Thursday 25 July 2013

Just a point

The other day, not long after writing up on the selection of tablets I compared I was surfing around for a new tablet myself (I managed to spark my own interest). This isn't a post about a comparison.. I just found a tablet with a very interesting niche. The Archos Gen10 XS. A new-slim, sleek and shiny- tablet with an interesting concept on keyboard docking tablets in which the keyboard dock also doubles up as a hard cover for the tablet, making it easily transportable and.. very nice looking actually. This is a 10 inch tablet running on Android 4.1. it has a 1.5 GHz multicore processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB internal storage and a micro sd card slot for extra memory. Another point that was interesting that I really liked, and personally think all tablets should take as a necessity) is the HDMI  port. very handy to output screen broadcasts or use the tablet as a secondary monitor and such. Coming in at £250 ($390) the Archos Gen10 XS is a nice little tablet. as always here's the link:  Archos Gen10 XS at Amazon


Friday 19 July 2013

Tablet Time.


Tablet Time

in the last few years mobile devices have become very much the front line of the market- the most recent of which being the tablet. Tablets are in basic terms a single computer unit controlled  by a touch screen display. Of course they're a bit more advanced than that but we'll catch up on technicality's later. I also displayed links to the products for any more information you may need or if you fancy one of these tablets for yourself.

As far as the market for tablet's go currently..there are different aspects to suit different people's needs. I can identify these 4 main categories

  • Best for gaming 
  • Best for multi media
  • Best for general usage
          and
  • Executive 
I also selected the main points for comparison between tablets;

  • Screen: It's got to have a big shiny screen. size in this case, certainly matters- different sizes are better suited to what people need them for. It also has to be a certain resolution too of course some need full HD..some couldn't care less.
  • speed: No body wants a tablet that takes ten minutes to start up.. 20 to load an image and 3 hours to download a video. I don't just mean processor power-although crucial- I also mean wireless capabilities..need to have nippy internet when you're away from any known source of wifi. 
  • Function: What can you do on this tablet? edit media formats (images videos audio etc), read eBooks, keep on top of your social life..well.. social networks. 
  • hardware: Very, very important. you need to check cameras, screens, CPU, GPU, touch screens, speekers, microphones, memory, wireless and wired connections.. The works.
Right now you're up to date on what you want your tablet for and what to look for in said tablet.. let's get comparing.

so..gaming. a quick google search and the tablet that comes up the most is the Razer Edge pro tablet- designed to perform for running heavy memory usage games. this tablet comes as a 10 inch multi touch 1366x768 HD screen running windows 8 (not yet brilliant for apps) but that's not what you came for. here's the real information you want and why this comes up as the brand gaming tablet. intel dual core 1.7 Ghz processor, dual mounted intel and nvidia graphics cards running a rather nice excess of 2GB, a truly massive internal storage( either 128 or 256 GB!) and a rather large 8gb RAM. All of which is better than my current laptop! There are also add ons for this tablet to enhance gaming such as controllers. but it comes with a toll of all that kit.. It's a chnky machine from all the kit inside- 2.5 cm thick (that's a whole inch) aswell as an equally chunky price basic model starting at roughly £860 ($1,300). Razer Edge Pro on Amazon.


Now finding a tablet with even similar specification was difficult, but eventually I stumbled upon a maybe not as well equipped, but still fairly kitted (and a lot less of a pillage on your pocket) The Wikipad 7. this smaller 7 inch tablet is very similar to the Razer in that it has the bells and whistle needed to run high end games.. the Wikipad consists of a 7 inch multitouch HD display, nvidia tegra 3 1.6 GHz quadcore processor, nvidia 12-core graphics card, a comparably minuscule 16 GB internal storage- but with a micro sd card slot up to 64GB extra, 1 GB RAM. Maybe not AS great but still will manage a good deal of gaming.. but here's the real hook the Wikipad 7 comes in at more than half the thickness of the Razer at 1.1 cm (0.4 inches) and a greatly lower cost of £164 ($250) and best of all- the Wikipad 7 runs android JellyBean 4.1 which makes it much more openly adaptable than the windows OS but also opens your range of games to the android market as well as access to the PlayStation network for even more games. This tablet also comes with add ons such as controllers. Wikipad7 on Amazon.



Our next category is Multimedia, a big topic. I'll look at the three main media video, graphics and audio. again googling shows the leading tablet for multimedia is the predictable Apple iPad. I'll take the most recent generation to compare, the iPad 4. The iPad 4 is a 9 inch 2048x1536 HD multi touch screen with Apple's trademark retina display (meant to optimize the definition of the screen) 1.4 GHz A6X processor chip, 1 GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, 5 megapixel camera, 1080p video recording, 1.2 megapixel front facing camera. you also run IOS6 which even though I'm not fond of apple, I must admit IOS is good for editing medias but you are music wise unfortunately stuck on with iTunes.. Also thanks to Apple's "reputation" the iPad 4 sets you back £400 ($620) and also to Apple's reputation- drop it once from a low height and you'll be finding bits of it in your carpet for ages.Apple iPad 4 on Amazon.



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So a tablet to beat the ipad for media, price and durability.. easy. I present you the Kindle Fire HD. Amazon's 9 inch 1920x1200 full 1080p HD tablet. it has a dual core 1.5GHz processor 1GB Ram 16GB internal storage, 1.3 megapixel front facing camera and a big bonus is the kindle runs it's own android based OS so isn't as restricted as the iPad. also the screen on the Kindle Fire HD is trully quite stunning.. even against Apple's retina display. the biggest bonus of all though- £230 ($350). to note though.. the Kindle does not run Google Play store but Amazon's very own app store which the same as the also newly started Windows app store is in new stages..so apps aren't as plentiful as some may like but they are most certainly growing. Also for an extra ten pounds you get NO ADVERTS FOR LIFE. you don't get that on any other non kindle tablet.Kindle Fire HD on Amazon.


Now you've got a tablet in your chair for when you want to game, one in your bed for when you want to watch a movie..but we're naturally greedy so we need one in the living room too just incase we need to quickly google an answer for a tv quiz or to prove someone wrong. I started with a google search.. but the results seemed slightly biased towards nexus.. so I searched Yahoo and Bing also.. but the same result came up top.. Google's nexus 7(built by Asus)- quite possibly the most common (and respectably so) tablet. this 7 inch tablet is perfect for the job. small and smart..just as you need. !GB RAM, nvidia 1.6GHz processor and 16GB internal storage make the nexus 7 snappy and smooth running, wifi and 3G connections make the search power portable as well as running the latest android 4.2 for googles best intergration (also as Google's favourite little pet- any android updates will be available on the nexus 7 almost immediately). it's also slim at 1.1 cm (0.4 inches) and could fit in a decent sized pocket. the nexus 7 comes in at (without 3G) £160 ($245)Google Nexus 7 on Amazon.


A very nice price on a very good tablet..hard to pick fault with..but just to prove it's possible.. I found this - an unbranded £50 tablet perfect for everyday casual use. a 7 inch 1080p android 4.0 tablet. it has a single core 1.2 GHz processor, half a GB of RAM, and 4GB of internal storage.. so not as fancy as the nexus 7 but hey..for 50 quid. it also has all the perks for Android Jelly bean.. just not as up to date as the nexus.. also this unnamed tablet has 4G capabilities against the nexus' 3G so even faster internet away from home, but to be entirely honest.. this is a tablet you get for a new coffee mat.. it might take a fair beating but it's going to live up to it's price.. I'd only get this tablet for someone who's going to use it only every so often for a bit of fun.. nothing serious, but hey that's both grandpa and the kid's birthday presents sorted. The 7" Android tablet on Amazon



For those of you that want the best of the best. and the all round executive suite of tablets.. the favourite of the internet again goes to google for their nexus 10.. the big 10 inch full 1080p HD screen, 2GB RAM 16GB internal storage, dual core 1.5GHz processor, 5 megapixel back camer and 1.9 megapixel front facing camera, the latest up to date androind (currently 4.2) quadcore GPU and a sleek design-less than 1 cm thick at 0.9cm(0.4 inches).. few faults are seen here, but ther is no 3G/4G at all- only wifi and the nexus 10 costs £320 ($490).  Google Nexus 10 on Amazon. 



A rather nice tablet.. but can that be topped? or is brand going to win this round? not a chance.
This my Friends is the Huawei Mediapad 10 FHD. as the name suggests it's a 10 inch full 1080p HD screen, 2 GB Ram, 32GB internal storage (plus micro sd card slut up to 64GB extra) quadcore 1.2GHz processor, 8 megapixel main camera and 1.3 megapixel front facing camera, Android 4.0 and to top it all off it betters the Nexus as it has both 3G and 4G connectivity aswell as being thinner yet again at 0.8 cm (0.35 inches). both truly beautiful top of the range tablets and the media pad comes up on top yet again with a price of £280 ($430).Huawei MediaPad 10FHD at Amazon.  

I hope this post was conclusive enough on the 4 brand and 4 not so brand tablets I showed.. happy tableting.