Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Top tablets: reviews
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NEW PRODUCTS,
TECHNOLOGY
A quick look at each of the top six tablets currently available, in no particular order
Pre-eminent and still the best tablet currently on the market, the iPad 2 is light, slim and a delight to use. But it’s not just the fact that you can read books, check your emails, browse the webs or watch videos that mean Apple, for now, own this market: the iPad has spawned a library of Apps that is continuing to grow rapidly and that has changed how many consumers think of media.
That means that there are countless, excellent games as well as apps that reinvent magazines and serve purposes that were impossible on other devices. Even cab drivers collecting passengers at airports are using iPads for the name of the person they’re picking up.
Asus Transformer
Asus’s Transformer is a departure for tablets: it combines an excellent Google Android tablet with a fully-fledged keyboard. The result is both a decent netbook and tablet that does everything an Android tablet currently can. That means web browsing, movies, a range of apps and scores of other uses are all possible, but so too is the longer-form work that demands a keyboard.
The Tranformer may not be the lightest or the most elegant of the forthcoming Android tablets, but it is certainly the first to really tackle the problems of typing on a touchscreen. An added bonus is that they keyboard effectively acts as a battery pack for the tablet and so can extend life to up to 16 hours.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2
The Galaxy Tab 2 is the only Android tablet to rival the iPad 2 for style. It’s light, slim, powerful and elegant. At 10.1”, the screen is big enough while the surprisingly light weight means it’s genuinely portable too. The only real downside is that the Tab 2 isn’t out yet. Using one extensively before release, however, indicates that at launch it will only be the availability of apps and the ease of use that differentiates the Tab 2 from the iPad.
That’s a double-edged compliment, however: the Tab 2 has a single dock port, rather than any bells and whistles that might let you connect HDMI cables etc. In due course, however, wireless technologies may render that complaint irrelevant.
Motorola Xoom
Motorola’s Xoom, in both the US and the UK, was the first tablet to come to the market using Google’s Android operating system. It remains an impressive device: a decent 10” screen, a powerful processor and the real faults at launch were simply down to the lack of apps for Honeycomb, the codename for the tablet version of Android.
Although critics suggested that the placing of the on button on the back, for instance, was a design flaw, in fact it was simply different from the iPad: the Xoom remains a viable alternative because most users of tablets will be focused on web browsing, email and ereading. With that in mind, it’s as good an Android tablet as is currently available in the UK.
Acer Iconia
Available in both 7” and 10” versions, the Acer Iconia is a reasonably priced (from £299) device that surpasses expectations. It has more ports and consequently can do more than most of its counterparts, and it’s also nicely put together. A Windows version is also available, making it plain that tablets really need to have proper tablet interfaces such as Honeycomb to be effective.
What the Iconia really reveals, however, is how different a 7” and a 10” tablet is: one device feels like there’s enough space for browsing the web and watching films in relative luxury. The other, however, is far better suited for portability. That means consumers should decide what’s most important to them and buy accordingly, rather than simply going for the 7” because it’s cheaper.
HTC Flyer
The HTC Flyer is one of a very few tablets that is distinctly different: featuring a pen, it might feel like this is a technological instalment of Back to the Future, but in fact the ‘stylus’ is used to write on the 7” device and take handwritten notes in a way that has genuinely not been easy before. Integration with Evernote and other applications means that it could replace a notepad and also record audio too.
Aside from the pen, the Flyer also offers a version of HTC Sense, the company’s own interface, that runs over an older version of Android. The result is a tablet that’s genuinely very different from the others, although not necessarily a rival to larger models.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2
The Galaxy Tab 2 is the only Android tablet to rival the iPad 2 for style. It’s light, slim, powerful and elegant. At 10.1”, the screen is big enough while the surprisingly light weight means it’s genuinely portable too. The only real downside is that the Tab 2 isn’t out yet. Using one extensively before release, however, indicates that at launch it will only be the availability of apps and the ease of use that differentiates the Tab 2 from the iPad.
Samsung's Galaxy Tab II aims to take on the iPad 2
That’s a double-edged compliment, however: the Tab 2 has a single dock port, rather than any bells and whistles that might let you connect HDMI cables etc. In due course, however, wireless technologies may render that complaint irrelevant.
Motorola Xoom
Motorola’s Xoom, in both the US and the UK, was the first tablet to come to the market using Google’s Android operating system. It remains an impressive device: a decent 10” screen, a powerful processor and the real faults at launch were simply down to the lack of apps for Honeycomb, the codename for the tablet version of Android.
Although critics suggested that the placing of the on button on the back, for instance, was a design flaw, in fact it was simply different from the iPad: the Xoom remains a viable alternative because most users of tablets will be focused on web browsing, email and ereading. With that in mind, it’s as good an Android tablet as is currently available in the UK.
Acer Iconia
Available in both 7” and 10” versions, the Acer Iconia is a reasonably priced (from £299) device that surpasses expectations. It has more ports and consequently can do more than most of its counterparts, and it’s also nicely put together. A Windows version is also available, making it plain that tablets really need to have proper tablet interfaces such as Honeycomb to be effective.
What the Iconia really reveals, however, is how different a 7” and a 10” tablet is: one device feels like there’s enough space for browsing the web and watching films in relative luxury. The other, however, is far better suited for portability. That means consumers should decide what’s most important to them and buy accordingly, rather than simply going for the 7” because it’s cheaper.
HTC Flyer
The HTC Flyer is one of a very few tablets that is distinctly different: featuring a pen, it might feel like this is a technological instalment of Back to the Future, but in fact the ‘stylus’ is used to write on the 7” device and take handwritten notes in a way that has genuinely not been easy before. Integration with Evernote and other applications means that it could replace a notepad and also record audio too.
Aside from the pen, the Flyer also offers a version of HTC Sense, the company’s own interface, that runs over an older version of Android. The result is a tablet that’s genuinely very different from the others, although not necessarily a rival to larger models.
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