I have been playing with a SmartQ V7 for the last month. As a toy to learn about Android and to get an idea about what I want in a tablet (or slate as they used to be known) it has been a useful tool.
The first thing I have learnt is that a 5 to 7 inch screen is too small to read books comfortably unless care is taken to make the fonts look crisp. I tried out the eReader at Borders (a Kobo 6 inch device) and the books looked good. The letters and words were easy to read. However if you put a PDF document on the same device the experience is not as good unless the same specially optimised fonts are used.
When you go to colour graphics such as for comics then the screen resolution becomes more inportant. The iPad with its larger screen and decent resolution will be a good choice for this sort of usage. It will still read books and it may not be as comfortable as an eInk screen and its battery life will be less - some eInk based readers can go weeks between charges - however the iPad still gets over ten hours on a single charge. More than long enougth.
Where a tablet like the iPad falls short is in its closed nature. There is a lot you cannot do with it and Apple are not helping with their app shop policies. I do not own an iPhone or iPad because I do not agree with the haphazard nature of the app shop approval process. The rules change every day and there is no way to appeal against a decision no matter how unjust it is.
I will be waiting for a tablet, probably running Android, with decent resolution (1368 by 768 or similar), decent RAM and a powerful CPU. The Notion Ink Adam is a contender but there are a few others coming. Whatever I get it will be used instead of a netbook or laptop so it will need to be good!
The first thing I have learnt is that a 5 to 7 inch screen is too small to read books comfortably unless care is taken to make the fonts look crisp. I tried out the eReader at Borders (a Kobo 6 inch device) and the books looked good. The letters and words were easy to read. However if you put a PDF document on the same device the experience is not as good unless the same specially optimised fonts are used.
When you go to colour graphics such as for comics then the screen resolution becomes more inportant. The iPad with its larger screen and decent resolution will be a good choice for this sort of usage. It will still read books and it may not be as comfortable as an eInk screen and its battery life will be less - some eInk based readers can go weeks between charges - however the iPad still gets over ten hours on a single charge. More than long enougth.
Where a tablet like the iPad falls short is in its closed nature. There is a lot you cannot do with it and Apple are not helping with their app shop policies. I do not own an iPhone or iPad because I do not agree with the haphazard nature of the app shop approval process. The rules change every day and there is no way to appeal against a decision no matter how unjust it is.
I will be waiting for a tablet, probably running Android, with decent resolution (1368 by 768 or similar), decent RAM and a powerful CPU. The Notion Ink Adam is a contender but there are a few others coming. Whatever I get it will be used instead of a netbook or laptop so it will need to be good!
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