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Should I buy a tablet pc, ipad, netbook, or other?

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Stoic Joker:
Quite true, most of the basic phones are the old people style low vision phones that are positively hideous. I've currently got the plainest (Nokia) clamshell phone I could find and even it has a host of nonsense "features" that annoy the hell outa me. 4 music stores, 3 GPS mapping programs, shopping apps, and a bunch of nondescript hipster crapware that does I have no idea what.

It's a phone. ...that works poorly as a phone because I have to sort through all the crap to get to the phone features.

superboyac:
I really think you're dramatically oversimplifying. Or at the least, not accounting for the sacrifices that are made when you take something that has extreme design requirements and try to make it very flexible. Remember the iPhone 4 antenna issue? Imagine the issues that would come up if people had the choice of whether or not a GPS, Wifi, whatever was in their phone, and how you'd have to change antenna design(s) to accomodate.

There are also semi-customizable laptops, see http://www.powernotebooks.com/ for example. And Dell allows some amount of customization even, on certain models. Are people clamoring for more? Not really. Even power users? Yep, even power users.

Hobby computer building was probably born out of the general hobby mindset of the 80s, where you could get e.g. a "theramin kit" or any other electronic gadget in a built-it-yourself kit. Now these things are still generally available, but back then it was like everyone wanted them, even your grandma. And hobby system building may have even somewhat predated the fixed system, at least in some sense. I don't know why really, but I do think the PC form factor and purpose is more suited to custom builds (and more needing of it). I just don't see a significant need with phones, and this is coming from someone who builds his own computers and has done for the past 15+ years. Do *you* see a need for this? Can you explain what *you* would do if you could "build your own phone"? I can all but guarantee that a phone exists that does pretty much what you want. The only difference might be that it's not on a carrier you want to use. Which brings us right back to the carrier lock-in issue, and says to me that *that's* the real issue.
-JavaJones (August 09, 2010, 12:09 AM)
--- End quote ---
Yeah, you might be right.  One thing is for sure: people are definitely NOT clamoring for custom built phones or laptops.  That much is true.  Am I oversimplifying?  I may very well be, I don't know enough to say for sure.  I know it's hard to build something with such a tight fit, but is that really the reason why?

xtabber:
The Samsung Galaxy Tape is another option that may be available by September, if rumors are to be believed:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/202347/let_the_samsung_galaxy_tablet_hype_begin.html

Supposedly it will have a screen res of 1024 X 600 (iPad is 1024 x 768) on a 7" diagonal Super Amoled screen. That's quite adequate for reading and viewing, in a substantially smaller package than the iPad, and with the advantages of Android rather than the closed iOS environment.

wraith808:
Personally, I don't want anything smaller than 1024x768.  I've tried it several times, and that extra 168 pixels makes a lot more difference than it seems on paper.

superboyac:
Personally, I don't want anything smaller than 1024x768.  I've tried it several times, and that extra 168 pixels makes a lot more difference than it seems on paper.
-wraith808 (August 09, 2010, 10:36 AM)
--- End quote ---
I'm with you there.  in fact, when I was thinking about this yesterday, i realized that I don't like portable computing simply because the screens are too small for me to do anything that I'd normally like to do.  All these devices would eventually degrade to glorified mp3 players after a while to me, if the screen wasn't big enough.

I just love screen real estate.  I have two 24" monitors at home, and I love it.  It's almost like I can't go back to anything less than that.  I might even add a third.

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