'Bout them tablets ..

[cegras]

Recently I was sorely, sorely tempted by the $100 off Dell.ca days of deals on the U2311H. It's highly reviewed, and even though IPS is 'slow,' it's acceptable for gaming. Furthermore, it has 1080p resolution and has height adjustment.

One thing that tempted me quite a bit was the ability to rotate to portrait mode. I accumulate a ton of PDFs and printing them out is simply a waste of paper. With this monitor, I would be able to rotate and read PDFs in nice, huge resolution (as well as the occasional textbook or so).

But then I started to think ... bout them tablets. An 11inch or more (like the ExoPC or any other upcoming ones) tablet seems like the perfect media consumption device. You can browse the web comfortably from any position (as opposed to a nettop) with WiFi, you can watch videos, and most importantly you can read books with the perfect size. Scrolling by finger is much better than using a mouse wheel.

Right now I use my computer mostly for gaming, then internet/videos/media, then lastly writing reports. I think decoupling the gaming in the form of a small mATX PC with a decently sized tablet presents the perfect compromise between content creation (ala keyboard and stuff) and consumption.

Thoughts?

(I know the ExoPC and the Notion Adam seem very promising. Any others? Looking for a large-ish screen, definitely 10+ inches diagonal for comfortable reading)

[Skrying]

None of the Windows based units look promising. They're all sporting boor battery life times and custom interfaces that are going to not get updates when the companies trying to push them abandon the product or just vanish.

[Voldenuit]

What Skyring said.

I think it'll probably be another 5 years before any Tablet platform will mature into something other than a toy (iPad) or forgottenware (everyone else). Android may have a chance, but even things like the Streak are glorified smartphones rather than tablets. And windows is too bloated.

If the iPhone is any indication, it will take a few iterations before the functionality of the product reaches its target goal, but at least it will be slick, work and have good App support in the meantime. But if you want an iPad for any productivity or useful work, you're SOL. It's a gadget and a consumption gateway, not a computing product at this stage.

[cegras]

Well, that's exactly what I think a tablet is for.

A good sized tablet running on Android or W7 will be able to: browse the web, read content, watch videos, and perhaps engage in light messaging. Content creation is left to the properly equipped mATX with keyboard and mouse.

Currently I feel that a lot of these tablets meet that criteria.

[Skrying]

There's a rather large difference between a Android tablet and a Windows 7 one. Android tablets are going to be running on traditionally phone hardware. Which means very good battery life. Plus Android is going to be maintained in some form. Chances are you're going to be able to get one of those from a major manufacturer like Samsung (which isn't a guarantee of them keeping it up to date, but better than a company likely to disappear). Windows 7 tablets on the other hand are going to be running at the very least on Atom hardware. Plus we're talking about a limited weight and size device so battery life is still going to be 5 to 6 hours at best in battery life. I wouldn't want that little battery life on a consumption only device. It couldn't make it through a long flight or day.

Honesty right now I have some high hopes for the Samsung Galaxy Tab or whatever they're calling it at this point. Relatively powerful hardware paired with Android. Samsung seems very serious about taking up the tablet market.

[cegras]

It does sound good. Here's to them seeing a market for a larger form factor.