What we have here is a tablet that Lenovo has designed to be well built, well priced, and budget friendly. Coming in at just $349 with 16GB of internal storage it’s an ideal offering, although the Nexus 7 severely undercuts it — while being more powerful. First you’ll need to see our hands-on and unboxing, then lets dive into the tablet and see what we think. Shall we?

Hardware

In the very recent past Lenovo’s hardware and build quality has always been one of the low points of their tablets, but with the S2109 they’ve surprisingly done a much better job in that department. Offering it at a low price at the same time doesn’t hurt either. The build quality and hardware is improved, but it still isn’t up to Samsung or Apple standards.

Lenovo’s equipped this S2109 tablet with some pretty poor specs to meet that low price point though. You get an old, aging, and quite grainy 9.7-inch display rocking the same 4:3 aspect ratio and terrible 1024 x 768 resolution that the original (yes as in a few years old) iPad had. Almost all Android tablets come with at least a 1280 x 800 resolution so this is instantly looking worse once you glance into the screen. After using the Acer A700 with a 1920 x 1200 resolution, or our new iPad with Retina display this thing almost hurts my eyes.

Other than that you’ll get a mid-range 1.0 Ghz dual-core TI OMAP 4 processor, 1GB of RAM, and this model comes with 16GB of internal storage — they do offer a 32GB version for those in need too. We would rather of seen the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core here, but we’ll take what we get. Overall however the S2109 both looks and feels smaller than a 9.7-inch tablet because of the curved rounded edges and the sleek unibody design. Sadly the back is a hard plastic and not aluminum and it picked up scratches extremely quick. Lenovo has shipped the tablet with a silicone case right inside the box however, so that is an added bonus.

As for ports and options you’ll quickly notice the micro-HDMI and micro-USB ports on the right side, followed by a reset pinhole, the proprietary jack for charging, and a micro-SD slot for extra storage options. The top is outfitted with a single volume up/down rocker, then the left side is the lone 3.5mm headphone jack and power/wake button. The design is pretty basic, but works great for those who might be just beginning.

Sadly the hardware isn’t anything special. The best part is probably the unibody design (although it’s plastic) and the quad-stereo SRS surround sound speakers. The only camera is the 1.3 MP shooter up front, and they scraped the rear camera in favor of a low price. The speakers offer quite great sound for a little and budget tablet. While they won’t fill an entire room — most tablets don’t — they do have clear and crisp sound. We have mixed feelings on the hardware and build quality, but I guess for $349 it’s ok but we’d rather just buy an iPad 2.

Software

The Lenovo S2109 runs a completely stock version of Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich which is a nice change since their previous attempts had a lot of changes — for the worse. Everything is completely vanilla and they’ve not touched the launcher, settings or notification bar or anything. For some reason however it seems to stutter and lag more than it should.

Lenovo’s pre-loaded AccuWeather, Lenovo App Shop, Documents To Go, Evernote, Adobe Flash Player, Go Keyboard, Movie Studio, Norton Security, Lenovo PrinterShare, Skype, SugarSync, News Republic, and Zinio. More than I’d like to deal with, but a few are quite nice. First thing you’ll want to do however is disable that terrible Go Keyboard and stick with ICS stock option.

Performance and Benchmarks

Unlike many recent tablets the Lenovo doesn’t run an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor. Instead it runs a pretty basic and aging Cortex A9 Texas Instruments chip that lags behind most of the tablet competition, even compared to old Tegra 2 dual-core options. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich had a little lag here and there that wasn’t expected, but that could be due to the old and aging processor under the hood. For the most part performance was fluid and swift, but we had to mention those odd stutters. Operation throughout the OS wasn’t too bad, it was browsing the web, reading RSS feeds, or checking through the market that seemed to struggle more than most.

Benchmarks, as expected, fall far behind most of the competition. Tablets like the Transformer Prime, or even cheaper options like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 (2) all are a little better in this category. We see where Lenovo was aiming, but they just haven’t quite hit the mark. Scoring lower benchmark tests than all 3 mentioned above. Here’s a quick look at Quadrant and AnTuTu — which speak for themselves.

The boot time is rather long, and has a loud and slightly obnoxious animation and sound that is louder than anything else the tablet puts out, which we found a little odd. Playing your average games was decent although the slow processor and low resolution display gives you a less than stellar experience compared to the competition.

Camera and Battery Life

Now first we’ll start with the camera, since it only has one. Most tablets these days offer both a front and rear camera but here we only have a 1.3 megapixel front camera. It’s capable of 720p video but you’d hardly tell. While I don’t consider it a con that there’s no rear camera, many tablets currently offer one in this same price point — so we’ll take another notch off for that.

Battery life is one area that the Lenovo IdeaTab S2109 does do well though. It comes with a 6,720 mAh battery under the hood that lasted for around 7-8 hours of solid use. They claim 10 hours of video playback but we doubt you’ll make it that far. Stand-by battery was quite excellent too. Using the tablet here and there briefly during the evenings and leaving it at a table nearby we managed great battery life as you can see here. Some tablets no matter what will run out of life after a few days, but not the S2109.

Wrap-Up

When using this tablet over the past few weeks we decided that for $349 you could probably do worse, but at the same time you could easily do better. Overall Lenovo has designed a decent mid-range tablet with ok specs, and a low price. With the iPad 2 being just $399 these days, and powerful quad-core Android tablets being similarly priced we had a hard time giving this a thumbs up of any kind.

If you’d like to stay under the $400 mark we’d easily have to recommend the ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T. It rocks a quad-core, higher resolution, and an optional keyboard for only $379, as well as the brand new Google Nexus 7 16GB for just $249. For those looking for a 9.7+ tablet the iPad 2 or even the new Acer Iconia Tab A510 would be a great option.

In the end the Lenovo IdeaTab S2109 is a well built tablet, it functions well and operates smoothly. The mid-range at best specs, low resolution, lack of a rear camera, and occasional stutters makes it hard to justify. For the price you could do better, but if Lenovo drops her down to $299 this might be a slightly different story.

Hardware

This tablet certainly isn’t the thinnest 7-inch tablet in the world at 0.41″, but it’s extremely light, and the relatively soft plastic back is super comfortable to handle. This device is sized at 7.8″ x 4.72″ x 0.41″ so you can fit it in your back pocket if you wish, and the display, at a whopping 7-inches with 1280 x 800 pixel LED-backlit IPS (216 ppi), is more than fabulous enough for your HD-loving eyeballs. For comparison’s sake: the Galaxy Tab 7.7 is 196ppi and the iPad 3 is 264ppi, so you’ve got a device that’s right up there in the big leagues.

It’s brighter than you could possibly need it to be in any average day’s activities indoors, comes in a couple different color combinations: black and black (though our Google I/O edition with a black/white combination may be a sign of things to come), and feels really nice to work with. The front-facing camera is certainly OK, but isn’t a vast improvement over anything we’ve seen before, with quality just high enough that we’ll not be taking many photos with it at all – a good thing, too, since this device does not come with a camera app installed because of its push for Google+ hangouts – and eventual Project Glass interaction.

You’ve got a bit of a hidden bonus in the fact that this is one of the only tablets on the market today that uses a standard microUSB for charging. You’ll want to use the included power converter from the package, of course, but running through that little standard port is good for everybody. The speakers are generous on their own, with a single slit running down the back for blasting, but as you’ll come to realize through this review, this device was made more for sharing to other devices – like the brand new Google Nexus Q, introduced at Google I/O 2012 right alongside the Nexus 7. Have a peek at the Q in action here:

Software

Inside of this device you’ll find Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, an updated version of the Google mobile operating system that takes what Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich did for both the smartphone and the tablet and pumps it up with a few applications and features that make it all just a bit more tasty. This device is focused heavily on the Google Play store, as it will be immediately apparent once you’ve had a peek at this hands-on video:

This device is also ready to rock with the TegraZone for games. NVIDIA’s gaming portal TegraZone is a place we’ve visited quite a few times in the past few months here on SlashGear – have a peek at games such as Max Payne Mobile and Renaissance Blood to see what beasts await your game-loving fingers.

Then other than the Jelly Bean upgrades you’ve seen above, there’s not one whole heck of a lot here that wont be available to the rest of the Android universe immediately if not soon. If you loved Ice Cream Sandwich on your tablet – or even if you loved Honeycomb on your tablet, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how this device’s software takes advantage of everything great from those previous versions of the OS and adds a bunch more in all the right places.

Have a peek at a few benchmarks from this device as well to see how the software and the hardware add up with one another:

Connectivity

Though we’ve seen this device connect with the Nexus Q, and quite impressively so, we’ll need a bit more convincing before it’s time we call this a device better at sharing than the HTC One series or the Galaxy S III. Sharing is indeed at the center of this device’s launch, on the other hand, moving forth with mostly its hands on music and videos at parties and in the home. We saw this device demonstrated once and then demonstrated again with its ability to connect via Wi-fi to the Nexus Q. With the Nexus Q in tow, this tablet appears quite apt to control your whole home media experience quite easily – and it’s fun, too!

Battery

This device’s battery works fabulously well, this more than likely due to the fifth core in NVIDIA’s architecture under the hood. The fifth core is designed to be sort of like a “ninja” core, waking up and taking on the low-power processing necessary when the device has its display off. This has the rest of the cores turned off at that point as well, this making low battery drain a reality.

Because of this we’ve seen several days of life when the device is asleep. When the device is being used heavily, we’ve got something like a 6-8 hour lifespan. That’s when you’re doing nothing but playing heavy requirement games and streaming video from your wi-fi connection. Light use you’ll get a day’s worth of uptime, no problem.

Wrap-Up

What you’ve got here is a fun machine. Google worked with ASUS and NVIDIA here to bring on a media beast like no other, offered at a price that, sold exclusively through the Google Play store online (for now), is almost undeniable. Even those who want a tablet just to fiddle with should and probably will be considering this device first in the near future – unless they want an iPad.

With the iPad and the Amazon Kindle Fire being this device’s biggest competitors, you’ll want to know: which one is worth buying? There’s no perfect answer, but if I had a choice between the three and would get the chosen product for free, I’d of course pick the iPad – it costs more than 2 times this device’s base price for a reason. If I had to choose between the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire, I’d not think twice about picking the Google product. Every single feature on this tablet, unless you’re an Amazon junkie, is better than the Fire.

Consider this tablet the next time you’re getting prepped for a new tablet experience, and one that’s inexpensive enough to toss down a couple of bills without hesitation. Hackers – this is your key to the future, there’s no other choice.

Also remember that, as it is with all of our reviews: this isn’t the end. If you’ve got questions you still need answered, want us to do additional tests, please feel free to ask or request – we’ll do our best! Meanwhile don’t forget to hit up our Android portal for more Google mobile OS action through the future!

Hardware

While the display’s high definition resolution is obviously the real hero here, you’ll be glad to know that we’re now officially in an age where making a tablet that’s as thin and nice looking as the iPad isn’t so much of a hassle as it used to be. This version of the Iconia Tab is right around the same weight and shape as the A500, but here it’s got a bit more style.

The speckled back panel and the lovely detail in the glass panel up front as well as it’s surrounding plastic are all very well tuned. This tablet feels really nice to hold, as it were.

This tablet has several ports, each of them just about as far away from the others as they possibly could be. There’s a microHDMI, a microUSB, headphone jack, and a microSD card slot as well as a volume up/down button and a screen lock. The screen lock is a switch that holds your tablet in either landscape or portrait mode, and should you feel like heading down the road of the hacker, we’re sure you could find more than a few useful things to do with it in addition to its basic intent.

The power button sits at the top of the left of the device in the same place it did on the A500, and if one were to compare this tablet only to that older generation, one would applaud the efforts of Acer in pushing themselves to the next level. Compared to the iPad, you’ve got a surprisingly similar feeling machine, with just about the same weight and, at a distance at least, a really similar look.

Of course the power of any tablet doesn’t rest on its single specifications alone, and Apple’s iPad certainly relies on its software to beat the crowd. So how does Acer do with their new look at Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich?

Software

Inside this machine is Acer’s selection of applications including several pre-installed games, cloud-access apps, and music apps. Google’s collection of apps are here as well, this including Google Music (not often included right out of the box) as well as the common ICS additions like Google+.

The real heroes here are the additions made to Android 4.0 ICS by Acer. There’s a brand new lovely customizable lock-screen as well as a “Ring” that will allow you several new abilities including the screenshot, the ability to flip through web browser favorites in cards, and changing the volume on-screen. This Ring could very well be the reason you purchase this device – Acer has done a great job of pushing the limits of such a collection of functionalities for the discerning Android user.

You’ve also got the built-in ability to work with a printer to print whatever you’ve got on-screen to hard copy. We suggest to take a look at which devices will function with this connectivity, but from what we’ve seen, most modern wireless printers will indeed work. Acer has connected this device to the rest of its device suite with a simple registration app – this being a good example of why you’ll certainly want to be thinking about picking one Acer machine up if you’ve picked up the other as their device family continues to become more interconnected.

The NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor inside this beast will allow you connectivity with the NVIDIA TegraZone, a place where exclusive Tegra-only applications live, and you’ll find that they look quite fabulous. Have a peek at some benchmarks taken by this device to see how well you’ll be rolling:

Camera

This device’s camera is not all that different from the camera on the original A500, that also being a 5-megapixel shooter. You’ve got a 2-megapixel camera on the front as well, this as good as it was on the A500 as well for video chat. The back-facing camera does not have a flash and is able to auto-focus, but only after you’ve tapped the shutter button. Have a peek at a few pieces of media resulting from this setup:

Battery

This device is part of a new wave of battery-conscious devices that, with the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor with 4-PLUS-1 technology, is able to sleep so deeply that you’ve rarely got a situation where the device runs out of battery after having been left alone for an extended period. Instead where you’ll find battery drain is in the other normal places like mapping and streaming video. Even then you’ll have a fabulously long amount of play-time on your hands.

The Acer Iconia Tab A700′s battery will last you though several days at least if you use it intermittently, or it can last you as few as 8 hours if you’re rocking streaming video non-stop. Either way, it’s impressive.

Portfolio Case

We were also sent the new Acer Iconia Tab Series Portfolio Case – one of the strangest cases we’ve seen on the market thus far. It’s strange in that it relies on a high-powered adhesive to stick to the tablet rather than clamping on with plastic claws as any of a million other cases would. You put your tablet down on one side, pull back the adhesive covering on the other, and push that second side closed onto the back of your tablet.

The adhesive sticks as hard as you could possibly want it to, but is also somehow removable when you want as well. It’s certainly not something you’re going to be able to use multiple times, as the adhesive will certainly get weak after a couple of stickings, but this solution certainly is unique, that’s for sure. The case then also is made of some high-quality rubbery plastics with magnets inside to hold it closed and in stand mode. Interesting stuff!

Wrap-Up

This tablet will cost you $449.99 at any of a variety of outlets, this ringing in just at or below the rest of the market offering similar solutions. You’ve got the most advanced options in an Android tablet included here, and Acer’s unique vision for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will not leave you wanting for multi-tasking and for standing out in the software crowd. We recommend picking up the Iconia Tab A700 especially if you’ve already got Acer notebooks or towers in your home – their software connects quite fluidly and makes your whole personal cloud experience all the richer.

You’ve got a smartphone and you’ve got an iPad or an Android tablet and your kid wants to use it – all the time. You don’t want your child messing around with your digital business, and you more than likely just want to play your own game of Angry Birds. So what do you do? You look to the nabi 2. This strange little beast is ready and raring to go starting with a lovely kid-oriented user interface that makes it near-impossible for them to get lost or have trouble working with their favorite app. Have a look first at a hands-on video showing the hardware with a brief look at the software here:

The tablet itself is relatively light, the bumper around the edges makes it quite safe to use (unless your child is the kind that loves to pull things apart), and it comes packed with one whole heck of a lot of software right out of the box. This is all punctuated by a grid of plastic bits at the back made for future hook-ups to accessories once the tablet takes off. What you’re buying here is not a device which in the future can become what you’re looking for in a total experience, it’s a total experience immediately. Just like a kid’s toy should be, you don’t have to do any setup in order for them to start playing with it.

Take a peek next at our hands-on video with the Kidz Mode part of this equation (below) and see what your child will see when the device is turned on for the first time – and each time after that as well. This interface can only be changed upon entering a secret password only an adult may possess.

The way you get out of Kidz Mode is through the questionably titled “Daddy Mode” which, as you may have guessed, leads you to a basic version of Android. Lucky for you though, Android lovers, this is Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, and is fully ready to work as you would expect right out of the box. The downside here is that you do not have access to the Google Play app store as this device is not Google certified. Instead you’ll have to rely on the Nabi app store for all your download needs.

This device isn’t technically made to be a grownup-oriented tablet, so you probably won’t be satisfied with it if that’s what you’re aiming at. The viewing angles on this display are far from perfect, it’s not made to be easy to modify, and you’ll look like a goon carrying this around with you at the office. Your child, on the other hand, will be totally pumped up about owning their very own super awesome tablet, especially with the red bumper action it comes equipped with!

The software this device comes with is, for the most part, pretty awesome. The folks at Fuhu – the people that make this device – have clearly taken the time to partner up with a vast array of developers to make this a rich and diverse experience for a child. NVIDIA even lends a hand with a TegraZone home screen full of kid-friendly (but still fabulous) games such as Riptide GP.

The only questionable apps on this device are two “Moron Test” apps which we’re going to go ahead and guess some parents won’t want active simply due to the fact that they don’t want their kid calling anyone a moron. After that you’ll find a rather clean set of games, learning apps, and art pallets. There’s also an app inside Daddy Mode which easily allows you to reveal or hide and and all of the applications you’ve got on the device – simple stuff!

There is a Veggie Tales application on one of the screens right out of the box as well. This is a strange choice since the Veggie Tales brand is clear that they’re pushing “moral themes based on Christianity” – so beware of that if you’re not a Christian (or just don’t like Veggie Tales. This and the rest of the video applications can be output via the mini-HDMI port at the side of the device to your HDTV – go big!

This tablet has a 7-inch 1024 x 600 pixel resolution display, 1GB of RAM, 8GB flash storage, 2 megapixel front-facing camera with 720p video capability, and a host of ports on its side. There’s a single microUSB port, mini HDMI, microSD card port, 3.5mm standard audio jack, and a DC power connector. You’ll be connecting to the web with Wi-fi 802.11 b/g/n and have the ability to work with Bluetooth 3.0 as well.

This device will be available in July (soon!) for just $199.99 from a variety of online and offline retailers. Sound like a great deal to you? Head on over to NabiTablet.com to see a set of online outlets for the device immediately if not soon!

Hardware

This device is a tablet computer but is able to turn into what’s essentially considered a notebook computer – or Wi-fi connected netbook, if you prefer. The keyboard dock here is reminiscent of the Transformer Prime and the original Eee Pad Transformer before that, and continues to be a pleasure to use like they were. The touchpad still needs tweaking if its going to have anywhere near as much quality as OS X does with the MacBook or the MacBook Air, but this has as much to do with the software – which really isn’t quite fully prepared for a desktop mode as such – as it is about the pad hardware itself.

If you plan on gaming on this machine with games that require you to have a mouse, I suggest finding a compatible USB mouse – which will plug in nicely as this units dock does indeed have a full-sized USB port. The dock itself also has a full-size SD card port and a port where you’ll be able to plug power into the wall or into your PC for desktop connectivity. The tablet then has a microHDMI port, a port for a microSD card, volume, power, and a headphone jack. ASUS doesn’t quote any special augmentation or especially fine quality parts for its headphone port, but it does sound perfectly fine for the basic media and gaming you’ll be experiencing with it.

There are two models per color, again we’ve got Royal Blue here in its 16GB configuration. There’s also a 16 and 32 GB configuration for each model, the Torch Red and Iceberg White models coming in June – pricing on all of these models is always $379 for the 16GB tablet, $399 for the 32GB model, and $149 for the keyboard dock. The Royal Blue version is expected to be delivered on the 30th of April with online retail availability starting the week of April 23rd.

With prices like these, expect this Transformer to sell as well as the Galaxy Tab 10.1 given that ASUS and NVIDIA decide to advertise it at least as well as the Transformer Prime. This is key as there is of course still significant confusion in the Android tablet market as to the difference between tablets and the simple understanding that yes, it’s possible that you could be doing things on one tablet that you wouldn’t be able to on another. That said, this Transformer is going to be the top performing tablet in your house if you’ve only ever had Android tablets before and haven’t yet picked up the Transformer Prime.

According to ASUS, several hardware upgrades have happened since the Transformer TF101 including the camera and video capabilities of the unit. You’ve got an F2.2 aperture on this 8 megapixel camera and a slightly different camera interface out of the box to bring the quality up to a level that’s ready to take on the rest of the tablet industry easily. Head down to the Camera portion of this review to see the quality of this machine’s shooter. Also note that there’s no flash this time – so watch out for the dark!

Inside you’ll find Bluetooth 3.0, RAM at 1GB using new DDR3, and the tablet alone weighs in at 1.30 lbs. The dock weighs about half that, so expect about 2 pounds in your backpack with the full package. The tablet and keyboard together are just a bit thicker than the original Transformer Prime but are essentially the same dimensions otherwise – the tablet alone is 7.11 x 10.35 x 0.38-inches.

Aside from the slightly awkward nature of having the display half of your notebook being the heavier of its two halves, this product is extremely similar to the Transformer Prime. With the prime you’ve got metal, here you’ve got plastic. This unit isn’t completely made of plastic, of course, but big portions of its casing are – this for some will be a low point compared to the Prime as the Prime’s metal looks and feels high quality. For others though, the decrease in weight means an easier to handle unit.

The display is also very similar in that it’s also an IPS technology-based panel, but here you’ve just got IPS and not IPS+, so you can’t burn your eyes out quite as easily here with this new model. This is another place where a feature has been cut to make way for a slightly lower price for the unit. Each of these small changes makes for a product that is still certainly high-end but just ever-so-slightly less impressive than the Prime. Have a peek at the hands-on video above to see both units side-by-side.

Software / Benchmarks

The software experience you’ll have here is strikingly similar to what we see on the current most updated version of the Transformer Prime. Both units work with Android 4.0 or higher and both use a version of ASUS user interface additions to that base software experience that makes them advanced beyond all non-ICS tablets in the market and unique in and of themselves for their hardware-specific features. ASUS leaves Android’s basic Android 4.03 Ice Cream Sandwich experience alone for the most part, adding only a few changes that make the experience, again, ASUS’ own.

Have a peek back at our hands-on with Ice Cream Sandwich on the Transformer Prime as well as the gaming video below to see what you’re working with on the tablet version of Ice Cream Sandwich as well as NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 processor. This chipset is quad-core with 4-PLUS-1 technology meaning it has a fifth low-power CPU core that turns on only when the other four cores are not needed. With this ability, Tegra 3 devices are able to conserve energy and preserve battery live in a very efficient way. See the battery section below for details on power.

The games you’ll be playing here come from the Tegra Zone, an app and ecosystem which NVIDIA provides all Tegra-toting devices made with Android. This isn’t the only place you can find games, of course, the Google Play app store being packed full of them, but NVIDIA has created this portal for you to find games developed with their crew to be optimized for the Tegra 3 multi-core environment. Have a peek at a few examples in the hands-on video with the TF300 here:

NVIDIA pushes Gaming as one of the best ways to experience the full power of their quad-core processor here in the TF300. You’ll be seeing Glowball, Guerilla Bob, Soulcraft THD (beta) and Temple Run. Compare these two the same and similar games on the Transformer Prime Gaming Hands-on and you’ll find a very similar experience.

You’ve also got to consider high-powered tasks from all corners of the software world, on the other hand – the Tegra 3 able to handle each of these as well, each of them quite well. Have a peek at a set of benchmarks here that are not to be missed, and remember to compare them to the Transformer Prime review as well!

Camera

The camera on this device is, as stated above, an 8 megapixel shooter with the ability to record 1080p video as well. There’s an F2.2 aperture for sweet snapping and the camera interface has changed ever so slightly from the original build on the Transformer Prime. Have a peek at the camera interface here:

Next have a look at some 1080p video as well as several snapshots taken in various conditions with the back-facing camera on this device. Again compare and contrast them with the quality of the Transformer Prime which has essentially the same setup but with no flash for taking photos in the dark.

Battery

The TF300 is no exception to the rule that Tegra 3 devices are able to conserve energy very effectively. Because of the fifth low-power core here, the TF300′s battery is able to last it a fantastic amount of hours both with and without the bonus battery housed in the keyboard dock. ASUS quotes eight and a half hours for the tablet alone and a bit more than 13 hours with the dock doing normal “Real World Testing”. We’ve found similar results, getting more like 7 hours of streaming video and/or playing games and 10 to 12 with the dock attached. The real “wow” factor is in, again, the power-saving mode and the ability of the 5th low-power core:

Also note that the times this battery chart shows the tablet as “charging” are when it’s plugged into its keyboard dock only – not into the wall. Having two slates of hardware to hold big batteries in makes this device as one big whole an intensely battery-sensitive machine.

Wrap-Up

Here we have the slightly less expensive version of the most well-rounded and powerful Android tablet on the planet. The qualities that allow this model to cost significantly less than its bigger brother are not bothersome to me, and I see no reason, save for one, why a person wouldn’t just go with this TF300 model over the Transformer Prime. That reason is, of course, the flash for the camera – I think it’s safe to say that most people don’t use their tablet as their primary photo and video machine, but if they do, that little LED can make or break a purchase.

After that though, everything on this device is high quality and ready for action. Even the plastic casing which replaces the fabulous ring-spun aluminum on the Prime is of a quality high enough to run with the top tier of the Android tablet world. It even has a ring-spun texture so you know it means business. ASUS hasn’t just created a lower-cost model of the Prime here, they’ve re-done the Prime with the essentials it needed to be the top-quality Android tablet in the field and offered it here with the name ASUS Transformer Pad TF300 with a much more pleasing price tag. Pick one up right now!

To jump right in I’ll start by saying the Sony Tablet P is available today, right now from AT&T for $399 and a 2-year contract, or for $549 contract free. With dual screens, cores, and cameras it makes for one interesting device to say the least. Is the Tablet P practical though? That is the question. Check out our hands-on first, then enjoy the rest of the review.

Hardware

The hardware is extremely unique to say the least. With two 5.5″ 1024 x 480 screens, the NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor at 1 GHz, 1GB of RAM, 2GB of storage (SD card) and dual cameras it has some specs that most tablets can’t even compare to. We also get dual cameras with a 5 megapixel rear and VGA front for video chat. Has Sony reinvented the wheel here, or will this be soon forgotten?

This is an 11″ tablet with the footprint slightly larger than a smartphone. Out of the box it’s slightly fatter than most phones but around the same width being 3.1″ wide and a little over 7.1″ tall. Easily pocket-able makes this one of the most portable tablets we’ve used to date. The design looks and feels nice but in reality is just cheap plastic. I couldn’t help but wish they used a better material for construction as the entire device just seems a little cheaply built if you ask me — almost like a toy. Then again this is a crossbreed between a tablet an a gaming device.

The matching 5.5-inch screens are nice and pretty but the large, almost 1-inch wide bezel around the entire thing could have been cut down and made smaller. The front has a nice cut out to help open the clamshell design and a slit is also included with a green LED for notifications.

As far as buttons and ports they are all on the side, bottom portion of the device. We have the volume rocker, micro-USB for sync (not charging) the proprietary charging port, and the power button with a red/green LED for charging. On bottom are some small feet to sit it on a table and the 3.5mm headphone jack. Then on the left is a lone grill for the speaker and that is all. The design is actually nice, elegant, and simple but the cheap feeling just leaves me wanting more.

The dual-screens are 5.5″ and use Sony’s Bravia engine and Tru-Black technology and look great — so long as you look straight on. At much of an angle colors go bad and whites turn yellow. For a dual screen device that you won’t always be looking at straight on this was a major bummer.

One of the best parts of the design, and the durability is the extremely strong hinge. You can lay it on any surface and open the top screen to any angle you’d like and the strong hinge will hold it in place, and the tablet wont fall over backwards. Watching the video below you’ll get another great example of the hardware and my last complaint is the sharp corners on the inside. The outer shell is nice, smooth and round. The inside isn’t so lucky and the sharp corners cause extreme discomfort after about 5-10 minutes of use.

Software

The software is Android 3.2 Honeycomb and while it works well, could be better. Android 4.0 ICS should bring along plenty of improvements to this device and is said to be coming soon, but for now we get Honeycomb. Obviously with two screens the operating system will need to be thrown together, and that is how it seems. Some aspects work great while others are terrible. Some games are enjoyable on both screens and take full advantage of the real estate while others don’t. Even the pro-loaded Crash Bandicoot doesn’t work that great although we do have complete PS2 controls.

As you see above many of the icons have been replaced with generic blue ones from Sony. Things like the camera, browser, calender and other stock apps. Why these aren’t the same as Honeycomb icons beats me. The software is basically untouched in regards to Android 3.2 Honeycomb and is everything we know and expect with the Android OS. but does have moments of lag from sliding icons and such onto a different screen.

The bezel is something that for now we can’t get away from, and it kills the experience. You don’t actually miss content but it does ruin the experience and makes things harder to read and do. Now most apps don’t work with both screens although Sony has worked with developers and we have around 40 available in the market that take full advantage. Not a lot but it’s a start. Most apps will use the bottom, or the top and occasionally we can use the “fit to screen” option in Honeycomb and that sometimes works, and often causes problems. YouTube fails to work completely and in fact was not pre-installed. So that could be a huge con for many.

I wont talk too much about the dual-screen experience because my extended hands-on video below will show you the performance, and usage situations with both screens. Not to mention a few games, apps, and the fact that YouTube is missing in action.

Benchmarks

As usual we’ve ran a few benchmarks and things are not looking good for Sony. Obviously we have two screens and far more pixels than most phones and tablets so the results will be lower, but they seem extra low. This isn’t too big of a concern as gaming was fluid and I didn’t experience any issues from the multiple games I’ve tried.

Quadrant was lower than expected for a dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 but at the same time we are pushing nearly 1/3 more pixels of even 1280×800 tablets with two 1024 x 480 screens. AnTuTu however was very very low and the Sony Tablet P barely outscored single core phones from early last year.

Gaming

While this is still a full tablet experience with a browser, Android Market (Google Play Store) and many other things gaming is where this will shine. Well that and portability. Sadly the gaming aspects didn’t have me sold. It was fun to use, and playing split view with Battleship and Lazer Wars from the market was fun, it isn’t something I’d do often. The Sony Plastation certification and Sony apps are where it shines.

With Music and Video Unlimited, not to mention the Sony store with tons of optimized games that is mostly what this should and would be used for. At the same time many will just opt for the Sony PS Vita. The games you see in the screenshot below will become your best friend with this tablet, and many of them still don’t use both screens well but we do enjoy Playstation-like controls.

Camera

Sony has released some pretty impressive cameras in the past. With the new Xperia line having 8 megapixel cameras that work great we were surprised to see how terrible they were with the Tablet P. The 5 megapixel camera on the back takes decent photos as long as you have enough light. The shutter speed was extremely slow and required more attempts than we’d like. Video is capable of 720p but it wasn’t anything special. Playing video only used part of the top screen and the entire bottom had a terrible and over-sized UI to forward, pause, and play the video. Video playback is a key area this should excel — even with the bezel in the middle — but sadly it does not. Either way here is a sample from the mediocre camera with more in the gallery below.

Battery Life

The Tablet P comes with a 3,080 mAh battery under the hood. While that would be great for a smartphone, a tablet with two screens totaling 11″ I feel we need more. Many tablets like the recently reviewed Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 has a 5,100 mAh battery and lasts far longer than the Tablet P. We do have enough juice for about a single day of usage on 3G/4G from AT&T or on WiFi. Gaming takes the battery down faster but in general it lasted through a days use.

Wrap-Up

Sony has redesigned most of the core apps to work with the dual-screens. They have a few that launched in the market with full dual-screen support and work great too, but in general the experience is sub-par at best. They did a good job with what they could — like the browser but many apps just wont work right and give you a poorly put together and rough experience. Honeycomb needs to be tossed out and upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich as soon as possible, and Sony needs more developers on board to not only support both screens, but at least one’s odd 1024 x 480 5.5-inch size.

I really wanted to love the Tablet P and I’ve enjoyed using it day to day and can really see it having potential for those needing portability. Sadly it has a little bit of a personality disorder and doesn’t know if it wants to be a 5.5″ phone, a tablet, or a gaming console and doesn’t do any of them well. The design is simple until you open it and start using it day to day, and the corners are sharp and hurt your hand after a mere matter of minutes.

If Sony could do this again with more developer support, the latest and greatest specs and OS, and cut down on the bezel this could be a real winner. For now it seems tossed together and a halfway finished experience. If you want an excellent and portable tablet with data access get the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, for gaming get the PS Vita, and for a true tablet experience try the Transformer Prime or the iPad.

Hardware

The magic in this device is not only in its keyboard dock, but once you get a taste of the ta on its own, its hard to resist the desire to own what basically amounts to the other half of it. Battery life essentially doubles when you’ve got both pieces and with this connection you’ve got the next generation of device in your hands today: a notebook with a touchscreen. Of course to make it all worth it, you’ve got to have an operating system that’ll back it all up – we’ll chat about that a bit more in the Software portion of this review. For now, have a peek at this very clean, modern looking bit of equipment:

Now you don’t HAVE to pick up the keyboard dock for this tablet, as all the processor power does lie inside the tablet bit itself. I’m simply not going to begin going into the supposed “limited app environment” that Android has in this review because I’m of the opinion (through practice) that if you want your device to do something, there’s a developer out there who wanted the same thing and made an app for it. Because of this, the tablet you’re looking at is easily one of the top 5 tablet computers on the market today. Because I’m a fan of Android and am more interested in the development of this operating system than any of the other mobile platforms, I would at this moment choose this tablet above all others, and not least of all because it’s gorgeous to behold.

Circles upon circles carved in a royal shade of metal around the entirety of the back of the tablet with the massive fact showing itself to be entirely Gorilla Glass, flat from the center all the way to the edges. The only marking you’ll find on either the back or the front is the lovely ASUS logo which is more than easy on the eyes, it’s downright well designed. The lightness of the tablet is balanced perfectly well with how weighty it must be to convince your humble narrator that it’s not going to bust if I drop it. In fact there’s no way I’ll be able to break this tablet with my bear hands unless I toss it off a building – though you won’t see me attempting this any time soon.

The keyboard dock has been sent to us to review in a box right alongside the tablet itself, and indeed it does belong with the tablet – let me reiterate: this isn’t a tablet, it’s a collapsible notebook. Though I cannot yet see this as a total replacement for the MacBook Air (or whatever else you folks are using to replace that luxury on the PC side), it is an excellent option for those of you wishing to work in a brand new environment where Android is still your system and your screen is touchable.

You’ll find that switching between the tablet and the keyboard-attached amalgamation is quick, simple, and judging by the latch on this monster, the whole thing is held quite securely in place for the long haul. Don’t expect to be getting the thing out of there with one hand, but plugging it in with one hand is certainly doable. And get this: in this (and the orignal Transformer) is the first place you’ve got a notebook that takes photographs from its back, and not just terrible photographs, nice ones.

As far as the other side goes, the inside – for the fellow who asked: there are two little rubber bumpers on the keyboard side that hold the display away from the surface, but the Gorilla glass wouldn’t have to worry about getting scratched either way because Gorilla Glass is more than tough enough to resist such smooth foe. Have a look here at a close-up view of the keyboard in all its glory in hands-on video Two:

The hinge is strong enough to be relatively tough to move when it doesn’t have the tablet plugged in, and the whole rig is difficult to open up when attached if you’re holding a baby in your other arm. I guarantee you I’ve tried it. This of course means that the connected keyboard/tablet combo wont come flying open accidentally by any means. Like the rest of the sections you’re about to read, know that anything you’d like to know about that I haven’t covered here is more than open to discussion below: ask any question you wish and I shall respond, your wish is my tap and click!

Display

In this tablet you’re going to find the lightest whites, the darkest blacks, and the brightest display with its Super IPS+ mode with over 600 nits (a nit is a unit of visible-light intensity, just so you know) — that compared to the iPad 2′s 350-400 nits makes for a big gap, but considering the rest of the tablet world is somewhere in the same area for brightness, this including the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the non-Super IPS+ mode of the Prime, these numbers aren’t going to make a BIG difference unless you’re holding them up side by side. The difference comes when you’re standing outside holding the tablet in direct sunlight – and here you’ll find the brightness to make a big difference.

The resolution on this device is 1280 x 800, the panel having a 16:10 ratio and 10.1-inches in size diagonally. Compared to the 9.7-inch iPad 2 display, the pixels per inch on the Transformer are a dominant 145 PPI over the Apple tablet’s 132 PPI. Compare this to the display on the next most popular Android tablet on the market with the Kindle Fire at 169 ppi and you might have a heart attack until you realize that this is because 1024 x 600 pixels are smashed into 7-inches of display instead of the Prime’s 10.1 – much easier to get dense down there at the smaller level.

Final assessment: this is the best display on a 10-inch tablet market today. It’s bright, dense, your games and text are sharp and readable, and you can use this beast outside in the summertime.

Benchmarks

While it’s interesting to mark up a bunch of benchmarks on this and the rest of the tablets in the market, the Transformer Prime is a perfect example of where even though you’ll see lesser tablets out-do it at first glance. What you’re not seeing is the real-world performance here in these tests, and that is always what matters most. Normally I don’t mention this stuff as it should be a given whenever you’re looking at benchmark tests performed on completely different pieces of hardware, but here the truth is quite relevant, as the results are quite deceptive.

As such, feel free to head back to our Hands-on and Unboxing post to see a whole collection of benchmark results on both the Transformer Prime and the original Transformer. Also head back to our ASUS Transformer Prime vs iPad 2 Benchmark Tests post for more of a fight between the two, but remember that the numbers do not perfectly reflect the power within in any case. Have a peek at our hands-on with both devices in the following video to see a bit more of a real-world test of performance, as it were. Games is what you’ll see here, games galore I tell you!

Above you’ll see the iPad 2 on the left and the Transformer Prime on the right, same for the video below – in the video above you’ll see the game Riptide GP, below you’ll see the game Shadowgun. You’ll find that both games have been enhanced in several ways, some big, some small, and though the gameplay is comparable on both machines, the Tegra versions on the Prime are clearly the cooler gaming experiences. Will the iPad versions be updated eventually? Maybe, you never know.

These games are but a taste of the handful of apps developed by gaming groups hand-in-hand with NVIDIA to optimize them for the Tegra 3 quad-core processor. Head down to the software portion of this review to see a few more in high action.

Camera

In this category I’m not even going to begin comparing the camera to any other tablet save one, only ONE tablet in the world at this very moment can hold any kind of candle to the Transformer Prime in any respect, and that is, believe it or not, the $800 HTC Jetstream. What you’ll find is that not only do both of these tablets have the only 8-megapixel cameras in the tablet market, the rest of the market’s cameras are absolutely terrible, especially when compared to these two. Of course the price difference between the Prime and the Jetstream provide you with a clear choice in this case, but their cameras taken aside from that are fairly similar.

Have a peek at a few more examples of what the Transformer Prime’s 8-megapixel camera can do here for photos and for video, the video being 1080p of course. The front-facing camera is the same basic 1.2-megapixel camera we’ve seen on many tablets and smartphones before, it being only of the quality you’d use for video chat – someday we’ll have high quality chat, someday!

Note also that the Transformer Prime boasts a lovely F2.4 aperture, the same rating the iPhone 4S has, so it’s not just the megapixels you’re enjoying here, it’s the guts.

Software

Before we go any further, you should have a look at our first in a series of hands-on videos (and yes, the second is posted above, but it just worked out that way!) Here you’ll find that your humble narrator starts exploring the Transformer Prime by showing off the original Transformer and the app selection it has. The reason for this is that it’s essentially the same set you’ll get with the Transformer Prime, and the reason for THAT is ASUS promotion of the Transformer and the Transformer Prime as a family of devices. Instead of tossing their “older” model under the bus, they’re offering it for the lower of two prices, the Prime then considered the “premium” choice for consumers for its advanced build and processor, not to mention is two lovely color options.

What we’ve gotten here with our review unit is a set of apps direct from NVIDIA and several of their partnered developer groups who made games with the developers at NVIDIA optimized for their newest builds. In this case, for example, there’s a fighting game created to show off the performance of each of the four CPU cores, here simply branded “Chidori.” What Chidori represents is an alliance of gaming groups joined together to provide tools and resources for developers to make their games cross-platform as easily as possible, and their aims with Tegra 3 are made clear in a quote from Katsunori Yamaji, CEO and Executive Producer at Premium Agency Inc for the announcement of the chip last month:

“Tegra 3 is equivalent to a console game machine, and we believe devices with it will play an important part in next-generation games. We’ve been working on optimizing our cross-platform engine Chidori to fully support Tegra 3. To support Tegra 3′s multi-core engine, we’ve optimized our 3D effect tool. And we’ve adapted our high-quality shader library, Aoi, to Tegra 3, allowing truly beautiful imagery.” – Yamaji

Have a peek at what Chidori has to offer in this very pre-production demo:

Next have a look at the game you’ve seen a couple times before if you’ve been following along with the NVIDIA crew and their quad-core processor since before it was called Tegra 3. This game is called Glowball and it’s been in development since the processor inside this tablet was called Project Kal-El, it still here showing off what it was intended for since the start: the pure loveliness of what this device and its system on chip are capable of in the graphics department.

Then behold another early build: Bladeslinger. Much in the same style as the Infinity Blade series and its ability to show off the wonders of the A5 chip in the iPad 2, here Bladeslinger (even in this Alpha or Beta build), looks and acts impressive in every way.

Battery

There are three pre-set modes you can be in on the Transformer Prime, the first being Power Saving Mode, the next being Balanced Mode, and the final being Normal Mode. NVIDIA and ASUS have assured us that Balanced Mode is more than enough of a powerhouse to run all the games we’ve been burning through here, but you know good and well that we want the most powerful mobile processor on the planet working as hard as it can the entire time we’re testing the battery. That said, if the Normal Mode battery life is any indication (and it certainly is), the Power Saving Mode will last you until the end of time with battery life.

What you’re seeing above is a look at the battery life AFTER the firmware update that came in early yesterday from ASUS. The battery life you’re seeing from the reviews run before yesterday are, as I’m sure you say, not the best, but what’s happened after this update came down today was a vast improvement in battery life (amongst other things) including what appears to be the 5th core doing its thing while we have the device with the display off. Have a look back at the post entitled Variable SMP: the brain of quad-core mobile computing and see not only how there’s actually five CPU cores in the Tegra 3 processor in this device, the fifth is activated when the others aren’t needed, this saving you energy in the form of battery power. It’s like a ninja in the night, a ninja fighting for good!

In other words: even on Normal mode, which is what you’re seeing above, we’ve got 10+ hours of battery time. When it comes to running the device with the dock attached, we’re talking about another 50-75% increase in battery time. If you’re using your tablet disconnected from the dock and you’re running HD streaming video to your HDTV, you’ve got much closer to 7 hours of uptime. The biggest killer of your battery is going to be the Super IPS+ mode, which I recommend only using if you’re hanging out on a parade route on the 4th of July in Texas, because even without this feature activated, you’ll be fine out on the town on a normal midwestern sunny day.

Wrap-Up

The ASUS Transformer Prime is without a doubt the finest Android tablet to date, and barring those with an addiction to having what they call the “widest” or “finest” app collection in the land, I’ve got no qualms with calling this the highest quality slate on the market today. Of course the app production ecosystem for the iPad 2 is stronger – people still see it as an easier place to make cash. With Android it’s still not so easy to make a winning application, especially one that’s supported by a market that has a real vetting process. But lo and behold, those of you who are developers of games specifically, you’ve got NVIDIA to work with, and not only do they give developers wanting to work with them the resources they need to make their game optimized for their processors, they promote the heck out of your games by giving them to us to test out.

With NVIDIA promoting this tablet as the first quad-core processor toting tablet on the market, ASUS has a brand tie-in that the rest of the chip producers simply haven’t offered as of yet. NVIDIA is pretty darn good at pumping themselves up as the group to trust for gamers, and with that power the rest of the applications the everyday user uses are more than supported as well – and NVIDIA knows this, and NVIDIA promotes this. Meanwhile you’ll find many (not all), but many of the other devices like this on the market simply promoting their device as having a “super powered dual-core processor” without a brand, or in Apple’s case, they simply re-brand the processor as their own – this is also smart.

So what more could you want? I know what you Android lovers want: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Lucky you, ASUS has already promised to deliver that system sooner than later, with an announcement of when coming sometime later this month from what we understand. The only limit this device has that I’m concerned about is its current system, Android 3.x Honeycomb, the entire line of which (3.0, 3.1, and now 3.2) have been fun to work with, but haven’t been as up to the task of everyday usage in every respect as Ice Cream Sandwich has been in the few short weeks it’s been in the wild.

Therefor I tell you this: if you’re deciding between an iPad 2 and this device, you’re doing it wrong. Buy the one that feels better to you, and go with it. There’s no perfect test to decide between the two, it always comes down to personal preference if you ask me. If you’re deciding on which Android tablet to get, look no further. The rest of the Android slate world has been completely blown away.

Have a peek at the photos below and the video above and know this: this isn’t the end of our review, this is just another bit of it. If you’ve got any questions on this (or any other device we’ve reviewed for that matter) feel free to ask in the comments below. We and I will do our best to answer!

Hardware

Accommodating a sliding mechanism means the Eee Pad Slider isn’t going to be as compact as some slate-only tablets we’ve seen. The ASUS measures in at 10.7 x 7.1 x 0.7 inches and 2.1 pounds (when closed), making it larger and heavier than most rivals. In contrast, the Eee Pad Transformer is thinner and lighter when slate-only, but bigger than the Eee Pad Slider when the battery-toting keyboard dock is attached. Of course, in doing so you also get a boost to runtime.

In comparison to a more traditional slate, however, like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, the ASUS is positively porky. Samsung’s 9.7 x 6.7 x 0.3 inch tablet is less than half as thick and almost half the weight, and far easier to hold single-handed. ASUS’ plastic chassis is sturdy and the matte finish does a good job of disguising fingerprints, though the same can’t be said for the gloss finish touchscreen and sizable black bezel. Still, the 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 IPS LCD panel is bright and color-rich, as with the Transformer, and has great viewing angles. We did prefer the Galaxy Tab 10.1 screen, however, for its saturation.

ASUS Eee Pad Slider demo:

Inside, things are par for the course for a Honeycomb tablet. NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 1GHz dual-core chipset takes center stage, paired with 1GB of RAM, 16GB of flash storage (with 32GB an option), WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and GPS. There’s no 3G in our review unit, though ASUS will offer it as an option. Up front is a 1.3-megapixel camera, while a 5-megapixel camera is on the back.

ASUS has used the extra heft to accommodate a fair array of ports, which are a welcome addition. There’s a full-sized USB port for external peripherals, such as a mouse or hard-drive, along with a microSD card slot, plus a mini-HDMI port and headphones socket. The standard volume rocker and power button are joined by a dedicated reset button, recessed so as not to be triggered accidentally. Finally, there’s a proprietary docking connector – on the top edge, not the bottom, since that would put it under your wrist when the keyboard is extended – for use with the bundled USB charger or when hooking the Eee Pad up to a computer.

Keyboard

Reach behind the Eee Pad’s webcam and tuck your finger into the dimple; pull up, and the whole screen section pivots back and up, slotting into place at a 45-degree angle. A chrome-finish slab of metal keeps the touchscreen elevated, and the whole thing feels sturdier than you might expect. Unfortunately, there’s no way to adjust the angle – if you want the keyboard, you’re stuck with 45-degrees.

In use, the four grippy rubber feet on the base keep things from sliding around, and the experience is wobble-free. Sadly the keys themselves underwhelm: the buttons are plasticky and cheap feeling, the key bed wobbles and the whole ‘board lacks travel and is spongy.

It’s a shame, because the keys on the Eee Pad Transformer’s keyboard proved surprisingly usable, certainly in line with a netbook. The Slider, in contrast, is definitely sub-netbook in quality, and the limited space for the ‘board – broad, but not particularly deep – means typing can’t reach the sort of speeds you’d expect for a physical layout.

Overall, then, it’s better than an on-screen keyboard, but falls short of ASUS’ own Transformer. The absence of a trackpad was also notable, plus there’s no palm-rest. ASUS has added dedicated Home and Search keys, and there are shortcuts for WiFi, Bluetooth and screen brightness, but no media control shortcuts. You can use cut/copy/paste shortcuts, but the shift+arrow combination to highlight doesn’t work in the preloaded Polaris Office suite (that supports documents, spreadsheets and presentations).

Software and Performance

Android 3.2 Honeycomb is, by now, a familiar face. Google’s tablet-centric OS has had a few tweaks at ASUS’ hands, as well as a fair selection of apps and tools thrown at it, though underneath it’s the same platform we’ve been using for most of the year now. We’re not entirely sure why ASUS bothered redesigning the back, home and app-switcher buttons, but the company’s active desktop widgets – showing the latest email count from the Mail app (but not Gmail) and weather for your current location – are neat.

Preloaded apps include the ASUS WebStore, Movie Studio, MyCloud, MyLibrary, MyNet, Polaris Office, Press Reader, TegraZone and the Zinio Reader. Usefulness varies depending on what you intend to do with your tablet: most of the apps focus on accessing cloud storage (ASUS bundles a year’s worth of unlimited cloud drive storage with the Eee Pad) or streaming media, plus you can remotely access your home computer – albeit only across the same network – using the MyDesktop app.

Of course, with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich freshly unveiled, the question is when – or if – it might appear as an upgrade on the Eee Pad Slider. ASUS has confirmed that the Transformer will get Android 4.0 “soon” and we’re assuming that means the Slider shouldn’t be far behind, but so far there’s no official announcement.

Performance was par for the course given the specifications, with no real surprises. For multitasking with Polaris Office, the browser and background audio playback, the Eee Pad Slider had no problems keeping up with our typing. HD playback was solid, and jitter free via the HDMI port (though you’ll need to supply your own cable, since ASUS doesn’t).

Camera

Just as the extra chassis bulk allowed ASUS to accommodate more ports than the Galaxy Tab 10.1, the Eee Pad Slider also gets a higher resolution main camera: 5-megapixels instead of 3-megapixels. Unfortunately, even with those extra pixels, the Slider does a poor job with stills.

Colors are accurate but edges are soft, detail generally lost and low-light performance – not helped with the absence of an LED flash – is practically non-existent. Video can be recorded at up to 720p HD, and fares a little better, with more sharpness and detail. Still, we can’t imagine many people opting to use the Eee Pad Slider for photography, both for usability and quality reasons.

Battery

ASUS estimates up to 8hrs runtime from a full charge of the Eee Pad Slider SL101′s battery, depending on use. In practice, with a mixture of typing, emailing, browsing over WiFi, streaming music and video playback, we managed 6-6.5hrs. That’s with reasonably heavy use: in more typical circumstances we’d expect you to certainly last a day of occasional use.

Unfortunately, here again the Eee Pad Slider is shown up by its Transformer cousin. Slap on the other Eee Pad’s removable keyboard, and we found the integrated battery adds another 6-7hrs to the Transformer’s runtime. That puts it more in the region of 12-15hrs, something the Slider can only dream of.

Wrap-Up

On paper, the ASUS Eee Pad Slider makes sense. All the instant-on flexibility of a tablet, with the convenience of a keyboard. Problem is, the biggest competition comes from under ASUS’ own roof, in the shape of the Eee Pad Transformer. That has a better keyboard, the choice over whether or not to use it, and considerably more battery life.

Yes, the Slider is slightly more portable than the Transformer with its keyboard docked, but ASUS has already begun teasing its imminent Transformer 2, borrowing styling – and most importantly scale – from the UX ultrabook range. That probably means a thinner Transformer 2 than the Slider, despite offering extra battery life and more flexibility. Finally there’s price: in the US the Slider is $479, versus $505 for the Transformer and its keyboard, but in the UK the Slider is £429.99 while the Transformer has dipped to £429.89 with keyboard.

If ASUS had managed to get the Eee Pad Slider to market back in May, alongside the Transformer, we could see it having stolen some netbook sales. Now, with a new Transformer on the way, Ice Cream Sandwich in the pipeline and faster quadcore Tegra 3 processors promising both improvements in performance and power frugality, the Slider feels like it has missed its window.

Hardware

To start with the hardware we have a quick video for you below, as well as our hands-on and unboxing post you can see here. What you get is an Android 3.1 Honeycomb tablet with a bright and vivid 10.1″ 1280 x 800 resolution IPS display. The IPS looks bright, vivid, clear, and has great contrast. Like most IPS displays the viewing angles are also quite excellent so that is another plus. Powered by the all to familiar NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor at 1.0 GHz, 1GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage (16 and 64GB versions also available). Coming in around 14.5mm thin and weighs 1.65 lbs. It may be heavier than most but it also has a wide array of ports for any users needs. More hardware specs and pics can be found after the video.

Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet hands-on

With all the ports you could ever need for full productivity and having stylus support this truly is a do-it-all tablet. Based on the buttons, ports, and labels on bottom we can assume Lenovo expects this to spend much of its time in portrait mode so I’ll go over the hardware as such. On bottom we have 4 dedicated buttons, something we don’t see often with Android Honeycomb tablets. While I’ve found them a bit useful at times, they get in the way more than they are helpful — just my honest opinion. They are a screen orientation toggle, a web browser launch button, then the standard Android back and home buttons. They also seem a bit hard to push needing the right angle since they click toward the display rather than going down so sometimes I feel i need to almost roll my finger to get it to recognize the input.

Along with the hardware buttons the bottom also features all those convenient ports we mentioned above. With a 3.5mm headphone jack, mini-HDMI, micro-USB, a 30 pin dock connector, then a door with a full sized SD card slot as well as SIM support for 3G connectivity.

Around to the left side (bottom for landscape) we have a full-sized USB port and a single speaker grill and that is about it. Very simple design and not a lot to it, but that doesn’t matter when you have tons of ports and are aimed at productivity right?

The on top and the right side we have the volume up/down rocker as well as the power button. The top (or bottom left in landscape view) has a dedicated cutout and hole for the included stylus. the stylus fits neatly away and is for the most part out of sight. If you happen to lose the stylus or forget it, the hole where it belongs gets very irritating and can actually bother you depending on how you hold the tablet so I’d recommend leaving it in place. It has a nice design and is easy to slide in and out so that shouldn’t be an issue.

Software

Enough about the hardware, lets talk about software and what you can do with the stylus. First off I’ll mention we have Android 3.1 Honeycomb — mostly stock with a few small changes and “enhancements” from Lenovo like an additional home launcher type widget for quick and easy launching of most used applications and more. User interface is clean, neat and performs as expected for an Android 3.1 Honeycomb tablet. Just like the IdeaPad K1 tablet from Lenovo the unlock screen has a good 1-3 second delay from when you hit the wake button, to when the screen will actually recognize your swipe to unlock the device on-screen. This isn’t a deal breaker but seems to slow down usage a bit as you have to wait for it when you shouldn’t need to.

Clearly a lot went into making this tablet near ready to go right out of the box. Lenovo has provided tons of application for both regular users and business professionals both. With stylus support and memo pad apps, to Documents to go and more. The pre-loaded applications are in no way bloatware and are almost all things most users would want, need, or download at some point. Below is a few screenshots of the included applications.

More of the many apps included straight out of the box are Netflix, and Angry Birds HD. Both of these many users will indeed use and how can anyone possibly call Angry Birds “bloatware” right? Lenovo also has what they call the Lenovo Launcher, and the Lenovo App Wheel — both right on the homescreen for quick and easy navigation to all your favorite or most used applications. Here are a few pictures of those as well as a hands-on video right from the Lenovo product announcement.

Lenovo Launcher and App Shop details

Performance

The performance of the NVIDIA dual-core processor is to be expected, performing right on par with most Honeycomb tablets thus far. Nothing is really any different here and just as we expected it seems stable, fast, and average in benchmarks. We won’t see anything too crazy until we get faster processors and quad-cores in our tablets. We’ve ran a few benchmarks as we always do — those being Quadrant Advanced, CF Bench, and Vellamo. Surprisingly the ThinkPad actually scored higher than any tablet I’ve tested thus far stock out of the box in the Vellamo tests.

Quadrant – 2011
CF Bench – 9332, 2399, 5172
Vellamo – 989

ThinkPad Pen

The ThinkPad Pen (aka Stylus) is actually quite convenient for daily use. Most of the time I’m perfectly happy with using my hands, especially on an OS designed for touch input but the stylus works extremely well for note taking and drawing applications. Equipped with a comfortable pressure sensitive pen you can feel free to doodle when bored, or note take during those important meetings.

We have a nice application pre-installed called Notes Mobile and after messing around with it, the features it provides are awesome for business users, or even students. While you can scribble away as much as you’d like (and as messy) you can also opt for the tablet to automatically convert your writing into not only a neat and readable font, but digital format that can be saved and emailed to others. The picture below will show a few different things. The first line being the automatically converted words into a neat font provided by Lenovo — I wrote it sloppy and it adjusted to be readable and look good both. The second line is the same thing wrote by myself with no changes from the software, just as the stylus allowed. Input is very smooth, accurate and fluid. The response is fast and I could see myself writing quick notes in class with ease here. The last line I attempted to show the pressure sensitivity. “Slash” is wrote with less pressure, and “Gear” I’m applying a bit more for a bolder ink look.

Everything is adjustable from font size, style, color, and we even have a bold option. One thing worth noting for all you lefties out there (myself included) is in settings Lenovo has provided a left hand options. The ThinkPad has something called “Palm Rejection” and when the stylus is active and you place your hand fully on the display it will only recognize the pen input. This was a little goofy at first until I found the left hand palm rejection option under settings.

While not activated on my tablet out of the box Lenovo provides a 3rd party keyboard that will enable users to quickly swap from touch input, to stylus input. Writing emails, and more can all be done with the stylus should you choose not to do the “hunt and peck” thing with the on-screen keyboard.

Security

I didn’t try these features myself but Lenovo has also added a few very neat security features for business users on the ThinkPad. We have Absolute Software recovery, and McAfee Mobile Security both installed. Absolute Software will allow security commands to take complete control of the ThinkPad tablet if lost or stolen — even if the thief wipes the device back to factory state. Included is data backup as well as full remote deletion of data for those important business documents. Absolute Software will also be able to trace the tablet using the included GPS and recover a stolen device, but this is nothing new, just an added benefit of buying Lenovo.

McAfee Mobile security also proved addition support and safety while browsing the web, and also features many of the same lost or stolen features mentioned above, including data backup/restore.

Camera

The Lenovo ThinkPad features a 5 megapixel camera around back (sadly with no LED flash) and a powerful 2 megapixel camera around front for video conference and chatting. Having a better camera on the front is one more reason the ThinkPad is geared toward business professionals that need the option to video conference. Here are a few example photos with the camera for an idea of its performance.

Then a quick shot with the 2 MP front facing camera

Battery Life

Powered by a 3250 mAh battery we have averaged pretty respectable battery life so far. While it doesn’t compare to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and its 7100 mAh battery the ThinkPad has performed quite well. The image below isn’t fully accurate as far as what all I’ve ran because there should be plenty of games and benchmarks listed but it does give you an idea of what to expect. I used the ThinkPad tablet off and on throughout the day. Picking it up when needed, and leaving in standby when not in use and I’ve managed about 22 hours from a single charge with 10% remaining. For continuous use it wont last that long, and you can expect to see about 7-8 hours of straight up usage. One thing to note is the screen-dim feature where the tablet will automatically sleep the screen was set by default to 30 minutes — most tablets are 1 minute. First power up I left it alone for about 20 minutes and returned surprised it was still on. I’d turn that down first thing.

Wrap-Up

This tablet is pretty decent and should be great for business users and professionals. While the stylus works for full navigation everywhere the user needs from swiping through homescreens and choosing apps and more. Certain applications have no use for it, like Documents to Go — it has no doodle or stylus support so the stylus us useless here. We can expect to see more apps take full advantage of the pen in the future and the Lenovo App shop has a few that are confirmed to support it also.

While the ThinkPad tablet offers a great overall user experience for many users, the added features I just don’t see being all that useful unless you truly need them. I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve spent with it but would be equally happy with the Transformer. On a more business or student side of things this is a great tablet and has enough features to make it worth the added bulk and weight over other tablets on the market. This all comes down to personal needs and someone wanting a tablet will all the options and ports under the sun, that also has stylus input support as well as the latest Android 3.1 Honeycomb — this is the tablet for you.

The Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet is available now starting at just $499 by heading over to lenovo.com

The ACER A501 follows the same footsteps as the original Iconia A500 in every way imaginable, nothing here has changed so you can expect the same good build quality, stellar performance, and crisp bright screen. The one deciding factor here is AT&T 4G comes included with the A501. One of AT&T’s first fully capable 4G tablets running on Android Honeycomb although I must mention this is not the next-gen 4G LTE, instead we have HSPA+ speeds but more on that below.

ACER Iconia A501 hands-on and unboxing video

Hardware

To start the video above should give you a great idea of the hardware but I’ve got some specs and pictures for everyone too. What we have is the standard sized 10.1″ Android tablet — powered by Android 3.0.1 Honeycomb, the NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor we all know and love chugging along at 1.0 GHz, 1GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, a rear 5MP camera with LED flash, 2MP up front for those video conference users and a slew of ports as well.

Along the left edge we have a simple and elegant design with the power button, 3.5mm headphone jack and the lone micro-HDMI port. The power button does have an LED for charging and power indication that pulses when in use.

Then if you cruise around to the right side of the ACER A501 we have a reset pinhole, a full size USB port, micro-USB, some labels and the power port. Having a full sized USB and a HDMI-out makes this tablet one of the few that stand out over the rest as many feature one or some of these but not all, and we have 4G too.

On bottom we have a 30 pin docking port but this doesn’t charge the device so I’ve yet to use it. Up top is where the magic happens. We have the volume up/down rocker, a screen orientation lock then the all important port for 4G. We have a door that opens to the microSD port for expanded storage and the full-sized AT&T sim card for 4G HSPA+.

On the backside we have a well designed and sturdily built tablet with a brushed aluminum design. A nice chrome accented ACER logo, 5MP camera with LED flash and stereo speaker grills. Audio quality is loud and clear and was surprisingly better than most the tablets I’ve used thus far.

We know plenty about the hardware and the software but for even more details check out the full review of the original A500 as they are identical in that regard. Full review here

Software and Performance

On board we sadly only have Android 3.0.1 Honeycomb. I was hoping for an out of the box OTA update to Android 3.1 or even 3.2 like the brother A500 has received but we had no such luck here. Most likely Android 3.2 for the A501 is coming shortly but no direct details were available. Performance is snappy, fluid, and smooth although 3.2 would really help. We all should be plenty familiar with the performance of a Tegra 2 dual-core tablet as they all perform pretty similar at the moment.

Shown in the gallery above is the AT&T broadband settings as well as the H symbol in the icon tray. Sadly there is no 4G LTE here and while we wish there was, I didn’t notice much difference during use compared to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE version by Verizon. The speedtest results might be slower from AT&T but overall browsing wasn’t an issue and kept right up.

For a look at the 4G performance I’ve done a few speedtest runs to see how the HSPA+ network handled on the ACER A501 and just as I expected it was about average for a 3G/4G network of around 3500 kbps down. The sad part was the upload speeds were severely low and some of the worst I’ve seen yet, this may impact video uploading and similar tasks for some but I myself didn’t try. Basic overall performance of browsing, downloading and updating apps, and viewing YouTube videos was the biggest concern but the performance was stellar other than the occasion hiccup in connection.

Benchmarks

As far as benchmarks the same rule applies here, we have the NVIDIA dual-core and performance should be close to many others although each manufacturer makes their own small changes. I’ve found the A500 and A501 from ACER perform quite well and seem to slightly outperform other Tegra 2 tablets available. I scored almost 2500 on my A501 completely stock. Here are a few benchmark results below for those interested.

Vellamo tests overall device performance across a wide array of things. From Javascript, HTML, browser load times, network stress tests, scrolling and more based around browsing. The ACER A501 scored a bit low here and most tablets are slightly below the Galaxy Tab 10.1 but here we had a surprisingly low result. I ran it twice with similar results. Network held its own but rendering seemed to really suffer here.

Battery Life and Camera

The ACER A501 features the same internals as the original and battery life seems about average for a tablet. I’ve played plenty of games over the past 12 or so hours, ran benchmarks and probably watched about 45 minutes of TRON streaming with the micro HDMI to my HDTV and I’ve still got a decent 47% remaining. It’s been off and on so straight usage will be much lower but who uses their tablet for 7 hours straight anyways right?

We have a 5MP camera on the rear along with a large LED flash. The lens is capable of 720p video capture but it’s nothing to write home about. Full 1080p would be preferred but for the odd moment you’d like to capture video with the A501, you’ll be just fine.

AT&T 4G HSPA+

Now this is not a 3G device, what we have is 4G although it’s not LTE. Technically some might say 4G shouldn’t be called that unless you have true 4G but honestly I don’t feel it matters all that much what we call it — so long as it performs well enough and doesn’t hinder our usage. While I’d love for this tablet to offer the amazing price and awesome specs and ports and come with 4G LTE, that just isn’t the case and we’ll have to make due with HPSA+ or buy the ridiculously overpriced HTC Jetstream.

Performance over 4G was a non issue. With a large network covering almost the entire U.S. you’ll have zero problems finding coverage just about wherever you go. AT&T HSPA+ might not be everywhere but dropping down to 3G I still was able to stream video and do anything else I’ve needed this week. Occasionally I’d have a time-out with my network connection but it never lasted more than about 5-10 seconds and has only happened twice. the 4G is everything you’d expect and works just as you’d think — quick and stable.

Wrap-Up

Is this the tablet for you? Are you an ACER fan and just love the brushed aluminum design, or have you been waiting for a 3G/4G tablet that wont break the bank like the Xoom? While there is many tablets on the Android market that are thinner, prettier and even have 4G LTE the ACER Iconia Tab A501 is a complete package. ACER has spared nothing and offers outputs and connectivity, performance, portability and more all in a decently sleek package that is highly affordable. The ACER Iconia Tab A501 with AT&T 4G is priced at $329 with a new, two-year data agreement, or offered at $479 for the 16GB contract-free version. I don’t know about you but the HTC Jetstream and it’s $600+ price tag seems a bit much right about now.

Apple and the iPad may have a huge grasp on the tablet market but Android is continuing to grow and expand. Getting everything in one package here from ACER without buying add-ons and adapters makes this a win-win for someone looking for a cheap, yet powerful alternative. This bad boy is full of brushed aluminum and looks different from every other tablet, I doubt ACER will have to worry about silly lawsuits anytime soon.

Hardware

Sony hasn’t strayed too far from the Honeycomb herd with the Tablet S’ core specifications. Powered by NVIDIA’s dual-core Tegra 2 paired with 1GB of RAM, its dimensions are kept compact thanks to a slightly smaller than usual 9.4-inch capacitive touchscreen. This still runs at 1280 x 800, like 10.1-inch Honeycomb slates, so the only real difference is a slightly higher pixel density. The display overall is a success, with wide viewing angles and solid contrast, though as is often the case it’s highly reflective and a fingerprint magnet.

Where Sony first pulls away from the pack is in the physical design; this is no basic slab. Sony calls it “folding design” and says the tapering form-factor is based on a folded-back magazine. The company has even carried that through to the rear panel, emphasizing the asymmetry with a ridgeline where the curve ends, and using contrasting white and black plastic to highlight. Ports – including a full-sized SD card reader, useful for quickly checking shots from your digital camera, and microUSB, though no HDMI – are clustered in the white end-caps, some under flip-out panels.

It’s a design concept we’ve seen attempted before – Notion Ink’s Adam, for instance, has a swollen battery bulge intended to offer an easier grip – but Sony’s downsizing abilities make it more successful. The Tablet S is purposefully made with off-center balance so that, when you’re holding it in portrait orientation and gripping the thicker edge, the weight is biased to your hand. That reduces the leverage effect; we found we could hold the slate single-handedly for longer than with regular tablets. The downside to the lightweight is that it feels less “premium” than, say, the aluminum iPad 2, instead being more plasticky like the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Unfortunately it’s also – even at its thinnest edge – thicker than the Samsung.

In landscape orientation, meanwhile, the Tablet S’ profile angles it on the table, mimicking the slight elevation many cases offer for easier typing. Sony says it helps avoid lighting reflections, too, though we still found ourselves shuffling around the glossy tablet frequently. A matte screen may not lead to the same eye-popping colors as a gloss-finish one, but it’s still a sacrifice we’d be happy to make.

Sony will offer two models, one with 16GB of onboard storage for $499, and another with 32GB for $599. Connectivity on both includes the usual WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, together with USB and a headphone socket. There’s no 3G/4G option at this stage, unlike the AT&T 4G support the Tablet S’ clamshell sibling, the Tablet P, will arrive with. Up front is a 0.3-megapixel camera for video calls, while a 5-megapixel camera capable of 720p HD video recording is on the back.

More surprising is the return of the infrared (IR) port, though as with Vizio’s tablet it’s here for universal remote control duties rather than sluggish file transfers. Sony preloads a Remote Control app, which, happily, works with TVs, cable boxes and other A/V hardware from other brands too. Setup is straightforward, requiring a selection of category (e.g. HDTV) and then manufacturer, and there’s a basic button layout for full control along with a swipe-gesture based channel/volume control, which lets you flick through without having to look down at the screen. What you can’t do is customize the layout: we’d like to have combined controls for several pieces of A/V kit onto a single panel, rather than have to jump between them via the app home screen, as well as ditch a few of the less frequently used buttons.

Software

Like other tablet manufacturers before them, Sony has been unable to leave Honeycomb alone. The software modifications are less obvious, initially, than say Samsung’s TouchWiz UI on the Galaxy Tab 10.1, but there are more preloaded apps for what Sony says is a boosted “out of box experience.”

Preloads generally make us wary, but Sony’s choice isn’t too bad. The Tablet S will get a selection of homegrown and third-party titles, including Evernote, FourSquare and USTREAM though they weren’t present on our review unit, plus the Remote Control app mentioned before. There’s also Sony’s Reader app for ebooks, the Reader Store, a File Transfer app, along with Music Unlimited and Video Unlimited. It’s also PlayStation Certified for mobile gaming, so you can load PSOne and PSP titles just as on the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Play.

Crash Bandicoot and Pinball Heroes will come with the slate, and Sony expects to launch a dedicated PlayStation Store for tablet gaming later in 2011. Since there are no hardware controls, the Tablet S uses on-screen buttons: a D-pad is on the left side and the familiar action buttons on the right. The exact positioning of these can be adjusted according to where your fingers most comfortably fall, though we reckon the clamshell Tablet P may be the gamers’ choice thanks to its more compact scale. The classic and portable titles should have no problems running on the Tegra 2 chipset, though they won’t be available to test until the tablet’s launch.

Other changes are more subtle. Sony has polished the homescreen transitions as part of what it calls “Swift and Smooth”; it did seem like there was a little less jerk or lag in swiping between homescreens, but it’s not a groundbreaking difference. Better is Quick View in the browser, baking a proprietary algorithm into the native Honeycomb app that speeds up webpage load times as well as pre-caching offscreen portions of each site. That means less catch-up when you scroll, though it may have an impact on data use if you’re relying on a mobile hotspot to get online.

While the homescreen looks like the Android norm, Sony also has its Favorites screen, a Pulse-style shortcut page with nine tiles on the right side and a dynamic preview window on the left. Apps and content can be pinned to each tile, either a single program or recently played content, your bookmarks, browser history or recently added music. There’s plenty of nice pivoting animation as you flick between each one, though we wish there was a way to set Favorites as the default desktop.

Just as the universal remote app tries to join the dots between the Tablet S and the rest of your A/V kit, there’s DLNA support on the tablet to handle media streaming. The audio and video apps have “Throw” buttons, which automatically scan for DLNA-compliant hardware – such as speakers or your network-connected HDTV – and then allow you to drag & drop the currently playing content to those outputs. It works just as you’d expect, and we were able to quickly get video recorded using the tablet streaming to our smart TV. For all Sony’s branding this is regular DLNA at its core, which means that other brands of TV and speaker system are supported (they’ll need to support MPEG4 rendering for video use, however).

Honeycomb still lags behind iOS for tablet-specific apps, and the Android Market doesn’t exactly help what with its filtering shortcomings. Sony has begun a new site, called Select App, to guide new users toward key software, split across various categories like home, lifestyle and entertainment. It’s sparse on information – just a short blurb about each app – and there’s no way for Tablet S owners to leave their own reviews or suggestions, but it’s better than nothing. What will make the difference is how often it’s updated, something Sony isn’t yet pinning down.

Battery

Sony claims iPad 2 equaling battery life from the 5,000 mAh battery in the Tablet S, and our experience suggests that’s a reasonably fair estimate. With mixed use but a solid amount of browsing and gaming, together with multimedia playback, we saw approximately ten hours of runtime. Less ambitious use, like ereading, and more casual browsing should see that extend even further.

Accessories

Sony has two key Tablet S accessories initially, a Bluetooth Keyboard ($79.99) and a Desk Cradle ($39.99). The former – which in fact works with any Bluetooth tablet – is a low-profile ‘board with a similar layout to the keys on Sony’s VAIO laptop range. It has a line of dedicated keys for Android tablets, such as Home, Search, the contextual menu, etc., which work with models from other companies.

The Desk Cradle, meanwhile, is a little less useful. It only charges the Tablet S, and has no ports or other connectivity. While it can be adjusted for angle, it only has two positions rather than free movement. Drop the slate in, and a menu offers a choice of displaying the gallery, a desk clock or the preloaded chumby app with its various widgets. With no HDMI output on either tablet or dock, there’s currently no way to hook the Tablet S up to a big-screen TV, Sony instead relying on the DLNA support.

Wrap-Up

Sony’s UX series VAIO UMPCs were, with their tiny slide-out keyboards and futuristic design, innovative enough to still show up in motion pictures as space-age props long after their actual hardware was outdated. The company has attempted some of that creativity with the Sony Tablet S, too, though it’s far more in line with what other Android device manufacturers are pushing out. We’ll have to wait for the dual-display Tablet P, with its pair of 5.5-inch touchscreens, for the truly eye-catching hardware.

Starting at $499 when the Tablet S goes on sale in mid-September, Sony matches the iPad 2 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 pricing. That’s perhaps a brave strategy given the Apple slate’s current dominance, though viewed against the Samsung each has its strengths and weaknesses. Sony has packed the Tablet S with a higher resolution rear camera than that in the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and the custom apps are arguably more useful than Samsung’s TouchWiz interface, especially the universal remote; on the flip-side, it’s a chunkier tablet than the Samsung and the asymmetrical design forces compromises in terms of bulk that have to be balanced against the increased ease of holding it in portrait orientation. Performance and app selection are in the same ballpark, for the most part.

Before we engage in judgement, let’s have a look at what we’re dealing with here in the tablet as it comes directly out of the box. Vincent Nguyen will show you just what this device is all about as he flips it over in his hands for the first time:

Hardware

Those of you heavily aware of all Android goings on in the world should be questioning whether I refrained from mentioning the LG G-Slate because I thought it was actually a 10-inch tablet or because I didn’t think it was worth mentioning. Truth is it’s neither: the G-Slate being an 8.9-inch tablet and having 2 cameras on the back for 3D video and photo collection, I consider it to be another completely unique device. The G-Slate compares with the A100 in that it is smaller than 10-inches, and that’s where the similarities end. The G-Slate is much heavier than the A100, the Acer tablet is much more smoothly formed, and the G-Slate has the ability to display 3D media while you’re wearing your included 3D red and blue glasses.

The Acer holds sway over all other Android tablet-classified mobile devices at this very moment because it’s only slightly heavier than the original Galaxy Tab yet totes more than double the processor speed, has an almost vanilla* flavoring of Honeycomb, and it’s got two fairly decent cameras on it, one on the front and one on the back. *Vanilla in this case means that there’s really nothing added to the Android that Google’s made save for some organizational apps and 3rd party bonus apps.

One of the least pleasing pieces of this entire equation is the viewing angles on the display. You’ve got a lovely amount of brightness with this LCD touchscreen, but have a look at the video below and you’ll see how dark bits get at around the 45 degree mark. Meanwhile you’ll find that the plastic surrounding this entire device and an overall size that’s small enough to fit in an adult male’s pants pocket (in general the companies that make male and female pants make the pockets for male pants a bit bigger) and big enough to be considered a tablet.

Acer-branded Case

We received a brand new Acer-branded case with this device, one into which you can slide and lock-in your Acer Iconia Tab A100 tightly, some sweet leathery feel all around, allowing everything to breath nicely while the tablet itself is relatively protected from danger. I wouldn’t go around tossing the tablet even if you’ve got this case around it, but you’ll definitely be protected against the odd pencil and toothpick attack. Furthermore, this case allows you to sit the device up diagonally so you can watch your favorite YouTube video in style. See more about this case inside the hands-on video below.

Hands-On Review and Second Look

Software

As far as software goes, you’re going to find several different cloud apps that’ll allow you to access your media from all directions. There’s Acer’s Clear.Fi, a service that’s remained quite the same since its original launch back in November of 2010, working here with its newest and most simplified set of menu screens. Next is Media Server, a service which will allow you to turn this tablet into a sharing machine, a simple interface able to turn Video, Photo, and Music on or off with the tap of a button. Acer Sync helps you work with your PC remotely with a simple to download desktop app.

Nemo player is another 3rd-party media explorer and player, and Docs To Go will allow you to explore all of your documents at will. AUPEO! is a radio app that’ll allow you to utilize your FM radio embedded in the device with ease, and MusicA will allow you to listen to any bit of music and identify it on the spot. The only Tegra-specific app included with the device is HW Solitaire SE, a game which you’ll otherwise be able to find in the Tegra Zone, an app-like portal which will let you in on why you made the right choice selecting a device with an NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor (note that we’ll show you one of these excellent games, Pinball HD, in the demonstration video below as well.)

Finally Planner is an email-based notes system, and SocialJogger will allow you to connect to all your social media contacts at once. Beyond that it’s your normal set of Google-set items like Google Talk, Gmail, YouTube, Books, the stock camera and camcorder interfaces, Gallery, Clock, and a strange bit: instead of a Facebook app, there’s a Facebook shortcut to the web, almost as if they’re encouraging you to use the web-based version of the social network instead of the downloadable app version.

Then there’s a drawer system which can be accessed from several shortcuts: eReading, Game Zone, Multimedia, and Social, each of them the same as they appeared on the Acer Iconia Tab A500, working very similar to the homescreens on any Android OS, but with a cool little desk graphic at the bottom of the screen and a fancy grab-and-drop system for adding app shortcuts. It’s very simple and I’d venture to guess that many have and will call it unnecessary, but it’s a step in the right direction for those who have trouble organizing their masses of apps in an orderly fashion.

Performance

To see how this tablet performs in the field, you’ll truly have to take it out for a spin yourself OR just trust the following benchmark tests which you can gain further insight on via Cory on Android Community in his post on this device which we’re both taking a look at: We Have Benchmarks. A couple of these benchmarks you’ll notice instantly that this device is not lacking, nor will it fall far behind its 10-inch comrades in the heat of battle:

Battery

After having the battery on from a full charge and having used the device lightly since then, I’m ten hours in to a day and the battery is at about 28%. Its tough to judge this particular battery as it’s certainly small compared to its predecessor at 1530 mAh while the A500 was a whopping 3260 mAh. Compare that to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1′s massive 7000 mAh battery and you’ve got quite a spread. Even the original Galaxy Tab has a 4000 mAh battery, so it’s tough to understand why Acer would stick such a small one in this new tablet device. Seems to be holding up alright thus far, but once a hard day’s work of downloading, having multiple apps open, and maybe even watching an HD video is done, you’ll be looking at more like 4 or 5 hours tops.

Camera

What you’re going to see below are masterpieces of photo and cinematography. It might be difficult for you to get a grasp of how well the camera is working its 5 megapixel rating on the back since the composition is so good because of your humble narrator’s awesome skill, but you’ll have to try. I’d rate this back-facing camera and the 2 megapixel camera up front to be roughly the same quality seen on the A500 -more than likely they’re the same models in each tablet.

Pricing

Surprisingly perhaps to some, this device is only $60 USD cheaper (at the moment) than the A500 10-inch tablet made by the same company. What you’re paying for here is the overall experience though, not the screen size – in other words, a bigger display isn’t necessarily better for you, though it certainly costs more to manufacture. Acer appears to understand this, though might be making the wrong decision having this tablet cost approximately $330 (depending on where you shop) – should this tablet fall below $300 USD and you’ll see it MAYBE popping off the shelves. Might need a bit of a bump on the ol’ advertising side as well.

Wrap-Up

This tablet is good for a lot of things. Wrapping up the awesome power of the NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor in a medium-sized package, one that’s not a smartphone yet not quite a full-sized tablet makes this device good for some slightly more hardcore on-the-go games than you’re used to on your Motorola ATRIX 4G or Motorola Photon 4G. On the other hand, it’s thicker than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, a 10-inch tablet, yet just about the same size as the original Galaxy Tab 7-inch, a tablet which does not yet feature the tablet-centric Google mobile OS Android 3.2 Honeycomb – this tablet has the right to boast itself up as the first and only tablet to currently be featuring Android 3.2 Honeycomb, again the first tablet-based Google-made mobile OS to be optimized for tablets smaller than 10-inches.

For the lay-person, this is a pretty cool pocket companion. You don’t need to pick up a contract whilst purchasing this device, and it packs an NVIDIA dual-core processor, yet it’s not as large as any other tablet currently featuring that same utterly awesome amount of power on the market today. In other words this device is indeed unique, as all good new devices should be, and should definitely be considered by all students this coming school season as an alternative to all other tablets on the market.

Portability is king, and in some cases this device is a better fit for hardware AND software than the competition, be they Android or otherwise. This tablet is not the coolest tablet in the NVIDIA Tegra 2 toting family, but it will be rated higher in the hearts of many than its predecessor, the larger A500. This device feels solid and it feels like it’s ready to take on the market.

Have a look at the images above and below along with the videos then ask any questions you may still have on the device and we’ll do our best to answer them! Finally, check out our listing for the Acer Iconia Tab A100 in the Android Device Directory at http://device.ac/ for every fact and link to hands-on and review you can handle!

Hardware

The Lenovo IdeaPad K1 sports a 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor along with 1GB of RAM. Its 10.1-inch multitouch display has a 1280 x 800 resolution with a 16:10 aspect ratio and very good viewing angles all around as can be expected from an IPS panel. It has an internal storage of 32GB that can be doubled with a microSD card of up to 32GB. It also has a front-facing 2-megapixel camera as well as a rear-facing 5-megapixel camera with an LED flash.

When it comes to connectivity options, however, the IdeaPad K1 is a bit lacking. It doesn’t help that we just finished reviewing the Toshiba Thrive, which spoiled us with full-sized ports. Still, we’re not asking for that much—a micro-USB port would suffice. But the IdeaPad K1 has no USB ports whatsoever. Neither does the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, but at least that device is so crazy thin and light that we’ll make an excuse for it.

In lieu of a USB port for data transfer and charging, the IdeaPad K1 comes with its own proprietary pin connector port. Two of these cables are included in the box, one ending with a USB male and the other ending with a wall socket adapter. But do note, like with other Honeycomb devices, that if you’re a Mac user, you will need the Android File Transfer app for your computer to recognize and access the tablet.

You can always transfer data using a microSD card, but getting to it is a pain on the IdeaPad K1. The microSD card slot can only be popped open by poking something into a tiny pinhole next to its cover. Lenovo was kind enough to provide a small metal clip specifically for this job, but it’s just the kind of thing you’ll lose within the first week.

The IdeaPad K1 does have a micro-HDMI port and it supports 1080p full HD video-out and video playback. It also supports Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity.

Physically, the IdeaPad K1 feels comfortable to hold. At 1.65lbs it’s not much lighter than the Toshiba Thrive, which weighed in at 1.66lbs, but it does feel much lighter, possibly an illusion created by its thinner profile measuring 13.3mm.

The tablet comes in four colors of black, red, white and brown. We have the black model and the backside is covered with a dense honeycomb pattern that adds both a sleek industrial look and a grippy texture. The design for the back camera cutout, the Lenovo logo, and the two stereo speaker grilles are all pleasantly subtle.

Other external elements include the physical power on/off button, volume rocker, screen-lock switch, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Additionally, there’s an unmarked physical home-screen button that also makes it easy to take screenshots by simply holding down the button until an onscreen indicator pops up.

Software & Performance

So the interface is where the Lenovo IdeaPad K1 is supposed to really shine. Instead of the stock Android 3.1 Honeycomb, Lenovo has put a lot of effort into adding some personal touches to improve usability straight out of the box. This is a move that could either innovate on or detract from the Honeycomb experience.

Let’s start off with what’s probably the best feature of Lenovo’s customized interface, and that’s the ability to close apps from the task switcher. A red circle with a white “X’ appears in the top right corner of each layer thumbnail, on which you can press to close the individual app instantly. This is rather convenient and an improvement that stock Android 3.1 Honeycomb should consider.

Less favorable is the Lenovo Launcher, which appears on the home screen as four squares that can be customized to show the functions you use most. To the left of the squares is a button for customization and to the right is the Android settings button. This feature seems rather unnecessary, unattractive, and a bit redundant given that an App Wheel feature is also offered.

The App Wheel button sits at the center of the bottom menu bar. When pressed, the App Wheel appears on the right side of the screen, where thumbnails of your favorite apps can be rotated through. The selection of apps in the App Wheel is fully customizable and is not representative of your most recent or most used apps.

Lenovo also offers its own App Shop that takes the uncertainty out of shopping on the Android Market by vetting apps for validity, usefulness, and to avoid apps that contain malware or viruses.

Furthermore, the IdeaPad K1 supports Flash content right out of the box and is preloaded with over 30 apps. These include both free apps as well as those that would normally cost you to purchase, such as Documents To Go, which sells for $14.99. Among the preloaded apps is Netflix. Lenovo proudly asserts to be the first to offer the app preloaded on a tablet coupled with hardware-enabled DRM for streaming Netflix movies, TV shows and more anywhere, anytime.

The video quality was excellent and the two stereo speakers worked well and surprisingly better than those on the Toshiba Thrive, which were too quiet. Despite being situated on the back-side, the speakers are angled such that they are never covered up completely no matter what angle the tablet is held.

Now for performance figures, we used the synthetic benchmarking tools Quadrant Pro, Vellamo, and Smartbench 2011. In both the Vellamo and Smartbench 2011 benchmarks, the IdeaPad K1 scored behind the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Battery

The IdeaPad K1 has a 2-cell battery rated for up to 10 hours of standard use. After intermittent use of the tablet with 100% screen brightness while surfing the web over WiFi and watching YouTube videos, we were able to get around 8 hours. This is a bit better than the Toshiba Thrive, which pulled in about 6 hours. The IdeaPad K1 does take awhile to charge back up, so keep the charging cable handy. And, definitely make sure not to lose the cable, since the proprietary pin connector port makes it more difficult to replace.

Wrap-Up

The Lenovo IdeaPad K1 offers some unique features at a $499 price tag for a 32GB tablet that, for some, could make it worth the minor trade-offs. Plus, it does sport competitive specs that yield good performance and excellent battery life.

It may not be as productivity-oriented as the Toshiba Thrive with all its ports, but it also doesn’t carry the undesirable bulk. However, starved of ports, it’s still not quite as thin and light as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 or the iPad 2. And if having 32GB onboard storage is of no concern, then a cheaper alternative could be the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer.

For you to ultimately choose the Lenovo IdeaPad K1, it will be because you desire the storage capacity at the lower price, you don’t mind not having a USB port or difficult access to the microSD card slot, and you like the custom interface features.

Hardware

When most tablets are feeling the pressure to be thin and light, the Toshiba Thrive balks at the trend, choosing individuality instead with a weight of 1.66 pounds. Although this surpasses the Motorola XOOM and the HP TouchPad by just 0.06 pounds, it does put the Thrive at top of the heavyweight list. To make matters worse is the bulk. The Thrive measures 0.62 inches thick, almost double that of the Apple iPad 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. However, on second thought, this thickness plus the textured rubbery backing do make it more comfortable to grip compared to even a slightly lighter tablet with a much slimmer profile.

The Thrive has a 10.1-inch display with a 1280 x 800 resolution and a 16:10 aspect ratio. This makes it just a tad narrower than the iPad 2 and a bit longer. Display quality is excellent with wide viewing angles as you’d expect from an IPS panel. In landscape orientation, the widescreen works nicely for viewing movies but makes it a bit unwieldy when attempting to hold in one hand and navigate the interface with the other. But more often than not, it’ll be spending time on your lap, on the table, or on a stand, unless you’re intentionally trying to give your hands and wrists a good workout.

Inside, the Thrive has a 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and three options for onboard flash memory: 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB. This brings us to one of the Thrive’s strengths, which is the full-sized SD card slot that supports SD, SDHC, and SDXC, meaning storage is expandable by up to 128GB. That’s especially convenient if you already own several SD cards used for your digital cameras. Transferring photos on a vacation would mean simply plugging in your SD card to the Thrive eliminating the need for a card reader or to haul your laptop.

The Thrive sports camera specs similar to the Motorola XOOM with a 2-megapixel front-facing camera and a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera capable of 720p HD video capture. However, unlike the Motorola XOOM, the Thrive lacks the dual-LED flash, or any flash for that matter, rendering its cameras useless in low light conditions.

Some annoyances with the Thrive besides the bulk are the three LED indicator lights on the front for power, battery level, and Wi-Fi connection. They are rather unnecessary and distracting. Sound quality is average, slightly tinny, and on the quiet side despite the stereo speakers—not deserving its own paragraph of praise that’s for sure. The power button and volume rocker are a bit hard to press, although this helps prevent accidental impressions.

Below is the unboxing and hands-on video posted previously.

Connectivity and Battery

The Thrive’s connectivity and battery is where it really shines. Like no other tablet, it throws in a full-sized HDMI-out and a full-sized USB 2.0 port in addition to the common mini-USB port. The full-sized USB port gives the Thrive an almost laptop-like functionality allowing you to attach hard drives, flash drives, keyboards, and other accessories you normally wouldn’t be able to on a tablet. It also has the standard support for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

The swappable battery is another standout feature that allows you to replace the battery yourself if needed or to keep an extra in tow. You can purchase an additional 2030mAh battery from Toshiba for $80. It’s rated for up to 11 hours, although our usage alotted us about 6 hours.

The Thrive can also run without the battery when it’s plugged in. Its power cable, however, is reminiscent of a laptop cable complete with a power brick that will surely be a pain to travel with and is quite the opposite from the lightweight charging cables we’re used to seeing with other tablets.

To get to the battery, you will have to remove the back cover, which is a bit tricky. On the top edge of the tablet there is a locking switch for the cover. Once unlocked, the best way to pry it free is to dig your nails into the two speaker slots, using your thumbs and forefingers to separate.

The removable back cover can also be swapped for 5 other color options, including Silvery Sky, Blue Moon, Raspberry Fusion, Lavender Bliss, and Green Apple. They retail for $20 each.

Software & Performance

The Thrive gets extra points for having stock Android 3.1 Honeycomb without any customized Toshiba interface running on top. This not only means unhindered Android performance, but also faster updates in the future. You can check out our Android 3.1 Honeycomb review to learn more about what you can expect from this version of the platform.

We ran the Vellamo Mobile Web Benchmark, which tests browser performance and stability in the areas of JavaScript, rendering, networking, and user experience using pixel manipulation, blending, page download, reload, cache performance, WebKit, SunSpider, and the V8 benchmarking kit from Google. For user interface and experience, it uses multiple scrolling tests and sample web pages. The Thrive scored a 968, putting it just ahead of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 also running Android 3.1 Honeycomb. In particular, the Thrive performed better in the areas of rendering and networking.

We also did an additional Quadrant benchmark for good measure, although the lack of a tablet in the comparison results isn’t quite as informative. Perhaps more useful is the SmartBench results below that also include the stats for other Android 3.1 Honeycomb tablets such as the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

The Thrive does come with some custom Toshiba apps including a Toshiba File Manager, which is an intuitive and convenient Windows-style file management system that lets you see and access all your files in one location. You can easily switch between viewing files on the Thrive from those on the inserted SD card or those on an attached USB device. Moving single or multiple files from one storage location to another is also very simple. Below is a quick demo.

Wrap-Up

If you’re considering the Toshiba Thrive, you must really desire some full-sized HDMI and USB ports along with a full-sized SD card slot and a swappable battery on a tablet form factor because that’s what sets this slate apart and makes up for the extra bulkiness. Another reason you may be interested in the Thrive is that you can get an Android 3.1 Honeycomb tablet with premium specs at a very competitive price. The 8GB model retails for $429.99, the 16GB model for $479.99, and the 32GB model for $579.99.

Its obvious weakness is the bulk but its design choices don’t help either. Chrome accents around the camera are a bit tacky and the LED status indicators were better left behind for its laptop cousins. The back cover design is sort of neat with a rubbery feel, interchangeable colors, and a groovy pattern. But at the same time, it makes the tablet feel plasticky.

Futhermore, it seems as though the Toshiba Thrive is, in its own strange way, attempting to straddle the line between a laptop and a tablet. But is it the best or worst of both worlds?

It delivers the connectivity options and battery replaceability of a laptop, but also the undesirable chunkiness and brick-style power cable. Productivity-wise, it’s still not nearly as functional as a small laptop if you seriously plan on getting some work done. Laptops are also less awkward to use with screens held up by hinges, creating less strain and fatigue on your hands and wrists. But then if the Thrive is used as just a tablet for media consumption, it’s too unwieldy and unnecessarily bloated.

Either way, the Thrive is a unique option when it comes to your tablet purchase and will have a warm place for some of you out there. It reminds us of what’s nice about the Android platform, and that’s options. You can have the sexy runway Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 starved of ports or the homely Toshiba Thrive ready to support more of your needs.

[device id=567]

Hardware

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 has had a complicated inception. Samsung first outed the slate at Mobile World Congress in February, running NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 dual-core processor with a 10.2-inch 1280 x 800 display, 8-megapixel rear camera and 10.9mm thick chassis. At the time Samsung was talking about a March release, which has obviously since slipped; that’s because, in the meantime, Apple announced its iPad 2.

The second-gen Apple tablet was significantly thinner than its predecessor, at 8.8mm, and sent Samsung scurrying back into its labs to rework their rival to better compete. The end result – along with its smaller Galaxy Tab 8.9 sibling – arrived at CTIA 2011 in March, a waifish 8.6mm that bested the iPad 2′s bulk by a scant 0.2mm. In the process it lost some megapixels, taking the camera down to 3-megapixels though still with autofocus and flash. The original tablet was rebadged the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1V, a Vodafone Europe exclusive.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 Limited Edition still keeps the 1GHz dual-core processor, a choice of 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of internal storage, WiFi a/b/g/n (dual-band), Bluetooth 2.1 and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. Initially there will be WiFi-only models, with 3G versions arriving later in the year. It also has the excellent display of its siblings, with bright colors, strong contrast and great viewing angles.

Unlike the aluminum iPad 2, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 uses all plastic in its construction. The regular model will be dark grey, unlike the white of the Limited Edition, though both measure in at 256.6 x 172.9 x 8.6 mm and 595g. That makes it slightly longer and slightly narrower than the Apple slate, as well as 5g lighter. More importantly, perhaps, it’s thinner and lighter than the XOOM (13mm/730g), G-Slate (12.8mm/630g) and Eee Pad Transformer (13mm/680g). Despite the plastic build it’s reasonably solid and flex-free, and the Gorilla Glass front leaves us fairly confident it could survive being tossed into a bag without a case to coddle it.

Ports include a dock connector on the bottom edge – which will support 1080p HD with the right adapter, unfortunately absent – along with a 3.5mm headphone jack, though no dedicated HDMI or even USB. That leaves owners relying on whatever adapters Samsung offers for hooking up a wired keyboard and mouse, or using Bluetooth peripherals. Stereo speakers are on either side, rather than on the bottom edge as in the 10.1V. Physical controls are limited to power/lock and the volume rocker on the top edge. A microphone is on the bottom.

Software

We’ve already thoroughly reviewed Android Honeycomb, Google’s tablet-centric OS, finding it a platform with plenty of promise though its fair share of rough edges. What sets this special edition Galaxy Tab 10.1 aside is that it comes without Samsung’s TouchWiz UI adaptations. The eventual commercial release in June will see the Honeycomb interface tweaked with various widgets and other components.

That given, we’ll have to wait until retail units are available to find out exactly how well Samsung’s customizations play out. From what we’ve seen already on various Galaxy Tab prototypes, it looks to strike a solid balance between usability enhancement and still leaving Honeycomb roughly intact. There are Live Panels, with weather, calendar and other content, a Mini Apps Tray for quick launching favorite apps, and the Social Hub app – pulling in Twitter, Facebook and other social networking content – familiar from the Samsung Galaxy S II. Finally there are the Reader, Media and Music Hubs, Samsung’s download stores for digital content.

We’ll revisit how well Samsung’s custom software works when the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is officially released.

Performance and Battery

With the same processor as the other Honeycomb tablets we’ve reviewed, it comes as no surprise to find the Galaxy Tab 10.1′s performance broadly in line. That means generally snappy reactions, though some periodic lag or hiccups that may well be Honeycomb in need of finessing. Benchmarking tool Quadrant came in with a total of 2107 with a CPU result of 6367.

With no USB ports, you’re stuck using the supplied Samsung cable to hook up the Galaxy Tab to your computer. We had issues getting it to play nicely with OS X, with the Tab getting stuck in Kies – Samsung’s management app – mode and, while claiming to be connected, not showing up on our Mac. That put a limit on what we could side-load, and left us envious of the USB host support ASUS and others provide.

The 3-megapixel camera has autofocus and an LED flash, while the front-facing webcam musters 2-megapixels.

Neither is going to replace your point-and-shoot, or even your regular smartphone camera. Images from the main camera tend to be low on detail and high on noise in all but the best lighting, sufficient for Facebook but not exactly keepsake-quality.

Video, meanwhile, is reasonable, pumping out 1280 x 720 clips that are relatively blur-free and show none of the gruesome dropped frames the Eee Pad Transformer. Samsung has tweaked the camera interface on its regular Tab 10.1, but you get the UI as Google intended it on this Limited Edition version.

Battery life is, again, much the same as on offer from the XOOM, G-Slate and other Tegra 2 tablets. That means sufficient for a day of heavy use, or several days of mixed standby and browsing, media playback and general app use.

Pricing and Value

Samsung’s first Galaxy Tab suffered when it came to price comparisons with the first-gen iPad. Cautious and conservative carrier subsidies in North America left the 7-inch tablet looking unfavorably expensive, especially with its voice call capabilities excised.

It hasn’t let the same mistakes happen again. So far we’ve only seen pricing for the WiFi-only Tab 10.1, but Samsung has sensibly hit the same price-points as Apple. The 16GB Galaxy Tab 10.1 will come in at $499 while the 32GB model will be $599; Samsung hasn’t confirmed the 64GB, but we’re guessing at $699.

Of course, since Samsung confirmed those figures, ASUS has launched the Eee Pad Transformer. A surprise bargain at $399 for the 16GB model (factor in another $149 for its clever Keyboard Dock with the integrated battery) and so popular ASUS is struggling to keep it in stock, it undercuts both Galaxy Tab 10.1 and iPad 2 by a cool Benjamin, despite offering a beautiful 10.1-inch IPS display.

Samsung’s slate is obviously thinner and lighter than the Eee Pad, but battery life is broadly similar (from the tablets alone, at least) and there’s more connectivity on the ASUS too. While the Transformer’s camera is, on paper, better than that of the Galaxy Tab, in practice it pumps out glitchy video and underwhelming stills, and so Samsung keeps the advantage there.

If Samsung can negotiate competitive subsidies for the 3G versions then it could gain back an edge, and we can’t help but feel it’s a more polished all-rounder than the Transformer slate alone. Nonetheless, $399 is hard to argue with.

Wrap-Up

With Honeycomb the common factor across the 10-inch Android tablets we’ve seen so far, differentiating between the slates comes down to more personal preferences. Weight, shape, thickness and material all play a huge part in how you feel about a tablet, something intended to be grabbed for a quick email check, curled up with on the sofa for an idle browsing session, or dropped into a bag for use on the move. It’s no surprise that Apple spent so much time at the iPad 2 launch detailing the physical changes of the second-gen tablet: this is a segment where tactile attraction goes a long way to help justify what’s usually an emotional rather than rational purchase.

On that front, the fact that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is such a slight slate earns it a disproportionate amount of our approval. Yes, it lacks the ease of wired connectivity other Honeycomb tablets offer, and it doesn’t have a clever battery-equipped Keyboard Dock like the ASUS, but the vast majority of the time it’s bulk – or lack of – that makes the difference. Samsung has made a tablet that feels like a tablet should: science-fiction thin, quality display and lightweight.

The somewhat plasticky chassis reminds us of Samsung’s recent smartphones, though is the inevitable compromise to the sub-600g weight, and Android still has its tablet-scale flaws, but overall it’s the hand-feel, which convinces us on the Galaxy Tab 10.1. In fact the biggest competition on that front may be Samsung’s own Galaxy Tab 8.9, offering the same screen resolution in a more compact form factor, which arrives later in the year. Feature-chasers should probably opt for the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, but content-consumers looking for the most easily toted tablet will find plenty to like in the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Our “crazy” Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 unboxing ceremony:

Exclusive unboxing ceromony by Vic Gundotra, Google’s Sr. VP of Engineering:

Relate: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 hands-on at MWC2011 [Video]

Hardware

With its plastic chassis and brown color scheme, the Eee Pad Transformer is always going to struggle against the brushed metal and wafer-thin build of the iPad 2. At 271 x 171 x 12.98 mm and 680g, ASUS has produced a bigger slate than the Motorola XOOM and iPad 2, with a similar bowed-back profile to the original iPad. The textured plastic is at least reasonably flex-free and easy to grip.

The 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 capacitive touchscreen supports 10-finger multitouch and is covered with a slab of toughened Gorilla Glass. Underneath is a 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls, along with a light sensor for controlling display brightness. That display is a superb IPS panel with brilliant viewing angles (ASUS says 178-degrees), color accuracy and brightness, on a par with what you’d find on the iPad. Unfortunately it loses its appeal when in direct sunlight: IPS LCD has its benefits, but unlike Samsung’s Super AMOLED Plus, for instance, you won’t be doing much tableteering outdoors.

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer:

Controls are minimal – a small power/lock button on the edge, above a volume rocker – though you do get more ports than on an iPad: a 3.5mm headset socket, microSD slot, mini HDMI 1.3a and a proprietary docking connector. The latter is used either for directly charging the Transformer with the bundled AC adapter and USB cable, or for hooking up the docking keyboard section.

That clicks securely into place with a reassuringly tactile feel, and offers a power connector (which charges both the Transformer and the keyboard dock’s own battery), two USB 2.0 ports and a MMC/SD/SDHC memory card reader. We’ll cover the keyboard dock in greater detail later in the review.

Inside is the same NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor as you’ll find in Motorola’s XOOM, paired with 1GB of memory and either 16GB or 32GB of SSD storage depending on model. Connectivity includes WiFI b/g/n (2.4GHz only) and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR as standard, while there’s the regular gamut of GPS, digital compass, gyroscope and g-sensor. The stereo speakers lurk down near the bottom of the sides, and are relatively quiet; there’s also a built-in microphone. Finally, a 5-megapixel rear camera promises stills and 720p HD video recording.

Software

We’ve already covered Android 3.0 Honeycomb in our full review, so the day to day experience on the Eee Pad Transformer is much as we’ve seen on the XOOM. ASUS has added some custom apps and made some other tweaks, though nothing that will earn them Google’s ire for unduly changing Honeycomb.

Some of them are minor, like the cool water-level Live Wallpaper which shows battery status (and device orientation) by a shifting tide up the screen, and others are more complex. The ASUS Launcher consists of three new homescreen widgets: a date/weather widget that blends forecast animation into the wallpaper, a simple date/time widget, and a mail widget with a count of new emails and which acts as a shortcut into the mail app itself. Honeycomb’s default keyboard can be swapped for a ‘board of ASUS’ own, with a dedicated number row.

Then there’s ASUS’ File Manager app, which works alongside the USB 2.0 ports on the Keyboard Dock, and which – unlike the similar apps from some other OEMs – had no problems opening an Android .apk file. MyCloud is a gateway to ASUS’ Webstorage – a year’s access to which is included in the tablet’s purchase price – as well as, via its free Eee Pad PC Suite, remote desktop access for your PC or Mac. There’s also internet radio streaming, direct to the Transformer, along with the DLNA streaming and sharing app MyNet. Finally, Polaris Office opens the door to document – text, spreadsheet and presentation – editing and creation on the ASUS itself.

Performance is solid, though admittedly lacks some of the consistency we’ve grown use to from Apple’s iPad 2. There’s no one specific task or activity we can point to, nor an app we can pinpoint for an underwhelming showing; instead, it’s a case of some bumpy screen and app transitions, hiccups in touch responsiveness, a little more lag at times than we’d like to see. They’re enough to remind us that Honeycomb is still a relatively fledgling tablet platform, though an ASUS firmware update we were prompted to install when first powering on the slate does show that software tweaks are coming all the time.

In terms of raw benchmarks, the Eee Pad Transformer scored 1927 in Quadrant Standard and 2138 in Quadrant Advanced. In Linpack Pro it managed 42.233 MFLOPS, while in the Sunspider test of browser JavaScript performance, it managed 1888.3ms (lower is better). Finally, in Smartbench 2011 it scored 3512.

That all puts it roughly on a par with the Acer Iconia Tab A500 and XOOM, as you’d expect given the similar specifications and software. Also carried over from those slates is a general shortage of tablet-specific apps in the Android Market. Honeycomb does a decent job of scaling smartphone apps to suit the bigger, higher-resolution screen on the Transformer, though there’s undoubtedly more to good tablet software than being bigger smartphone software.

Android 3.0 still lags behind the iPad in terms of sheer number of titles, and some incompatibility issues with software intended for phones did put a dampener on the over Eee Pad experience. Qik Video Chat, for instance, crashed every time we loaded it. It can be trial and error as to what will run and what won’t, sometimes complicated on the Transformer by the fact that some apps will only run in portrait orientation, tricky when you’re trying to use the tablet in landscape with the Keyboard Dock.

Camera and Multimedia

ASUS has outfitted the Eee Pad Transformer with two cameras, a 1.3-megapixel webcam on the front for vanity shots and use in Gtalk video calls, and a 5-megapixel camera on the back for stills and up to 720p HD video recording. Stability of the camera app could do with some work, however; on a couple of occasions it would freeze, with the preview no longer functioning, though generally either flipping between the front/rear cameras or, as a last resort, restarting the app would address that.

Stills are only average, with more soft edges than we’re used to from 5-megapixel phones, though colors are generally accurate. Close-ups fair better, though since there’s no LED flash low-light shots are generally too murky to be useful. Coupled with the slightly bizarre feeling of holding up a 10-inch tablet to take a shot, we can’t see the Transformer’s camera getting significant use.

Video, meanwhile, seems to be giving ASUS some significant headaches. Viewed on the Transformer itself, clips are generally fine, though there are a few dropped frames leading to some mild jerkiness. YouTube, as in the sample below, handles them roughly the same, but when we tried to watch the .3GP clips on our computer, there was bizarre blockiness, all manner of glitches, and gobbled audio. We’re not quite sure what’s happening, but it does mean that you could send a clip to a friend and them find it simply unwatchable.

Keyboard Dock

ASUS’ Keyboard Dock is undoubtedly what makes the Eee Pad Transformer so interesting, a matching peripheral designed to turn the TF101 into an Android netbook/smartbook. It’s not, however, solely about text entry: there’s also an integrated battery, with which ASUS reckons the Transformer will last an extra 6.5hrs.

If you’ve used a recent ASUS netbook then you’ll probably feel no surprise with the Transformer’s keyboard. An optional extra – which we think is a mistake on ASUS’ part – it has a full QWERTY layout and a trackpad with multitouch gesture support for two-finger scrolling, as well as the aforementioned twin USB 2.0 ports, SD card reader and pass-through charger/sync port. We had no problems getting the Transformer to recognize various USB thumb drives, with a USB icon showing in the bottom right hand corner notification area – tapping that opened either the file manager app or unmounted the drive for removal. Similarly a USB mouse worked with no issues.

Where usually there’d be a function key row, ASUS has slotted in a range of shortcuts and other useful buttons. From left to right there’s back, WiFi, Bluetooth, trackpad on/off, brightness up/down, auto brightness, screenshot, browser, settings, three music controls (for back, play/pause and forward), mute, volume up/down and lock. There are also dedicated home and search keys down to the left of the spacebar, and a menu key on the right. We’re pleased to see a double-size Enter key, on this UK layout at least, though the undersized Shift buttons are disappointing.

Key action is decent, with a nice degree of bounce from the springing and a surprising amount of travel. It’s not quite a 100-percent full-size layout, though, so if you’re planning on any significant amount of text entry then you might be better off with a regular USB or Bluetooth keyboard. Still, in comparison to the on-screen keyboard, it’s far preferable. Virtual keyboards are fine for pecking out URLs and search terms – though Honeycomb’s voice recognition system is good enough to replace it in the latter case – but there’s nothing like a physical ‘board for anything more ambitious.

One frustration is in how copy & paste is handled in ASUS’ pre-loaded Polaris Office. Everywhere else in Honeycomb you can hold down the Shift key and use the arrows to highlight text, then Ctrl+C to copy and Ctrl+V to paste. In Polaris, however, you have to tap the screen to select: the shift/arrows won’t highlight.

Docking the keyboard is a simple matter of slotting it into place, while releasing it involves sliding a small latch across and pulling: it’s a snug fit, but not to the point where extracting the Transformer is a headache. The hinge itself is firm and, by virtue of its shape, props the keyboard up at a comfortable typing angle when it’s opened. If you haven’t set a screen lock password then opening the keyboard up automatically takes you to the homescreen.

Battery

On its own, the Eee Pad Transformer is rated for up to 9.5hrs of runtime on a single charge of its 24.4Wh Li-Polymer battery, playing 720p HD video with brightness at 60 nits. Throw in the Keyboard Dock and ASUS reckon you’ll see up to 16hrs. In practice, it’s obviously very dependent on what you’re doing with the slate. With a combination of playing streamed video over WiFi, web browsing, some photography and push-email turned on, we managed between 6.5 and 9 hours with the slate alone. With the keyboard attached, that extended by 6-7hrs.

Standby times did seem less impressive than on the iPad, however. Where we can leave the Apple slate for over a week and still have juice left to play, after a few days the Transformer had expired. True, it was checking email over WiFi along the way, but the iPad seems to be able to manage that and still keep hold of a charge.

Price and Value

If it’s the Keyboard Dock that makes the Eee Pad Transformer eye-catching, then it’s the tablet’s price that holds our attention. For the 16GB TF101 slate alone it’s $399 in the US or £379 in the UK; the 32GB model is $499 or £429 respectively. The Keyboard Dock is a $149 accessory in the US, or offered with the 16GB slate in the UK for £50 more. What’s absent at this stage is a 3G-enabled version, which ASUS says will follow on in a couple of months time.

When you consider the WiFi-only Motorola XOOM (with 32GB of storage) is $589.99, that’s some very competitive pricing from ASUS. It’s a similar story in the UK, with the WiFi XOOM there priced at £479.99. Admittedly the Keyboard Dock adds on top of that, but given the extra battery life it brings (and the fact it protects the Transformer’s display when closed) we can see most Eee Pad buyers opting to pick it up as well.

Wrap-Up

Android 3.0 is a still a young platform, and Google still has work to do to bring it up to speed with iOS on the iPad. That’s the unescapable fact about all Honeycomb-based tablets around today; similarly important, though, is that all evidence suggests that Google is determined to do just that. The Android Market may lack tablet-specific bulk but that should change as availability of slates running Android 3.0 grows.

Whether it’s manufacturers or Google itself pushing for minimal OS modification, the end result has been a little more imagination in other areas of the tablet experience. On the Transformer, that’s some sensible software pre-loads – as opposed to the usual bloatware – and a form-factor that legitimately turns the Eee Pad into a netbook alternative. No, the tablet won’t do everything a Windows-based notebook can, but for many it will be just enough to tip the Transformer over from being a media- and internet-centric luxury to something they can legitimize as a work and play travel companion. Being able to remotely log into our home computer and access files there, as well as not only review but create and edit documents on the ASUS left us feeling a whole lot more confident about leaving our laptop at home.

There’s still room for improvement, of course. Google will take care of polishing Honeycomb’s rough edges, but ASUS needs to work on its camera stability and performance, and make sure the apps it preloads are consistent with the hardware. Still, we’re more willing to excuse the lapses given the Transformer’s sticker price, competitive not just with other Android tablets but with the iPad 2.

It’s what ASUS brings extra to the table that makes the Eee Pad Transformer the best Android tablet on the market right now. Its excellent IPS display – albeit only really suitable for indoor use – and clever Keyboard Dock outshine the XOOM and Iconia Tab A500, while its content-creation strengths are arguably far more useful than the 3D on T-Mobile’s G-Slate.

Whether Samsung’s slimline form-factors and custom software on the incoming Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Tab 8.9 will outweigh the Eee Pad’s keyboard (and the extra runtime the battery in that allows), or whether the HTC Flyer’s active stylus will be preferable, remains to be seen. The Android tablet market is only set to become more competitive as 2011 progresses, but right now ASUS has come closest to the promise of an affordable, innovative slate using the Google OS.

Hardware

This tablet joins the still small ranks of approximately 10-inch tablets, this one measuring in at 10.1-inches in the face surrounded by a 10.24 x 6.97 x 0.52-inch (260 x 177 x 13.3-mm,) 25.75-oz (730-g) heavy (display included) body. From there you’ll want to notice that the entire back section is made of a thin, light aluminum while either side of the device is made of plastic. There’s a removable cover at the top (or the side, however you’d like to look at it,) that reveals your SDcard slot and future functional slot for LTE SIM card. You can jam up to 64GB of memory on an SDcard in that first slot, while the SIM card slot remains inactive for now.

The form of this device, you’ll come to notice quite quickly, is what sets it aside from the rest of the tablet pack. It also has a lovely Dolby speaker system that’ll blast your eardrums out – except, like all tablets STILL do for some inane reason, the speakers blast outwards from the back of the device. That’s not to say though that you cannot hear their awesomeness, because you definitely can. The TRON test was performed upon this test and it passed with flying colors.

Software

This tablet runs Android 3.0 Honeycomb, a system which, if you’re unaware of, you can learn all about back in our gigantic Honeycomb Guide (SlashGear 101), or see our Honeycomb Review. Besides all the regular bells and whistles you’ll always find in your Google-approved Honeycomb layout, you’ll find a few extra games and demos that’ll whet your appetite for more NVIDIA collaborated-upon high-powered games and fabulous applications.

Other than that, there’s a slightly unique organization app that’ll help you keep track of your apps if you wish, this system taking advantage of Honeycomb’s lovely ability to add a different wallpaper to each panel. There’s an app that goes by the name of Clear.fi that Acer has out, one that’ll let you wirelessly connect to and from other devices in your home network so that you might share your media. It’s an excellent concept and one that’ll be gaining some steam very soon I would educatedly guess. THEN it’s basically nothing but Honeycomb and no obstacles between you and benchmark topping glory. See the performance section for more info.

Camera

This device comes with a front-facing 2-megapixel camera for video, photo, and video chat, and a back-facing 5-megapixel camera for video and photos. As always, I’ll mostly let the media do the talking:

The 2-megapixel front-facing cam is about as good as you’re going to get on any tablet these days, while the back-facing camera definitely could be better. Both the G-Slate and the XOOM tablet have 8-megapixel cameras, while the iPad 2 camera is still up to debate if you ask me, but definitely isn’t better than a 6 (in my best guess, that is.) Definitely an alright camera on both sides, but not perfect.

Performance

Our sister site Android Community has a review with several benchmarks on this device, but we’ll leave those sorts of numbers to them. What you’ll need to know from the SlashGear perspective is that it’s no better and no worse than the rest of the current NVIDIA Tegra 2 suite of devices. A couple of examples: Motorola XOOM and T-Mobile’s LG G-Slate.

If you’re unused to using all of these tablets on a regular basis, you’d be hard pressed to know the difference between the operating systems. They’re all the same and they’re all running NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 dual-core processor. The difference is in the attached apps that, each of them in turn, tell you what the manufacturers and carriers want you to experience. Performancewise, if you’re not going to be testing exact numbers via benchmarking systems, this tablet is the same as the XOOM. If you’re comparing to the iPad 2, to be honest, I’ve experienced more bugs in the Apple tablet due to imperfect tablet interfaces (I’m looking at you, Netflix.)

Battery

The battery on this beast is magnificent. If you plan on doing a full day’s work on this device alone and that means a medium workload, you’ll be set for a full workday. If you want to use it heavily, meaning you’re going to be recording and playing video for example, you’re looking at more like 8 hours. On an average day, give this tablet 24 hours before it runs out of juice.

Wrap-Up

This is a tablet that you’re going to decide on purchasing based on your love for the brand Acer, your love for the unique light aluminum back end, or your dislike of the rest of the Android tablets on the market. If I only owned this tablet and an iPad 2, would I use this tablet more often than the iPad? Personally, yes, but that’s because I’m hardcore Android Community and I’ve gotta represent. Might someone else use the iPad 2 more? Probably. Apple has a much more massive hold over the world’s perception of what a tablet should be, and if people would have to choose on the spot, they’d listen to the one that they know other people will love them for.

But if a consumer had both an Acer A500 and an iPad 2 (or heck a, iPad 1,) and wanted to avoid appearing to have the same technology as everyone else, what then? Acer’s made a tablet that looks like none other, and it’s got a nice sound system on it, and it’s mostly metal, and it’s light. And it feels nice to hold, and there’s a USB port in it. And the SDcard port works. What other reason do you need?

Hardware

LG hasn’t strayed too far from Motorola’s example when it comes to the G-Slate’s core specifications. At its heart is NVIDIA’s 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor, paired with 32GB of integrated storage. The 8.9-inch display runs at 1280 x 800, making it more pixel-dense than the XOOM, though it lacks the pop and super-broad viewing angles of an IPS display as on the iPad 2. There’s WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS and HSPA+ 4G connectivity built in. Unlike the XOOM, the Verizon version of which only supports 3G at present, the G-Slate offers 4G support out of the box, though whether that adds up to high speed browsing depends on T-Mobile’s coverage.

At 9.6 x 5.88 x 0.5 inches and 22 oz. the G-Slate is narrower, lighter and a little shorter than the XOOM, though no thinner (the Motorola is 9.8 x 6.6 x 0.5 inches and 28.5 oz.). It’s possible to hold it with one hand, but the widescreen-aspect display makes for a long, narrow tablet that soon gets tiring, especially if – as much of Honeycomb is intended for – you hold it in landscape orientation. Build construction is solid if a little uninspiring: sturdy plastic rather than the aluminum of the iPad 2.

On the front is a 2-megapixel camera for video calls, while a dual 5-megapixel camera array on the back – with a single LED flash – supports 3D photography and video capture. In-between the two lenses there’s a flip-out metal kickstand, useful for propping the tablet up for video playback (though generally not at the right angle for standalone 3D recording). We often found ourselves smudging the rear lenses when holding the G-Slate in portrait orientation. Ports include microUSB and HDMI on the bottom edge, as well as contact points for the optional docking station, and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the left edge. Volume controls and a power/standby button are the only physical keys to be found.

Software

The screen may be a little smaller than that of the XOOM, but the Honeycomb is shows is just the same. As with Motorola, LG has left the Android 3.0 experience untouched, so you get the usual 3D-effect homescreen, tablet-scale email and calendar apps, tabbed browsing and more. We’ve reviewed Android 3.0 Honeycomb in full here.

T-Mobile installs a handful of apps itself, however, including a copy of Need for Speed Shift HD. The EA game uses the G-Slate’s accelerometer and gyroscope for control, and works much as we’ve seen before on the XOOM. There’s also T-Mobile TV, for on-demand news, sports, TV episodes and kids’ content; that offers a 30 day trial of the “premium” package, with the free offering being limited to some basic news and sports, and some shows for your children. Unfortunately, despite being perhaps the most obvious use for the G-Slate’s HDMI output, T-Mobile TV is the one app that can’t be mirrored in that way.

Finally, there’s Zinio Reader, for digital magazines, and a shortcut to Flash Player 10.2. Adobe’s software doesn’t actually come preloaded, instead there’s a link on the homescreen that takes you to Flash Player 10.2 in the Android Market.

The range of Honeycomb-specific apps in the Android Market is still relatively minimal, especially compared to what’s on offer for the iPad. We’re expecting to see a push by Google for Honeycomb development at Google I/O, but for now much of the software is intended for smartphone-scale devices and scales accordingly.

Motorola XOOM giveaway

Performance

With the same underlying processor, the G-Slate’s performance is pretty much on a par with what we saw from the Motorola XOOM. That basically means a reasonably swift tablet experience with a few frustrating lag-points. The G-Slate lacks the silky page transitions and animations of the iPad 2, but is still capable of admirable speed nonetheless. Need For Speed Shift HD is a good example of what NVIDIA’s chip is capable of, and plugged in via HDMI to a big-screen TV it’s a great gaming experience.

Camera and 3D

Like the LG Optimus 3D, the G-Slate taps into the current buzz around 3D with out-of-the-box support for three-dimensional graphics. Unlike its smartphone sibling, however, it’s not quite as slick an experience. The LG tablet has a twin camera array on the back, capable of shooting 3D stills and video, but lacks the glasses-free 3D display of the phone; instead you get a pair of anaglyph 3D glasses – the red/cyan sort – and a special playback mode.

In fact, the G-Slate supports two different 3D playback systems: used alone or with a regular TV, it’s anaglyph only, but with a proper 3D TV you can switch to side-by-side mode. That allows you to use the special 3D glasses that came with your 3D TV to enjoy the content, without the color effects of the red/cyan specs. You can find out more about the different types of 3D in our SlashGear 101 feature on the technology.

Still photos are solid if nothing to write home about, benefiting from as much natural light as you can give them. Indoors, the single LED flash is underwhelming, and there’s plenty of noise in low-light conditions. Video can be shot in 2D or 3D, though only at up to 720p HD resolution, and works well, though there’s some tearing with faster movements. Viewed in anaglyph mode, it feels gimmicky, the color balance affected by the red/cyan glasses. “Proper” side-by-side 3D is more successful: we plugged the G-Slate into a Samsung 3D HDTV, and the results proved surprisingly good considering it was a tablet camera. Nonetheless, we’re not convinced that 3D filming is something that most people will do more than try a few times and then ignore.

T-Mobile G-Slate 2D recording samples

Battery and Accessories

Despite being smaller than the XOOM, the G-Slate’s battery is almost as large: 6400 mAh versus 6500 mAh. That adds up to a solid day’s use or, as is probably more likely for most G-Slate owners, a few days casual use between recharges. We managed 9-10 hours on a full battery, a little shorter than what the iPad 2 offers but still a good showing.

T-Mobile’s retail package is relatively minimal, with an AC adapter, USB cable and a single pair of 3D glasses in the box. Pricing for the docking cradle – which has an HDMI port, USB and power – is yet to be confirmed.

Pricing and Value

T-Mobile is offering the G-Slate both with and without a two-year agreement: if you don’t mind a data plan, you can get the 8.9-inch slate for $529.99, while the off-contract price is $749.99. Three postpaid monthly plans are available, ranging from $29.99 for 200MB, $49.99 for 5GB or $84.99 for 10GB. If you’re already a T-Mobile voice or mobile broadband customer then those plans drop to $23.99, $39.99 and $67.99 respectively.

Each plan includes WiFi sharing for up to five devices at no extra cost, along with unlimited T-Mobile WiFi Hotspot use. On the 200MB plan, overage is charged at $0.10 per MB; on the 5GB and 10GB plans, there are no overage fees but T-Mobile will throttle data speeds and throughput should you exceed your allowance. Alternatively, there are three prepaid mobile broadband plans, either $10 for a 100MB week pass, $30 for a 300MB month pass, or $50 for a 1GB month pass.

The obvious point of comparison is the iPad 2, the 32GB WiFi + 3G version of which goes for $729. That’s $21 less than the off-contract G-Slate, and AT&T and Verizon’s no-commitment data plans are more generous than T-Mobile’s too. As for the XOOM, Verizon’s tablet is more expensive upfront – $599.99 on contract or $799.99 off – but can be used with cheaper data plans. Overall, if you opt for the subsidized upfront price, the cheapest G-Slate is $1,250 (assuming you’re not an existing customer) while the cheapest XOOM is $1,080. Still, you can’t share the XOOM’s 3G connection with the mobile hotspot app.

Wrap-Up

In a way it’s difficult to criticize LG for its decision to put 3D into the G-Slate. We’re constantly asking manufacturers to think about how they’ll differentiate their tablets from the iPad, and 3D recording is obviously LG’s push to do just that. Still, at the same time we can’t help but wonder whether dropping one of those rear cameras might have scraped a little off the unsubsidized price overall.

T-Mobile’s role is a little more frustrating. Compared to the data plans offered by both Verizon and AT&T (on the XOOM or iPad 2) the G-Slate’s packages look over-priced, even if you take into account bundled mobile hotspot service. Honeycomb’s remaining rough edges and lackluster app availability could more easily be overlooked if the G-Slate undercut Apple’s tablet; without that, the price becomes another stick, which will be used against the tablet.

If you’re already set up with a 3D TV, have a hankering to record 3D video, but only the budget for either a new tablet or a new 3D camcorder, the G-Slate does tick both boxes. If you’re not especially bothered by 3D, however, it’s harder to justify, and we’re not entirely convinced by LG’s arguments that the 8.9-inch screen slots the G-Slate into a “perfect middle ground” between 7- and 10-inches. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 8.9 is also on the near horizon, and while it will lack integrated 3G at first, that also has allowed the company to undercut the WiFi-only iPad 2. With no WiFi-only version of the G-Slate on offer, the $750 of the contract-free LG tablet feels like a lot to pay for 3D optics and a 3G modem you’re not going to use, versus the $569 of the 32GB Samsung.

Honeycomb still falls short of being mass-market ready, though it’s certainly full of promise. As Google has shown with its smartphone iterations of Android, it has no intention of standing still and allowing iOS to dominate the market. The G-Slate makes – with things like Flash Player support out of the box – a better first-impression than the XOOM managed, but it still lacks the general appeal of the iPad 2. A few solid firmware updates could address that, but it will take T-Mobile chiseling away at the G-Slate’s price before we could wholeheartedly recommend the tablet.

Related: Google Android 3.0 Honyecomb Review

Hardware and Performance

Motorola’s design is sober and discrete, and where the iPad shows off its brushed metal the XOOM seemingly prefers to let the 10.1-inch display do the talking. It’s a 160dpi, 1280 x 800 WXGA panel with a capacitive touchscreen supporting multitouch gestures, and while it doesn’t use the same IPS technology as the Apple slate, it still manages decent viewing angles. We’ve had no issues with touchscreen responsiveness, though at 9.8 x 6.61 x 0.51 inches and 25.75oz it’s a somewhat heavy device, and one-handed use can get tiring.

Inside, NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 is calling the shots, a dual-core 1GHz SoC paired with 1GB of DDR2 RAM and 32GB of integrated storage. Although the XOOM has a microSD card slot, currently the tablet doesn’t support it; similarly, there’s an LTE SIM slot – filled with a blanking card – but that won’t be used until Verizon updates the tablet to 4G in Q2 2011. Instead, you get EVDO Rev.A, WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, along with USB 2.0 and mini HDMI ports. Motorola is readying a WiFI-only XOOM, but that isn’t expected until later in the year.

We’ve seen sensors of various types proliferate on smartphones, and the XOOM ups the ante. As well as GPS, an accelerometer, digital compass, ambient light sensor and gyroscope, there’s a barometer for measuring air pressure. So far there’s no actual use for it in Honeycomb, but since it’s available for third-party developers to tap into via the Android 3.0 APIs, it’s only a matter of time before somebody takes advantage.

On the front is a 2-megapixel fixed-focus camera and a tricolor notification LED, though no physical controls, while on the back is a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with a dual-LED flash. It’s flanked by stereo speakers and the power/standby button. The only other hardware control is the volume rocker on the left hand edge. A 3.5mm headphone socket is on the top edge of the slate.

Benchmarking Android devices is something of an inexact science, with various tools – synthetic and real-world – in common use and lingering issues around multicore compatibility. We ran Quadrant on the XOOM, and the Tegra 2 based slate scored 2,126. Meanwhile, in Linpack the XOOM managed 36.166, and BenchmarkPi crunched through in 559 milliseconds.

Perhaps more importantly, however, the XOOM whipped through everyday tasks with hardly a pause. Panning through the 3D-style homescreen was lag- and jerk-free, the app menu opened without delay, and apps themselves sprang to life as fast as we’ve seen on an Android device. In comparison, the single-core 7-inch Galaxy Tab feels sluggish. The healthy chunk of RAM meant that heavier webpages still rendered successfully and panned/zoomed without protest, even with multiple tabs open.

Software

We’ve already covered Android 3.0 Honeycomb in our separate review of the new tablet OS, and – in keeping with a Google Experience device – Motorola has left the software well alone on the XOOM. It’s a sensible decision, given Honeycomb’s degree of polish. In fact, the hardest part for most people has been finding the power button, which Motorola has put on the back of the slate.

The untampered OS should also mean that, as Google rolls out newer versions of Android, the XOOM is hopefully first in line to receive them, something that can’t be said the same for Motorola’s smartphone range. Considering the attention Android fragmentation gets, that’s a big element in the XOOM’s favor.

Cameras and Multimedia

Motorola has outfitted the XOOM with two cameras, a 5-megapixel unit on the back, complete with auto-focus and an accompanying dual-LED flash, and a 2-megapixel fixed-focus camera on the front that’s primarily intended for video calls. They take advantage of Honeycomb’s new camera app, complete with various effects and shooting modes, and are easily controlled with the new circular shortcut wheel (though there’s no dedicated camera shortcut key on the slate).

Stills from the 5-megapixel main camera are good, though not outstanding. The biggest surprise was how comfortable taking photos is on a tablet; while the 7-inch Galaxy Tab felt like a somewhat ridiculous, oversized smartphone, the 10.1-inch XOOM doesn’t feel awkward, and the large on-screen controls make it straightforward. Currently the Motorola tops out at 720p HD video recording at 30fps, though an update to support 1080p HD is promised at some point in the future. Clips are on a par with Motorola’s smartphone range, with generally jerk-free footage that only shows smearing on faster pans. The dual-LED flash can be used as a video light, but it’s only really of use in mildly darker environments.

As for the front camera, while it can be used for stills and video, it’s unsurprisingly not adept at either. Motorola has tuned it for video call duty, and in that it does well, producing a reasonably crisp picture that manages to keep detail even when compressed for a 3G stream. The fixed-focus does mean you lack sharpness, however, not so noticeable in video but making vanity shots unimpressive.

Photos, video and audio can be played back either on the slate itself – with the XOOM’s stereo speakers proving underwhelming for all but the most casual of listening – or, using the HDMI 1.4 output and bundled cable, on a nearby big-screen TV. The entire interface is mirrored on both the external display and the touchscreen, making for easier control, and the XOOM can handle up to 1080p Full HD playback. We’ve commented on Android 3.0′s paucity of native codec support in our OS review, but thankfully there are various third-party media players in the Android Market that do a better job with video content other MP4, WebM, 3GP and H.264/H.263. Footage is crisp, as you’d expect, and with 32GB of onboard storage there’s a decent amount of capacity for media. It’s worth noting that, if you’re a Mac user, you’ll have to install the new Android File Transfer tool, since Honeycomb won’t be recognized by OS X as a USB drive without it.

What you don’t get, at this stage, is Flash support. Adobe is busy working on Flash Player 10.2 for Honeycomb, but right now there’s not even 10.1 for backward compatibility. It’s another reason the XOOM feels somewhat rushed to market, and it knocks an important selling point from the Motorola’s roster. Yes, Flash is on its way, but with the iPad 2 launch imminent, Motorola really needed all its strengths in one place to take on the iOS slate.

Connectivity and Battery

The XOOM isn’t short on connectivity, with EVDO Rev.A, WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and USB 2.0, along with a 4G LTE update in the pipeline, but it’s worth noting that it won’t make voice calls. Verizon’s agreement is for data only, which means that if you want to actually talk with someone using the XOOM you’ll have to pick a VoIP client. Still, with Skype, Fring, Qik and others in the Android Market, and Google Talk preinstalled in Honeycomb, most users should find something to fit that gap.

As well as using the 3G connection for onboard surfing, Honeycomb comes with a mobile hotspot app that can be used to share the data out with up to five WiFi-tethered clients. It’ll likely incur a surcharge, however: Verizon has only said that data access will start from $20 per month for 1GB, and we’re assuming that, like the carrier’s phones, hotspot service will be a higher-tier package.

Verizon is also yet to detail the 4G update, which means we don’t yet know how early-adopters of the XOOM will convert their 3G tablet into an LTE one come Q2 2011. It’s possible that this is a modem firmware update, which could be released OTA or as a sideloaded install, or alternatively owners may have to take their XOOM into a Verizon store or even send it off. Still, Verizon has said it will be a free update, though it hasn’t confirmed whether there’ll be a 4G surcharge on top of the regular 3G data package.

Battery life, meanwhile, has been very impressive. With very heavy use, the XOOM lasted over 14hrs – over 8hrs of which the screen was on – before shutting down. Bear in mind that’s undergoing testing for this review, meaning a combination of browsing, media playback (both using the XOOM’s display and via the HDMI output), both WiFi and 3G connections, streaming media and photography. With more casual use, especially if predominantly browsing, we’d expect to see 9hrs or more. That’s a little less than an iPad, certainly, but still enough to be considered a strong showing in our opinion. A full recharge takes around 3.5hrs.

Accessories

Verizon provided two official accessories with our review unit, the Speaker HD Dock and a Bluetooth Keyboard. The dock is, surprisingly, more basic than that offered for the Motorola ATRIX 4G, having only power and mini HDMI connectivity. It will charge the XOOM and allows you to have a wired connection to your HDTV permanently hooked up, but we’d have preferred it if Motorola had used a full-sized HDMI port. We’re guessing the choice of a mini connector was so that the cable bundled with the tablet could be used with the dock as well, but given most users aren’t going to want to keep swapping a single cord between their bag and the dock, opting for the more common (and cheaper) full sized HDMI would have been a more sensible decision. The integrated 5W stereo speakers are more powerful than the XOOM’s own, which makes for stronger audio during video playback together with more easily audible video chats.

As for the Bluetooth keyboard, that also works as you’d expect it to, hooking up wirelessly with no issues and then allowing for easier text entry than the on-screen ‘board. It’s worth noting that, since the XOOM supports the standard Human Interface Device (HID) protocol, you can use a non-Motorola Bluetooth keyboard you might already have. Motorola’s ‘board is actually the same as offered for the ATRIX 4G, which means it adds in shortcuts to various Android apps. It’s also reasonably comfortable to type on.

Motorola also offers a Portfolio Case for the XOOM, though we didn’t have that on hand to test. As with similar examples for other tablets, it basically allows you to prop the XOOM up for easier on-screen typing or watching videos, as well as folding around to protect the display during transport. Finally, there’s a Standard Dock, which props the XOOM up and recharges it, which we also didn’t have in to test.

Pricing and Value

Cost is likely to be the XOOM’s most contentious aspect. Verizon and Motorola have priced the slate at $799.99 without a contact or $599.99 with a new, two-year agreement on a data-only plan. With the cheapest data package Verizon offers – $20 per month for 1GB – that adds up to almost $1,080 over the course of the contract.

In contrast, Apple’s 32GB iPad WiFi + 3G is $729. That’s less than the unsubsidized XOOM, but more than the on-contract version; however, AT&T allows iPad owners to activate and deactivate 3G service as they see fit, rather than locking them into a monthly commitment. You also get more for your money on AT&T, with iPad 3G plans offering either 250MB per month for $14.99 or 2GB for $25.

The XOOM is likely to fall in price after a couple of months – there’s always an early-adopter premium to be paid – but it’s not the home-run we’d hoped it might be. It’s worth remembering that, even if you don’t want to use Verizon’s data and only rely on WiFi to connect, you’ll still have to pay for a month’s worth of service and the activation fee.

Wrap-Up

Despite the absence of Flash support and the absence of 4G, there’s a lot to like about the Motorola XOOM. It’s a solid, discretely handsome slate, with strong battery life and whip-crack performance. Against it are the premium price tag and the ridiculous mandatory first-month data fee; frankly, Verizon have missed a trick by not giving buyers a free first month in the hope of getting them hooked to the convenience of 3G.

Much of the XOOM’s strength comes from Android 3.0 Honeycomb, and there’s little doubting that Google’s tablet-centric OS is the star of the show here. As we found in our full software review, it’s a convincing and polished platform, which brings a highly usable multitasking environment to the tablet marketplace, neatly distinct from the “oversized smartphone” accusations levied at previous Android slates.

Until Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 and LG’s G-Slate reach shelves, the XOOM has the Honeycomb space all to itself. Still, neither Motorola nor Google can afford to rest on their respective laurels. The iPad 2 is expected to debut a mere week after the XOOM goes on sale, and considering the first-gen version is still the benchmark by which new tablets are measured, the second-gen model is only going to raise the table stakes.

Nonetheless, we’re impressed by the XOOM, and by Honeycomb. Neither feels like a compromise, and with the heft of the Android Market behind them, the gap between Android and iOS has narrowed drastically. The XOOM may only be the first Honeycomb slate, but it’s a strong start to what’s going to be a fiercely competitive race.

ALSO have a look at our Android Honeycomb Review as well as an informative post by our sister site Android Community: Motorola XOOM and Honeycomb Review [All Questions Answered].

BONUS: Tricked out!

Hardware / Design

The hardware design for the Streak 7 is vastly improved from the Streak 5. I was one of Dell’s harshest critics of the Streak 5 as the back battery panel came to easily detached from the device.

Like the Tab the back of the Streak 7 is a solid non-removable panel. The back also contains a small diamond texture design similar to the texture feel Dell has been putting on more of their consumer notebooks.

One of the things that stands out the most with the design of the hardware is that it appears to be designed with landscape mode in mind as the major way the product will be used.   From the camera positions, to the power and volume buttons and most noticeably the orientation of the side buttons.

The design of the Streak 7 is much like the design of the Streak 5 where the sides of the device, if you are holding it landscape, have a slight curve. On the top of the device there are only two buttons, off and one and volume up and down. The Home, Menu and Back buttons are on the front. One thing that is noticeable is the absence of the search button so commonly found on other Android hardware. This could mean Dell intends to make the move to Honeycomb quickly where search is integrated more into the core operating system, or it could just frustrate users.

There are two speakers on the Streak 7 on both ends of the device, which gives it a true stereo experience with applications that use audio. In comparison the Tab has two speakers but they are both at the bottom of the device.

The tablet itself is 7.9 x 4.7 x 0.5 and weighs 1lb compared to the Tab which is 7.5 x 4.7 x 0.5 inches and 13.4 ounces.  In this side by side comparison you can see the Streak 7 is slightly longer.

Software and Performance

The Streak 7 comes loaded Android version 2.2. The only additional software Dell has pre-loaded on to the device is their own Dell Stage widgets which consist of a contacts, email, gallery, home, music, social and web widgets.

I did find the Streak 7 to be a bit more snappy than the Tab. Going in and out of applications, browsing apps from the menu and even browsing the web. Overall I found the speed performance to be better than the Tab.

Further from a performance standpoint the Streak scored a 1918 on Quadrant where the Tab scored a 980.

NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 is a dual core processor and Android version 2.2 is multi-threaded, however there is room for improvement.  Along those lines not all applications are multi-threaded as well. So the full power of the Streak 7 and the Tegra will not be unleashed until either Gingerbread or Honeycomb are made available on the Streak 7.

4G

The Streak 7 is T-Mobile’s first 4G tablet.   In many areas of the Bay Area where I live I got strong 4G signals and tested speeds in the 2.5 to 3.5 mb range of download speed. In full 4G areas web pages loaded quickly and more importantly when I was out and about using things like maps or other location based services applications.

Camera and Multimedia

Since NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 processor is capable of 1080p capture I was excited to test the video capabilities for both playback and capture. For 1080p video playback the Streak 7 performed admirably. The video played back flawlessly without skipping and with smooth frames. Capture however was a different story all together as 720P was the highest resolution option capable to capture video.

Graphics and games looked incredibly fantastic.   I expected this as Tegra 2 coming from NVIDIA with their deep graphics expertise.   I was able to play a few pre-release Tegra optimized games that NVIDIA provided me.   One was a Tegra optimized version of Dungeon Defenders and the other was Galaxy On Fire 2.   Games in particular shined on the Streak 7 and when it came to fluid and rich graphical gameplay it was much better than the Tab.

Here are some photos I took of my goats with the camera.

Battery

The battery life on the Streak 7 has to be my biggest complaint. Over the weekend I took it with me on a day trip to Berkeley and after a full nights charge it was dead by 5 PM. The next day faired a little better but just barely made it through a day.

The culprit is the Streak 7 only has a 2780 mAh battery while the Tab has a 4000 mAh battery. The bottom line is expect more frequent charging if you plan on heavy usage.

Wrap up

Having used the Tab for over a month and now after using the Streak for five days, the performance advantages of the Streak 7 give it the edge in my opinion.   The Streak 7 will perform and in some cases outperform other tablets in the 7′ inch range with its capabilities as a rich multimedia device largely thanks to NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 super chip.

The battery life is my biggest complaint with the Streak 7 and in terms of battery life the Tab is a better option.

I want to see how the Streak 7 performs when either Gingerbread or Honeycomb become available as an update.   From things like multi-threaded support, more tablet centric OS and speed / performance gains all things that will add value to not only tablets in general but the Streak 7 as well.

Hardware

Compared to the brushed metal of the iPad or the sturdy compactness of the Galaxy Tab, the Vega’s plastic construction and uninspiring design feels more mundane. Still, it’s also around half the price of those rivals, so we’re more forgiving of the bland aesthetic. The rear panel sounds somewhat hollow when tapped, and squeezing it in the middle causes distortion on the LCD; the edges – where you’re more likely to be gripping – are sturdier. At 275 x 177 x 14 mm it’s reasonably thin, though it’s longer (and narrower) than the iPad.

Advent Vega unboxing & hands-on:

Up front is a 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 resolution display with a capacitive touchscreen, and we’re not all that impressed by Advent’s choice of panel. Colors are reasonable, and it’s a bright screen, but the viewing angles are poor, particularly the vertical angles. Viewed dead-on in landscape orientation and it’s fine, but lay the Vega down on a table or beside you on the sofa and there’s considerable distortion of the picture, particularly along the bottom edge (where the shortcut bar lives on the homescreen. Flip into portrait orientation, and the shallow angles are even more frustrating, with websites suffering from glare and discoloration.

Image taken with Vega and Galaxy Tab at full brightness, showing same 1024 x 600 image.

Bar the 1.3-megapixel webcam – which takes unpleasantly fuzzy stills – the Vega’s bezel is completely bare, with all of the hardware controls pushed to the edges of the slate. On the top edge there’s a microphone, power/lock button, a switch to lock screen orientation and a back button, while running down the right side there’s a volume rocker, headphones socket, MicroSD slot (with a 4GB card preloaded), USB port and HDMI port, along with the power connector. A docking connector is on the bottom edge, though so far there are no accessories that take advantage of it, and a pair of stereo speakers are on the back. There’s no dedicated home, search or menu keys, as you’d expect to find on an Android device, though a long-press on the back button calls up the context menu, and a long-press on the power button offers home as an option.

Wireless connectivity is limited to WiFi b/g and Bluetooth; Advent tells us that a 3G-enabled Vega is in the pipeline, but this first model has no cellular modem. While that doesn’t present much of an issue for home use, it does have an impact on what software Advent can use; more on that in the next section.

Software

The Vega scores points for using Android 2.2 Froyo, rather than an earlier version of the Google platform, though if you’ve come to the tablet from an Android smartphone then you’ll likely find plenty missing. Google’s mandatory specifications for Android devices – which the Vega doesn’t achieve – means the tablet lacks Android Market access together with all of the custom Google apps, like Gmail, Google Maps and Google Voice. In fact, the application launcher is surprisingly bare: out of the box you get the browser (with multitouch pinch-zooming but no Flash), calculator, camera app (for use with the webcam), clock, WHSmiths ebooks app, email, gallery, iFileManager, music, search, Sound Recorder and a shortcut to the online Vega help portal. There’s no native PDF or Office File viewer, though, which means downloaded instructions and guides from that portal can’t actually be read on the Vega itself.

Third-party apps can be loaded via their raw .apk files – you can browse to them at a site like GetJar.com, download and install them with no issues – or you can opt for a third-party application store, such as SlideMe or AppsLib. Still, where Samsung took the core Android 2.2 experience and boosted it to suit the larger-screen Galaxy Tab, the Vega feels like a backward step in comparison.

Advent’s changes to Froyo are minor, the most obvious being to accommodate the missing hardware buttons. A toolbar along the top of the display has a home shortcut on the far left and menu/back buttons on the far right. There are also WiFi, battery and clock indicators. The battery gauge can be sluggish to respond; on several occasions we hit the power button to glance at how much juice was left, then had to wait as the gauge updated to the latest figure. Five homescreen panes mock the absence of apps to fill them with, and a persistent shortcut row along the bottom links to settings, mail, browser, My Media and then the Facebook, Twitter and YouTube sites.

The absence of apps is frustrating, because we can’t really fault Tegra 2′s performance. The browser whips along nicely, rendering even complex sites quickly, and multitouch zooming suffers no stuttering or lag. Screen rotation (in all but the homescreen, which is locked to landscape orientation) is similarly fast. Angry Birds – the .apk install file for which we downloaded in the browser and then installed manually – looked great on the 10-inch screen and played with no issues. We could only access YouTube via the m.youtube.com mobile site – the full site wouldn’t recognize the Flash Player 10.1 plugin Advent had installed – and quality was mixed.

Multimedia playback proved frustrating. We first tried loading a selection of AVI, DivX and other format video clips onto the Vega’s microSD (a microSD to SD adapter is included in the box), but the tablet proved reluctant to show them in the file browser. Instead, we had to use the VegaMedia app, with a companion PC sync manager (Windows only) that you drag files onto and it automatically pushes them over to the tablet. We can’t see any change in format along the way – it literally copies them from your computer to the tablet – but done that way the iFileManager app could see the media.

As for file types, a MKV HD clip proved too much for the Vega to handle, but an SD MKV was no trouble at all. DivX and MP4 were also handled readily – the latter in HD, even. The HDMI output worked well, showing not only the playing media but mirroring everything on the Vega’s display; still, you’re stuck at the same 1024 x 600 resolution when browsing around, so it can look underwhelming on a Full HD panel.

The Vega’s salvation is likely to be in the hands of the Android homebrew community, and there’s already at least one alternative ROM that adds unofficial access to the Android Market along with all the usual Google apps. The process of rooting and installing the Vega is apparently straightforward, and the end result is a far more flexible slate.

Battery

Advent suggest you’ll see around 6.5hrs of HD movie playback or up to 16hrs of audio playback (with the screen off) from a full charge of the Vega. In practice, with mixed use – predominantly browsing – we managed a full day’s use before the battery expired, though power draw while in standby was higher than on the Galaxy Tab or iPad. Overnight, the Vega dropped from 93-percent to 69-percent with no use whatsoever.

Wrap-Up

There are times – web browsing, for instance – when we had to remind ourselves how cheap the Vega is, given its performance lived up to other far more expensive tablets. At other times, the cost-cutting required to hit that price reared its head, with the lacklustre viewing angles of the display being a particular frustration. Reading text or looking at photos or video is simply a more enjoyable experience with the iPad or Galaxy Tab’s displays.

Out of the box, there’s definitely a sense that you get what you pay for. Advent could have done themselves major favors by throwing in some custom apps for social networking, IM or video calls, or by preloading things like Fring or Skype. Instead, there’s a webcam that only gets used to take vanity stills and a processor that’s massively under-utilized.

Spend some time tinkering, however – whether that be the basics of installing a third-party app store, or going the more complex route of flashing an alternative ROM – and the Vega proposition is far more appealing. That appeal seems to have caught the Android dev community, for whom Advent’s limitations are of no real consequence. Mainstream users, however, will likely find the Vega underwhelming in its pure form.