Tablets - what to do.

BoomAM · 10 Oct 2011 at 12:12

Right, tons of these threads likely, i'd imagine, but this one has a twist, so ner!

Anyway,

Somethings finally come off for me so i can order/pre-order myself a tablet to replace my iPad.

My heart was set on a Galaxy Tab 10.1 32Gb Black, but im wondering if i need to get 32Gb.
My iPad, i use it 95% of the time to read articles online and faffing about streaming things. And 5% of the time i stream films/tv shows off my media server. So i may not need 32Gb, 16Gb would probably be fine...but the fact it cant be upgraded could, in future, be an issue.
BUT, i could get the 16Gb, the SD Card reader addon, and transfer extra stuff on the move as i need it...

Im also still apprehensive of the fact that irrespective of model, its £100 dearer than the comparable space/spec Asus/Motorola/etc;

AND, when is the Tegra3 quadcore stuff out? Is it even worth buying now at all?

Any thoughts?

DIABLO · 10 Oct 2011 at 12:28

Personally I would hang onto the ipad until tegra3.

SeeKified · 10 Oct 2011 at 12:43

DIABLO said:
Personally I would hang onto the ipad until tegra3.

I agree. Most of the noteworthy tablets on the market have been out for some time and are due to be replaced rather soon, I imagine. With all the buzz about Ice Cream Sandwich in the air, I would hang on for a couple of months and see how things progress, both in terms of hardware and software.

kevpuk · 10 Oct 2011 at 12:49

Even as a big (Asus) Transformer fan, would suggest hanging onto your iPad for the moment.....Tegra3/Kal-El/quadcore stuff is not that far away, in fact it seems there are rumours around about Transformer 2 breaking this year !
Add to this ICS, and - as noted above - most of the 'better' tablets have been around for a while now, tends to lend weight to waiting just a little while

SKILL · 10 Oct 2011 at 12:51

I wouldn't concern yourself too much with the Tegra3, both the 3 and the current 2 look very unimpressive imo, the 3 appears to just about beat the current top dual core setups, in benchmark results provided by nvidia...

I would definitely wait though, Samsung has at least one Exynos based tablet coming (the 7.7) and I'd imagine early next year we'll get some news about other non-Tegra based tablets (OMAP 44xx and Qualcomm chips, both superior to the Tegra2 quite comfortably)

BoomAM · 10 Oct 2011 at 13:00

SKILL said:
I wouldn't concern yourself too much with the Tegra3, both the 3 and the current 2 look very unimpressive imo, the 3 appears to just about beat the current top dual core setups, in benchmark results provided by nvidia...

Rubbish.
Read up on T3, its definitely something that interests me.
4 cores, a 5th core just for 'sync tasks'. Could be very interesting for battery life.

The problem with waiting is that its the same old PC mantra, theres always something to wait for....and I've heard of T3 releases anywhere from this year to mid next year, so its hard to gauge.

Also, the ICS release should hit all of the current tablets due to that 18month deal that google has with the manufacturers....

Hmm, decisions decisions!
Has anyone heard anything concreate about Xoom2/Transformer2 before xmas?

muon · 10 Oct 2011 at 13:21

Check ebay item number 110751331288 and other tablets from the same seller.

uvarvu · 10 Oct 2011 at 13:36

Wait for the iPad 3 and the Apple A6 processor, assuming the iPad 3 will have an A6 CPU.

Pottsey · 10 Oct 2011 at 15:41

BoomAM said:
Rubbish.
Read up on T3, its definitely something that interests me.
4 cores, a 5th core just for 'sync tasks'. Could be very interesting for battery life.

It’s not rubbish T3 is very slow compared to the competition. T3 has only just hit what the competition had a year ago. T3 will be the slowest of next gen going by NVidia’s benchmarks and estimated speeds.

It is even starting to look like Tegra 3 graphically in tablets will be slower than the next gen phones. Who wants a tablet that will be slower then an Iphone4S?

Robbo · 10 Oct 2011 at 16:11

You should hold on to the iPad 2.

If you really want to change now, get a Tab 10.1.

BoomAM · 10 Oct 2011 at 17:16

Pottsey said:
It’s not rubbish...blah

Im not getting into a debate with you.
In my opinion its rubbish. I never said from what perspective, im looking at it based on more factors than raw performance.

Tempted to go and get a 16Gb Tab now. Im swaying towards the 16gb over the 32gb at this point.

PlumpMonkey · 10 Oct 2011 at 17:44

ghost101 said:
Check ebay item number 110751331288 and other tablets from the same seller.

Thats who i got mine from. They are doing now some cheaper manufacturer refurbed jobs, which i presume are the ones hes had sent back for the Netwon Rings issue and got fixed. My first one was sent back to him for that reason.

The 2nd one also developed that fault and Ive just had it fixed by Samsung. It appears the screen is a different part, much sturdier.

If you were going to get one from them, Id get the refurbed one as it will most likely already have had the screen fixed.

Also note that he doesnt say they are US grey imports. Seems to work fine, but you get a US power adaptor and he chucks in a converter. As previously mentioned, the warranty is fine over here in the UK with the import.

kona786 · 10 Oct 2011 at 17:49

BoomAM said:
Im not getting into a debate with you.
In my opinion its rubbish. I never said from what perspective, im looking at it based on more factors than raw performance.

Tempted to go and get a 16Gb Tab now. Im swaying towards the 16gb over the 32gb at this point.

I agree - BoomAM is too hung up on ultimate hardware specs - clueless

SKILL · 10 Oct 2011 at 18:13

BoomAM said:
Rubbish.
Read up on T3, its definitely something that interests me.
4 cores, a 5th core just for 'sync tasks'. Could be very interesting for battery life.

The problem with waiting is that its the same old PC mantra, theres always something to wait for....and I've heard of T3 releases anywhere from this year to mid next year, so its hard to gauge.

Also, the ICS release should hit all of the current tablets due to that 18month deal that google has with the manufacturers....

Hmm, decisions decisions!
Has anyone heard anything concreate about Xoom2/Transformer2 before xmas?

I have read up on it, and I'd be surprised if you compared the Tegra 3 Vs Exynos 4212 (the 32nm one) that the Exynos didn't come out both more powerful and lower battery life.

The 5th core is interesting, and also odd:

If a 4-core A9 chip is designed 'properly' then you should be able to power and clock gate 3 cores, lower the clock on the one remaining core to <200MHz and also lower the voltage. Now if you did this the power used, and more importantly based on the Tegra 3's use of a different manufacturing process, the leakage of the transistors will be tiny, as in negligible.

Yet the Tegra 3 has this 'companion core' on a lower power process, now I may well be wrong but that leads me to think that nvidia have had problems with getting either the clock low enough or power and clock gating 3 of the 4 cores, either way it's a fudge.

It's also really quite odd that the companion core is a full A9, other architecture such as the OMAP 4470 have a similar idea but use 2 M3 cores that are far lower power. There's even an A7 which will handle everything an A9 will but at slower speed (which isn't a problem) and again lower power per clock.

So why is the Tegra 3 setup like that, when I can't see a single place where it actually makes sense...

Pottsey · 10 Oct 2011 at 18:17

BoomAM said:
Im not getting into a debate with you.
In my opinion its rubbish. I never said from what perspective, im looking at it based on more factors than raw performance.

Tempted to go and get a 16Gb Tab now. Im swaying towards the 16gb over the 32gb at this point.

So am I and it seems to be behind in most major areas or at the very least I see no areas its ahead in.

kona786 · 10 Oct 2011 at 18:25

SKILL said:
I have read up on it, and I'd be surprised if you compared the Tegra 3 Vs Exynos 4212 (the 32nm one) that the Exynos didn't come out both more powerful and lower battery life.

The 5th core is interesting, and also odd:

If a 4-core A9 chip is designed 'properly' then you should be able to power and clock gate 3 cores, lower the clock on the one remaining core to <200MHz and also lower the voltage. Now if you did this the power used, and more importantly based on the Tegra 3's use of a different manufacturing process, the leakage of the transistors will be tiny, as in negligible.

Yet the Tegra 3 has this 'companion core' on a lower power process, now I may well be wrong but that leads me to think that nvidia have had problems with getting either the clock low enough or power and clock gating 3 of the 4 cores, either way it's a fudge.

It's also really quite odd that the companion core is a full A9, other architecture such as the OMAP 4470 have a similar idea but use 2 M3 cores that are far lower power. There's even an A7 which will handle everything an A9 will but at slower speed (which isn't a problem) and again lower power per clock.

So why is the Tegra 3 setup like that, when I can't see a single place where it actually makes sense...

the A9 was used because its a general purpose processor that can do everything unlike M3's that are just use for radios etc.

Why nit picking about its architecture - as long as it delivers what it says who cares how it does it.

the new Exynos will be the better chip I agree - but it won't be in the transformer 2 so thats where it will lose out for me.

No one has copied the transformer concept - and until they do they can stick their super duper SoCs.

kona786 · 10 Oct 2011 at 18:29

Pottsey said:
So am I and it seems to be behind in most major areas or at the very least I see no areas its ahead in.

'behind in areas' is all relative - a normal pc user wouldnt be able to tell if they had an i5 or i7 in their laptop. thats the point - new hardware is fast enough today - software and user experience (tablet design - i.e. thin stylish galaxy tab + laptop like transformer) is where the biggest gains are.

Pottsey · 10 Oct 2011 at 18:33

kona786 said:
'behind in areas' is all relative - a normal pc user wouldnt be able to tell if they had an i5 or i7 in their laptop. thats the point - new hardware is fast enough today - software and user experience (tablet design - i.e. thin stylish galaxy tab + laptop like transformer) is where the biggest gains are.

Just how much software is it going to get when it's been dropped from the Android reference platform and dropped by almost all the big names? It just won't be worth most developers time to develop apps for it with such a small market share.

kona786 · 10 Oct 2011 at 18:39

pottsey - it seems 2 threads are discussing the same topic - I posted in the transformer 2 thread.

Brumboy · 10 Oct 2011 at 18:41

If you can wait a few months I'd definitely wait and see what the next generation of tablets are like. At least then you can get something a lot faster/better than the tablets out now and if you want the Galaxy Tab then no doubt that will be much cheaper then too.

I was close to buying a tablet the other day but realised I might aswell wait a few months. Hopefully there's a decently priced quad core tablet or a decent dual core tablet!