Need help choosing a tablet!!

[tjb83759]

Hi! I've been looking around at a few android tablets and one that really caught my eye is the imito..only problem is i've heard a few of the tablets don't have the marketplace.

My other concern is that i don't have a data plan for my carrier..is it possible to still get a tablet without getting 3G or having a carrier package...can i just get one and use wifi only?

If anyone can refer any tablets that you don't need 3g or a carrier, can use wifi, and have the marketplace i'd greatly appreciate it!! Thank you so much!

 

[cutterjohn]

Archos tablets are WiFi only, as are (if you're in the US) Pandigital Novel(white one), Augen GenTouch78, Cruz Tablet(and Reader which is pretty much a white Novel), and most of the Chinese tablets are WiFi only as well.

NONE of these ship WITH market access either, but most have some sort of alternate market and many have ways to enable the Android Market on the devices. The Novel & Gentouch have a simple script to enable market, the "non-ugly market 'fix'" which can be obtained on the specific device wiki page at slatedroid. There have been some other improvements of the GT, but it seems to be being mainly abandoned by the community w/no Augen firmware updates since late August, and their announcement of several(10?) new tablets coming out I wouldn't hold my breath for any more. The GT has a couple of custom firmwares that provide root, clockwork recovery and some other conveniences w/o need for the user to perform manually(not sure about market enabling as I no longer have a GT to test with and never got around to it before it went back as I had it setup the way that I wanted, but the GT had the added benefit of having a working clockwork recovery, which helped with saving setups as you could roll back to your preferred by installing clockwork recovery somehow and rolling back to that backed up firmware.)

OTOH the Novel just recently got another firmware update, a base "reader" oriented UI as it ships and now also a new "open" firmware that makes it look more like a generic tablet, however there are community modified firmwares which are overall better and provide things like market(and rooting) directly once flashed, plus an effort to port Android 2.1 & 2.2 to it. (Applies to WHITE Novel ONLY! And this is what I now have.)

Cruz Tablet isn't out yet, so no hacking/market enabling has been done for that, and AFAIK the same holds true for the new Archos tablets as most of the reasonably sized ones have been "delayed", but you could check the "archos fans" site(google it).

Samsung in EU & NA seems to REQUIRE a data plan and is expected to be $399(yuck) in the US w/a mandatory 2y data plan(ick).

There's also the iPad, WiFi only version, but it has the usual insane Apple price of $499(pretty steep for a tablet IMNHO same goes for Samsung though).

The above listed w/3G data can also usually be gotten w/o plan, i.e. "unlocked", but the price would be even crazier.

Only the iPad, Samsung, Archos, and one Chinese tablet Witstech have systems-on-chip that are based around the Cortex series of ARM CPUs, plus the first 3 also have hw 3D acceleration enabled and run Android 2.2. Not sure about 3D hw acceleration on the Witstech, but it seems unlikely given the lack of it on other Chinese tablets, on the upside the Witstech has a mostly working Android 2.2 OS.

[EDIT]
Apparently the elocity A7 looks to have no 3G, but its EXPENSIVE $370, but it seems to claim hw 3D acceleration and Android 2.2 with a Cortex based system-on-chip...
[/EDIT]

 

[Arieljjyz]

I think this 10.1 inch Android 2.1Tablet is great.

 

[cutterjohn]

I find the product I want at gindart: Android 2.1 Tablet PC. 7 inch touch screen, wifi connection, Google Android Market, Google Android 2.1 operating system, 3D graphics acceleration / Gravity Sensor GAME, ARM 11 high-performance processor.....
Take a consider, or want to see the Technical Specification:gindart

Most likely it does NOT have 3D acceleration as NO Chinese tablet has 3D accel ATM, dunno if it's because the SoC mfg charges for access to the 3D kit or that their firmware guys just can't figure out how to make it work properly.

OTOH since it IS Telechips based it WILL have the very best video performance of ANY tablet out right now, and I have heard rumors of Android 2.2 being ported to the Telechips based tablets, but remember that it's a rumor.

Also it's pretty expensive... you can find similar ones in the $170s... try pandawill and some other places if you want a Chinese tablet... even dealextreme had a Telechips based tablet listed IIRC...