While I hadn’t spent too much time in the past researching tablets, I had some ideas about what I would want. There were two tablets that seemed to stand out above the rest. The first was the PlayBook because the OS sounded like the most tablet-oriented OS on the market. The other was the Toshiba Thrive because it seemed to be the only full-featured tablet with a full-sized USB port and SD card slot (outside of more expensive Windows models that have questionable battery life).
While trying to figure out which tablet would be best for me, I found another option. The ASUS Eee Pad Transformer came between my primary two tablets in price. It also had a MicroSD slot and could also be expanded to include the USB ports that I wanted. I do my shopping strictly online, so I had to base my final decision off of what I have read.
The comparison can be seen below:
| PlayBook | Eee Pad | Thrive | Notes | |
| Price | $200 | $250 + $100 if I added the dock for its USB port | $280 + $50 for an additional battery | These were all based on deals that I found for Black Friday. PlayBook was definitely the best price. Since the Eee Pad would have required me to purchase the dock to get the same things that I wanted from the Thrive, it would have been the most expensive for me. |
| Specs | 1Ghz CPU Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 1GB RAM 1024x600 | 1Ghz CPU Nvidia Tegra 2 1GB RAM 1280x800 | 1Ghz CPU Nvidia Tegra 2 1GB RAM 1280x800 | The tablets all use 1Ghz dual-core processors. These processors are the same for the Eee Pad and Thrive. I honestly don’t have a quality comparison between the OMAP and Tegra. I think that the difference in resolution is forgivable due to the PlayBook’s smaller screen. |
| Size/Bulk | 7” | 10”, not as bulky as Thrive, need dock for USB | 10”, bulkiest of the tablets | A part of me feels that 7” is really the sweet spot for tablets. It seems like they would be easy to hold in one hand, but give you enough screen to accomplish a lot. I don’t know how well the soft keyboard would work, so 10” definitely has advantages. I also like the idea of connecting my camera to my tablet. The need of USB ports on a dock would make the Eee Pad the bulkiest for my use. |
| OS | The BlackBerry Tablet OS sounds like the most tablet-oriented OS on the market, negatives read consist primarily of planned changes that have not yet been implemented | Android is an open platform, so there is a lot that people can do with it. It was primarily developed for phones, but Google took time away from phones to optimize the tablet experience. | Android is an open platform, so there is a lot that people can do with it. It was primarily developed for phones, but Google took time away from phones to optimize the tablet experience. | The OS has always been the reason that I have been curious about the PlayBook. I certainly wouldn’t pick a pre-Honeycomb version of Android. Regardless, this really sounds like a big category win for the PlayBook. |
| Apps | Currently requires development for the PlayBook Platform. In the future, Android and Jave Apps submitted to BlackBerry AppWorld will run on the PlayBook. Even RIM hasn’t appeared to invest much into PlayBook development yet. | Open platform means that Apps are not controlled by a central service, although they do discourage downloads from sites other than the Android Market. Amazon.com has a free App a day. An App currently in beta shows the ability for Android to shoot pictures from DSLRs | Open platform means that Apps are not controlled by a central service, although they do discourage downloads from sites other than the Android Market. Amazon.com has a free App a day. An App currently in beta shows the ability for Android to shoot pictures from DSLRs | I don’t like to look purely at quantity of available Apps in purchasing decisions because popularity of a device (influenced by marketing and brand loyalty) discourages companies that are actually doing a good job in reaching out to developers and providing strong tools. The PlayBook’s platform Apps that will be running alongside submitted Android and Java Apps makes the PlayBook a stronger platform than the numbers make it appear. Unfortunately, Amazon’s free Apps will never appear on that platform, and RIM has been dragging their feet a little too much when it comes to first-party development. Add Android’s open platform and an appealing DSLR App, and this is a huge victory for Android. FYI: I would probably rate the Apps for the PlayBook above the iPad since RIM seems to be far more friendly to developers. |
| Hardware Features | GPS, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Magnetometer, 5MP rear camera, 3MP front camera, micro-USB, micro-HDMI | MicroSD, Compass, GPS, Ambient Light Sensor, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, 5MP rear camera, 1.3MP front camera, miniHDMI, Dock includes an SD card slot and 2 USB ports | SD, Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor, GPS, E-Compass, USB Port, Mini USB, 2MP front camera, 5MP rear camera | For the features that I want, I can get them in the Thrive. I could also get them in the Eee Pad if I purchased the dock. For a company focused on professional products, the lack of external storage and USB ports is surprising for RIM’s PlayBook. |
| Battery | 7 hrs | 9.5 hrs, 16 with Dock | 7 hrs + replaceable battery | There are a lot of different estimates out there for battery life. I just pulled these from Wikipedia. I can’t be certain about the actual numbers, so I’m not going to go overboard. It definitely appears that the Eee Pad has the advantage. Replaceable batteries can help negate the advantage, and it can help with the life of the device since batteries do eventually stop holding a charge. |
| Storage | 16GB | 16GB + MicroSD + USB storage with dock | 8GB + SD + USB storage | Each tablet has different models based off of storage. The numbers provided here are based off of the deals that I was looking at. Since I expect to use a significant portion of the memory for pictures, the lack of a memory card slot makes the PlayBook the worst of these three. Since Honeycomb does not allow saving Apps to SD, the 16GB makes the Eee Pad the best tablet of the three for storage. |
What my decision ultimately came down to was hardware features. I want to be able to take my tablet with me when I go on vacations. The ability to connect to my camera or an SD memory card and transfer to a USB drive is a must for me. In the future, I would like to be able to actually connect my camera to the tablet so that I can fine tune settings without having to mess with the camera itself. As you can see, I’m not like the iPad crowd. I bought a tablet more for the practical value than the hype and marketing.
If the PlayBook had SD support and a USB port, I probably would have chosen it. If the USB port on the Eee Pad was on the tablet instead of the dock, I might had picked it. Instead, I decided on the Thrive.
Although I chose the Thrive, there is a side of me that wants RIM to turn around the PlayBook. The Apps might be slow to come, but the ease of bringing Android Apps to the platform and the rare tablet-centric operating system gives it some serious potential… if you can overlook the fact that people want that stupid Apple logo. It’s a real testament to Apple’s marketing muscle that they are dominating over a clearly superior platform while charging an arm, a leg, and every other appendage that they want.
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