Nothing super fantastic. A guy from work imported a bunch of these WM8650 from China. They're running android 2.2 and have an 800Mhz processor in them...little to no space but expandable. Even after updating it with some custom rom to make it more for North America, it was underwhelming. My SGS blows it out of the water for speed and ability. BUT...it has my interest perked. If I were to pick up a Xoom or Galaxy Tab 10.1, picked up a new Harmony Link, the tablet would sit as part of my home entertainment setup, be an all-in-one remote, and do everything that I need it to do for browsing, work, etc.. I can see the uses for a tablet, where I was a non-believer before.
If you want some thing with IR, the new sony tablet has a built in IR blaster. I had xoom for a while it wasnt that good IMO, so i returned it for Acer Iconia. That tablet is really great. Running HC3.2 rooted, every thing runs smoothly. HDMI , full usb and SD slot makes things very easy. With huge XDA support, you have plenty of roms you can play with. I have mine OC to 1.5ghz and runs rock solid. Never thought i would use tablet much, i just bought it to try some thing new. Now i hardly use my laptop or my netbook, even use the tablet in my vehicles for gps and other things. Especially with custom roms and Kernel you have usb 3g support for even A500 vs A501. As for Galaxy Tab 10.1, i played with it abit. It definitely got a better screen other wise every thing feels the same just abit slower. But i think that's probably because i am use to 1.5ghz tablet vs just 1ghz stock i played with.
I forgot about the Iconia, and really...I'm looking for something that is relatively portable that I wouldn't have worry about a huge laptop bag or something to tote around. Which one are you packing? I can get the 8GB 7" for $299 or bump to the 10" 16GB for $399. I'm thinking if I got the 8GB 7", it would be plenty big for me (that's what she said) and I could always buy an add-on card for the extra 70 bucks...still cheaper than the 16GB...but I get an extra 10". I'll have to go look at that...
I completely forgot about A100. I havent played with that one much, but i have heard it has poor battery life. IMO the price difference between A100 and A500 is negligible. Bigger screen is big plus for such a small price difference and more battery life. Also XDA has pretty good support for A500, but i am not sure about A100. As for mobility, personally after i bought mine (A500 (16GB)) and got a leather case; its actually very comfortable. Definitely dont feel cumbersome. One big disadvantage i ran in to with A500 is the dam car charger. You have to use 3rd party car charger and even then its questionable. I think its a problem with all 10.1" tablet. They use higher Amps then the car battery can provide. But some people got it working using 3rd party car charger. Which ever you choose, just play around with it, and check out which device got alot of support from developer. Eventually you will get board with stock, and want to try cooked roms and kernels which will add new cool stuff to the device.
I bought an Ipad a couple of years ago because I spend a lot of time in the back of Air Force C-17s and KC-135s so it's golden for that. But, when I'm home, it sits right next to the shitter, I check my email and the news while I'm taking care of things at 5 in the morning and it never leaves there, ever. I'm not buying these reports the laptop is dead.
That's what I love about the Galaxy S. Custom roms = far better device. I'll have to swing by staples or future shop today and check it out. The great thing about this is that the tablet is going to be more of an inbetween for me. So I'm not worried about dragging it into my vehicle unless my wife wants to use it on a trip. I'm more looking at this as a piece that when I get home, and ready to relax for the night, I can pick it up in home entertainment area, and read a book, watch a video, surf, chat, all from the comfort of my couch. And who knows...I might take it on work trips too, so that I don't have to whip out my laptop in my hotel...I just whip this out. Cheapest I can get the Iconia A500 is $399 and for 16GB of space...plenty of room right off the bat.
So far i have used HoneyVillain 1.2, Virtuous Galaxy, Virtuous Xoom, Lightspeed. Since i have root and got CWM, which allows me to restore to any ROM i have already backed up. I went back to Acer A500 Stock 3.1 then used the modified OTA 3.2 HC. Since there is no way to root the new OTA HC 3.2 update. I am using modified OTA 3.2 update with different kernel. In modified version of OTA 3.2 Dev made it so the update dont touch Recovery, which leave CWM and root intact. Also some time it seems ROMs have the mind of there own. You will try to do a clean install of a new ROM by wiping every thing, and you will have some problem like lost GPS. However someone will do the same thing, and it will work fine right of the bat. So that just get frustrating. Then you do the same thing you did before and it will work fine, just weird that way.
The debate rages on! I can get a 32GB Xoom, used, for $350 which includes a case and stand. The modding doesn't look nearly as robust for it though. I could be wrong. Also, a few months back a woman I know was looking at buying an iCrap and I steered her towards Android. She initially bought an Iconia 32GB, and then took it back for the Xoom and seemed much happier. *SIGH* I guess I'll have to play with the Xoom a little bit. I liked the Iconia, but if I can save myself $89 on just the tablet alone...I might go the Xoom. EDIT: Yeah..there's a decent following on XDA with the same ability to overclock, etc.. Decisions.
I think the advantage with Xoom is that its stock HC. So when Google rolls out the update you get it right away. As for cooked ROMs and kernel, there are plenty of that for Xoom too. When i had to choose between Xoom and Iconia, there werent many case around and xoom really felt plasticity; compare to Iconia. Also back then Xoom didn't have working SD, it was waiting for update. Another big deciding factor for me was rooting. Not sure what's the process for Xoom now. Back then it was very lengthy and tedious compare to rooting Iconia A500.
From the looks of it, it's pretty simple. Root and put on CWM. Put a file on the zip. Flash with CWM. Anything can be easier than the first flashing of my SGS. Odin would work half the time on my home computer, but work all the time on my notebook, so I would have to take it home and flash phones with it when I was done work...it was a mess. Just waiting to see if this chick still has it, see if I can "reserve" it and get it by next week. If I can't and she doesn't have it by next week, I'll go get an Iconia. Win-win situation for me.
Going to work and just wanted to throw this out there... Do you guys know of any decent inexpensive android tablets off of ebay? I want to buy a 10" tablet for my daughter... It does not need to be anything special. Have built in wifi and be able to play most games. Im not worried about internet browsing or anything fancy.
You can probably pickup a decent one. There's a lot of Chinese models out there. But look for capacitive touch! Resistive sucks! Or toshiba just released a cheap 8gb for like $299 or thereabouts.
I found this tablet and it has good reviews...what do you ninjas think? http://www.mcbub.com/item/10-2--Zen...-Camera-HDMI-WiFi-512MB-4GB-Tablet-PC-134076/
Specs seem good, but I dunno. The way that guy is pressing on the screen in that youtube video...it looks like resistive touch. Yuck. You have to press twice as hard to register things.
That worried me too. I did a lot more research and found some reviews on youtube and no one else is pressing the screen nearly as hard. Must be a weird Asian thing This tablet can also be rooted...
So, I bought a 32GB Xoom and I'm selling it already. Good thing I bought it used because I'm NOT taking a hit on it. I love my android phone and it's capabilities. The Xoom is a fast piece of hardware, but for what it can do...my phone does it, without any issues (ie. honeycomb doesn't support some of the apps that I love to use). Like I said...i'm not taking a hit, so that's always a good thing.
