A Tablet for Work AND Play?
Hello fellow Verge followers - I'm in the market for a tablet (my first) and I have always thought this community has been a good source of quality conversation about technology so I wanted to invite you to give your opinions.
The Setup
I currently own an aging 15" MacBook Pro running OSX Lion that was bought in March 2008, just before the unibody redesign happened and a like-new 16GB iPhone 4 running iOS 5 on Verizon that I bought at full price almost a year ago. For the last month or so, I have had it in my head that I wanted to replace this MacBook Pro with a sleek new Air. From everything I was reading about it (and from the limited amount of time I have gotten to play with them), the Air is the perfect machine to bring to work meetings and presentations, surf the web while hanging out on the couch, amazingly light and portable for when I am traveling on the train, and surprisingly powerful enough for when I need to power up Photoshop or Illustrator. I could then turn this clunky, old, tried and true MacBook Pro into a desktop-misfit with the help of TwelveSouth's BookArc and whatever decently priced LED monitor I could find on sale that week. The only problem is that I dont exactly have the $1300 or so lying around to make it happen - a tablet though, is well within reach. Will you help decide which tablet is right for me?
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The Dilemma
Like many of you I'm sure, I am sick of feeling like Apple is telling me what features or services I want in a phone just because they think they know what's best for me. However, I do expect Apple to produce some of the finest quality hardware and, most of the time, software that simply isn't being matched by many other companies.
On the other side of the track, you have a company like Google who I believe it putting in the effort to get to know what the user wants and offer it to them in a truly meaningful way. They are innovating their products with features and redesigns that show how important the user really is to them.
The top contenders as I see them are the iPad 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (WiFi only, 16GB versions); I am open to suggestions, should you have them.
iPad 2
Obviously, the iPad 2 would fit into my iFamily nicely; it would be the older brother thats gone off to college and gotten a degree - having learned a few new skills and matured a little more than it's younger iPhone 4 sibling. I could take it to work and take notes in meetings using the on screen keyboard or the Apple wireless bluetooth keyboard I currently own that isn't getting much use as it is; I could hook it up to the TVs and projectors for presentations during meetings when I need to; and its a great couch surfer for browsing the web, playing games, listening to music, or watching movies. The 16GB WiFi only version would provide me with more than enough space a small selection of music, some photos, and the occasional movie or two I would want to load up when traveling.
Most everyone close to me (my mother, my girlfriend, my best friend, my closest friends) either has an iPhone 4 or is getting the new iPhone 4S as soon as they can get their hands on one. Many of those people also have some form of MacBook computer and an iPad 2, or again are getting one soon; the iPad 2 would further integrate into the family of devices that I have that allows communication with those people to be hassle-free. FaceTime (that feature I used once for about two minutes when I first got my phone and haven't touched since)? Sure! More importantly, iMessage across the multiple devices I have and eliminating the (albeit minimal) $15/month I am spending on unlimited texting? Yes, please!
But let's expand on that couch surfing, most likely to be about half of tablet's daily schedule, for just a moment. Let's say I want to check out the website for a local restaurant but lo and behold its all flash! This leaves me with an incomplete experience; I'm not enjoying the "whole wide web [myself]" because you've limited me based on your relationship with a company that is willing (and that actually seems to have already put in the time and effort) to work on making one of their standards a success on your platform as it is on others. Now, I get that there are applications and sometimes other website for times exactly like this; I can pull up MenuPages, GrubHub, or Yelp and hope that the restaurant's menu is available there. But often I find myself in a situation where that isn't the case. And to bring up my point from before, why should I have to do this just because Apple "thinks they know best"? Another example of this is a simple video embedded onto a webpage. Most sites use YouTube which integrates nicely, you click the arrow and wait for the video to load. But other sites have found more reliability, features, or any other reason to use services like Viddler, Vimeo, or whatever media streaming site. Maybe it's CNN's homepage and all I want to do is watch the embedded video about the short story I just read, but I can't because they use some proprietary video player that never seems to truly work anywhere - even on my MacBook Pro.
Galaxy Tab 10.1
This device is one of the sleekest and sexiest devices I have seen in quite a long time! With the exception of the TouchWiz UX, I think Honeycomb on a tablet is extremely fun and a huge relief from the sad, dreary look of iOS' grid of icons on the screen. Much like the iPad 2, this tablet would work well in meetings with the onscreen keyboard or a bluetooth keyboard provided; I could hook it up to TVs and projectors for presentations during meetings when I need to; and it would be fantastic to relax with on the couch, surfing the web, playing games, listening to music, or watching movies.
One of the main selling points here is the Android platform which ties all of the Google products into one cohesive environment; Google products that I, personally use every single day. Now, I don't use all of the products, but my contacts are Google (which is currently being synced on my iOS device, but in a rather clunky way), my calendars are Google (see prior statement), I use Google Chat to message with my friends throughout the day (iOS has plenty clients, but nothing as standard and closely integrated as Android or say webOS every did), and probably one of the biggest selling points is Google Maps. The experience of Maps on an Android device is about 700% greater than the experience on any iOS device; with built-in turn-by-turn navigation, 3D map views, the ability to do something as simple as click on anything on the map (a bus stop, a store, or a coffe shop to name a few examples) to see information about a place. In addition, and in response to one of my qualms about the iPad 2, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 runs the entire web experience as it was meant to be - that means all the flash you can get your hands on.
But how will the Tab fit into my lifestyle? How will it work with the other devices I already use on a daily basis? In all honesty, my computer will most likely become more permanently attached to my TV unless I need to design anything; the tablet will become my daily driver. But there will be very little to no interaction between the Tab and my MacBook Pro or my iPhone 4. Certainly if I wanted there to be, it would be a small chore to make it happen. I would have doubleTwist on my computer, of course, for when I wanted to put a video file or music on the Tab, but the rest would happen in the cloud? After all, the majority of the services running on the device are Google. I guess it would just feel like the ugly stepsister (even though I would think it's the much hotter sister).
The Conclusion
Is this normal? To think about devices in such a schizophrenic way? At any rate, I leave it to you fellow readers to help me talk this out. You'll notice that I have tagged the products mentioned in this post (The Verge's MacBook Pro list doesn't go as far back as my model) and that list includes the HP Touchpad. Whoa! Why did he throw that monkey wrench in there?!? My grandmother needs a new computer immediately and the prospect of picking up a $150 32GB Touchpad is there. Is it worth it? You tell me; I have always felt that webOS is one of the most enjoyable user experiences I have ever used (and I have used all of them in depth).
Ultimately, I want a tablet that I can open a file on at work without much hassle; I want a tablet that I can kick back on the couch with and play whatever new hit game is on the market (have you tried Plants vs. Zombies yet?!?); and I want a tablet that is light, sleek, and portable so I can travel with it wherever I go.
I feel like there should be some magical way to end this post/rant/question/plea, but I don't have anything more to say - which is where you come in. So if you have any opinions (and I know many of you do), please help a fellow reader out and share them below!
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