I decided to get a Android tablet as an eBook reader and couch phone replacement. I set myself a price limit and did a list of features I want to have. For me this were the following points:
- 7″ capacitive touchscreen with multitouch
- Battery life of at least 5 hours while browsing, movies, etc.
- A screen resolution of at least 600*1024 pixels
- Two cameras, one for video calls and one for normal photos
- GPS (If I ever want to use it as navigation replacement)
- At least Android 2.3
- Bluetooth and WiFi
- MicroSD slot
- MicroUSB (so I need just one cable for all my mobile devices)
I did quite some research and tested several tablets at the appropriate shops and then I finally decided to get a:
It fits my needs quite perfectly and I got the chance to test it for half a day and immediately liked it, even if I couldn’t test it as long as I wanted to. After that the hunt for the tablet for a reasonable price started and it took quite some time to find a good deal, but finally I shot the tablet at eBay quite cheap. It took only around 1 hour to fully set it up, because I was able to sync most of my data through my Google account. One thing I’m not too happy with, is the lightning behaviour of the soft keys at the bottom of the tablet. They’re only lit up for around 2 seconds and when the lightnings goes off, they’re barely visible. First tests show that the tablet is very nice to use, though it is not recommendable to use too many programs at he same time. I found out that listening to a concert video in the background and reading an eBook using the Kindle app can result in some slowness. Watching videos in DVD resolution are no problem at all and in contrary to some test reports, I really like the screen’s colors and overall quality. The build quality overall can be described as very good. I have the white edition and it is really an eye catcher. The microSD slot is a bit unhandy to use. Having no killer fingernails means: No chance to get the card out. You have to use a tool for it. The speaker is only delivering mono sound, but it is loud enough for most environments. To my surprise the battery lifetime is even better than the 5 hours by now, and I’m really heavily using it.
Overall I can say hat this tablet is really recommendable. And if a 10″ tablet is too large for you, as it is for me, give this one a shot.
Any questions on the tablet? Mail me!