in which to drive all that hardware you are lusting after.
Unrealistic expectations on price/performance? (Score:2)
Q>"have laughable battery times,"...lasts for a day or two in power
A>Have you looked at an iPad or Surface Pro?
Q>won't stand a month of regular everyday use and carrying around..."
A>I've had iPads and a Surface pro for years and they are fine.
Q>He asks why none of the manufacturers seem willing to offer more than one gigabyte of RAM -- and why they're so stingy with storage.
A>Have you looked at a Surfac
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I think the person asking questions was basically a troll. For one, such generous specs are not needed yet on most tablets for years. Second, a "tablet" with such specs (minus battery) already exists. It's called Surface Pro 4. Newegg lists a 16GB/1TB model for $2699 USD.
Money For Nothing? (Score:2)
I am sorry OP, but if you want a tablet with 16GB of memory, 1TB of storage, rugged, and a quality screen, then you're going to have to pay the same as for an Ultrabook or tablet with such specs. A Surface Pro 4, comes with about the specs you want, but you gotta pay 2.5K bucks for that.
And in general, I do not get it why people want a tablet with laptop specs. A tablet with laptop specs (e.g. a surface pro 4) ends up being relatively bulky and heavy, and is actually a lousy tablet and a lousy productivity
Replacable battery (Score:2)
I would settle for a tablet with a replacable battery.
Surface Pro 4 (Score:2)
That comes in a 16 GB / 1 TB version. It's very expensive though.
Cameras are especially crap (Score:2)
It's impossible to find a tablet with a high resolution camera or image stabilization. I must buy two devices.
One word answer (Score:2)
A tablet just cannot shed as much heat as a larger device so it's not going to match a gaming rig with huge fans.
It's actually quite amazing that the "low spec" tablets complained about have as much processing power as they have.
We've become the people who if we had a chance at high speed sub-orbital flight would complain about the airline food
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I have the same setup and very happy!
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I have one, and it's great, but it sure isn't the "rugged 16GB RAM / 1TB Storage / 20-hour battery tablet" that the submitter is asking for. But I think the submitter needs to explain why he thinks he needs those specs, because the fact is tablet specs actually don't suck, since they're good enough for the task most people use them for, and I can't see how most people would benefit from the specs he's asking for.
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the fact is tablet specs actually don't suck, since they're good enough for the task most people use them for
This clearly states the issue.
A year ago I bought a supposedly high-end expensive Samsung tablet and completely regret it. I've gotten little use out of it because (and I confess to having done inadequate pre-purchase research) it is just about useless as a productivity device, even with a Bluetooth keyboard.
At about the same time I bought an Asus Zenbook, installed Linux on it, and it's been worth every cent I paid--- I can get work done, unlike on the tablet. (For me, work is mostly writing and blogging.)
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If you want a tablet you can get work done on, I'd look at the Asus Transformer tablets. I own an ancient TF201, and not the shiny new TF701T, but it's been simply great with an attachable 'fullsized' keyboard that folds up with it and includes a second battery should ~8 hours not be enough (or you want to run the screen fairly bright all the time). I've done everything from writing novels, updating spreadsheets, and a couple times even video editing with it. Sadly from a quick look Asus doesn't seem to sel
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16GB RAM, 1TB storage right here (Score:3)
> "Where is the rugged 16GB RAM / 1TB Storage / 20-hour battery tablet?"
I think the submitter might be happier looking under a different category in Newegg. Newegg has 26 options with 8-16GB of RAM, and 256GB-1TB storage. Most products with that much RAM and storage ALSO come with a detachable or fold-away keyboard, so they are listed in the "2 in 1" category.
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More RAM less battery life
Not with effective power management. Unused RAM can be powered down.
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More RAM less battery life
Not with effective power management. Unused RAM can be powered down.
It is. RAM which is never installed in a device is, by definition, "powered down".
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Surface Pro line are hardly "tablets". So far I see that most people still buy keyboards and use them as a very lousy notebook (because for the same money, you can buy a convertible ultrabook that can actually be usable on your laps, and with a proper keyboard that's not made from recycled cardboard).
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