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

[Lightner, Jeff]

Waiting for features almost never works out for tech gadgets because once they’re available some other cool new feature is pending so it becomes a never ending game.

Waiting for price drops on the other hand so long as you don’t want the latest features often makes sense.






________________________________
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Ron Frazier (ALE)
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2012 10:41 AM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] need tablet buying advice, bought nook, liked it, returned it

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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