Sascha joined me in the studio last night for a full-on 3.5hr marathon testing and discussion session with 10 different tablets. The iPad2, Asus Eee Pad Transformer, Acer Iconia Tab A500, HTC Flyer, Blackberry Playbook and Samsung Galaxy Tab were the focus of our efforts and we recorded three parts of the live session for you to view below.
The Blackberry Playbook impressed with its smooth UI, video handling and gestures. The Flyer beat the other 7” tablets in a browsing test (and is as fast as any Tegra2 + Honeycomb browser I’ve tested.) The Galaxy Tab was crowned the value-for-money king and in the 10” category, we couldn’t really find a winner. The iPad2, of course, just sits in a special space all on its own and isn’t truly challenged by the 10” Android devices although as Honeycomb and Honeycomb-optimised apps start for mature, that could change., especiall when we look to lightweight hardware like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
Anyway, here are the videos. We hope you enjoy them. All products are owned by Sascha or myself.
Don’t forget the detailed HTC Flyer Live Review tonight, May 18th, at 2100 CEST (Berlin) on Carrypad.com/live. Follow @chippy for more on that.
The first video is an overview of all the tablets Two 10″ Devices were tested in detail in Part 2 Three 7″ devices were tested in detail in Part 3
Late notice: Sascha has turned up in my neighborhood with the Playbook, Transformer and iPad2. I have the Tab 7, HTC Flyer, and Iconia Tab A500 in the studio so it makes sense, while we have the opportunity, to go live!
The chat is open already so if you’re looking at a tablet purchase in the next weeks, get over there now because this is a rare opportunity to see the best. The tablets aren’t bad either!
The HTC Flyer I ordered on Friday has literally just arrived at the door and Im looking forward to ripping this open and seeing how it compares to the Galaxy Tab which is currently the most popular 7″ tablet on the market and has been a very good companion to me for over 6 months now. Expect an unboxing video soon. The Live Review will be held on Wednesday evening at 2100 CEST (Berlin.)
In terms of features, there are definitely a few to talk about and some that are unique to the Flyer ensuring at least some sales. The #1 feature is the digitizer input layer and active pen that integrates with a special input mode on the Flyer. Annotations and notes.made though this layer can be captured into the Evernote cloud storage, OCR and search application. It’s a well known and well trusted application and the integration will carry a lot of value. I hope a full Evernote license is included for offline notes.
There’s also the 1.5Ghz CPU to consider. It should provide a noticeable jump in performance over the Galaxy Tab.
There are two major issues to consider and either of these could be show-stoppers. Firstly, assuming you want to use a 7″ tablet for pen input (something I’ve never been a big fan of over the years that I’ve been reporting about tablets) you’ve got to remember to take the pen with you. There’s no integrated.storage which is really quite an issue. I’ll have to test that all-important palm rejection too.
Then there’s the price. As i write this, the Flyer 16Gb WiFi version is €499. The Galaxy Tab WiFi is available for €269. This issue will reduce over time as margins reduce but it may never catch up with the price of the Tab due to the screen technology used. You’ve got to be a pen-input fan that remembers to take the pen or someone that really really needs the extra CPU power.
Or are the other features worth considering? It’s true that not many tablets offer video content for download and streaming so HTC Watch will be an important service to check out. If the content and price is good, it’s a great feature. OnLive-CloudGaming is also a feature to check out. Dual-location on-frame buttons (that enable and disable depending on rotation) Skype video and HTC Sense are also unique features.I’ll also be interested in the ‘HD’ video recording support and other hidden features that are sure to crop up.
On the downside, it looks like there’s no voice stack (I assume that includes SMS, MMS and Video calling (over UMTS) support. Its something I use a lot on the Galaxy Tab thatnks to Multi-SIM. I get the same number on my Tab and my smartphone.
Is there enough to entices people here? As time goes by and the price comes down into the same range as the Galaxy Tab and Acer Iconia Tab A100, I think there will.
Thanks to everyone (350+ people) that dropped in on the live session with the Acer Iconia Tab A500 last night. I have to say that there’s no better way than to spend a focused 3 hours testing a new device than with a camera and knowledgeable audience!
We recorded three sections of the live session and the important notes and videos are below. I will continue to test the A500 and if I find anything of major importance, will report it here. You’ll find further reports on Honeycomb over at UMPCPortal as I take on the task of tracking productivity apps that become available in the ecosystem.
So far I’m seeing good hardware from both looks, materials and an efficiency perspective but a number of software problems from the OS to the apps level that really fall below expectations. At 499 Euro I would expect to see multiple video codec support, a supplied micro HDMI cable and at least a simple stand or case. With the stability issues and application issues seen, it raises a red flag at the moment. Unless you need the Iconia Tab A500 (and this applies to the other 2 Honeycomb Tablets available right now) I’d say wait for two things. 1) Price drop of about 15-20% should arrive within months. 2) Asses ongoing firmware updates and progress of Android applications for Honeycomb. Of course, you’ll also need to track future products from competitors. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is likely to be available in the next week or two.
Notes:
Battery life: 6hrs full use. WiFi, 50% screen, testing. I suspect you could run it dry by gaming on it for 5 hours but on the other hand, you might get more than 6hrs use if you’re gentle on it.
Battery life: 100hrs on, WiFi, screen off. In idle state, with the Wifi on and screen off and with the device set to synchronize various apps, it will last between 75 and 100 hours. (Up to 4 days.) That’s a good figure.
Here’s the battery drain graph showing our testing, an overnight ‘sleep’ and some work I did with it today.
More notes:
Honeycomb observation: Why no HD available through YouTube application?
Stability. When using a USB keybaord the device crashed 4 or 5 times. I also saw the A500 crash twice without the keyboard but under heavy testing. Stability could be better.
Screen resolution and viewing angles are very good. Color, contrast too. Brightness average.
PDF one-page view is readable. That’s something you can’t do on a 7″ tablet, whatever the resolution.
Speakers clear, loud
Finish of design is excellent. Metal back gives it a stylish look and feel.
MicroSD card works. 3G Card slot is blocked off on this Wifi-only model.
Docking port was a surprise. No details of what is passed through that though.
No MicroHDMI cable supplied to test the HDMI output.
No extra codecs. (WMV, Divx and other formats don’t play) Have yet to see a 1080p file play back on the device.
Camer quality and video quality is so-so.
Gtalk video quality also, so-so. Easy to use though.
Weight (and this applies to many 10″ tablets) is still too heavy for one-hand holding for any length of time.
No built-in, or supplied stand
No USB mouse support
USB keyboard and mass storage supported. 3G dongle not tested.
Honeycomb apps seem few and far between. Existing apps in Market are often for portrait mode only and do not use all the space well.
Performance is comparable with other Honeycomb/Tegra2 tablets.
There’s possibly a Gyroscope sensor that improves responsiveness in games that use it. (Unconfirmed)
Compass, GPS confirmed.
Skype audio works without headset (built-in mic and speakers work. Rear faceng speakers help cut down feedback)
Thanks to Techdepot who reached out to us yesterday we’ve got a Galaxy Tab in our hands. Well we think it’s a Galaxy Tab – we haven’t opened the box yet!
Expect an unboxing video later today and then at 2100 CEST (Berlin time) [Update: Live session postponed until Friday, 15th] lets sit down together and go over the device in detail. We’ll turn the cameras on the device and give you a chance to watch some detailed testing. We’ll also have a chat channel open for Q&A as we go.
We’ve got a day off from the chaos of IFA today while we participate in the Intel Developers Day in Berlin.(Facebook page) We’re hearing about Atom, Meego, AppUp and other elements of the ecosystem. We’re also trying our best to stream it out via MeetMobility. Check out Meetmobility Live for the current stream. Some will be in German and we’re at risk from bandwidth limitations.
Tegra2 testing begins tonight because within the next 3 hours I expect the AC100 to be delivered. It’s on the DHL truck roll so unless anything unexpected happens, we’ll be unboxing a true retail package (yes, one we bought ourselves) later.
The Toshiba AC100 is the first Tegra2 device to hit Europe and only the second true smartbook to hit any global market. We’ve already reviewed the Airlife 100 so now its time to see if Toshiba and Tegra can bring anything new to the table.
Oh, and of course we’ll be running an Email Notification Rave so bring a few beers and join in. “‘Here come the emails!”
Live VIDEO Q&A and chat session on Carrypad.com/live tonight at 2200 Berlin time (1600 New York, see other locations. Approx 11 hours from the time of this post.)
JKKMobile will join to help moderate this independant review session.
We’re sorry for the late notice but with IFA creeping up on us it’s now or never! We hope you can drop in. (parts of the session will be recorded.)
Here are the video recordings for the Dell Streak live session I did this evening. Thanks to the people in the chat room who asked questions, answered questions and corrected my errors! We had over 300 people drop in for the session. Note that Ustream playback features often get overloaded in the U.S. afternoon/evening so be patient!
Session 1, 17 mins, includes an overview of the device, specifications and some initial impressions.
Session 2, 50 minutes, includes an overview of the keyboard, browsing, video, music and camera.
Here’s the plan. Although this is unlikely to be a device with final retail packaging, and possibly without a final software build, I’ll work on an an unboxing and overview video now and should go up on my YouTube channel in about 2 hours.
Then, I have to take a break for my mother-in-law’s birthday party. Great timing! On the way back from that I’ll grab a six-pack and then get down to the studio for a LIVE video and chat session. Lets say, 2200 CEST (check the time at your location) at Carrypad.com/live. See you there for a few hours testing of one of the first ever social netbooks. (*1) Some parts of the session, not all, will be recorded. Tomorrow I’ll write my first impressions here on Carrypad.
Here’s my 10-minute hands-on from Mobile World Congress. Thanks to HP, Spain for sorting this out for us.
[*1 Smartbook is a trademark of Smartbook A.G. in Germany where my company is based. They sell netbooks and laptops. To avoid legal issues, Carrypad uses the term ‘social netbook’ to describe an always-on, always connected netbook running on a mobile focused OS and hardware platform.]
I just wanted to drop you all a note to let you know we’ll be doing a MeetMobility podcast in a few hours. At 1200 GMT+1 on Meetbobility.com/live you’ll find Sascha, JKK and myself talking our usual mobile computing talk with a focus on what happened (or didn’t!) at CeBIT. We guess you guys in the US are still going to be tucked up in bed but don’t worry, it will be recorded and will probably be available by the time you hit that power button. (The reason we have to do it so early is because it’s late in Taipei and that’s where Sascha is.)
Following our podcast and dovetailing in very nicely is the Mobile Tech Roundup Podcast. James, Kevin and Matt will be doing their first live podcast a few hours after us at 0800 Central time (1400 GMT+1) You can catch these guys at UStream.Tv/channel/mobiletechroundup
Thanks to the 850 people that dropped in to the session last night. We ran for about 4 hours and in that time you racked up 940 hours of viewing. That’s a lot of attention so clearly we’re getting something right with the live reviews.
The first thing to note from last nigh’ts N900 session is that there we didn’t find any show stoppers. Sizing is clearly an issue for some but within the bounds of the size of the device, Nokia have done an incredible job and married it with a software stack that is fit for the next-generation of ‘computing-first’ handhelds for both the geek and consumer community. Pricing appears to be acceptable to our target audience too. Over 85% of those voting in a poll during the session said it was value for money based on street prices we’re seeing of 500-550 Euros. In Germany the N900 is already free from some third-party resellers with high-end contracts.
Sascha joined me in the studio last night for a full-on 3.5hr marathon testing and discussion session with 10 different tablets. The iPad2, Asus Eee Pad Transformer, Acer Iconia Tab A500, HTC Flyer, Blackberry Playbook and Samsung Galaxy Tab were the focus of our efforts and we recorded three parts of the live session for you to view below.
