Bryan’s top 3 tablets for April 2012
A couple days ago Andreas told you what his top three tablets to buy for this month are, and I thought I would take this opportunity to share my top three. I’ve had one tablet that has stayed in my top three, and I will explain why, as well as tell you about two other tablets you shouldn’t pass up. Hit the break to read more.
1. Apple iPad 2
In February I had the iPad 2 as one of my top tablets because it was one of the best tablets available on the market. This month it also made my top three, but for a different reason, the price. The iPad 2 is still a very capable tablet, and there are lots of reasons that I would buy an iPad 2 over the new iPad, the chief of them being that everyone that I have talked to that has bought a new one has regretted it. Another big reason to get an iPad 2 is simply that it is made by Apple. I say this not because I think that Apple makes the best stuff on earth, but that there are a lot of developers and manufacturers that do think that way. That means that there is a lot of cool stuff I can do with apps for the iPad that aren’t even available for Android.
I actually just purchased an iPad 2 for work today for just that reason. If you are in the production lights and sound world you will know exactly what I am talking about. By me buying an iPad I can now control all of my sound boards and lighting systems from the iPad, plus my presentation software. The only part of that I could do on Android is a very limited amount of the presentation software control. Nobody is really making Android apps for these devices. I’m really excited about my iPad 2 so that I can control all of my digital sound equipment from it, and at $399 it’s at a price you just can’t beat for a tablet that is tried and true, which is not something you can say about any of the new tablets on the market right now.
2. Asus Transformer TF300
This last week I had the opportunity to mess around on a friends Eee Pad Transformer. He had bought the docking keyboard for it and it was the first time I had the pair of devices together in my hands. I have to say I was very impressed. If anyone has a Transformer and does not own the docking keyboard I suggest you go out and buy one immediately. It is that good. It is seamlessly integrated into the tablet, and when it is attached you basically have a touch-screen netbook on your hands. One of the great things about Android over Apple is the support for pointing devices. This allows the dock to have a touchpad that acts exactly like a mouse on your tablet. Together these two devices are a homerun.
That brings us to the newest Transformer tablet, the TF300. It was released this week online, and will be available in stores next week. At just $399 for a 32GB model, or $379 for the 16GB one, this tablet is pretty affordable for a 10-inch tablet. It comes with a quad-core processor that promises to make it a very speedy device. This is Asus’ third generation of the Transformer series and they know what they are doing. I also really like that they made the jump from a 16GB to a 32GB tablet only a $20 difference, hopefully this is something that other manufacturers catch onto.
3. Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 is the newly released tablet that really didn’t impress too many people, however now that a price is announced, I would add it to my list. It comes in at a very reasonable $250, and for only $50 more than the crowd pleasing Kindle Fire, I would say that it is a steal. Compared to the Fire it has double the RAM and double the storage, plus a microSD card slot. So you are getting a tablet with twice as good hardware specs for only $50, can’t beat that. You get Android 4.0, not some majorly messed up version of 2.3, Android made for phones. Plus you also get two cameras, which happens to be two more than what you can find on the Kindle Fire. Overall this is a very good tablet that fits right in the budget price category, which as proven by the Fire is where a lot of tablet owners reside.
Conclusion
This month we once again have the whole spectrum of tablets, from Apple to Android, from 7-inch to 10-inch tablets. We have a budget tablet, and a couple that come in closer to $400, which is still a good ways away from the higher end. Again I am confident that if you buy any of these three tablets you won’t be disappointed.
