The Official Android Tablet Thread

[alexjlopez]

Well, a couple of us here on the forums have Android tablets and a few others will have new ones soon, so I thought it would be a good idea to create a thread to exchange ideas including impressions, Honeycomb optimized apps to recommend or steer clear of, and anything else Android tablet related.

(As a request, I'll ask that we not have a repeat of the Droid X thread that became a big anti-Android riot from people who either felt left out or had nothing better to do than to crap on our good time. Save that for the Apple/Android pissing contest thread, please)

Okay, so I'll start with some recommendations:

Browsers - There's a lot to like about the stock browser, particularly the cool Quick Controls, but it's not the fastest option. Dolphin for Pad offers a great combination of speed, features, and site compatibility, while Opera Mobile seems to be the fastest I've tried on Honeycomb but suffers from compatibility issues on some sites. Over time, I've gravitated back toward the stock browser but jump to Dolphin from time to time.

Live Wallpapers - Sure, these are generally a waste of time (and battery) on phones but I've warmed up to them on the tablet due to the better battery and the outstanding performance of the Tegra 2 which allows you to run even the most elaborate live wallpapers without any performance slow downs. Here are some of my favorites that are Honeycomb optimized:

Aquarium Live Wallpaper - The free one is fine but the $0.99 one offers tons of marine fish to choose from for a virtual aquarium for your wallpaper. Lots of attention to detail on this, they let you decorate the aquarium with anemone or rocks/plants, the fish even react when you tap the "tank". Very cool.

Jungle Waterfall - Great scenery that changes angle as you scroll through your desktop. Looks like something out of Tome Raider or Uncharted. Very cool.

There are also some really cool ones that come pre-installed on the Asus Transformer--if you choose the Transformer, be sure to explore these and their settings.

Misc. Apps -

Ghost Commander File Manager - Dual pane file manager with tons of features. I liked this one better than Total Commander.

Feedly - Magazine-style RSS and news reader, kind of like Flipbook on iOS.

3DS Buddy - Tablet-sized AR card for 3DS--fun.

Games -

Battleheart - Party-based combat game with cool art style.

Dragon, Fly! - Simple but addictive game that you won't be able to put down!

Dungeon Defenders Deluxe - Tegra 2 enhanced, gorgeous fantasy strategy combat game.

Galaxy on Fire 2 Tegra HD version - Space combat adventure game, looks and runs great--Tegra 2 enhanced.

Pocket Legends - Mobile fantasy themed MMO - The higher resolution makes the screen less cramped than on iPad with better placement of controls and interface.

Riptide GP - Jet Ski racing, one of the best looking games on Tegra 2 tablets. Lots of fun.

Pinball HD for Tegra - Three gorgeous tables, lots of fun. A great game to showcase your tablet's capabilities.

That's all for now, I'll add more later.

[TripHamer]

I'm installing Opera, Dolphin and Ghost Commander and I'll see how they are. I do like the stock browser as it works the best for me. The only other browser I have installed is firefox.

[Dragon57]

I have all four browsers mentioned installed on my nookcolor. As bloated as it is, Firefox seems to be the best as far as modern compatibility goes, html5 pages in particular. The stock browser does not support all the html5 related tags. i know html5 is a moving target, but as of today, Firefox seems the best. Having said that, the standard one is still the default browser on my nook.

Ghost Commander is great and I have been using it since it was released.

[WorknMan]

I was at Fry's yesterday and had a chance to hold several Android tablets. If I were going to pick just one and needed one RIGHT NOW, it would be the Galaxy Tab 10.1. That thing is pretty slick, and light as a feather. The Asus Transformer comes in a very close second.

However, the real question is... should a person interested in an Android tablet buy one of the honeycomb-based ones now, or wait a few more months for the arrival of ice cream?

[TripHamer]

Your always going to be waiting for the next one that way. Just pick what you like now and don't worry about what's not out yet.

[WorknMan]

Your always going to be waiting for the next one that way. Just pick what you like now and don't worry about what's not out yet.

Conventional wisdom, yes. But would you buy a Nexus S right now, if you knew the Nexus 3 was gonna be out in a month or two (assuming price wasn't your main motivator)? I mean, we're not talking about a jump similar to Froyo->Gingerbread, but a MAJOR new release. Sometimes, it really is better to wait And with Google not wanting to even release the source for Honeycomb, that is a signal to me that the OS wasn't ever ready for prime time to begin with.

Plus, do we even know if the current crop of Android tablets will even be able to run ice cream without official support from the manufacturers (whom I'm sure would rather sell you next year's models running ice cream, than to update the ones that are out now.)

[TripHamer]

Conventional wisdom, yes. But would you buy a Nexus S right now, if you knew the Nexus 3 was gonna be out in a month or two (assuming price wasn't your main motivator)? Sometimes, it really is better to wait And with Google not wanting to even release the source for Honeycomb, that is a signal to me that the OS wasn't ever ready for prime time to begin with.

Plus, do we even know if the current crop of Android tablets will even be able to run ice cream without official support from the manufacturers (whom I'm sure would rather sell you next year's models running ice cream, than to update the ones that are out now.)

There's always exceptions to every rule. However, unless you MUST have the latest and greatest, there are plenty of choices right now. If your not ready for one and want to wait and see, that's fine, it's your wallet of course. The current models will most likely be cheaper then also. Obviously get the one you'll be happy with for a year or 2 (longer even). In any case, as soon as you buy one, you suddenly discover ones that are even better. It's just the nature of technology and at some point you need to stop and pick one.

[WorknMan]

Well, if it were just Honeycomb 3.3 coming out later this year, I would be inclined to agree with you. All I'm saying is, if we were talking about CPUs, ice cream sandwich would be the equivalent of a major architecture shift. Rather than, for example, going from a Pentium 3 900 mhz to 950 mhz, this would be like going from a Pentium 3 to a Pentium 4, or so it seems.

I'm not saying that you SHOULDN'T buy now, just that at this particular point in Android's history, we're coming up to a MAJOR crossroad, so this isn't the normal 'you might as well jump in now, rather than wait' scenario, so we need to look at things a lot more closely than normal.

On the other hand, ice cream may just end up being a big deal on phones and only a minor update to honeycomb on tablets, but who knows?

[Womp]

All the current tablets will/should get Ice Cream sandwich...

[alexjlopez]

Well, if it were just Honeycomb 3.3 coming out later this year, I would be inclined to agree with you. All I'm saying is, if we were talking about CPUs, ice cream sandwich would be the equivalent of a major architecture shift. Rather than, for example, going from a Pentium 3 900 mhz to 950 mhz, this would be like going from a Pentium 3 to a Pentium 4, or so it seems.

I'm not saying that you SHOULDN'T buy now, just that at this particular point in Android's history, we're coming up to a MAJOR crossroad, so this isn't the normal 'you might as well jump in now, rather than wait' scenario, so we need to look at things a lot more closely than normal.

On the other hand, ice cream may just end up being a big deal on phones and only a minor update to honeycomb on tablets, but who knows?

Is there a particular feature that's coming in ICS that's not available in Honeycomb that you're holding out for?

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