Do I need a tablet?

Courtesy of phoneArena

Probably not. But do you want one? Yes. Tablets are neat. Here are the things that they're good at:

• Internet browsing
• Using reddit, Facebook, or other social media sites
• Looking at photo albums
• Sharing the following with friends when, you know, you're with them in person:
• Photos
• Youtube videos
• News articles
• Games like Cut the Rope or Angry Birds (much more satisfying on a ~10" screen)
• Reading:
• Magazines
• Kindle/Nook books
• Comics
• Recipes for cooking (just don't cook the tablet)
• READING emails (not the best for writing emails unless you have a real keyboard, but then you might as well just use a laptop)
• Wasting time when you're at work/in front of the TV/bathroom
• Using them when lying down on the couch/bed/hammock (try doing that comfortably with a laptop)
• Battery life
• Size/weight

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Now, you've decided that you want a tablet. Hooray! But what should you get? There are really 4 main types of tablets on the market today that you should look at, but I think you should stick to the iPad or a Honeycomb device:

1. Apple iPad
2. Android Honeycomb Tablets (there's about a billion of these)
3. Blackberry Playbook
4. HP (Palm) TouchPad

The Blackberry Playbook and HP TouchPad are great devices...but they're running really immature OSes that are prone to problems and a severe lack of quality apps. Wait a year before you buy one of these. Also, the HP Touchpad is pretty damn chunky.

iPad 2

Courtesy of www.apple.com

Obviously the front runner. Despite my anti-Apple tirades, I really have to admit that Apple hit a home-run with this one. When Steve Jobs announced the original iPad back in the winter of 2010, I was a bit confused when he said that the iPad was one of the most important things he had ever done. What about...starting Apple? Anyways, I get it now. It really has started a whole new category of consumer electronics. Yea, tablets existed before, but they were terrible - they all ran some form of Windows that was NOT designed for it (or some other terrible piece of shit OS), they were heavy, had terrible screens, even worse battery life; the FAILS just keep going. 

Pros of the iPad:

• Lots of apps. Apps apps apps. Literally apps for EVERYTHING.
• The GUI/OS is super-silky-smooth.
• Great for users of iTunes.
• Hardware - although the screen isn't a "retina-display", it's still IPS technology and pretty nice. I'd argue that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a nicer screen, but it's still good. But the icing on the cake here is the almost all aluminum backing. The iPad feels and looks high quality. That's because it is.
• Great battery life (a true 8-10hrs of actual usage before the battery dies).
• Good pricing model - $500 isn't exactly chump change, but I think that they're worth the money. Also, you can get a 3G + wifi version of the iPad 2 for $130 more than the comparable wifi only version. Considering the pricing of the Android/Honeycomb tablets that utilize 3G/4G, that's a pretty decent price.
• Basically the same OS as your iPhone and/or iPod Touch. You'll be up and running in no time.
• So many accessories, you won't be able to choose what to get. Better yet, you'll spend your hard-earned money on things you DON'T need just because you can.

Cons of the iPad:

• You're stuck with iTunes. Note to Steve Jobs: You call it a post-PC device...BUT YOU STILL NEED TO CONNECT IT TO A PC/MAC USING iTUNES TO ACTIVATE IT. wtfmate
• No Flash. Sites that use Adobe Flash for videos, a lot of clothing/furniture websites, cooking websites, etc. that haven't transitioned over to HTML5 are a no-go on Apple's revolutionary device. Nothing is more frustrating than having to go to your computer to look at a website since Apple is too pig-headed to accept this still-ubiquitous software.

Honeycomb (Google Android) Tablets

Courtesy of Samsung

There's a giant number of tablets out there that run some form of Android. DO NOT buy one of those cheapo pieces of crap that they sell at K-Mart, Wal-Mart, Sears, Toys "r" Us, or from that shady website that you're not even sure is real. Even if it's really cheap, it's not worth it. Would you buy a $200 paperweight? Anyways, here's a list of the Android tablets you get my OK with buying:

1. Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. I mean 10.1; DO NOT get the original 7" Galaxy Tab unless you have a very specific purpose for it and you can get the 3G version for $250 or less. 
2. Asus Transformer
3. Motorola XOOM - they just reduced this price by $100 to $499 for the 32GB version, which undercuts most of the competition by $100 (a 32GB iPad 2 WiFi or Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 WiFi is $599)
4. HTC Flyer/Sprint HTC EVO View 4G - this one is the ONLY one that doesn't run Honeycomb (the Android 3.1 OS that is specifically designed for tablets), but HTC's custom software makes it a decent option if you want a 7" device. 

For the purposes of the Honeycomb/Android Tablets, I'm going to focus on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, which I think is the front-runner.

Pros of the Galaxy Tab 10.1:

• Super-thin, super-lightweight. One of the most important things for a tablet is it's size and weight. The Tab is lighter than the iPad (1.24lbs vs. 1.35lbs based on my measurements), and it's about a third of an inch thick. Really easy to hold and use for hours. What good is a tablet if you get tired of holding it?
• The screen - Samsung uses a PLS screen that is similar to the IPS screen that Apple uses in its iPad. Colors are bright, natural, and it has a good resolution. Great touch sensitivity as well. Besides size/weight, the screen is also one of the most important things on a tablet. 
• Speed - of all of the Honeycomb tablets I've used, the Samsung feels the fastest in daily use (and puts the Motorola XOOM to shame). This is strange since they both have nearly identical specs/hardware...but it just seems like Samsung put in more effort on this one.
• Build quality - while not as good as the iPad's aluminum casing, the Samsung is put together quite well, despite the generous use of plastics. 
• Browser - it's essentially Chrome (which is a good thing), and has useful tabs, syncs your bookmarks with Chrome on your desktop/laptop, and fully supports Adobe Flash 10.2 for all of those Flash-based websites you can't view on an iPad 2. It's also pretty damn fast.
• Battery life - pretty much on par with the iPad. You can use this thing for a good 8-10hrs (of constant, screen on use) before the battery quits on you.
• You plug it into your computer and you can use it as a mountable flash drive. This means you can just drag and drop music/photos/videos to your tablet without having to use something like iTunes. 

Cons of the Galaxy Tab 10.1:

• Selection of apps - chances are, you'll find what you want/need on Honeycomb. But most apps aren't designed for the bigger screen, and a lot of apps are still incompatible. However, the apps designed for Honeycomb are fantastic. 
• GUI is a bit choppier than the iPad. That doesn't mean that it's a deal breaker, but it is noticeable. 
• No expandable memory (microSD, SD, etc.) - while the iPad doesn't have this either, other Honeycomb tablets do. Sacrifices had to be made to get this thing as light and thin as it is I suppose.
• Currently no 3G version out, although Verizon should be selling one soon. But it's going to be more expensive that the comparable iPad 2 3G+WiFi version...

The Question is...Should you Buy a Tablet?

That's a great question. Like I said before, most people don't NEED a tablet. But they are nice to have. First thing's first - if you need to replace your one and only computer, a tablet won't cut it. Get the laptop first, and then think about getting a tablet. Tablets are great at content consumption, but not so great at content creation. In other words, get a tablet if you want to read things, browse the internet, read your emails, look at photos/videos, and post quick blurbs to Facebook. But if you're the type that blogs incessantly, obsessively writes long emails, or edits a lot of photos, a tablet isn't going to be good for you. But give one a try - you'd be surprised at how much you like it.