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The Samsung Galaxy Tab has been off to a slow start, and there is no arguing that it is due to its pricing. Want even more proof of this? For a much more manageable £249, those in the UK can snag a 10-inch Tegra 2 badboy running at 1GHz with 512MB of RAM. Actually, they can’t snag it just yet because only a few hours after it went on sale it is already sold out, and won’t be available again until at least next week when PC World and DIxons stock up again.
Another 10-inch tablet with a Tegra 2 chip and a pricetag that could shame the Galaxy Tab is the ViewSonic “G” Tablet. At $399 (the subsidized cost of the Galaxy Tab on a few carriers), a Wi-Fi only version of the device will be available via a Black Friday promotion at Staples. The tablet holds Android 2.2 and features specs similar to the above Advent Vega.
Good to see some companies are managing to pack some decent hardware in at a price that won’t make you cringe too hard.
[via TalkAndroid, Androinica]
These look very nice but something tells me that waiting for an Android 3.0 tablet will be well worth the wait.
I’m waiting for a 10″ dual core vanilla android tablet that has been blessed by google. Preferably by htc. No more than $499, but at $399 the money would literally leap out of my bank account.
Pretty sure that Viewsonic G IS an Advent Vega, rebadged.
This Viewsonic promises to be a good lookin tablet! Would love to see if upgraded to Gingerbread/Honeycomb by the guys at XDA
This Viewsonic runs the NVidia Tegra 2 setup. 1Ghz dualcore ARM Cortex-A9
You can get full market and google apps if you root the G Tablet:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=827209
I’m seriously considering that, once XDA gets its claws in it you can pretty much bet it will get a port of 3.0 to it in the future, prbobaly before the mainstream tablets will even :)
I want a tablet and all these 3 and 4 hundred dollar ones may be extremely tempting but I’m gonna old off untill this first wave blows through.
Err, you said the Staples is available as a Black Friday special? It’s available right now at their website (for $399). According to their store searcher there are two stores near me with ’em in stock…
http://www.staples.com/StaplesProductDisplay?productId=358070
Maybe they’ll sell it for $299 on Black Friday? ;-)
These all look nice I’m just sore because no cd/dvd or blue ray playback. I know the technology allows them to make this and still keep the table/iPad name size style etc.
What Josh said.
That would be some great pricing for under $400 on BF. BFAds has it shown @ $400. But a lot of retailers are doing pre-BF sales to help eliminate chaos and maximize profits as I am sure there margins into the black wont be as big this year.
Ugh, just get a damn Samsung Galaxy already. It’s the best, it’s awesome, works great.
-B
Are there any reviews on the Viewsonic? How does it perform on Froyo? I don’t believe in buying something hoping for an update. My philosophy is that if you aren’t happy with the configuration as it is, don’t buy it. So, if the tablet is lacking something because it doesn’t have Gingerbread or Honeycomb, then I will wait.
The iPad is available at TJ Maxx and Marshalls for $399.
@Josh Why do you use the term “literally” when you actually mean “figuratively”? It is a common, but frustrating, abuse of vocabulary when people do that.
Dual core? I would pick this over the Galaxy S tab and iPad any day.
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Reasons being? I see the performance jump going to dual core with my desktop. I would assume the same will happen with phones and tablets.
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If we find out there is a real performance difference with dual core on phones and tablets, why get a single core device?
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The gpu in the Tegra 2 I believe is better than whats in the Galaxy S tab.
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Battery life is better with dual core vs. single core chips.
PowerVR 540 GPU is better. There’s no real applications or OS support for dual core built into Android yet, nor expected with 2.3. Tegra 2 benchmarks have not shown any clear advantages over a Hummingbird, OMAP, or even Scorpion at this point.
It’s an inexpensive SOC from a company that has very very little experience with mobile processors or devices, and major manufacturers seem to be avoiding it.
why is this any better than the $299 priced Archos 101?
Why buy this? Have your not heard about the new Archos tablets? The brandnew 8. gen. XdotX. (Like 7.0) is much better and olso cheaper then this. Come with OS 2.2. and 250Gb harddisk. I own HCT Hero and Desire but thise new tablet is realy fantastic!
https://store.archos.com/internet-tablets-fi-89.html
Raging Thuner 2 on Tegra 2
youtube.com/watch?v=V4rh2sOljA8
Raging Thunder 2 on PowerVR540 GPU on(aka Hummingbird) Galaxy Tab
youtube.com/watch?v=6fGbljpJMUk
Tegra 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4rh2sOljA8
PowerVR SGX540 (Galaxy Tab)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fGbljpJMUk
Sending my G Tablet back, it’s a poor device in many ways. The viewing angle of the screen is really poor, and they have totally obliterated Android with their custom user interface. It also was said to have it’s own market and some apps installed, but none of that was on mine. Figured I might get by without their market by using GetJar and like sites, but that didn’t work either. None of the online websites recognized the device and it has no phone number so downloading directly is a no go. You shouldn’t have to root a device just to get apps.
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Bought the Galaxy Tab and love it. Like the Nexus, the Tab is going to set the standard.
Good counterpoints about the Tegra 2…I personally like the OMAP. I was hoping for an OMAP with a Tegra 2 gpu…..knowing that by the time the OMAP might be using the 540, Samsung will be on a newer gpu. I hope the OMAP will have a newer one too.
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I wish Moto woulda stuck with the OMAP for their future phones….
Since they have custom roms, I might actual purchase one. Seems like these tegras2 come without GPS, though.
Here’s what I want out of my tablet: Built in MKV support, 1080p playback (I’d settle for flawless 720p), and rootable. @Aeires, while I agree with you, I’m the kind of guy that will anyway just so I have full control of my device.
I’d prefer my tablet be 10″ and the manufacturer to be either HTC or Lenovo (yes, LePad, I’m looking at you). Either way, whatever iteration of SenseUI gets developed for tablets, it WILL be going on my tablet.
As for all this CPU/GPU business, if it can handle the kind of video playback I require, it’ll handle anything else I throw at it. Heck, the Snapdragon in my Incredible can -almost- handle 720p MKVs….just no good muxed subtitle support and there are some pretty bad graphical artifacts.
Looking at the videos ACR posted, I can hardly tell a difference. I noticed one small hiccup on the Tegra 2, but the other one didn’t encounter the same level of graphical complexity that the Tegra tablet did, so I can’t say that either one is worse than the other.
I love my Galaxy Tab. Its connected via my ROOTED Evo 4g. Xda has a development fourm for the Galaxy Tab too. All I have to say “It’s on now”! Waiting for some customs ROMs and kernals to flash!
G-tab has to be rooted just to be decent. Props to those willing to shell out the money for that. But I’d rather wait on something that doesn’t have to be severly modified right out of the box to be a good tab.
I bought one of this and wasnt happy of lack of application and very laggy. I returned it to sears after few days of playing it. It is not worth it.
This tablet is a piece of JUNK, Bought it in Staples and returned it the same day , slow hard to use garbage with there own verlay on top of Android 2.2 , didnt like it at all !!! The galaxy tab is 10 times the device and I bought that instead , hate the price but beside that it is incredible !!!! LOVE IT !!!
I played with the Viewsonic G at my local Staples on Saturday. It seemed pretty nice – although when I came back later (same visit to the store) it no longer switched on. Not sure what’s up with that.
I think I might prefer a 7″ tablet to a 10″ one. If the Nook’s screen is really better in daylight than the others then that might be a good one for me…