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Android News 24 : Android Tablets
Hands-on: €120 Acer Iconia B1While drowning in tech here at Mobile World Congress 2013, we got our grubby little hands on the recently announced Acer Iconia B1. In case you were wondering, the B stands for you have to Be one cheapass Android buyer to pick up something this cheap. Priced at a rock bottom low $120 for 8GB of storage ($140 for 16GB), the Acer Iconia B1 answers the question of how low an Android device can go while still remaining usable for the most part. In our brief time with the tablet, the software felt relatively snappy for the most part, lacking only in the “butter” department when scrolling around the UI. Check out our quick hands-on video to get a better look at the outside of the device |
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Hands-on: HP Slate 7HP has announced its own sub-$200 Android slate and named it accordingly. The HP Slate 7 was on the floor at MWC and we gave it the inaugural hands-on treatment, getting a feel for what the company that bought webOS is bringing to Android. The short answer is not much more than what others making 7-inch tablets have already done. For $170, the Slate 7 is serviceable enough. You get a 7-inch display with a 1024 x 600 resolution, 1.6GHz dual-core CPU, and 3MP camera. The price affords 8GB of storage and 1GB of RAM. Perhaps the biggest differentiating feature is the inclusion of Beats Audio, much like HP has done with its notebook lineup (and similar to HTC’s inclusion of the audio enhancement software). The tablet has a solid feel for its price point and matches wits with other competitors in the class. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is presented in stock fashion, and you get a few HP-centric apps to round out your experience. Still, we wonder how many more options people need in this class. |
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Hands-on with the ASUS FonepadAndroid has a long history of playing host to ridiculously large smartphones. First there was the Dell Streak. Next came the original Samsung Galaxy Note. And now in 2013 we have the ASUS Fonepad, a 7-inch tablet that's also a 7-inch phone. On first inspection the Fonepad looks a little bit like a another 7-inch ASUS tablet, the Nexus 7. But unlike that device it's also a full 3G/HSPA phone, complete with earpiece and microphone. That's right, you can hold this seven-inch slab of electronics to your head and make telephone calls. Where other large smartphones -- including Huawei's gigantic Ascend Mate -- trim down their bezels to make them more pocket and hand-friendly, ASUS has chosen to incorporate a tablet-sized screen trim on the Fonepad. As a result, using the device as a telephone in the usual way is the binary opposite of ergonomic. If you felt awkward making phone calls on a Galaxy Note, that's nothing by comparison. Assuming you posses digits large enough to palm the Fonepad to your ear, you're going to feel like an idiot walking around with it pressed to your face. |
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Hands-on with the ASUS Padfone InfinityAt the conceptual level, the ASUS Padfone series has always sounded cool, but it's never managed to translate that into mainstream success. Previous Padfones, though technically impressive, have been too expensive to win over consumers and carriers en masse. On top of that, ASUS has yet to present a really compelling use case for combining a phone with tablet dock. Nevertheless, the Taiwanese manufacturer is back with a third Padfone iteration, the Padfone Infinity. The Infinity boasts superior specs, a redesigned, brushed aluminum chassis an Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. But is that enough to justify this class of device? Check out our first impressions from Mobile World Congress after the break. |
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Hands-on: Sony Xperia Tablet ZIt was barely announced, officially, just yesterday, and today we spent a little time in Sony’s booth, taking a look at their all new Sony Xperia Tablet Z. Sony touts the tab as the world’s thinnest 10.1-inch tablet, featuring a thickness of just 6.99mm (that’s thinner than many smartphones). Upon seeing the device in person, I can safely say this will be the sexiest Android tab to ever hit the market — hands down. You can expect the Sony Xperia Tablet Z to launch sometime in Q3 of this year with the 16GB model retailing for $500, and the 32GB for $600. |
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Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 vs Google Nexus 7How well does the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 stack up against the Google Nexus 7? Join us and find out! Coming into MWC 2013, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 was hardly a secret, as numerous leaks had already painted an accurate picture of Samsung’s response to the Apple iPad Mini. But although it’s no surprise that the Galaxy Note 8.0 was officially announced by Samsung, the fact remains that this S-Pen-enabled tablet is likely to play an important role in the evolution of the Android ecosystem for at least the first half of the year. When covering new mid-sized Android tablets, or even any category of Android tablets for that matter, one interesting way of appreciating its future success is a comparison with the best selling Android tablet of all times, the Google Nexus 7. |
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Hands-on with Sony Xperia Tablet ZSeven-inch tablets might rule the race to the bottom, but Sony's recently announced Xperia Tablet Z is a little slice of 10-inch heaven. It's a ridiculous 6.9mm thin, running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, with Sony's suite of custom apps and features. It's deceptively light, belying its nearly 500 grams of weight. Design-wise, the Xperia Tablet Z borrows features form the phone side of the shop, including such details as the ring around the device. You've been hearing a lot about IR blasters the past few weeks, and Sony's no exception here, building one into its tablet for some proper couch-bound channel surfing. |
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Hands-on with the HP Slate 7What do you do if you've long since past being a laughingstock in the mobile business? You failed at Windows Mobile. You bought Palm and put webOS out to pasture. And now, if you're HP, your first real foray into Android is a tablet that's nice from afar, but far from nice. Such is the HP Slate 7. Let's be perfectly clear about one thing: Pick up the Slate 7, and you're holding a tablet that feels like it could easily go toe to toe with the Nexus 7 or any of Samsung's 7-inch-ish tablets. It's nicely built. It's less than half a millimeter thicker than the Nexus 7. Priced at $169, it could sell. Hell, it probably will sell. Stick it in every brick-and-mortar store next to a Nexus 7, and chances are most normal consumers won't notice a difference, save for the price tag. |
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Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 hands-onAt first glance, the Note 8.0 is a surreal device to behold, looking a lot like a supersized Galaxy Note 2. The basic Samsung design language holds over from the company's 2012 smartphones, meaning we’re dealing with a curvy, shiny, plasticky device. A first for a Samsung tablet, the Note 8.0 includes physical buttons as opposed to the more common on-screen kind, and from a branding perspective. Samsung clearly wants consumers to identify the Note 8.0 as a companion device to the S3 and Note 2. So you should know what to expect if you’ve handled either of those products -- the Note 8.0 is unashamedly light and shiny, and something of a fingerprint magnet. That said, it’s not at all creaky, nor does it feel fragile. |
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Trailer for ASUS MeMo Pad Smart 10 emerges, Tegra 3 and available in pinkASUS has long been making Android tablets now, and they're often something worth taking note of. Their latest -- previously rumored -- slate, likely heading towards Mobile World Congress, has been unveiled by way of a YouTube trailer. Say hello to the ASUS MeMo Pad Smart 10. Catchy, isn't it? Unlike some past offerings from ASUS, the MeMo Pad Smart 10 doesn't break any new boundaries, or push the specs to the limits. But, what it looks like is a pretty solid 10-inch tablet. Oh, and it'll also be available in pink, if you're into that sort of thing. We don't get a whole lot of information from the clip, but we do find out that the tablet houses a Tegra 3 processor, a 5MP rear camera, and a 10-inch IPS display that promises some impressive viewing angles. We're also treated to SonicMaster sound technology, and a glimpse at some of the bundled software, although anyone familiar with ASUS tablets won't be too surprised by what we see. All this fits in with earlier, leaked information on the tablet, and at the same time isn't too surprising. Neither is the software, it's pretty much a given that we'll be looking at Jelly Bean, but as yet there's no confirmation on which version. |
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