Health & Fitness
Gabe's TechTip - $200 Tablet Showdown
The holiday shopping season is here and tablet devices are all the rage. Which one's worth your investment? Here's a head-to-head on two of the top choices on the market.
The holiday season is upon us and tablet computers are the rage this year.
Don't want to shell out four bills for an iPad? You can get an awesome tablet for half the price—but there are some things you should consider.
Let me break it down for you.
Criteria
Functionality - Are you going to be doing e-mail, business and office-related work on your tablet? Or are you planning on watching Youtube, Netflix and streaming media?
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Size - Generally, the $200 tablets are 7 inches in size. Need something larger than that? The price begins to go up.
Features - Do you need USB Plug & Play capabilities? Do you need Video/HDMI out? What about bluetooth?
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The top contenders this year are the Google Galaxy Nexus 7 (which I own) and the Kindle Fire HD.
Tale of the tape
Weighing in at only 12oz, the Galaxy Nexus 7 boasts a 16GB hard drive, a quad-core NVidia Tegra 3 CPU (which is SCREAMING FAST) and the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS. It’s got a a GPS, 10-hour battery life, and is Bluetooth- and WiFi-capable. It's also got a front-facing camera for video chat.
The Galaxy has access to Google's Play Store which offers millions of games, applications and social media options. For an extra $150, the 32GB Nexus offers 4G compatibility and access to the Google Play Store as well as double the hard drive space.
The Amazon Kindle Fire HD has a 16GB hard drive and a dual-core Texas Instruments OMAP 4460 CPU. It runs on a version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The Fire also offers HDMI output (to connect to a larger screen).
The Fire does not offer GPS capabilities, but does offer MIMO WiFi (multi-banded connectivity), basically meaning it can send and receive data simultaneously. Mobile connectivity is offered on the Fire platform but not until you step up to the 8.9” model and pay an extra $200.
The Kindle Fire HD offers direct access to the Amazon.com Kindle (e-book) Store, Amazon MP3 and the Amazon Prime Video Marketplace.
Applications
The Galaxy Nexus 7 offers much more functionality than does the Kindle Fire HD—not to mention, it’s built for gaming, so HD games play very nicely.
The Galaxy also supports all Google apps: Gmail, gChat, gVideo, Skype, Google Chrome (default browser on the Galaxy), maps and more. The Kindle Fire does not.
Functionality
For starters, the Galaxy has twice the processing power of the Kindle Fire (quad-core versus dual-core). On top of that, the Galaxy offers the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS, which is customizable beyond your wildest dreams and is LIGHTNING fast.
The Kindle Fire HD offers its own, skinned version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. If it were just Ice Cream sandwich it would be OK with me, but the Kindle skinning adds bloat, making it a bit sluggish and cumbersome.
The Kindle Fire HD does come equipped with a proper set of stereo speakers (using DDP); the Galaxy does not. Both can stream Netflix and Youtube videos; both are WiFi capable.Â
The Kindle HD is geared more towards those that want to use it for streaming media, watching videos and playing simple games (yes, Angry Birds is supported on the Fire). It's also great as an e-Book reader.Â
The Galaxy Nexus 7 offers great multimedia streaming options in addition to being able to use social media (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare) and productivity applications.
My Verdict
With the faster CPU and access to Google’s legendary Play Store, the possibilities offered by the Galaxy Nexus 7 are nearly endless.
