December | 2011 | plip blog

For a long time I’ve always thought that tablets are not of much use until you reach the 3rd or 4th use case. You know, you have a laptop on which you can have 20 tabs of browsers open, have a full blown IDE to code in or even run a local instance of your dev environment. The second use case is your smart phone for when you’re on the go, don’t want any bulk or weight but still want to surf and check emails and listen to music. It’s not until you’ve got all those covered that you’ll consider spending hundreds of dollars on a 3rd device (or 4th if you have a desktop).

The wife is considering having a bigger screen than her Incredible to watch Netflix and read blog posts, news and library books on. This will likely spill over into reading kids books for our kids Emmett and Violet as well. Below are the tablets we’re considering. Each item has a product, review and purchase link in the first row. The second row is the presence or lack of a camera. While researching this piece I found Lisa G’s 7″ Tablet Smackdown on Mobile Tech and John P. Falcone’s Kindle vs. Nook vs. iPad on CNET reviews quite helpful. Also, those that wanna blow past the 7″ screen (to 7.7″) and $400 price should consider waiting for the Samsung Tab 7.7 ($600-$800 at this writing). Of course that depends on where you fall in regards to my and Moore’s law. Finally, if you’re looking for cellular connectivity, consider the T-Mobile Springboard .

Samsung Tab 7+ $399	HTC Flyer $299	IdeaPad A1 $229	Kindle Fire $199	Nook Tablet $249
Product – Review – $	Product – Review – $	Product – Review – $	Product – Review – $	Product – Review – $
Front and Back	Front and Back	Front	None	None
1024 x 600	1024 x 600	1024 x 600	1024 x 600	1024 x 600
7.5″ x 4.7″ x 0.45″	7.7″ x 4.8″ x 0.52″	7.68″ x 0.46″ x 4.90″	7.5″ x 4.7″ x 0.45″	8.1″ x 5″ x 0.48″
12.1 oz	14.82 oz	14.08 oz	14.56 oz	14.08 oz
dual-core 1.2GHz	1.5GHz	1.0GHz	dual-core 1.0GHz	dual-core 1.0GHz
WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS	WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS	WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS	WiFi	WiFi
16GB Int & MicroSD	16GB Int & MicroSD	16GB Int & MicroSD	8GB Internal	8GB Int & MicroSD
Android 3.2	Android 2.3.3	Android 2.3	Android 2.3	Android 2.3

Update: I’ve added lil’ thumbnails for each tablet.

.everyother { background:#ddd; } .tablettable {border:1px solid black;}

I’ve been saying this for years, but there’s two laws out there when considering a new geek purchase. The first is Moore’s law which says:

The number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every 18 months*.

– Gordon E. Moore, 1965

Most people round down to a year from 18 months. Additionally most people say that, “Shit gets twice as good, twice as fast, twice as small every year.” Moral of the story? If you wait longer the money spent on the gizmo will go twice as far than if you bought today (* Mr. Moore updated this be 2 every years, but I’m ignoring this).

Conversely, I’ve always given the buying advice I call Ashley’s law:

If you don’t have it, you can’t use it.

– Ashley Jones, 2011**

So, ya know, you’re limping along on that G4 iBook but don’t want to get a new laptop today because, “in just 8 months Apple’s gonna release the four gazillion hertz quintuple core laptop!!!” My logic says that the crazy slow laptop you’re using day in and day out really does suck. If you don’t have the new laptop, sure enough, you can’t use it (** I’ve been saying this for years, but am just now “publishing”).

Update: There’s a very unfortunate overlap with another much more serious, pre-existing Ashley’s Law. Well, they have disambiguation for a reason!

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Monthly Archives: December 2011

7″ Android Tablet Spec Comparison

Ashley’s Law vs Moore’s Law