Android tablet video reviews

Source: MobileTechReview

Lenovo IdeaPad K1 Android Honeycomb Tablet Video Review

Lenovo IdeaPad K1 has a 10.1″, 1280 x 800 capacitive display with 10 points of multi-touch, a 1Ghz dual core Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU, 1 gig of RAM, dual cameras, WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth and a GPS. It has a microSD card slot, a micro HDMI port and runs Android 3.1 out of the box. When specs are all the same on the first crop of Honeycomb tablets, how do you differentiate? Lenovo thinks software is the way, so they’ve loaded over 30 apps on this tablet.

Toshiba Thrive Review

We applaud Toshiba: they dared to do something different. Rather than copying the iPad and iPad 2, they made a tablet that dares to be thick, rugged and hyper-expandable. If ports get you hot and bothered, and if a replaceable battery makes your heart go pitter-pat, the Toshiba Thrive is your tablet. The Thrive is a 10.1″ Android Honeycomb 3.1 tablet with the usual internals: dual core 1Ghz Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU, a gig of RAM, WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, a GPS, dual cameras and a 10.1″ capacitive 1280 x 800 LED backlight touch screen. What sets it apart are the full size HDMI and USB port and SD card slot. Even the USB sync/file transfer port is mini USB rather than the now more common smaller micro USB port. The back cover pops off to reveal a removable battery… this is an Android tablet with the heart of a notebook.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the Android tablet that’s most like Apple’s hyper-successful iPad 2 tablet from a design perspective. It’s incredibly slim at 0.34” and light at 1.25 lbs., and we can only marvel that Samsung re-engineered it to such lithe sexiness in just a few months. The silver sides, curved edges and attention to detail put it neck-and-neck with Apple’s finest and set it apart from all other Android Honeycomb tablets. On the software side however, it’s no different than other recent vanilla Honeycomb tablets on the market such as the Asus Eee Pad Transformer and the granddaddy Motorola Xoom. At trade shows earlier this year, Samsung had shown the Tab 10.1 running a tablet version of TouchWiz software that looked very sweet, and when it’s released as a free update, this will set it apart from other Android tablets. But for now, we’ve got standard Android 3.1 and that’s what we’ll cover in our review.

HTC EVO View 4G Review

Less than a month after HTC released the HTC Flyer 7″ Android tablet, Sprint released their version as the HTC EVO View 4G. These two tablets are the same beast with a few key differences: the EVO View 4G adds 3G/4G on Sprint’s network, it has a metallic gray back and internal storage capacity is increased from 16 gigs to 32 gigs. We won’t rehash here; for the detailed review, check out our HTC Flyer review.

HTC Flyer

Seven inch tablets are still a relatively uncommon commodity since manufacturers are rushing to market with 10″ tablets to compete with the obscenely popular iPad and iPad 2. But the Samsung Galaxy Tab, the granddaddy of 7″ tablets has sold well since its late 2010 launch (it helps that all major US carriers offered this slick little beast), and the BlackBerry PlayBook seems to be doing reasonably well. Some of us want a tablet that will fit easily in a bag or large pocket rather than a tablet that verges on netbook size.

Asus Eee Pad Transformer

Android Honeycomb 10″ tablets have been pricey propositions. The first model to market, the Motorola Xoom, costs $799 without contract and $599 with a 2 year contract. The LG G-Slate on T-Mobile costs $750 retail and $550 with contract and the32 gig Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet doesn’t costs $500. Acer lowered the pricing bar, just as they’ve done in the PC market, with their $449-$549 Iconia Tab A500. Now Asus, also a master of budget priced products that offer a lot of bang for the buck have undercut even Acer with their Eee Pad Transformer. The Transformer sells for $399 with 16 gigs of internal storage and $499 for 32 gigs.

Asus Eee Pad Transformer Keyboard Dock Review

LG G-Slate

In a world of rushed releases and the negative reviews that ensue, you have to wonder why manufacturers are making early launches a trend. Or maybe not. The BlackBerry Playbook got panned in pre-release reviews but in the week before release, RIM apparently did remarkable work getting the tablet stable and pleasing (not counting lack of third party apps). Folks are buying it anyway and quite a few seem to like it. Motorola not only wouldn’t be beat to market by a competing Android Honeycomb tablet, they decided to beat the iPad 2 to market by a week or two with their Motorola Xoom. Sure, that meant it shipped 2 weeks before Adobe Flash was available, LTE has to be stuffed in later via a free mail-in hardware upgrade and both the microSD card slot driver was missing as well as USB host drivers. Oh, and there were a total of 10 tablet apps available at launch. But the Xoom made a big splash because it was the first Honeycomb tablet and because the hardware was quite nice. Now that the crowd is filling in with the likes of the Dell Streak 7, G-Slate, Acer Iconia A500 and Asus Eee Pad Transformer, and the Xoom’s lead is weakening.

Acer Iconia Tab A500

The tablet floodgates are open, and the Motorola Xoom is no longer the only Android Honeycomb tablet on the market. Acer, whose strong suit is making a notebook with the same specs as tier 1 competitors and pricing it significantly lower, is doing the same thing with their first US Android tablet. The Iconia Tab A500 has very similar specs to the Motorola Xoom WiFi-only model, but it currently sells for $150 less ($450 vs. $599). The Xoom gives you a few improvements for your money like double the storage and dual band WiFi 802.11n, but Acer counters with a functioning microSD card slot and USB host capability (we’re still waiting for a software update to enable the microSD card slot on the Xoom). We tested both the card slot (it worked fine with our 8 and 16 gig cards) and the USB host port (it worked with flash drives, keyboards but not external hard drives, mice or optical drives).

Motorola Xoom

The Motorola Xoom is the third hot tablet to hit the market, following the wildly successful iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab. Like the iPad, the Xoom is large, though not quite as large as the iPad despite its larger 10.1” display (the iPad’s is 9.7”). The 7” Samsung Galaxy Tab is a different animal that’s more portable but lacks the wow factor for multimedia and web browsing given its significantly smaller display. Not that we don’t love the highly portable and powerful Galaxy Tab; it just suits a different set of needs.