During my trip to Linaro Connect 2012q1 I want to buy Android tablet for myself. But this time I decided to spend more time on choosing one to not end with crap like Hannspree Hannspad which I bought half year ago.
Also situation on market changed. There are cheap tablets worth checking but there are also cheap crappy ones. So let me list what I checked so far.
| Kindle Fire | Nook Tablet | Archos 80 G9 Classic | Archos 80 G9 Turbo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| price (USD) | 199 | 249 | 259 | 299 |
| RAM size | 512MB | 1GB | 512MB | 512MB 1 |
| resolution | 1024×600 | 1024×600 | 1024×768 | 1024×768 |
| screen size | 7″ | 7″ | 8″ | 8″ |
| internal storage | 8GB | 16GB 2 | 8GB | 16GB |
| external storage | none | microSD | microSD | microSD |
| CPU | OMAP4430 1GHz | OMAP4430 1GHz | OMAP4430 1GHz | OMAP4460 1.5GHz 3 |
| stock Android version | 2.3 customized | 2.3 customized | 3.2 (4.0 in February) | 3.2 (4.0 in February) |
| community Android version | 4.0 | 4.0 | not checked | not checked |
| locked bootloader | no | yes (hacked) | no | no |
| USB Host | no | no | yes | yes |
| HDMI output | no | no | yes | yes |
As you see my requirements are more or less simple:
- dual core cpu (arm7)
- 512MB ram (1GB preferred)
- 1024×600 (or higher) resolution
- 7-8″ screen size (I had 10″ and it was too big)
- price below 300USD
During CES many vendors presented new tablets but I think that most of them will be released in Q2 or later. ASUS MeMo 370T looks nice for 250USD but it is not on market.
And I do not want 3G module in tablet — my phone has over 10GB of data limit to use for next months and so far I was not able to consume 1GB per month :)
Have I missed some devices? If yes then please share information in comments. Just remember that I do not want any of those NotionAdam/Viewsonic/Hannspad ones.
did you look into the Novo7 Ainovo? http://www.ainovo.com/specs.html
I would have bought one immediately but apparently its not available in AU yet.
I want 1024×600 or more. 800×480 is phone resolution. And I read review somewhere of that Ainovo tablet — screen was awful like in most of cheap Chinese stuff.
What about Galaxy Tab 7.7, 8, 10 ?
some have said (like CNET: http://goo.gl/qRhsQ ) that the Acer Iconia Tab A100 is a pretty good Android tablet. ports (micro-HDMI, micro-USB, microSD), 512MB RAM, Android 3.1, dual-core 1 GHz (NVIDIA Tegra 2), 8 GB. BUT, Acer seems to be having trouble selling tablets, will they give their full effort into remaining in this market? the are making an A200, so answer might be yes.
New A100 is 350USD — would rather buy Samsung Tab in this price range.
Hey there… I am also heading to Connect SF and I plan on ordering the Samsung 7.0 Plus (this is an exynos 1.2 Ghz dualcore) with 7″ screen. Pretty sweet machine and it is super light with 8 hours of battery life. Amazon has it for $350USD so the price it pretty good.
Archos g9 works well, we have one.
Don’t forget that most tablets are not GPL compliant (and Google profits from vendor’s lack of GPL compliance), best check these before buying:
http://www.codon.org.uk/~mjg59/android_tablets/ http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/8991.html http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/9387.html
Most of non-GPL complaint tablets are cheap Chinese crap which I do not consider even look at ;)
And active hacking community is a must for me.
Check out the HP Touchpad. You can still get new boxed units on eBay for a decent price.
I stuck with the stock WebOS, but the CyanogenMod team is doing great progress on the Android port.
From quick search it looks like most of auctions are at comparable prices to Archos tablets (which runs Android out-of-box).
I had very similar requirements to you. I bought a Lenovo A1, and I’m pretty happy with it. It was easy to root, but I’d like to get CWM and Cyanogen and those images are not available yet.
Archos is probably your best bet right now for cheaper tabs, and you should OC check out http://armdevices.net/ and ask Charbax/Nicolas Charbonnier to get a far better view of the Archos line best suited for your needs.
plus OC he would be good for getting a more in-depth video interview or 3 and widely seen PR for planet.linaro and all the ARM devices that go through there ;)
Today Amazon begun selling Lenovo A1 at very, very, very reasonable price: http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00603IAHG/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&s=computers&psc=1
259USD on amazon.com – nice price but it is comparable to Nook Color rather then ones in table. Single core CPU and Gingerbread make it less interesting then Archos one.