[ale] need tablet buying advice, bought nook, liked it, returned it

[Ron Frazier (ALE)]

Good point about Google IO.  I might wait as you say.  Waiting for new 
toys is hard though, especially on the rare occasions I have a small 
chunk of change to spend.  Actually, I've been thinking of this purchase 
for maybe a year, waiting for the features to come up and prices to come 
down a bit.  8-)

Ron

On 4/4/2012 9:12 AM, Cameron Kilgore wrote:
> Asus has been crushing it with their Eee Pad series. I have the 
> transformer with the keyboard and it screams. ICS was unstable, but 
> they've patched it up.
>
> It might behoove you to wait until Google IO when its expected they'll 
> announce the "Nexus" tablet.
>
> --Cameron
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 9:04 AM, Chesser.Damon 
> <Damon.Chesser at suntrust.com <mailto:Damon.Chesser at suntrust.com>> wrote:
>
>     Check out the Le Pan II, Microcenter has them at $279.00.  You can buy
>     them online for $279.00.  I own one.  Very happy with it.  9.7" screen
>     1024x768, wireless b,n, and I think G.  No G3 or G4.
>     http://sortable.com/tablet/Le-Pan-II-specs
>
>     Damon at damtek.com <mailto:Damon at damtek.com>
>
>     -----Original Message-----
>     From: ale-bounces at ale.org <mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org>
>     [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org <mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org>] On
>     Behalf Of Ron
>     Frazier (ALE)
>     Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2012 5:58 PM
>     To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts; Ron Frazier (Linux)
>     Subject: [ale] need tablet buying advice, bought nook, liked it,
>     returned it
>
>     Hi all,
>
>     I'm back on the tablet hunt again.  I bought a Nook yesterday,
>     used the
>     SD card trick to put CM7 on it without affecting the original system,
>     really liked it, then returned it.  BN works so hard at foiling anyone
>     trying to run something else, it's a major pain.  I got CM7 to boot,
>     then shut down the tablet.  Rebooted into BN, since I wanted to be
>     able
>     to flip back and forth, and then tried to boot CM7 again.  I never got
>     it running again.  I reflashed the SD card and tried again.  Again, I
>     got CM7 to boot only once.  The BN software was 1.4.1 I think.
>      Anyway,
>     while I really like the tablet, I just don't want to be fighting
>     the big
>
>     corp all the time to keep my alt version of the software running.  So,
>     I'm back in the market and, if you all have experience with such
>     things,
>
>     I'd like some advice.
>
>     I'd like to get the following minimum features.  The Nook didn't have
>     some of these, but I wanted the ability to read BN books in the BN
>     store.  I realize I won't be able to do that with another tablet.
>
>     7" or 10" screen (10" is probably not possible in my price range.)
>     capacitive touch screen
>     Android 3.2 or 4.x, or at least upgradable to 4.x.
>     1 GHz processor, preferably dual core
>     1 GB ram
>     16 GB flash
>     sd or micro sd card slot
>     front and back cameras
>     microphone
>     headphone jack
>     hdmi output
>     usb port (full USB functionality is preferable)
>     access to full android market and google apps
>     accelerometer
>     wifi b/g
>     Thin is good.  The nook is .48" and feels good in your hand.
>
>     The following features would be nice to have but not critical.
>
>     haptic feedback
>     wifi b/g/n
>     gps
>     gyroscope ? (I saw this on a spec sheet somewhere.  Is that different
>     from an accelerometer?  If so, what's it for?)
>
>     I'd like to keep the price of the tablet itself under $ 320.
>
>     I haven't studied all the specs yet on these, but my current
>     candidates
>     are:
>
>     Acer Iconia 7 - Best Buy - $ 259 (or was it $ 269)
>     Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 - Best Buy $ 300 (currently, normally $ 350)
>
>     By the way, Best Buy now has 30 day returns, 30 day price match,
>     and 30
>     days of tech support by phone.
>
>     I'm sure there are other tablets which meet this criteria.  I'd
>     appreciate your thoughts on this.  I don't want to root anything or
>     fight the designers to make it run.  The tablet has to run
>     Honeycomb or
>     Ice Cream Sandwich natively.  I could go slightly higher in price,
>     but I
>
>     want to also have some money for a case, android book, etc.
>
>     Sincerely,
>
>     Ron
>

-- 

(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new messages very quickly.)

Ron Frazier

770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
linuxdude AT techstarship.com

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