So are people actually buying tablets? - General

[QUOTE=Xera;29516794]Pretty much everyone in here slating tablets probably hasn't used one. More comfortable than using a laptop or desktop and you can lie back or on your side and still use it easily, like a phone but as you all use as a bad point for some reason, bigger. I probably wouldn't bother taking it out with me unless I was taking my bag, maybe a 7" one if I am wearing trousers with big pockets.[/QUOTE] The reason people use the argument "it's just like a phone, but bigger," is that it costs around $700. For that amount of money you could buy a decent mid-range laptop that's both more powerful and more useful. Or, if you're looking for a small and simple mobile computer for browsing the web on-the-go, you could just buy a $250 netbook that's [i]still[/i] more powerful and more useful. I've used these tablet computers before, and I feel comfortable in saying that they're nothing more than overpriced, underpowered, and incredibly limited toys. It's damn near thievery, but the market has proved time and time again that people are willing to pay out the ass for useless fashion-statement gadgetry to wow their friends at Starbucks with their senseless commitment to style over practicality.

[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;29519432]The reason people use the argument "it's just like a phone, but bigger," is that it costs around $700. For that amount of money you could buy a decent mid-range laptop that's both more powerful and more useful. Or, if you're looking for a small and simple mobile computer for browsing the web on-the-go, you could just buy a $250 netbook that's [i]still[/i] more powerful and more useful. I've used these tablet computers before, and I feel comfortable in saying that they're nothing more than overpriced, underpowered, and incredibly limited toys. It's damn near thievery, but the market has proved time and time again that people are willing to pay out the ass for useless fashion-statement gadgetry to wow their friends at Starbucks with their senseless commitment to style over practicality.[/QUOTE] Practicality? It sure is practical to drag a laptop or even a netbook around with you. Both of those weigh more and require you to put them down on something to use them. Try standing around or walking and using a netbook, sure looks like a fashion statement now. The iPad is £320 now, nowhere near $700 and there are plenty of cheaper tablets that are just fine for web browsing that go for £100+. You can even get 5" or 7" ones that will fit in your pocket. Try doing that with a netbook. Netbooks also take ages to turn on due to the hardware being terrible at what it is meant to do. Do you feel the same way about smartphones? Just because you don't see the use for one doesn't mean they're overpriced useless fashion statement toys only used by attention whores.

[QUOTE=Xera;29519628]Practicality? It sure is practical to drag a laptop or even a netbook around with you. Both of those weigh more and require you to put them down on something to use them. The iPad is £320 now, nowhere near $700 and there are plenty of cheaper tablets that are just fine for web browsing that go for £100+.[/QUOTE] My netbook fits in a deep pocket, weighs about a pound, has a full keyboard, gets around nine hours of battery life, sports 150gb hard drive, has all the same basic applications and features as my desktop computer back home, and only cost $300 new (when I bought it early last year). I fail to see how this is less practical than your similarly-sized tablet computer that lacks just about all of these features and costs twice as much.

[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;29519735]My netbook fits in a deep pocket, weighs about a pound, has a full keyboard, gets around nine hours of battery life, sports 150gb hard drive, has all the same basic applications and features as my desktop computer back home, and only cost $300 new (when I bought it early last year). I fail to see how this is less practical than your similarly-sized tablet computer that lacks just about all of these features and costs twice as much.[/QUOTE] What kinda netbook fits in a pocket? It may be technically able to do all the same stuff as your desktop but it's going to be slow as shit running Windows. My Atom/Ion netbook is nowhere near to fitting into any pocket and still doesn't run very well doing basic CPU bound tasks like browsing the web. A tablet which will be better suited to using on the go and doing probably the same things as you can accomplish on your netbook will cost like £160-£200. "costs twice as much" which tablets are you looking at? If you're happy to sit down every time you want to check something and be unable to do anything for minutes while it boots, then a netbook is for you. If you want to be able to keep moving while you check your email or whatever, have it instantly on all the time, AND still have the option of plugging in a keyboard if you need to do any long typing(About all you're going to get out of a cheap netbook anyway), then a tablet is for you.

What I would use an Ipad for if I had one: [media]http://www.crunchgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/target-ipad.jpg[/media]

I have a Kindle it's cheaper and useful.

[QUOTE=Xera;29519914]What kinda netbook fits in a pocket? It may be technically able to do all the same stuff as your desktop but it's going to be slow as shit running Windows. My Atom/Ion netbook is nowhere near to fitting into any pocket and still doesn't run very well doing basic CPU bound tasks like browsing the web. A tablet which will be better suited to using on the go and doing probably the same things as you can accomplish on your netbook will cost like £160-£200. "costs twice as much" which tablets are you looking at? If you're happy to sit down every time you want to check something and be unable to do anything for minutes while it boots, then a netbook is for you. If you want to be able to keep moving while you check your email or whatever, have it instantly on all the time, AND still have the option of plugging in a keyboard if you need to do any long typing(About all you're going to get out of a cheap netbook anyway), then a tablet is for you.[/QUOTE] The kind with a 7" screen, which, if I'm not mistaken, is about the same size as an average tablet computer--if a little bit thicker through the middle. For a device that allows me to [i]instantly[/i] check my email (without the unbearable hassle of folding open my netbook) and is always, [i]and[/i] sports a full, albeit very tiny, keyboard, I just use my cell phone. If you want to go drop a bunch of cash on a bigger cell phone with limited features, I'm not going to stop you; it just seems like an exceptionally silly waste of money to me. But it's your money to spend, so who am I to tell you what to spend it on?

[QUOTE=Xera;29516794]Pretty much everyone in here slating tablets probably hasn't used one.[/QUOTE] Not necessarily. And they are sorta useless tbh, I would rather use a phone since it's portable. Desktop + phone seems like the ideal computing system, no need for more useless gadgets that bog you down and burn a hole in your wallet.

Stop calling them tablets, they don't work like the kind that came before these piles of shit. They're actually called [b]Tablet PC's[/b]. :downs: No but seriously, these are true tablets. They don't have a OS installed on them. [img]http://hardwaretechreview.com/wp-content/uploads/wacom-bamboo.jpg[/img][img]http://tipsandtricksworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/wacom.jpg[/img] Just a pet peeve seeing as how I own a Intous 3. Tablet PC's are pretty useless when you think about it though. all the ones that are currently out use Android and the apple ones are pretty much the same OS at the iPhone 4's. So what's the point? If you have a smartphone that runs Android or iOS there is literally no point in these things. I also don't understand why ASUS can't make that new Tablet PC with the removable keyboard work for Windows. What exactly are the benefits of using Android? Just to make it cheaper? Market it to the brain dead?

Archos 4.8" Tablet.

Bought an Amazon Kindle, loving it so far. Reads better than an actual book, they're cheaper and there are much more of them as well. Hell, got Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment for free and Stiglitz's Freefall for 10$, those two in my country would have cost me 50$ or more. There are also tons of books i can't even buy here, and they're dirt cheap on Amazon. It's an amazing thingy.

My computer teacher convinced the kid who sits next to me to get an iPad 2 over a full computer for college. Did I mention that this kid wants to do graphic design?

[QUOTE=chimitos;29542808]My computer teacher convinced the kid who sits next to me to get an iPad 2 over a full computer for college. Did I mention that this kid wants to do graphic design?[/QUOTE] Your computer teacher is a pretty good trol.

[QUOTE=Floreum;29524817]Stop calling them tablets, they don't work like the kind that came before these piles of shit. They're actually called [b]Tablet PC's[/b]. :downs: No but seriously, these are true tablets. They don't have a OS installed on them. [img_thumb]http://hardwaretechreview.com/wp-content/uploads/wacom-bamboo.jpg[/img_thumb][img_thumb]http://tipsandtricksworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/wacom.jpg[/img_thumb] Just a pet peeve seeing as how I own a Intous 3. Tablet PC's are pretty useless when you think about it though. all the ones that are currently out use Android and the apple ones are pretty much the same OS at the iPhone 4's. So what's the point? If you have a smartphone that runs Android or iOS there is literally no point in these things. I also don't understand why ASUS can't make that new Tablet PC with the removable keyboard work for Windows. What exactly are the benefits of using Android? Just to make it cheaper? Market it to the brain dead?[/QUOTE] Well, the thing is, many people also think of THESE as Tablet PC's. [img]http://www.finalsense.com/news/image/laptop/fujitsu-lifebook-p1610-tablet-pc.jpg[/img] Which are basically a fully functional laptop with a touchscreen. But you are right that an iPad and such is still technically a tablet PC. I dunno. Maybe we should start calling them "smart tablets" or something like that, since they do run smartphone OS's.

[url]http://www.jr.com/viewsonic/pe/VIW_GTABLET/#productTabDetails[/url] Is that the best one on there for the price? I'd like to get some opinions on it.

[QUOTE=Giraffen93;29552062][url]http://www.jr.com/viewsonic/pe/VIW_GTABLET/#productTabDetails[/url] Is that the best one on there for the price? I'd like to get some opinions on it.[/QUOTE] Read some opinions on it, and apparently, the stock software is not impressive, going by reviews. But fortunately it can be rooted and replaced. That doesn't look like a half bad tablet for $300.

I thought so myself. So there are no better ones? I really don't know anything about tablets.

[QUOTE=Xera;29518141]The original iPad is cheaper than most brand name Android tablets, and the iPad 2 is still cheaper than the Xoom.[/QUOTE] That doesn't mean it isn't overpriced for what it does.

I have a drawing tablet, but I don't give in to the iPad bullshit.