Questions about the gTablet

[scottder]

I am in the market for the gTablet, I am drawn to the price (awesome for Tegra2 based tablet and I don't want/need one with 3G data), size and desire to dive into Android as an OS (also looking into development size down the line). I have no porblem with blowing away the installed version for VEGAn or TnT.

Have a few questions:

1) Viewing angles seem to be a complaint, how bad is it, I don't seem myself looking at it off-axis a lot. Is it really THAT bad?

2) Glossy screen, seems very reflective. Does anyone make a slightly less reflective screen protector?

3) I would likely cary this thing in my bag while going to work (use it in the train while commuting), I saw the sleeve they sell at Sears (went to go see if they had one to play with, but all they had was a cardboard facsimile which was disappointing). Are there other options that would be backpack/messenger bag friendly?

4) Bit more opinion poll on this one, Launcher that works best with the gTab, something that plays really well with the available real-estate?

Thanks

Scott

 

[scottder]

another one I have thought of, how does battery life fare for the gtablet?

 

[dlike]

The viewing angles are the only drawback to this tab, head on it looks great, maybe not iPad great but pretty good. Launcher Pro works great on the G-Tab and the Widgets included in LP are awesome. Battery life is around 7-8 hours for me with continuous use. VEGAn Rom is currently the best for use on this tab right now. Honeycomb will get ported to the G-Tab sometime in the future. It really is a very good tablet and if your not worried about off axis viewing you won't be disappointed.

 

[Stocklone]

My Experience

I thought the viewing angles were bad. You think well I will only look on it straight on, it will be fine. No. Basically the viewing angles in portrait are so bad the change in angle from your left eye to right eye has enough difference that black can appear as flashing as your brain tries to compensate for the extreme change. It actually looks better if you keep one eye closed. And your hands are going to be moving slightly while holding it or you may not have a comfortable way of holding it while laying or sitting with it so it's nothing like having a netbook with bad viewing angles. This is a netbook screen. It is not a tablet screen. Basically anything mainly black looks terrible on the screen. If it's mostly white, it's not as big of a deal. Landscape is much better but still not good enough for me. It's also kind of hard to show it to anyone since the viewing angles are so bad. They have to be holding it. After buying this and returning it I will only buy a tablet with a fantastic display. At least as good as the Nook Color. Also the touch screen can be finicky. I've read that somebody figured out how to recalibrate it. So maybe that fixes it. I don't know since I returned it before I could try it. I had areas that would work maybe one out of ten taps. This included corners which had the home button as well as some parts of the keyboard. That was extremely frustrating. Some people said they had no issues like I described with the touching. Also, I hated that the physical buttons were not backlit and had no texture or anything to allow you to feel for the buttons so it was impossible to find them in the dark. And they would get lost as I rotated the device. There is a damn good reason why Honeycomb doesn't need physical buttons. On-screen buttons are the way to go. Those were my main issues with it. It wasn't all bad though. I loved the speed of the device. This baby has an insane amount of power for the price. It completely blew away my phone after installing a custom ROM. The hacking community is very string with this device. There are some very dedicated individuals trying to make this device the best it can possibly be. The battery life was good. I don't think I even had to charge it every day. It is possible to do GPS tethering and use it as a giant car navigator. But again viewing angles come into play. Launcher Pro can is very tablet friendly if you pay for it to widget resizing. That makes a huge difference. You can also set the row and column spacing. Then you can just go nuts with your home screen in a way not possible on a smartphone. Personally, I'm saving my money and waiting for competition to bring down the prices on high end Honeycomb tablets. Lots of people love the G-Tablet. Just keep in mind the downsides when deciding to buy it or not.

 

[Stocklone]

Despite the negatives I said, I still have a soft spot for the tablet and regularly check on the XDA forums to see how development is going and what cool things people are doing with the tablet.

 

[digitalslacker]

Me too...waiting (not so patiently) for honeycomb....

Love this tablet. Viewing angle sucks but its powerful for the price....

Sent from my VEGAn-TAB-v1.0.0b5.1.1 using Tapatalk

 

[dlike]

Despite the negatives I said, I still have a soft spot for the tablet and regularly check on the XDA forums to see how development is going and what cool things people are doing with the tablet.

I rarely use mine in the portrait mode so the viewing angle is not a problem for me. VEGAn has soft navigation buttons so the lack of backlight for the menu buttons doesn't bother me either. Sure their are things that could be better but all in all it's still a great tablet. I can't wait for Honeycomb to get ported.

 

[scottder]

Thanks all for the comments. What are you all using for casing/protection options?

 

[scottder]

Me too...waiting (not so patiently) for honeycomb....

Love this tablet. Viewing angle sucks but its powerful for the price....

Sent from my VEGAn-TAB-v1.0.0b5.1.1 using Tapatalk

digitalslacker,

what advantages does the Clemsyn's Kernel give to you?

Scott

 

[scottder]

Can the gTablet handle a 32Gb microsd card?

 

[digitalslacker]

digitalslacker,

what advantages does the Clemsyn's Kernel give to you?

Scott

nothing that I care about really...I just install it cuz i can
I have the droid x so i don't get to play with kernels.

"THIS Build has CIFFS, PPTP, VPN, MPPE, PPOE, Proxy Support, EXT4 Support, NTFS Support, Joystick/GamePad support. 3g Modem is also enabled in this kernel"

according to his thread.

i don't really get the 3g modem being enabled....

pershoot has one too, i flip flop
Droid Basement

 

[scottder]

i don't really get the 3g modem being enabled....

Looks like USB 3gb modems. That would be kind of cool.

Scott

 

[digitalslacker]

Looks like USB 3gb modems. That would be kind of cool.

Scott

yeah
i use wireless tether through my DX so that covers me but some would find that useful.