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Alright, short and sweet;
I'm in the market for a Tablet - this will be my first, although I'm not new to smartphones/android - and I'd decided to get the G-Tablet.. until I read about the Motorola Xoom.
I like how clean the Xoom looks, how thin it is and how small the frame around the display is. I also like that it's a Motorola product, meaning there will probably be an abundance of spare parts on ebay in the following months should I need a digitizer or what have you. I don't like that I'll probably have to wait to root and modify - judging it based on Motorola's recent history with Android devices and how well they're locked down.
I like the hardware and hackability of the G-Tablet, and the fact that I can pick one up tomorrow at-will. Is there any reason NOT to get the G-Tablet right now?! This tablet will need to last me until around Christmas.
So, in your opinions, throw some pros and cons at me and lets decide which route I should go.. G-Tablet or Xoom (once it's out).
I think the biggest pro would be...it'll be a lot cheaper than the Xoom. Aside from a better screen, camera, and form factor...the gtablet should be up to par with the Xoom.
I'm pretty sure that the Gtablet will get honeycomb so it should keep the device fresh. I think it'll last you til next Xmas but I'm sure temptations to ditch the gtab will be abundant next year.
Yea the price-point for the xoom, I'm guessing, will be on par with the Galaxy Tab, if not slightly more, which would put it out of my price range.
Hows the display on the Gtablet? I've heard mixed reviews.. but I'd expect alot of viewsonic.. pics would be great if anyone has any.
Sent from my Evo 4G running AvaFroyo w/ MakMod using TapaTalk Pro
.mak said:
Yea the price-point for the xoom, I'm guessing, will be on par with the Galaxy Tab, if not slightly more, which would put it out of my price range.
Hows the display on the Gtablet? I've heard mixed reviews.. but I'd expect alot of viewsonic.. pics would be great if anyone has any.
Sent from my Evo 4G running AvaFroyo w/ MakMod using TapaTalk Pro
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The screen isn't so great on the gtablet, but if you are mostly using it from straight on it isn't a problem.
As for the Xoom, I think I'm going to be looking at other tablets. Viewsonic is supposed to release a newer tegra 2 tablet at the end of the first quarter, which looks design-wise more like the Xoom.
I would maybe, maybe get another motorolla phone to replace my droid x because it is something I rely on and don't modify it that much. However, I would never buy a locked down motorolla tablet. And worse yet, I've heard the locking down is only going to get worse with them. It's too bad because they make nice hardware.
I agree. Locked down=deal breaker. If you want to go locked down why not go ipad?
The screen on the gtab is fine for my needs (but who wouldnt prefer "better").
The developer support for gtab seems top notch and it will get better by the month for at least six months to a year. With any thing too locked down what started out as better than a competiting device could easily be getting its a$$ handed to it by said device 4 months later.
I think with CES in the first week of this year you will have a number of announcements of tablets, where I expect shipments by mid-year. I for one don't want a tablet with a data plan and I believe the Motorola will ship with a cellular data modem which will drive higher cost, carrier ties, etc.
The Acer tablets look interesting, but from the pictures on the web it isn't clear if their displays are any better.
.mak said:
Alright, short and sweet;
I'm in the market for a Tablet - this will be my first, although I'm not new to smartphones/android - and I'd decided to get the G-Tablet.. until I read about the Motorola Xoom.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
vsc said:
I think with CES in the first week of this year you will have a number of announcements of tablets, where I expect shipments by mid-year. I for one don't want a tablet with a data plan and I believe the Motorola will ship with a cellular data modem which will drive higher cost, carrier ties, etc.
The Acer tablets look interesting, but from the pictures on the web it isn't clear if their displays are any better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would have to agree, part of the reason why I went with a G-Tablet was because I don't want any type of cellular support. That's why I have a cell phone with hotspot capabilities.
After seeing what the folks here have been able to do with the tablet, especially after going Vegan, this thing is simply amazing. The fact that even Viewsonic even recognizes (in a roundabout way), on their own site, the work that is being done here is "icing on the cake" for me...
It depends if you want to wait or not. Point is the CES products will be MONTHS away and almost certainly more expensive. THEN you will have to wait for a dev community to acclimate and publish software for the product.
1. Gtablet is here NOW
2. Less than $400
3. Tegra 2 (like the best of those devices will have)
4. Dev community is producing NOW
5. Easy market hack NOW. No guarantee for future products.
6. Speaking of guarantees, do you think the products being shown at CES will be as root friendly?
Agree with what others have said already about Gtab. I used my Gtab 99.9% of the time in landscape mode so viewing angle wasn't a problem for me (though in portrait mode you need to tilt a little sideway but not much to get a good viewing angle).
If you are a hobbyist (which I think you are based on the # of projects you are currently working on) and like to tweak things then Gtab is definitely worth looking at. It is so hackable and unbrickable that it's a dev heaven for Android development. I have learned a lot by playing with different ROMs on the Gtab. Dev guys like Roebeet, Rothnic, Gojimi, Clemsyn, etc., have been keeping us busy around the clock with new builds/tricks/support that I probably will still play with it around Xmas 2011
If you are lucky you might be able to snatch a refurb Gtab from Sears outlet for $279. I got mine on sales at Sears for $349 last month brand new.
Cons:
No built-in kickstand (I modified an iPad kickstand from 5Below for $5; works perfectly though)
No perfectly fit screen protector yet (I modified an iPad screen protector to fit my Gtab screen)
No rear camera (I don't miss it but not sure about you)
No multi-finger touch (two fingers only on Gtab; not sure if it's s/w or h/w limitation but I don't find it to be an issue but would like to point it out)
No built-in GPS (but works with Bluetooth GPS to grab GPS data from your phone or other bluetooth GPS devices)
Does not support smooth playback of H.264 High Profile Encoded HD Video (you will have to convert to Main Profile before watching it on Gtab)
Hard-to-find case holder for Gtab (unlike iPad where tons of them are available)
Video Conferencing app support is still not yet widely available (only Yahoo Messenger seems to work so far but image quality is not great; others like Fring & Tango have failed on Gtab but I believe it's software on the app itself)
rothnic said:
The screen isn't so great on the gtablet, but if you are mostly using it from straight on it isn't a problem.
As for the Xoom, I think I'm going to be looking at other tablets. Viewsonic is supposed to release a newer tegra 2 tablet at the end of the first quarter, which looks design-wise more like the Xoom.
I would maybe, maybe get another motorolla phone to replace my droid x because it is something I rely on and don't modify it that much. However, I would never buy a locked down motorolla tablet. And worse yet, I've heard the locking down is only going to get worse with them. It's too bad because they make nice hardware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The screen is my only concern at this point.. I guess GPS is an issue for me since I'd want to use this thing as a giant navigation unit on occasion, but I always have my Evo around so whatever I guess..
rushless said:
It depends if you want to wait or not. Point is the CES products will be MONTHS away and almost certainly more expensive. THEN you will have to wait for a dev community to acclimate and publish software for the product.
1. Gtablet is here NOW
2. Less than $400
3. Tegra 2 (like the best of those devices will have)
4. Dev community is producing NOW
5. Easy market hack NOW. No guarantee for future products.
6. Speaking of guarantees, do you think the products being shown at CES will be as root friendly?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All very good points that I'd taken into account, but was hoping someone would point out to further my belief that the G-Tablet is a wise investment.
samepic said:
Agree with what others have said already about Gtab. I used my Gtab 99.9% of the time in landscape mode so viewing angle wasn't a problem for me (though in portrait mode you need to tilt a little sideway but not much to get a good viewing angle).
If you are a hobbyist (which I think you are based on the # of projects you are currently working on) and like to tweak things then Gtab is definitely worth looking at. It is so hackable and unbrickable that it's a dev heaven for Android development. I have learned a lot by playing with different ROMs on the Gtab. Dev guys like Roebeet, Rothnic, Gojimi, Clemsyn, etc., have been keeping us busy around the clock with new builds/tricks/support that I probably will still play with it around Xmas 2011
If you are lucky you might be able to snatch a refurb Gtab from Sears outlet for $279. I got mine on sales at Sears for $349 last month brand new.
Cons:
No built-in kickstand (I modified an iPad kickstand from 5Below for $5; works perfectly though)
No perfectly fit screen protector yet (I modified an iPad screen protector to fit my Gtab screen)
No rear camera (I don't miss it but not sure about you)
No multi-finger touch (two fingers only on Gtab; not sure if it's s/w or h/w limitation but I don't find it to be an issue but would like to point it out)
No built-in GPS (but works with Bluetooth GPS to grab GPS data from your phone or other bluetooth GPS devices)
Does not support smooth playback of H.264 High Profile Encoded HD Video (you will have to convert to Main Profile before watching it on Gtab)
Hard-to-find case holder for Gtab (unlike iPad where tons of them are available)
Video Conferencing app support is still not yet widely available (only Yahoo Messenger seems to work so far but image quality is not great; others like Fring & Tango have failed on Gtab but I believe it's software on the app itself)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Accessories, rear camera and multi-touch aren't a problem for me.. two-finger zoom is all I use on my devices anyway. Video conferencing is important, but only to an extent.. No GPS is problematic, but I can bluetooth my Evo in.
None of these are deal-breakers but, in the end, without video chat, without gps, with jittery playback of h.264 video and poor display quality, I'm wondering what I'll use the G-Tablet for lol
I suppose I'd be using this for media playback around the house and while traveling, same with web browsing (with Flash, and I'll tether to my Evo when away from home), Netflix when it becomes available (I'm sure there'll be a hack for that) and Google Maps.. does it support v5 Maps with 3d buildings??
As for the iPad comment earlier in the thread; I thought about it, but I like widgets and expansion way too much to go with the iPad.
samepic said:
Agree with what others have said already about Gtab. I used my Gtab 99.9% of the time in landscape mode so viewing angle wasn't a problem for me (though in portrait mode you need to tilt a little sideway but not much to get a good viewing angle).
If you are a hobbyist (which I think you are based on the # of projects you are currently working on) and like to tweak things then Gtab is definitely worth looking at. It is so hackable and unbrickable that it's a dev heaven for Android development. I have learned a lot by playing with different ROMs on the Gtab. Dev guys like Roebeet, Rothnic, Gojimi, Clemsyn, etc., have been keeping us busy around the clock with new builds/tricks/support that I probably will still play with it around Xmas 2011
If you are lucky you might be able to snatch a refurb Gtab from Sears outlet for $279. I got mine on sales at Sears for $349 last month brand new.
Cons:
No built-in kickstand (I modified an iPad kickstand from 5Below for $5; works perfectly though)
No perfectly fit screen protector yet (I modified an iPad screen protector to fit my Gtab screen)
No rear camera (I don't miss it but not sure about you)
No multi-finger touch (two fingers only on Gtab; not sure if it's s/w or h/w limitation but I don't find it to be an issue but would like to point it out)
No built-in GPS (but works with Bluetooth GPS to grab GPS data from your phone or other bluetooth GPS devices)
Does not support smooth playback of H.264 High Profile Encoded HD Video (you will have to convert to Main Profile before watching it on Gtab)
Hard-to-find case holder for Gtab (unlike iPad where tons of them are available)
Video Conferencing app support is still not yet widely available (only Yahoo Messenger seems to work so far but image quality is not great; others like Fring & Tango have failed on Gtab but I believe it's software on the app itself)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
kindle dx cases fit the gtab nicely
Gentlemen:
Lots of good thoughts and ideas -- but I have one that hasn't been mentioned.
Simply put, I'm not rich but if something really better comes out I'll go buy one!!!
I bought two G-Tabs for the fun of playing on the bleeding edge and for personal use. I already have more than justified what I spent with what I have done already!!! I'm even. And I still have a lot more playing to do.
I have accepted the fact that Viewsonic accomplished what they intended in getting a tablet with good hardware and "open" software on the market early. Did they miss the mark on the software -- we may never know except for what we have found in using the tablet.
But they have responded and the devs have catered to us and so far as I can see it we all are having a blast.
I saw a report that an estimated 80 tablet devices will be announced at CES!!!
Got to be something worth playing with in there. But most them are months away. When they are really available we'll see.....
For now, here's to a Happy New Year and lots of fun until it's time to do it again!!!!
Rev
I had mine for almost two weeks and just returned mine to Office Depot. Some of my reasoning is that while it's fast, it feels cheap and the display quality just kills me. Also the Samsung Galaxy Tab just dropped to $500 with no contract from Verizon. CES is just around the corner and I have a feeling that there's going to be a slew of tablets from different vendors. Best buy already has 3 different android tablets in the store since the Fall.
I did enjoy the aspect of it being easy to flash and VEGAn is great, but the lack of being able to run Google Location Services and VOIP kinda also killed it for me. Then the few reports of the power port being knocked loose, made me decide to return it.
After days of researching and some great replies here, I'm positive I'm going to hold off for CES to pass and see what's being offered.
I've decided I need GPS built-in and a better display, and an aluminum body wouldn't hurt either! (but it's unlikely..).
I may grab an iPad used and lowball someone, just to hold me over until CES passes and the new tablets hit stores.. by then Netflix may have the Android app out, and I'll have had a few solid months using it on the iPad.
If I get an iPad for now, I'll also grab the Desktop Connect software so can mess with my laptop through the ipad.
This should hold me over for now, thanks guys!
I just wanted to add my 0.02 for anyone else contemplating the gTab. My wife and I got an iPad this weekend from my Mom for christmas, and since we weren't really looking for a tablet, I hate itunes, I already have a droid x, and I didn't like that she spent so much money, we decided to return the ipad and get an android tablet. Since I only had a day to figure out what we wanted - if anything- I did some frantic searches on the droid x which lead me here. I read about all the issues, the ROMs, and the hardware and decided for the money the Gtab was the way to go. I also thought the screen wouldn't bother me much.
First experience with the Gtab is like everyone else's. Its total crap from the oem. I was reluctant to even let my wife touch it before I modded it. Lucky she doesn't have very high expectations, but she kept asking why everything kept "Force closing" lol.
This is my first time rooting any android device (I've rooted a few linksys routers though) but it was super easy (once I realized the + vol button was the OTHER one). My Gtab is now running VEGAn beta 5 and so far is fantastic. It runs better than my droid x and the only bummer is the missing market stuff. Seems anything GPS related is missing and I'm sure other stuff. I have the droid x paired with the Gtab for GPS and I was hoping the GTab could be my new Giant plotter in my boat but I couldn't find my Navionics software in the market to install. Will have to look into finding a way to install it.
But the real biggest let down surprised me. The screen. I thought it wouldn't matter much to me, but 99% of the time I find myself laying it flat on a desk or my lap in landscape mode and that is the worst possible viewing angle for this device. Quite annoying, but I would still buy (I guess I should say "trade an iPad for") the Gtab again.
The main use will be office productivity for my wife at home/travelling and email/facebook stuff also. I expect it to work well for that.
I was at Best Buy today and almost bit the bullet on an iPad 16GB WiFi, but decided to head to sears and see the G-Tablet on display.. turned out the genius working the counter mistook the cardboard cutout for a real G-Tablet! LOL
Anyway, I decided, regardless of the horrid return policy (30 days, 15% restocking fee unless defective) that I'd take a gTab home with me and give it a shot.
I'm liking it so far, the screen is horrible but I'll adjust. Clockworkmod install was very straightforward, as was installing zPad 3.0 and getting some apps installed (all expected..).
Only time will tell if I regret my purchase.. but if I can get hulu working and some sort of a remote desktop / vnc to control my laptop without loads of lag, I'll be a happy camper.
While I'm on the subject, is there an app similar to AirStream for the iPad? It's VERY fluid and works almost as if you're using Windows (or OSX) from the iPad.. PhoneMyPC is laggy and choppy, LogMeIn is as well.. any others I might try?
The iPad is awful, except the screen
I actually bought an iPad at Worst Buy last week - I just had to test it out. The screen is really very nice and comic viewing is PERFECT on it.
However.....
- No Flash (knew that going in)
- No USB (knew that going in)
- One speaker. That one I didn't expect.
- Mediocre video support. You have to buy an app to get XVID support, and it didn't even work 100% of the time. The GTab might choke on high profile x264's, but it shines on XVID's.
- Mediocre audio support. No WMA, no Vorbis, no FLAC. Nuff said.
- SMB access requires a paid app, and even so it only supported native extensions.
- No drag and drop, and the sharing feature is spotty at best. I would push over a CBR file to Stanza, and 50% of the time the transfer would flat out fail. And I was doing this on a Mac.
The last bullet was the one that "broke the camel's back". I can dump all my CBR's on a NAS device and read them on the GTab (with VEGan b5.1) with no problem. On an iPad, it's a chore to just add a handful of comics. Basically, the device was not designed for me, it was designed for someone who stays within Apple's walled garden and is willing to pay pay pay for all their content (even if they already own it, but it's not supported).
roebeet said:
I actually bought an iPad at Worst Buy last week - I just had to test it out. The screen is really very nice and comic viewing is PERFECT on it.
However.....
- No Flash (knew that going in)
- No USB (knew that going in)
- One speaker. That one I didn't expect.
- Mediocre video support. You have to buy an app to get XVID support, and it didn't even work 100% of the time. The GTab might choke on high profile x264's, but it shines on XVID's.
- Mediocre audio support. No WMA, no Vorbis, no FLAC. Nuff said.
- SMB access requires a paid app, and even so it only supported native extensions.
- No drag and drop, and the sharing feature is spotty at best. I would push over a CBR file to Stanza, and 50% of the time the transfer would flat out fail. And I was doing this on a Mac.
The last bullet was the one that "broke the camel's back". I can dump all my CBR's on a NAS device and read them on the GTab (with VEGan b5.1) with no problem. On an iPad, it's a chore to just add a handful of comics. Basically, the device was not designed for me, it was designed for someone who stays within Apple's walled garden and is willing to pay pay pay for all their content (even if they already own it, but it's not supported).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep. It's why I never even bothered to look at an iPad when they came out even though I had wanted a tablet ala Newton Messagepad 2100 for YEARS!
h.264 HP: I still think that it's just a driver problem, and all Tegra 2s currently have the same problem. nVidia is still claiming full h.264 and I doubt that they'd continue on with that if the hw wasn't capable... so it's a wait for nVidia to fix thing, or admit that they have a hw bug that they can't workaround w/sw...
My only thing with the gTab was that I wished that the camera was higher res... it's not really extra horrible, but it's not awesome either... just kind of meh...
Still using my gTab mainly for web browsing, occasional video, and I have used it to read in portrait mode before in the past although in that function it's been retired since I picked up a NC last week... but I can see situations where I might revert to it if the NC battery is almost dead and I need something backlit to read on... that said in portrait orientation as a reader it just wasn't comfortable to hold to begin with... NC much better for that...
NC screen: yeah better viewing angles, but turns out not to be very selling to me. OTOH the pixel density is VERY nice, unfortunately B&N QA sucks. (My first NC had a defective USB port, and I had a b!tch of a time getting the yahoos in the store to exchange it, so they have a sh!tty cs experience as well... as in if anything goes defective on #2 in the next week it's going back for cash because of their horrid cs.)
Just for what it's worth, take a look at last year's CES and the one before it and see how many products seen there actually hit the market, and of the ones that did, how many were there that actually made it out in the first 2 quarters?
Any tablet at CES that magically passes those 2 barriers will be so proud of itself, it's going to slap a pricetag of $700+ on itself. History repeats itself, CES is all hype specifically to try and rally you into thinking $700 is a great deal.
I would strongly suggest the $350 gtab for this reason hands down, besides, the $700 one if it even does materialize before Q3, will be sporting an approximation of the hardware of the gtab so we will get all their softwares anyway..
See I don't know about that. I think that carriers and manufacturers learned from the massively overpriced galaxy tab. Over $500 is asking a lot of the average consumer, and my guess would be that a majority off these will be around or below that price. For example the notion ink with the lcd is sub 500, and there are plenty more coming out half as nice looking.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
I am in the market to buy a new tablet but I have been looking between archos and a viewsonic. I want to stick with a 10 inch screen but I would like to get the most bang for my buck right now my spending limit about 400 dollars.
I am aware that the g tablet has a nvidia dual core processor which is fairly appealing. However I wanted to get some input from people that have had hands on experience with those tablets. Are there any new tablets I should hold out for or what would you people suggest thank you for your help.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
I own both and will probably sell one of them. I'm still deciding, but leaning in favor of the Gtablet. I plan to post a full comparison on my blog (http://www.blendblog.net) where I reviewed the Archos 101 already.
A quick summary though is as follows:
GTablet performs much better. I've not had to worry about memory whereas on the Archos I've often had to manually kill apps to get the device to stay responsive.
The Gtablet is built better. The screen is slightly better, viewing angles are bad on both but the Archos screen feels like you are tapping on cheap plastic wheras the Gtablet feels like solid glass. The tradeoff is that the Gtablet is MUCH heavier, and bigger.
Both of them have very good speakers.
The fiddle factor with the Gtablet is much higher, but if you are here you probably know that. You must root and rom the device, although that is not a tough thing to do. However, I have spent countless hours with mine trying to get it to wake from sleep correctly, an issue many have. I finally figured out a workaround that fixes the issue at the expense of battery life. It seems that some units just have issues waking from sleep, I may still exchange mine because of this.
Build consistency seems to be a bit sketchy on both fronts. The aforementioned sleep issue has bitten me on the GTablet and my Archos has been RMA'd (their support was excellent though) due to a huge stuck blue pixel in the display that was horrible looking.
Archos has one big leg up on the Gtablet and that's video support. It will play anything I throw at it (I did have to buy a $15 AC3/MPEG2 codec package though). The stock video player is much sleeker as well integrating movie descriptions etc. With the Gtablet you are left with the usual hodgepodge of Android video players that don't work with everything etc.
Google was somewhat right in saying Android wasn't ready for "primetime" but I have to say, I find these devices very fun to play with and use on a day to day basis.
I am definitely leaning towards keeping the Gtablet and selling the Archos when I get it back from RMA. The speed advantage of Gtablet is noticeable and with this excellent hacking community in place I feel like there is a much better chance of it being relevant (Honeycomb?) going forward than with the Archos.
I hope this helps!
Sean
Grabbing VitalPlayer pretty much cleared up the problem of the G-Tab not supporting MPEG-2 or AC3, and it's free. YMMV.
VitalPlayer on Appbrain
Where are the codecs for g tablet to match Archos ???
This lack is confusing given the fact that we know tetra 2 is superior. It would seem that xoom will support many popular video codecs when it comes out in Feb!
Archos vs
I own both tablets, and can say without reservation that the G tablet is superior in many ways. It is a much more solid build ( although about 8 oz heavier)
The G tablet is much faster with the Custom Roms. I have had a number of Archos devices, and have been pleased with them, but after owning the G tablet, with its open nature and ability to modify, I will never opt for such a closed off device like the Archos again. Don't get me wrong- it is a good device, but it lacks the potential of the G tablet.
I have the gtablet running Vegan 5
I have no problems playing videos at all using vplayer, rock player and even es explorer has a pretty good player. I played with 101 archos not bad but looks cheap next to the g tab, also as a long time fan of NVIDIA I knew it was going to fast!
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
I haven't used the Archos, but I was in your exact position a little over a month ago, ultimately I choose to check out the G-Tab because I could pick one up locally and return it in 30 days if I didn't like it. I have to say that at first I wasn't pleased with it overall, but that changed as soon as I started flashing some of the amazing ROMs available here on XDA. I'm not new to flashing my devices, but even if this had been a first time experience for me I doubt I'd have had any problems. Follow steps carefully and you can't go wrong, if you have a question it's most likely already been asked by someone before you, so just search the forums and you'll find the answer quick enough. Long story short the G-Tab would be a real dog of a product if it weren't for this amazing community of developers, but because of them I think it's got a future, a fairly bright one at that. I love my G-Tab more and more everyday, and as of now I do not regret purchasing it.
snipestech said:
I have the gtablet running Vegan 5
I have no problems playing videos at all using vplayer, rock player and even es explorer has a pretty good player. I played with 101 archos not bad but looks cheap next to the g tab, also as a long time fan of NVIDIA I knew it was going to fast!
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine's running the same configuration. Do you have anything with audio encoded in AC-3 Dolby Digital? I ripped all my DVD's to my media server using h.264 for video but leaving the original surround sound audio in place. On the Archos I could play those files with the $15 MPEG2/AC-3 plug-in. I have not been able to find a video player yet that does this for my Gtablet (tried ES and Rock amongst others) but I haven't tried the VitalPlayer that theindependent recommended. I'll post back when I get a chance to try that player, it may solve this issue somewhat.
Sean
Same here... Once I did a little more research I found that the Archos 101 had the exact same viewing angle issues with a crappier plastic feeling screen. When you couple that with 256 meg ram and Single Core design it was a simple decision for me.. I figured if I couldnt have an iPAD equivilant screen then I would go with what is future proof. The only real option is the 7inch which every states viewing angles are good - but was still concerned with the future use of the hardware and resale value (at that time). Dual core Tegra's in about 6 - 12 months will hold their value significantly higher than a 256 meg / single core device. By then I see better screens coming out and will upgrade then.
Till then... Im loving the decision - I also agree I was very upset the first few hours until I got the custom rom, kernel, launcher and other apps all up and running..
geoffreywolter said:
I haven't used the Archos, but I was in your exact position a little over a month ago, ultimately I choose to check out the G-Tab because I could pick one up locally and return it in 30 days if I didn't like it. I have to say that at first I wasn't pleased with it overall, but that changed as soon as I started flashing some of the amazing ROMs available here on XDA. I'm not new to flashing my devices, but even if this had been a first time experience for me I doubt I'd have had any problems. Follow steps carefully and you can't go wrong, if you have a question it's most likely already been asked by someone before you, so just search the forums and you'll find the answer quick enough. Long story short the G-Tab would be a real dog of a product if it weren't for this amazing community of developers, but because of them I think it's got a future, a fairly bright one at that. I love my G-Tab more and more everyday, and as of now I do not regret purchasing it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
stiphy said:
I own both and will probably sell one of them. I'm still deciding, but leaning in favor of the Gtablet. I plan to post a full comparison on my blog (http://www.blendblog.net) where I reviewed the Archos 101 already.
A quick summary though is as follows:
GTablet performs much better. I've not had to worry about memory whereas on the Archos I've often had to manually kill apps to get the device to stay responsive.
The Gtablet is built better. The screen is slightly better, viewing angles are bad on both but the Archos screen feels like you are tapping on cheap plastic wheras the Gtablet feels like solid glass. The tradeoff is that the Gtablet is MUCH heavier, and bigger.
Both of them have very good speakers.
The fiddle factor with the Gtablet is much higher, but if you are here you probably know that. You must root and rom the device, although that is not a tough thing to do. However, I have spent countless hours with mine trying to get it to wake from sleep correctly, an issue many have. I finally figured out a workaround that fixes the issue at the expense of battery life. It seems that some units just have issues waking from sleep, I may still exchange mine because of this.
Build consistency seems to be a bit sketchy on both fronts. The aforementioned sleep issue has bitten me on the GTablet and my Archos has been RMA'd (their support was excellent though) due to a huge stuck blue pixel in the display that was horrible looking.
Archos has one big leg up on the Gtablet and that's video support. It will play anything I throw at it (I did have to buy a $15 AC3/MPEG2 codec package though). The stock video player is much sleeker as well integrating movie descriptions etc. With the Gtablet you are left with the usual hodgepodge of Android video players that don't work with everything etc.
Google was somewhat right in saying Android wasn't ready for "primetime" but I have to say, I find these devices very fun to play with and use on a day to day basis.
I am definitely leaning towards keeping the Gtablet and selling the Archos when I get it back from RMA. The speed advantage of Gtablet is noticeable and with this excellent hacking community in place I feel like there is a much better chance of it being relevant (Honeycomb?) going forward than with the Archos.
I hope this helps!
Sean
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Click to collapse
Great summary! I expect video support to get a lot better once Nvidia finally releases final drivers. Kind of have too, with all the T2's coming out soon.
In a nutshell, if higher def video is not 90% of the reason you are getting a tablet, the Gtablet is a FAR better choice than the Archos 101. Also, the Archos 101 has a few glaring problems besides a much slower chipset:
1. 230mb of device app space. Gtablet has eight times more space
2. 256mb ram (contant performance battle unless just using for video)
Have both Archos is light and thin, a little bit flimsy, but is a great pmp/ereader especially when on the road. Gtablet is a beast though runs circles around the Archos in regard to performance and flexibility. As a long time Archos supporter I think this my last device from them.
I just installed VitalPlayer from the market, thanks theindependent for the pointer.
It does play AC-3 so my ripped DVD's are fine. I have a 720p video though and it can't keep up, it stutters. The Archos 101 played it just fine.
Hopefully as rushless said, there will be updates to the driver so that hardware acceleration for hidef video can be added.
There are 2 other features the GTablet are missing that I forgot about:
1) No mini-hdmi output port, instead it has a docking station port. I would get more use out of mini-hdmi although the UI on the Archos is very bad when plugged into a monitor as I menitioned in the review on my blog.
2) The kickstand, while somewhat cheesy, is a nice feature on the Archos device.
One plus for the Gtablet (for me at least) is it uses the more standard mini-usb type plug instead of the micro usb plug of the archos. Most of my other devices are miniusb so I prefer this.
I think to sum things up I'd say that if you want a video player and e-reader that can do a nice amount of computer like things I'd go Archos. If you want a computer that is an ok e-reader (just a bit heavier) and can do some video go Gtablet!
Sean
I was seriously considering the 101 until I found this device. I think so far (only 1 day) it is a win.
As far as kick stand I am using a Garmin GPS suction mount for a windscreen on the back it works well.
Stuggy said:
I was seriously considering the 101 until I found this device. I think so far (only 1 day) it is a win.
As far as kick stand I am using a Garmin GPS suction mount for a windscreen on the back it works well.
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Click to collapse
Can you show some pictures of that? I have a Garmin Widescreen GPS, I ould like to see how you have it setup with the g-tablet.
Sm0k3d 0uT said:
Can you show some pictures of that? I have a Garmin Widescreen GPS, I ould like to see how you have it setup with the g-tablet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I get home I'll do it. It is basically the mount on the back of the g-tab (choose a location to determine tilt) and then the ball rests on the surface of desk or you can hold it using that.
How were you able to get Vplayer to run?
I've been able to install fine but when I run it I am unable to open any videos, same from a file explorer with the open with menu. Thanks!
snipestech said:
I have the gtablet running Vegan 5
I have no problems playing videos at all using vplayer, rock player and even es explorer has a pretty good player. I played with 101 archos not bad but looks cheap next to the g tab, also as a long time fan of NVIDIA I knew it was going to fast!
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
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Click to collapse
You should also consider what you will want in the future their are many new tegra 2 powered devices coming out soon for a reason, the g tablet already has the same hardware but the developement is ahead of all other tablets on the market. I have the g tablet and wouldn't consider any other device thanks to the devs on the forum making it the best tablet available right now.
Sm0k3d 0uT said:
Can you show some pictures of that? I have a Garmin Widescreen GPS, I ould like to see how you have it setup with the g-tablet.
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Click to collapse
I have some pictures here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=10099907&postcount=10
RojasTKD said:
I have some pictures here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=10099907&postcount=10
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Click to collapse
Mine looks just like that - same suction mount. Sorry I didn't upload. And I think I got the idea from that post although I probably would have tried it in looking for a stand method.
I just got my Archos 101 back from RMA.
One thing I noticed that is a big plus for the Archos, at least in my setup is that when it is powered down it "sleeps properly." After 20 hours of sitting on my desk powered down it still has 95% battery life. My GTablet on the other hand won't wake up from sleep properly. You can follow the travails I and others are having on this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=855821. If I leave my GTablet on for 20 hours it will be down to around 15% battery life. That's without my workaround to keep the CPU on when the screen is off that fixes the broken wake from sleep (but does slightly increase this battery drain).
Now maybe I have a defective unit, and I am contemplating returning it still. Can anyone else comment on what they see battery life wise with their GTablet when its sleeping. Preferably someone without the wake up problem my unit has. To test just charge it up, leave it "sleeping" overnight with the screen off and when you wake up the next morning report what the battery life is. The Archos only loses about 1% every 4 hours, the GTablet is losing 4% every hour!
FWIW, Archos support was awesome, I live in the US Virgin Islands and they at first tried to send it UPS which is "international" for us and a cluster to deal with. Because of this the UPS tag that was generated had it going to Pennsylvania (yes this is a common occurrence with UPS and the USVI). I called them immediately and they halted the shipment, then sent it to me USPS Express mail so I had it in 2 days! The replacement unit was in perfect shape.
Sean
Yesterday I tried to record videos with the TF for the 1st time. I chose the YouTube HD setting video looks great when uploaded to YouTube but the sound is off sync. It starts out fine but after 4 min or so the sound is going ahead of the video. Anyone else having this problem?
has no one else here tried to record video with the TF? If so please let me know if this is common to all TFs before I return it to Amazon
I've recorded a couple of short videos with both cameras and they seems OK. As I said, they were short - under your 4 minute problem point.
I'd suggest trying other video players before returning your TF. If quality video recording is important to you, I'd suggest a real camera or camcorder. It would be cheaper, smaller and produce a much better product.
Bye.
well ive recorded over 180 videos with my evo4g and they all, within the limitations of the camera ofcourse the videos look great in terms of audio video sync. And the video player is not the problem because I have played back the videos on my computer, youtube other pc etc, the delay happens during the recording of the video. I 'm trying to see if enough users are experiencing this issue to just assume that is some kind of general software bug that everyone has in which case I probably would just wait it out since its likely that it would be fixed in a future software update. However if it is a problem that only IM HAVING then I should return and exchange.
So if its not too much trouble I would really appreciated it if maybe a couple of people on their spare time could take a few short videos (pass 4 min) and check to see if their video audio is out of sync
thanks to all
not only that, but if this is an issue across the board for TFs maybe we can make the right people aware of it in case that ASUS hasnt come up with a solution I'm sure the devs here can figure something out. As well future buyers might like to know if the camera on their 400 or 500 dollars new toy, which asus advertises can record 720p video, can actually deliver on that promise, pass 4 min anyway
I am a newbie to this board. I purchased a micro sd card at Amazon. It worked for one day on my transformer. I took it out and then inserted it the following day. It got swallowed up and I couldn't remove it. My transformer also didn't recognize that the SD card was there. It took many hours to remove it. I ended up using a fine pair of twizzers. I read that amazon is carrying a lot of fake SD cards from China...read the reviews on Amazon if you are interested. I wonder if that was the problem...however I used a adapter and the card worked fine on my computer but not on my droid phone nor camera where it alerted me the card was damaged.
Has this happened before? Is this a glitch with the transformer...the card getting stuck? Since it was day 13 of purchasing it at Best Buy, I returned it. Now I want another one and can't decide to wait and purchase the prime or buy the same one cheaper.
I also had another problem with my tablet. I like watching House on Fox TV. It was barely possible. I would get alerts saying my mobile is not compatible. I got a lot of streaming issues where it would stop every few seconds and load up.
Does anyone know if the prime would solve this issue? It only has 1gb of ram. Watching Netflix was fine...not Fox TV.
thanks in advance
i can't help you with the memory card but it's usually a good idea to stick with the name brand cards.
i say good job on returning the transformer while you still could. i think the prime is a pretty big leap over the original and at an extra $100 it's a bargain imo.
as for the netflix versus foxtv viewing. netflix was probably fine because you were using the netflix app. foxtv is laggy because it is probably running through flash which the transformer couldn't handle properly for some reason. flash on android in general is a mixed bag and i don't know if the extra power of the prime will fix it. my guess is it will be better but can't say by how much. i think when prime eventually gets the ice cream sandwich update is when we'll truly see what it's capable of which hopefully is a whole lot.
From the sounds of it more like you insert it wrong or something as opposed to a fake sd card. Fame or not it should go on and out the same imo
I don't know what happened. It wasn't inserted wrong. I pushed it in and it went in too far and I didn't have the grip of my nails to pull the SD out.
I just saw an ad for the original transformer with 32gb for $389. I'm still can't decide to wait and pay the extra $125+++ and get the prime just for speed but 16GB or spend $389 and get a larger 32 GB drive. I am not using it for games but just for movies. I also hope to use the movie maker app to edit my long videos and burn to DVDs.
anyone think it is worth it to wait for the prime which is somewhat lighter in weight in but faster than the origjinal--- or buy the original with double the GB for a lot cheaper price now and use it for 6 months and wait for what ASUS offers after the first of the year when they get even a faster tablet and buy it then after all the kinks are worked out with the operating system?
The prime is built to aim more towards gamers than anyone else. The quad/quint core is only used to its full potential when dealing with graphically intense apps... like games.
For most other purposes, the transformer 1 is more than capable of handling.
Regarding the card issue, this is the first I've heard of it. But I'll tell you this. I don't know if you inserted it wrong or not, since I wasn't there. But through all my years of tech help of other people, the #1 issue that most people run into when they say they have a bad card or their device card slot is bad is actually them inserting the card wrong. I'll leave it at that.
Please feel free to ask plenty of questions. Myself and other experienced android users will be more than happy to help you. I may appear cranky at times, but that's just my other personalities. Take my advice. Multiple personality disorder, when left untreated, can result in poor health and social relationships with others.
thanks for your advice. So you are saying this quad processor won't make streaming or viewing movies any faster ---or video editing [large files of copy, cut and paste] quicker? I am a graphic artist and hope one day that I can find a photoshop -equal app where I can take big files and tweek them while keeping my processor quick enough during this action.
otherwise I will buy the original 32gb tablet for $389 and replace it in a year or two when tablets are more advance and prices hopefully are better.
Someone on here got a used Transformer from Amazon and was pretty stoked about it; it still had most of the plastic on it and didn't look as if it'd been used much, if at all. You could swoop up a 32GB unit for $297 (it's also eligible for a SquareTrade warranty, if you're into that [some cats swear by it]) and chill with that till Prime shows up and is worked out. Just a thought!
transformer_girl said:
thanks for your advice. So you are saying this quad processor won't make streaming or viewing movies any faster ---or video editing [large files of copy, cut and paste] quicker? I am a graphic artist and hope one day that I can find a photoshop -equal app where I can take big files and tweek them while keeping my processor quick enough during this action.
otherwise I will buy the original 32gb tablet for $389 and replace it in a year or two when tablets are more advance and prices hopefully are better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
transformer_girl said:
thanks for your advice. So you are saying this quad processor won't make streaming or viewing movies any faster ---or video editing [large files of copy, cut and paste] quicker? I am a graphic artist and hope one day that I can find a photoshop -equal app where I can take big files and tweek them while keeping my processor quick enough during this action.
otherwise I will buy the original 32gb tablet for $389 and replace it in a year or two when tablets are more advance and prices hopefully are better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be a yes and no. In theory if it brings enough of the processor cores online for the job, yes by brute force. Also yes in the sense that something there is probably a way for a movie player to take advantage of it, but no in the sense that you probably won't find such a soon enough to care, and no in the sense that at the hardware level it might not always. Logic there: AFAIK they use a baby core for simple tasks and start reving up to the quadtacular power house as needed, so e.g. if you just e-mail you get mega battery life. Try playing Need For Speed non stop and it'll drain faster but run smooth.
Can't say if it's any good but there is an Adobe Photoshop Express app; for simple tasks it might suffice but it may vastly fall short of what you may need. My expertise in your field is minimal so take it with a grain of salt.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
You mention that you could not grip the card with your nails to pull it out. To remove the card, you push in on it to release it and it should pop far enough out to grab with your fingers. It is not like the sim card on some phones that you pull out. It is a push to insert ( till it clicks) then push again ( till it clicks) to remove.
transformer_girl said:
thanks for your advice. So you are saying this quad processor won't make streaming or viewing movies any faster ---or video editing [large files of copy, cut and paste] quicker? I am a graphic artist and hope one day that I can find a photoshop -equal app where I can take big files and tweek them while keeping my processor quick enough during this action.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't say that. I said to the average user or users who don't game or don't care much for those really high pixel movies won't notice a difference. If you're a graphic artist, then yes the prime will be perfect for you. Again, it all comes down to what you want to use it for.
otherwise I will buy the original 32gb tablet for $389 and replace it in a year or two when tablets are more advance and prices hopefully are better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want to use photoshop and all the graphically intense stuff, then yes I'd recommend waiting for the prime.
thanks for all your advise. I will wait and get the prime...however I am quite disappointed that the new docking has only 1 USB and not 2....
regarding inserting the SD card that got stuck. Yes, it is possible I didn't push it in hard enough to have it pop out but it was stuck so far in it the port that I was afraid to try to push more to ejact the SD. Regardless when it was stuck in my old transformer didn't recognize it
ok so this video about tegra 3 says that flash performance will be greater than before
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtciCHZNE20&feature=relmfu
VIDEO COMPARISONS BETWEEN TWO TOP TEER TABLETS:
Asus Transformer Pad Infinity(TF700T) & Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
This was created to give people an overall view of how these two tablets perform doing similar tasks and to aid in giving you a better view for those curious about these two tablets. These devices are best of the best compared to the rest of the Android tablets in the market today. Both appeal to the masses. Which one you go for is completely up to your needs. Hopefully this will help out the people still undecided. (Thanks BarryH_GEG for your videos on the Note 10.1 I also apologies for the background noises coming from my 2 and 5 year old daughters in a few of the videos)
(Be sure to set it to 1080p and keep in mind that loading/buffering from the Infinity will take a little longer because of the FHD screen)
- Note 10.1 & Infinity both running ICS -
Scrolling/Swipping/General use
NOTE 10.1
(Courtesy of BarryH_GEG)
INFINITY
YOUTUBE 1080p(Web browser)
(Courtesy of BarryH_GEG)
NOTE 10.1
INFINITY
HBOGO (Web Browser)
(Courtesy of BarryH_GEG)
NOTE 10.1
INFINITY
XDA (Web browser)
(Courtesy of BarryH_GEG)
NOTE 10.1
INFINITY
NETFLIX
(Courtesy of BarryH_GEG)
NOTE 10.1
INFINITY
jjdevega said:
These devices are best of the best compared to the rest of the Android tablets in the market today.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much for taking the time to put those together. I'd say general use and YouTube in a browser were pretty comparable. You can see the TF700 stuttering some in the other browser tests and the Netflix test. You pulled up HBO GO and XDA from your favorites without clearing the cache first which makes a difference. They’re both very content heavy sites and having to load all that content initially is a lot of work for the browser and h/w.
In the end they are both great devices, neither without compromises. And a lot of people would never consider the Note because of the lower res display and lack of options like the extended battery via the dock, the dock itself, and additional ports. It’s great to have choices.
P.S. – The empty space on your home screens makes me feel embarrassed by the clutter of mine.
BarryH_GEG said:
Thanks so much for taking the time to put those together. I'd say general use and YouTube in a browser were pretty comparable. You can see the TF700 stuttering some in the other browser tests and the Netflix test. You pulled up HBO GO and XDA from your favorites without clearing the cache first which makes a difference. They’re both very content heavy sites and having to load all that content initially is a lot of work for the browser and h/w.
In the end they are both great devices, neither without compromises. And a lot of people would never consider the Note because of the lower res display and lack of options like the extended battery via the dock, the dock itself, and additional ports. It’s great to have choices.
P.S. – The empty space on your home screens makes me feel embarrassed by the clutter of mine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On HBOGO, every time i cleared data and all, I would have to resign in. How are you able to go through hbogo without having to sign in? So The only difference with my video to yours was after I had cleared all I signed in and closed it. Then ran the comparison. Xda I had bookmarked but I cleared all data to it. So nothing different from your video. I'll do another test on the XDA video with me clearing everything. I apparently did not video that part.
.....
I removed my 35 widgets after the comparison. I don't like to much stuff going on
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app
jjdevega said:
I'll do another test on the XDA video with me clearing everything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't have to do that. Samsung's always done a better job than everyone else at optimizing their browsers. As an example, the Exynos SGS3 eats my Teg3 One X's lunch at every browsing benchmark and their screen resolution is almost identical. The TF700's at a disadvantage right from the start because of the additional pixels its pushing. The browsing performance of the TF700 is close to or even behind the TF300 in some tests because of that. It's the price you pay for that clear text and those pretty pictures.
Yep, I'm here again. I guess no one seems to have mentioned about audio here at all. Not one peep about it. As I've said MANY times before you'll notice the speaker placement of the Infinity. You may need your glasses to actually see that small, tiny, little speaker that is ON THE BACK of the tablet facing AWAY from you so you really can't hear it.
The Samsung's REAL speakers are right on the front facing you and they happen to be real stereo seperation since they are actually seperated. The sound compared is night and day. While you need to keep the Infinity's speaker volume on max all the time just to hear it a little you'll really appreciate the Samsung's speaker quality and placement. Everyone is so hooked up on video and forgot all about audio.
opentoe said:
Yep, I'm here again. I guess no one seems to have mentioned about audio here at all. Not one peep about it. As I've said MANY times before you'll notice the speaker placement of the Infinity. You may need your glasses to actually see that small, tiny, little speaker that is ON THE BACK of the tablet facing AWAY from you so you really can't hear it.
The Samsung's REAL speakers are right on the front facing you and they happen to be real stereo seperation since they are actually seperated. The sound compared is night and day. While you need to keep the Infinity's speaker volume on max all the time just to hear it a little you'll really appreciate the Samsung's speaker quality and placement. Everyone is so hooked up on video and forgot all about audio.
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Click to collapse
I hardly use the internal speakers. When I do I just use Volume+ and problem solved. I don't need to even have the volume set to max barely 40% is loud enough. Most of the time I use my LG Tone - HBS-700 BT Headset. I like the idea of being able to go to the next room and hear what I'm listening to in private and my kids hearing inappropriate things when I watch my movies or anime is avoided completely. I also have an portable BT speaker that has rechargeable Li-ion battery that aids in long road trips to extend the battery life of my tablet since I'm not using its internal speakers. You would be amazed of how little I use the internal speakers for listening. Internal speakers/Volume is no issue for me.
I understand what your saying though... The Notes 10.1 speakers are pretty darn nice!
....................
Which is also why I'm assuming you don't hear much talk about speakers being a huge hindrance.
(I like how you made some of your words in CAPS)
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Opentoe!! I didn't realize that it was you! Welcome back! You were MIA for awhile there...
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app
jjdevega said:
I hardly use the internal speakers. When I do I just use Volume+ and problem solved. I don't need to even have the volume set to max barely 40% is loud enough. Most of the time I use my LG Tone - HBS-700 BT Headset. I like the idea of being able to go to the next room and hear what I'm listening to in private and my kids hearing inappropriate things when I watch my movies or anime is avoided completely. I also have an portable BT speaker that has rechargeable Li-ion battery that aids in long road trips to extend the battery life of my tablet since I'm not using its internal speakers. You would be amazed of how little I use the internal speakers for listening. Internal speakers/Volume is no issue for me.
I understand what your saying though... The Notes 10.1 speakers are pretty darn nice!
....................
Which is also why I'm assuming you don't hear much talk about speakers being a huge hindrance.
(I like how you made some of your words in CAPS)
.....................
Opentoe!! I didn't realize that it was you! Welcome back! You were MIA for awhile there...
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The last thing I want to do is carry around external block speakers with my $600 tablet. It is a little funny to me. Most people that buy the Asus Infinity tablet will go about and buy a keyboard for it, along with external speakers. They are trying to make it right into a laptop. The thing they are used to. We all know one day we'll be able to run Android on an Intel PC. One day.