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Should I buy a tablet pc, ipad, netbook, or other?
JavaJones:
I see you may have made up your mind by now, but I'll comment anyway just in case you're still thinking... hehe.
iPad isn't quite "instant on", it's about 15 seconds - some of the Linux instant-on solutions are faster than that. Hilariously the video I found to demonstrate this has a guy counting out about 10 seconds, but the video time elapsed shows at least 15 going by: http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-general-discussions/181-ipad-boot-times.html
The iPad uses the same OS as the iPhone, which is a smart phone OS. They updated it to work with the iPad, but it's not a complete redesign by any means, and many people have mentioned the similarities and, in some cases, holdover stupidity from a phone UI on iPad, especially with apps not yet updated for the larger form factor. The same is true of Android, neither is particularly better designed for a tablet experience, and by the time the majority of Android tablets come out, they'll have had just as much time to customize for the tablet experience as iOS did.
The N5 does look interesting, but the screen is not much larger than the more recent touch-screen cell phones, and while the keyboard is a bit larger than sliders like the Samsung Epic (which is a phone I'm planning to get as soon as it comes out), you still can't use standard typing position so it's not necessarily going to be any faster. It's also a heavier and not really pocketable (depends on your pockets I guess). Running Win7 may be an advantage as far as flexibility, but you have to remember that Windows wasn't designed for screens that small, so it's really going to be cramped in, any any advantage from being able to e.g. run your typical desktop apps is probably going to be lost in many cases just because the UI is illegible. Win7 is also likely to be a bit heavier than e.g. Android and so may affect performance (although I know N5 reviews are so far saying performance is pretty good). Anyway it's certainly a viable option, but getting further away from the tablet benefits and more toward cell phone territory, in which case one wonders why you wouldn't consider a smart phone (granted there are data plan charges that most carriers require). It's a shame smart phones aren't sold more often unbundled...
Personally I've found a netbook to be the best solution so far (provided touch screen is not a requirement). They're light enough to be extremely portable - I take mine places I'd never bring my laptop - the keyboard is actually quite decent and can totally be typed on naturally and quickly with standard finger positioning, and you can do anything you want with it like a regular desktop. I've got an ASUS I'm extremely happy with, it claims 10.5 hrs battery life and in practical use I get about 9, so it's pretty good. Newer ones have dual core and can handle stuff like HD video better, but mine is great as-is. It's running XP but I imagine it would be great on Win7 too. Now I don't use it as much as my main desktop or laptop admittedly, but when I do go out and need the portability it's definitely my go-to. We'll see what happens when I get my new smart phone. :D
- Oshyan
phitsc:
We'll see what happens when I get my new smart phone. :D
-JavaJones (August 07, 2010, 06:56 PM)
--- End quote ---
Which one are you getting?
JavaJones:
Samsung Epic. 1Ghz Hummingbird CPU (benchmarked faster than Snapdragon), 4″ WVGA Super AMOLED display, sliding QWERTY keypad, 5 megapixel camera with 720p video capture, front-facing camera for video calling, GPS, Wi-Fi b/g/n, mobile hotspot support for five devices, six-axis motion sensor, and 512MB RAM / 1GB ROM. It's basically the highest spec'ed phone you can get that has a sliding keyboard.
- Oshyan
superboyac:
I see you may have made up your mind by now, but I'll comment anyway just in case you're still thinking... hehe.
iPad isn't quite "instant on", it's about 15 seconds - some of the Linux instant-on solutions are faster than that. Hilariously the video I found to demonstrate this has a guy counting out about 10 seconds, but the video time elapsed shows at least 15 going by: http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-general-discussions/181-ipad-boot-times.html
The iPad uses the same OS as the iPhone, which is a smart phone OS. They updated it to work with the iPad, but it's not a complete redesign by any means, and many people have mentioned the similarities and, in some cases, holdover stupidity from a phone UI on iPad, especially with apps not yet updated for the larger form factor. The same is true of Android, neither is particularly better designed for a tablet experience, and by the time the majority of Android tablets come out, they'll have had just as much time to customize for the tablet experience as iOS did.
The N5 does look interesting, but the screen is not much larger than the more recent touch-screen cell phones, and while the keyboard is a bit larger than sliders like the Samsung Epic (which is a phone I'm planning to get as soon as it comes out), you still can't use standard typing position so it's not necessarily going to be any faster. It's also a heavier and not really pocketable (depends on your pockets I guess). Running Win7 may be an advantage as far as flexibility, but you have to remember that Windows wasn't designed for screens that small, so it's really going to be cramped in, any any advantage from being able to e.g. run your typical desktop apps is probably going to be lost in many cases just because the UI is illegible. Win7 is also likely to be a bit heavier than e.g. Android and so may affect performance (although I know N5 reviews are so far saying performance is pretty good). Anyway it's certainly a viable option, but getting further away from the tablet benefits and more toward cell phone territory, in which case one wonders why you wouldn't consider a smart phone (granted there are data plan charges that most carriers require). It's a shame smart phones aren't sold more often unbundled...
Personally I've found a netbook to be the best solution so far (provided touch screen is not a requirement). They're light enough to be extremely portable - I take mine places I'd never bring my laptop - the keyboard is actually quite decent and can totally be typed on naturally and quickly with standard finger positioning, and you can do anything you want with it like a regular desktop. I've got an ASUS I'm extremely happy with, it claims 10.5 hrs battery life and in practical use I get about 9, so it's pretty good. Newer ones have dual core and can handle stuff like HD video better, but mine is great as-is. It's running XP but I imagine it would be great on Win7 too. Now I don't use it as much as my main desktop or laptop admittedly, but when I do go out and need the portability it's definitely my go-to. We'll see what happens when I get my new smart phone. :D
- Oshyan
-JavaJones (August 07, 2010, 06:56 PM)
--- End quote ---
I think this sums up the way I think pretty accurately. Had I gotten something, it would have been a netbook. As it is, I'm going to get my two non-gadget things (which, honestly, I was going to get anyway) and wait for this whole tablet thing to mature.
And I still say someone is going to become a billionaire one day by doing what Dell did to cell phones: separate the service from the hardware and allow people to sort of build your own cellphone. That's where it should be going anyway. At this point, cell phones are just like computers, so when will we (computer geeks) be able to treat them as such? Meaning, I want to pick the cell phone I want with the hardware specs that I want, I want to put whatever OS I want into it, and configure the OS, apps, just the way I want. That's when things will really get interesting. Wouldn't that be great?
JavaJones:
Dell's laptops still aren't that configurable - in fact it's hard to make configurable laptops due to the constraints of the form factor. Phone form factor is even more constricted and requires even more rigid design to end with good results. When you have such little space to work with, you have to design with every component that will be in the phone in mind to fit it all in properly while maintaining weight, battery life, and other factors.
In any case, I do think the OS side of things could be "revolutionized", as well as the purchase model. Google tried to do this, but they are fundamentally not a customer service company. If a company who is (theoretically) customer service driven (like Dell or any other major electronics developer/seller) did it, I think it would work a lot better. You need existing sales channels and, perhaps most importantly, technical support. Google's relationship to Nexus One was really pretty frustrating. So yes, I think Dell could do great things for the smart phone world's sales model, with an Android OS as a base for example, but the underlying issue of carrier lock-in is still a huge problem to overcome...
- Oshyan
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