LG Optimus Pad 3D is now available at Best Buy, according to the UK version of their website, but for an eye watering £749.99. LG's flavour of Android Honeycomb has appealed to me ever since reading about the T-Mobile G-Slate. Throw in the power of a 3D gimmick and I was hooked. However, with Samsung's excellent Galaxy Tab 10.1 set to retail at around £250 less it's now hard to justify spending that much money on a tablet that I'll need to wear glasses to use.
With all this hype around tablets you tend to forget that people still like good old media players to listen to music on. Personally, I don't use my HTC Desire as my music player, as it would kill the battery and the phone doesn't have enough memory to store all my music. Of course I can upgrade the mircoSD card, but I need over 32g and that isn't going to come cheap. The irony that in a world of convergence devices I'll still end up with a phone, tablet and MP3 player isn't lost on me. At least there are some nice devices on the way though.
Samsung Galaxy Player 50 Samsung's player looks like a proper competitor to the iPod Touch, with
Android 2.1, a 3.2-inch display and a 2-megapixel camera, plus Wi-Fi and GPS. The 16G version will retail for around £200, so it won't be too expensive either. Plus, that memory is expandable thanks to a microSD slot.
Having owned a Creative Zen, I have a soft spot for these guys. If the screen wasn't resistive touch, I'd probably buy one. In any case, I'll definitely test one out when they are released in the UK. It's the cheaper option of the two devices, with the most expensive 16G version priced at £150. Looks great, but touch resisitive...
Samsung have released an incredibly detailed 9 minute walkthrough for their Galaxy Tab.
Here's what I love.
Speed Android 2.2 seems to run very quickly on the device. It looks almost as quick as the new HTC Desire HD.
Swipe keyboard Just because I really want to try it out. Watching the disembodied hand swipe words into his presentation you can't ever imagine it working. But what if it does?
Gundam The inclusion of the Gundam in the video calling section was even more exciting than video chat.
Ereader The ability to highlight and bookmark individual words and sentences is a real plus for me. I'm also very interested to see how this integrates with the rest of the internet. Being able to pull up additional definitions and more information looks incredible. The book suddenly feels connected and part of the digital revolution!
Media Hub Amazing. Just what I want. However, I know that I'll probably have to move to America to be able to use it. Hate territorial rights!
