To assist in some upcoming business travel, I recently was in the market to get a tablet device. I didn't want to put a lot of time into comparing various tablets, so my initial market analysis pointed out these possibilities :
- iPad
- You can't go too wrong, but Flash support seems weak or non-existant. Not good for me as watching a variety of web videos was key for me. Generally, I'm not a fan of Apple's closed-world view.
- "High-end Android" (Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy)
- Too expensive. How can they be pricier than iPad? Also, I just need WiFi, not G3/G4 support. The 7-inch Galaxy is too small.
- "Knock-off Android"
- Cheap no-name knockoffs seem too clunky. My budget isn't that limited.
I was going to order an iPad, but then declined when I saw the wait time was 3-4 weeks. This was too late for my business travel, and the thought of waiting for anything in technology really grates me.
Then I stumbled across a ViewSonic gTablet. Here I found fairly capable hardware from a company I've heard of. The shipped "wrapper" software on top of the Android 2.2 OS was said to be terrible, but easily replaceable. Since I had just got an Android 2.2 Evo phone, which I was very happy with, I decided to grab a new ViewSonic on eBay for $270 (after a 10 percent rebate from eBay).
So far, after upgrading the software, I've been very happy with my "gTab". Here's my experience upgrading the software.