I was waiting for after Xmas to get a tablet, and had my hopes pinned on the Transformer Prime. Unfortunately I have yet to find one that I could actually purchase, online or B&M, let alone actually test drive to see how I like it. After hearing about the issues that many people are having with the Prime, I'm leaning away from that device altogether unless the availability issue is related to a new hardware rev that fixes the issues.
So what else is out there that's looking good? I only need wifi, and I want something that will be fairly current (able to go to at least ICS and maybe Jellybean).
It looks like the Moto Xoom is all but gone, last year's news. It's also a bit pricey. The Samsung Galaxy devices look really nice, but again they're old tech and Samsung is notoriously bad about providing software updates, and they're also pricey. It also doesn't help that there's probably 10 different variations of the the Galaxy tab, so I'm sure that will slow it down even more.
The original Transformer is still out there, but I'm not sure about going the Tegra 2 route. There's also the Iconia A200 which just came out, and it looks pretty good except that it's also using the Tegra 2. It actually looks pretty much like a purely cosmetic refresh of the A500, so again I think I'm looking at last year's tech. I've had Asus and Acer hardware in the past with no issues, so I'm assuming that the OG Transformer or A200 would both be likely to get ICS in the next few months.
I've seen Asus will have the TF701, but to be honest the "new" features over the TF201 don't impress me much. Much more interesting would be the fixes for the radio issues that the TF201 has, but IMO that's something that Asus needs to address with a hardware rev on the TF201, not a new release that costs $100.
I've seen that Acer will have an A700 (?) that's Tegra 3 based, but I haven't seen anything about availability yet. Just that they teased it at CES. Does anyone else have a Tegra 3 device on the near roadmap?
I feel like I'm in the worst time to buy right now. I understand that "there's always something better coming if you wait a little longer", but I feel that we're at the tail end of the 2011 tech and it's too early for the 2012 tech to be available. If I knew that the next wave of new devices were going to be available in February I'd wait, but nobody is talking hard dates (that I've heard). All of the good stuff that we've seen at CES may not be available until June, and I definitely don't want to wait that long.
Does anyone have any insight?
So what else is out there that's looking good? I only need wifi, and I want something that will be fairly current (able to go to at least ICS and maybe Jellybean).
It looks like the Moto Xoom is all but gone, last year's news. It's also a bit pricey. The Samsung Galaxy devices look really nice, but again they're old tech and Samsung is notoriously bad about providing software updates, and they're also pricey. It also doesn't help that there's probably 10 different variations of the the Galaxy tab, so I'm sure that will slow it down even more.
The original Transformer is still out there, but I'm not sure about going the Tegra 2 route. There's also the Iconia A200 which just came out, and it looks pretty good except that it's also using the Tegra 2. It actually looks pretty much like a purely cosmetic refresh of the A500, so again I think I'm looking at last year's tech. I've had Asus and Acer hardware in the past with no issues, so I'm assuming that the OG Transformer or A200 would both be likely to get ICS in the next few months.
I've seen Asus will have the TF701, but to be honest the "new" features over the TF201 don't impress me much. Much more interesting would be the fixes for the radio issues that the TF201 has, but IMO that's something that Asus needs to address with a hardware rev on the TF201, not a new release that costs $100.
I've seen that Acer will have an A700 (?) that's Tegra 3 based, but I haven't seen anything about availability yet. Just that they teased it at CES. Does anyone else have a Tegra 3 device on the near roadmap?
I feel like I'm in the worst time to buy right now. I understand that "there's always something better coming if you wait a little longer", but I feel that we're at the tail end of the 2011 tech and it's too early for the 2012 tech to be available. If I knew that the next wave of new devices were going to be available in February I'd wait, but nobody is talking hard dates (that I've heard). All of the good stuff that we've seen at CES may not be available until June, and I definitely don't want to wait that long.
Does anyone have any insight?