It's out now and no one is talking about it here?

[rubejb]

I'm looking forward to getting one of these when I can afford it, but the lack of buzz around it has me a bit worried.

I know it's not an amazing tablet, but for the price it seems damn good to me.

Is there a reason people aren't buying it, or are they too busy using it to talk about it.

The only reason I'm a bit reluctant to purchase one is that I'd like to see what the rumored Google-branded tablet is going to be.

 

[mrspeedmaster]

Mine was preordered so I am just waiting for it to be shipped. Give it 3-4 days till we get some people who have them in their hands. This isn't an iPad where people wait in line on launch day.

 

[antmon]

picked mine up at BestBuy on Sunday... they said they only got 6 in, and i picked up the last one...

first off, i have no idea what the negative reviews are all talking about with the grainy or lower quality screen...yes, it's not the same as an iPad2/3 screen but i had it next to the 7 Plus and saw no difference... all i did was jack up the brightness to about 80% and it looks great!

i watched Transformers 3 720p on it and it was fantastic... crisp, bright, colors looked very accurate...

overall, it's extremely smooth.... ics is what android should've been all long... the settings, menu, apps (app drawer) are all laid out rather nicely...

played quite a few games on it and haven't noticed any lag.... yes, as the reviewers say it's "only" a dual-core, not a quad-core cpu... ok, so what? what apps are out there that need to take advantage of quad-core right now??

anyway, web browsing, documents to go, email, all worked perfectly.... for $250, it really is a great price and mind you this is really competing with the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet...not the iPad2/3 or more powerfull Samsung and other Tablets...

the only downside i can think of are the cameras, but i really don't use them all that much... did try the Skype with the front facing camera and in a well lit room it was perfectly fine...

again, for the price, right out of the box, does everything you really need it to do...

 

[rubejb]

Good to hear, Antmon. I think your quick review is going to be my reaction to it when (if) I get one.

Thanks!

 

[mrspeedmaster]

The device has an OMAP 4430. Same SoC/GPU Processor as Playbook/Kindle Fire. It is very close to my Galaxy Nexus.

I specifically wanted a NON-tegra device which rules out the Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba Thrives.

The TI OMAP seems to be well optimized for ICS and video.

As long as it plays 1080p h.264 mp4 and 720p (wmv/divx/mkv) like the Galaxy Nexus, I will be happy. I dont expect it to have hardware acceleration for non h.264 MP4 like the other OMAP devices .

The javascript benchmarks is within close hair distance on this unit compared to even Tegra 3 Asus Prime 300. So as a web browser, it will be fine.

 

[Dairyrat]

Picked mine up yesterday (Sunday) at Best Buy. They had non on display so when I was asked about it they said they were still in the back room.

We have Samsung Fascinate phones so I was really interested in getting one of these. I read all the reviews about the dual core vs quad, screen resolution and poor camera.
Bought it anyway and love it. I also am not sure why all the negativity. Camera not the greatest but its definitely useable and looks good. Who takes pics with their Tab anyway? Wasnt even on my list of things wanted on it.

Processor seems very quick and I think the screen resolution is excellent. Very smooth operation.

Had a 65% charge on battery out of the box, played games, goofed around and browsed most of the night and battery level never dropped below 50%. Cant wait to see how it holds up with a full charge.

Overall I am extremely pleased and glad I waited for this to came out.

 

[Gunnyman]

Just picked one of these up today for my 9 year old, I was going to get the nook tablet, but this one just looks better. She loves it so far, and I get my iPad back. I'm not knocking Android tablets at all I've been a huge android fan for ever, but I had to have that Retina display

 

[antmon]

show off retina guy

kidding...

btw, to echo what was already said....the battery life is really really good....i think i was on for about 3hrs messinng with it and i dropped only 25%

netflix runs smooth on it (although the gui app is sluggish but that seems normal on all devices)...

couldn't try Hulu...since it is NOT YET (if ever) SUPPORTED! c'mon....

 

[DWasilew]

I went to Best Buy on Sunday to check it out, and it seems like a quality little tablet. I have pretty much the same reservations as the OP. I was playing with the Galaxy Nexus (definitely picking one up on Monday) right before checking out the GT2, and Touch Wiz is fine, but I just enjoy the stock Android experience so much. As I was messing around with it and enjoying the device, all I could think of was, "will the Nexus tablet be better than this? Will there be any dev support?" If I can get an AOSP ROM on this thing I'll probably pick it up since it is available now, but I haven't seen anything about a root method or any kind of development at all. I'm in no rush to get a tablet, so I can wait to see what happens in the coming months.

 

[Gilmour]

stopped by BB today to check it out. I was expecting more out of it i mean in terms of... aaahh what im talking about,it's only $249!!!

did anyone noticed that it's not super smooth? or it just me?

 

[antmon]

i notice it is super smooth...screen transition, opening/closing apps, web (i use Dolphin HD)...all very fluid...

using pretty heavily for 5 days straight now and not a single glitch...great deal still, in my opinion, for $250 bucks...

also, maybe the store version has that funky 'display' or 'demo' setting on it which could have caused some of the slowup...


PS love the avatar...going to see Waters do The Wall end of June

 

[Gilmour]

i notice it is super smooth...screen transition, opening/closing apps, web (i use Dolphin HD)...all very fluid...

using pretty heavily for 5 days straight now and not a single glitch...great deal still, in my opinion, for $250 bucks...

also, maybe the store version has that funky 'display' or 'demo' setting on it which could have caused some of the slowup...


PS love the avatar...going to see Waters do The Wall end of June

yeah maybe it was heavily loaded or something

PS. Where are you going to see him? i'm going too in July Yankee Stadium

BTW it was playing Dark side of the moon on my player when i was checking galaxy tab 2 at BB

 

[antmon]

was going to do yankee stadium but opted for hartford, ct since was closer for friends

 

[Bandage]

did anyone noticed that it's not super smooth? or it just me?

TouchWiz is to blame here...has always been a system hog. Sammy needs to just cut the chit with the overlay crap. Seriously!

For a much cleaner experience try NOVA LAUNCHER.

It's a UI replacement, and really really improves what TouchWiz hampers. Give it a try, it's free!

 

[akita]

I went to Best Buy yesterday to check it out and couldn't get it to connect via wifi at all(couldn't even detect it after scanning). I powercycled it and nothing. Funny cause the Galaxy Tab 10.1 on the other side of the display case was able to get online just fine(even went into Wireless network settings and it automatically detects Bestbuy's network). I even scanned for wifi on my Droid X and it too was able to detect Bestbuy's network. Couldn't get one Best Buy employee to help me out as they were understaffed and busy helping other people. I thought the tablet was a little bit slower in transitions compared to the 10.1 tab. My wife and I got tired of trying to get a Best Buy employee to help us so we left. Not exactly the best 1st impression I have for this tablet considering the internet is a huge deal breaker for us. Apparently the Samsung Galaxy tabs have a noted problem with spotty wifi?

 

[strollin]

... Apparently the Samsung Galaxy tabs have a noted problem with spotty wifi?

My GT27.0 doesn't have any problems connecting to wifi and I haven't heard of any widespread issue. However, we can't draw any conclusions from just your experience and my experience.

 

[akita]

True. And I can certainly give it the benefit of the doubt considering its a display model which would have more wear and tear than the normal user. I might stop by a different Best Buy today and give it another go. But yeah, I just cant get over the fact that it could not detect Best Buy's network when the other tablets could. That would indicate some sort of hardware problem vs a network problem.

 

[nshortri]

Mine found wifi quickly and connected to internet within seconds in my house and my girlfriends house. The best buy close to me doesnt have good wifi and the tablet demo is not as impressive as the tablet i got from amazon. I just typed all this using wifi

 

[Gilmour]

Mine found wifi quickly and connected to internet within seconds in my house and my girlfriends house. The best buy close to me doesnt have good wifi and the tablet demo is not as impressive as the tablet i got from amazon. I just typed all this using wifi

What exactly do you mean by not as impressive as the one you got from Amazon ?

I ordered mine from Abes of maine.com

 

[APOPHiS420]

Picked mine up from best buy today and man this thing FLIES!! love everything about it and it runs smooth as a babies ass. The image quality is great video play back is great. The cameras leave a lil to be desired but hey who takes pics with a tablet?? lol Other than that though honestly I can't complain. Picked up my wifi with out a hitch. Logged me in to my Google account just fine and downloaded my apps for me. WIN!:congrats:

 

[nshortri]

What exactly do you mean by not as impressive as the one you got from Amazon ?

I ordered mine from Abes of maine.com

The demo at bestbuy looked like trash when i went there 4 days. Maybe those kids at bb screwed it up or something. One time i saw kids put condoms on top of the new ipads a month ago in a mall and it screwed the ipad up too. I was happy when i got mine from amazon the next day after best buy visit and it was much smoother than the best buy demo. I was a little worried that it would be laggy like the bb demo but it didnt lag at all.

 

[nshortri]

Picked mine up from best buy today and man this thing FLIES!! love everything about it and it runs smooth as a babies ass. The image quality is great video play back is great. The cameras leave a lil to be desired but hey who takes pics with a tablet?? lol Other than that though honestly I can't complain. Picked up my wifi with out a hitch. Logged me in to my Google account just fine and downloaded my apps for me. WIN!:congrats:

It does fly hahaha. I agree the image quality is awesome. I had samsung tab at&t and this new tab 2 youtube video quality is amazing!

 

[APOPHiS420]

ABSOLUTELY! not to mention i love the interface of the YouTube app on it as well

 

[Zbych]

Did any one try Navigation I am having some problem with GPS conection.

 

[Charlesleonard]

Did any one try Navigation I am having some problem with GPS conection.

What type of problem?