Tablet Wars.

There are many tablet PCs out there, and it has just increased the size of the classifications of gadgets.


Tablet PC or simply a Tablet is a device which is larger than a cell phone, has more appeal towards the larger screen usage and complete mobility and computing. Unlike mobile phones these are not meant telephony rather than portable/mobile computing; still the difference between the average smartphone and a tablet is hazy at best. Let’s see some Tablets that hit the markets and some that are about to.


Apple iPad
Apple iPad pioneered the tablet segment??!! I don’t think so, iPad is not the first of its kind or something entirely radical. It’s just an oversized iPhone with no voice calling capability or a camera.


Check out these:

From Blog stuff

Although iPad is not an ideal device, it has a major fan following due to its battery life, the familiarity with the interface and the app store. The screen size may be an advantage but it’s one of the reasons that many avoid buying it, the size and weight of an iPad makes it a portable tablet but not entirely mobile, you cannot use it like an ordinary gadget and it cannot be carried around in any of your apparel pockets. There are many other disadvantages with the iPad, so I’ll cut to the chase and give you a straight pros cons table:


Pros:
• Screen Size large,


• 4:3 ratio of the screen is very good for browsing websites and reading books


• Superb battery life 10hrs continuous video playback (tested and true: 9hrs 33mins)


• App store has very good applications and games


• Sturdy Design


• Multi touch


• Since the new iOS 4.2 Multitasking is also enabled.


Cons


• 4:3 ratio of the screen is not good for watching movies as all come in a much wider ratio.


• Too large to be carrying around, needs a pouch or a bag.


• No expandable memory


• Heavy


• No camera


• Cannot make Voice calls


• Does not offer video calling over the internet, only facetime


• Facetime can be used only to call other Apple iPad, iPhone4 or iTouch users not everybody.


• No flash (this is really bad for lots of websites which are flash based, youtube, etc)


For most of us iPad is the only option for a tablet PC, but there are many other competitors with similar and even surpassing the iPad standards, in the major manufacturers the next big thing is the Samsung Galaxy Tab P1000.


Samsung Galaxy Tab


This tablet looks exactly like Galaxy S smartphone but it just has a larger 7inch screen, this is not a direct rival to iPad as this has a smaller screen, less weight and less computing power, however the stratergy is different and we can expect many customers-to-be of apple will lean towards the Korean conglomerate. Samsung Tab runs on android platform and it’s pretty lightweight.

Size Comparison with the iPad
Here are the specs:


• 190.09 x 120.45 x 11.98mm, 380g


• Quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G support, 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support


• Full GSM phone calling functionality


• 7" 16M-color TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen of WSVGA (600 x 1024) pixel resolution, Gorilla Glass


• Android OS v2.2 with TouchWiz 3.0 UI customization


• 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird CPU


• PowerVR SGX540 graphics accelerator


• 512 MB of RAM


• 3.2 MP autofocus camera with smile detection and geo-tagging


• D1 (720 x 480 pixels) video recording at 30fps


• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n support


• GPS with A-GPS connectivity; Digital compass


• 16GB internal storage, microSD slot


• DivX and XviD video codec support, Full HD video playback


• HD video out (with a proprietary dock)


• Accelerometer, ambient-light and gyro sensor


• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack


• 30-pin connector and stereo Bluetooth v3.0


• Office document editor


• Secondary video-call camera


• Swype predictive text input


• Adobe Flash Player 10.1 support


• Stereo speakers


• 4000 mAh Li-Ion battery


• Great audio quality


Check out the website for more details: >>click<<


Samsung Galaxy P1000 Tab over Apple iPad


• Lighter and smaller, easier on the pocket


• Telephony (including 3G video calls)


• 3.2 MP camera with D1 video recording @ 30 fps and LED flash


• Android OS v2.2 Froyo


• Proper multitasking, though iPad has a semblance of multitasking.


• microSD card slot for memory expansion


• Uses regular size SIM card


• 16:9 widescreen display


• Adobe Flash player 10.1


• DivX/XviD 1080p video playback


• Bluetooth 3.0


It can be clearly seen that the functionality of the Galaxy Tab trumps that of the iPad and it’s more mobile as the size and the weight are considerably less.


Cons


• Price higher than iPad


• Normal LCD, not AMOLED or SAMOLED, hence the contrast is less and so are the viewing angles, which is a big downside for a tablet.


• Many normal Android apps are not compatible for the larger resolution and screen size.


• No FM radio (?!!)


Well these are the disadvantages of the galaxy tab. 




Tablets are new, hip and are burning the wallets of millions of hardcore gadget geeks and techno-businessmen alike. They’re the gadgets which will not replace any existing technology or product but still induce a hell of a lot of sales. The Tablets are to be seen as a milestone in the technological development of the human race, similar to the advent of cellular phones and televisions. 
The form-factor of a tablet is still in a fix, the Steve Jobs firmly stating that the form-factor of iPad will be the same, the rest of the tablet world is divided into many parts, some tablets having screens with higher resolutions than iPad, some like the Samsung Tab P1000 having a smaller, more compact and meaningful 7inch format. However the answer to that will soon be known and the form-factor will never be universal for the tablet and that will be the unique feature of a tablet PC.




We’ll see more tablets in the weeks to come, Like JooJoo tablet; the Fusion Ink’s Adam Tablet, Amazon’s Kindle, so on and so forth.


Cheers,
Alan.