Tablet PCs

[LeftEyeNine]

Hello,

Before I can get my hands on a laptop I'll order from USA, I thought a tablet PC in the meantime would suffice for my internet/entertainment needs. (I have a PS3 for gaming)

I am somewhat fond of Android-powered gadgets and therefore took a look into that market. I've seen some good reviews about Asus EeePads. I guess they also have released their latest product to be the first gadget on the market having a Tegra3 processor. I may be wrong.

Criteria:

- 3g & Wi-fi. Connectivity is topmost concern.
- Powerful hardware. I don't want lags or stutters while scrolling down a heavy-loaded website or watching a 1080p movie on the excuse that it's merely a tablet PC.
- Wide software options. I am a software mole -I may dig into any (hence my love for open-source). My eyes flush with tears of joy when some software pushes the limits, i.e. unlocking more computing power/optimizations -I love trying such stuff.
- I am a Wikiphreak. Quality LCD which is easy and lovely to look at as well as being big enough for more comfort would be fine.
- I have not owned a single touch-screen tool in my life so I guess you'd be better than me at recommending a rig that has fine touch sensitivity (and what to look for).

Other than that, if you are intent to say "Android be darned, get an iPad 2 because Jobs needs more female unicorns to drive his sleigh of rainbows", I'm willing to hear that too.


Thanks in advance.

[LeftEyeNine]

:( Y U NO ANSWAR

[Furunculus]

i went for a blackberry playbook.

i bought it because:
1. i have a decent smartphone that covers my connectivity needs, so 3G was not necessary
2. i wanted decent hardware such as the Ti Omap4 SoC/Tegra3/Samsung Xenyos (rather than Omap3/Tegra2/etc)
3. i don't like the UI in android as it had poor multitasking (not so much of a problem with ice-cream-sandwich)
4. portability is king, and most tablets are 10" whereas i wanted a pocketable 7"
5. all of the above was available for £169 (most android tablets of a similar price are shocking rubbish!)
6. it has a very good tabbed browser with flash 11.1 support

that said, if 3G connectivity is necessary (why haven't you got a decent smartphone?), then i'd recommend one of the new samsung tablets, because:
1. they are usually available in 3G versions
2. ice-cream-sandwich is a half-decent tablet OS, and will be available as an upgrade
3. samsung's 32nm xenyos SoC's are the best thing since sliced bread (tied with Apple A5)
4. great build quality
5. beautiful 7" Super OLED HD display

http://uk.insight.com/productinfo/ta...=base&src=FRO1

but seriously, 3G tablets are overpriced. get a decent smartphone (like the N9 ;) ), and a £170 playbook.

[LeftEyeNine]

Fine but I may be spending time in our summerhouse where Wi-fi infrastructure is hard to found since not all summerhouse residents we are living within the same site would like to make a payment they'd never use. Also those people who want/need internet access are actively using 3G modems on their laptops to do so.

So if I need some proper internet connection while at the summerhouse, I really need a 3G-enabled gadget and I don't like plugging in crappy Chinese modems the 3G mobile operators give you to do it.

[Arab_accent]
OLED iz drrooling, yes ?
[/Arab_accent]

So Android's multi-tasking issues are to be overcome, if not done already ?

[Furunculus]

Fine but I may be spending time in our summerhouse where Wi-fi infrastructure is hard to found since not all summerhouse residents we are living within the same site would like to make a payment they'd never use. Also those people who want/need internet access are actively using 3G modems on their laptops to do so.

So if I need some proper internet connection while at the summerhouse, I really need a 3G-enabled gadget and I don't like plugging in crappy Chinese modems the 3G mobile operators give you to do it.

[Arab_accent]
OLED iz drrooling, yes ?
[/Arab_accent]

So Android's multi-tasking issues are to be overcome, if not done already ?

no problem. :)

multi-tasking got a fairly major upgrage in ICS:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives..._ice_cream.php

haven't tried it myself but has to be better than Honeycomb (asus transformer).

the 3G Samsung tablets should meet your needs, they do make fine hardware.

[LeftEyeNine]

Oh oh oh oh, one thing I've already wondered:

How is this Android OS update basically going ?

I mean, e.g. I got myself an ICS-loaded gadget which is 4.0, I guess, and how far will I be able to update that OS ? What makes version leaps impossible if any ? Or whole OS upgrade has to do with the tablet PC manufacturer since they provide product-specialized versions of the OS and make it available then ? Does that mean you can only upgrade as long as your manufacturer provides you ?