Android Tablets

[leestudd30]

Firstly, has anyone got one? Secondly, maybe a long shot but anyone have any technical knowledge of them? I've been looking at some cheap ones on Ebay, all under £100. I've managed to find one with a modern dual core 1.2GHZ cpu but only an 8" screen, and another with a single core chip that says its 1.5GHZ but its a 10" screen. Bearing in mind my phone only has a 1GHZ single core chip, I can't decide which one would better, is an 8" screen enough for the internet, angry birds etc or should I go for the bigger screen?

[highlander]

I have a Google Nexus 7. As the name implies, it's a 7 inch screen - it's fine for the internet, and fine for book reading (I use the official Amazon Kindle app and it's great for this purpose).

It's powered by the nVidia Tegra 3 chipset, so it has a quad-core processor and a good 3D chip on it too. And it was the launch device for Google's newest version on Android - 4.1 (Jelly Bean) - though I just had an over-the-air update to 4.2 this morning.

I've had no problems with mine, it runs Angry Birds perfectly, and also runs more graphically-challenging games like Asphalt 7 (racing game), Kinectimals (kids game where you have your own pet tiger cub), Bard's Tale (humerous button-mashing role-playing game) and Minecraft Pocket Edition (world building sandbox game) with no problems whatsoever.

I also have an Amiga emulator, BBC Micro emulator, Commodore 64 emulator, and Game Boy Advance emulator on mine, with stacks of games for each.

It's a bit more basic than some tablets - there's no HDMI output port, and no rear camera (there is a front-facing camera so you can do video calls using Skype or Yahoo! Messenger, for example) - but there is a USB port (which also charges the tablet) so you can connect up a keyboard and mouse if you are doing some serious work (i.e. I have a VNC client and RDP client on mine, and a telnet/SSH client too, so I can do networky-stuff from it).

It's a nice lightweight tablet, really easy to use, good battery life, and it has never struggled to run anything I've thrown at it so far.

At the time I was buying (August) the 8 GB version was £179.99 and the 16 GB version was £199.99, direct from Google's Play store - and they'd give you a £20 voucher for the Play Store so you could go buy some apps and stuff for free. I gather those prices have fallen a bit now and there's now a 32 GB version. But I'm only about half way to filling up my 16 GB model.

Hope this is of some help.

[DaiRees]

I know it's stretching your budget a bit but Tesco are currently offering the 16GB Samsung Galaxy Tab2 10.1" for £238 (reduced from £299), seems like a good deal to me. I only know this because my Father in Law is insistent on having one even though he won't have the first clue what to do with it, and has been nagging me for months to find him a deal, so I've just sent him to Tesco!

[scotty73]

I have the same nexus as Highlander (on his recommendation) and i don't get a look in with it my youngest comes straight in from school and off upstairs she goes, in fact between her and the wife i ain't seen it for 2 weeks and that was only to check my bank when we went on hols.

I was hoping to use it to stream football to my tv but up until about a month ago it wasn't possible without a wifi streaming device that was about 50 notes on ebay, i have however sussed out how to mount an external usb drive to play movies and stuff so it's brilliant on journeys i havn't heard are we there yet since buying it

I'm sure i only got £15 play store credit ... Given the chance I'd know a lot more about it...

[highlander]

I'm sure i only got £15 play store credit

Now that you mention it, I am beginning to doubt myself. Was it £15 or £20? Stupid bloody brain.

*checks*

According to the FAQ on the Google Play store, it was $25 US, which corresponds to roughly £15 UK. Stupid, stupid bloody brain. Sorry, I must have got confused. £15 credit is what I got.

[lozz]

The Archos ones, are pretty good, (fairly cheap too,)

im using a (Borrowed- ipad at the moment, Brilliant peice of kit, But iwouidnt dream of spending daft money on buying one,

[scotty73]

I'm sure i only got £15 play store credit

Now that you mention it, I am beginning to doubt myself. Was it £15 or £20? Stupid bloody brain.

*checks*

According to the FAQ on the Google Play store, it was $25 US, which corresponds to roughly £15 UK. Stupid, stupid bloody brain. Sorry, I must have got confused. £15 credit is what I got.

You know once an E-mail of disgust is sent can i un-send it? sorry Google.

I've only used about £2 of my credit if i remember right it was to get the stick mount app for the usb drive.
I got a keyboard from Ebay that i found quite good in the 3 minutes i got to use it. They do use up the battery though, not sure how much .
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BLACK-USB-Key ... 1c298282e6

[dummysock]

Samsung are also doing a £50 cashback if you buy certain models in a certain time period so the Tesco deal is even better.

See http://www.samsung.com/uk/tab2cashback/

[highlander]

I got a keyboard from Ebay that i found quite good in the 3 minutes i got to use it. They do use up the battery though, not sure how much

If you're staying static long enough to use a full-sized external keyboard, then I guess you could probably use a powered USB hub. Connect the tablet to the hub, and the tablet will charge from the hub. Connect the keyboard and mouse to other ports on the hub, and the tablet can see the keyboard/mice. Connect your USB stick / hard drive to yet another port on the hub, and you have storage. Then if you're going out with your tablet, all you need to do is disconnect it from the hub and take it with you. Plug it back in when you're home and it's all set again.

This should work for any tablet that has a USB/mini-USB/micro-USB port in it. The Samsung Galaxy Tab range is pretty damned good, but it seems to be much more expensive than Google's own offering (which is really an Asus device exclusively produced for Google). Nexus 7 is a kick-ass little tablet, I'm very very impressed with mine.

Oh - another thing to note - Adobe have stopped developing Flash Player for Android now, and it isn't supplied or available on Android 4.1 or newer. It is possible to get it back by adding it in manually, and installing a browser that supports flash (Mozilla Firefox, for example). It works very well.

[steve_earwig]

I've got a piece of wood I can plug nails into it but I need an app called Hammer 1.0

What are android tablets anyway? Antidepressants for Marvin?

[lozz]

I've got a piece of wood I can plug nails into it but I need an app called Hammer 1.0

What are android tablets anyway? Antidepressants for Marvin?

its basicly a handheld pc, fairly easy to use even for Dyslexic (thick curnts) like me

[steve_earwig]

You don't come over like a thick curnt, ok your typing sucks but I know that's for a reason, not because you're thick or lazy or anything.

I guess I could have Googled that ( ) but thanks for the explanation. I had heard of them before but I thought it perhaps best to remain ignorant because it would just be something else that I'd like to have but couldn't justify. 180 quid? Wow, that's almost 200 litres of heating oil

[lozz]

You can pick up Archos tablets up for 40 -50quid ish,
they do the same job,

[DaiRees]

Samsung are also doing a £50 cashback if you buy certain models in a certain time period so the Tesco deal is even better.

See http://www.samsung.com/uk/tab2cashback/

Weirdly enough, my FIL told me about the £50 cashback after he bought his earlier on so, having taken all of 15 seconds to convince myself that I need one for work, I swung by Tesco on the way home and picked one up (on the business card of course). So I'm now typing this on my Galaxy Tab 2

[V6Exec]

Borrowed from the other 406 forum

http://www.snotr.com/video/8965/