In early 2010, after Apple's iPad shown successful debut and signaled the beginning of new tablet PC market, many computer hardware manufacturers noticed and acknowledged the possible large market for tablet PC and prepared during the year. Tablet PC, in design, should be light, portable, and inexpensive while the computing power should be fast enough for daily tasks such as web browsing, email, Twitter, and Facebook.
These tasks are simple enough so they did not want to deploy using Windows OS which requires higher computing power to run smoothly and it is not cheap either. That is why Google Android OS became the popular OS for the new tablet PC among the manufacturers. Android OS is open sourced, and publicly maintained and largely adopted by the smart phones. The latest publicly release version is v2.3 code name Gingerbread. But most of the latest devices come with version 2.2. Google recently announced v3.0 Honeycomb, but it is officially announced that this is for the tablet PC only at this time. Many consumers want to try out the latest version and that's why many manufacturers are planning to adopt Android 3.0 as soon as possible.
Now then what are the important features of Android tablet PC you want to look for when buying a tablet PC? I have listed the important features below starting from the most important to least.
*Processor: The heart of the any computing device. Lower end tablets install 600 MHz processor, but it is important to select a device with at least 1 GHz processor or you will experience noticeable delay. CortexA8 1GHz and NVIDIA's Tegra 1GHz are the popular 1GHz processors.
* Display size and resolution: Popular display sizes are 7 inch and 10 inch. It is mainly depend on your requirement. If you would like to use the table as quick web surfing device only at home and would like a large screen, you would definitely prefer 10 inch tablet. But if you want to bring your tablet around everywhere and enjoy, then you would definitely want to get 7 inch tablet.
* Operating System: Android 2.2 is the latest popular version and you want to look for it. It is known to be faster than previous versions and any other lower versions are not recommended. Also many people anticipate the latest version 3.0 codenamed Honeycomb, but there is no device available yet. It is known to be more adapted to the tablet PC. You know, Android was originally developed to be used with smaller sized smart phones. If you prefer Windows OS based tablet PC, you should be prepare to spend few hundred dollars more because Windows OS requires higher computing power and the expensive OS license fee too.
* RAM, Storage, and SD slot: RAM memory size should around 512MB is good, but higher end devices come with 1GB memory. Default storage varies from 2GB to 32 GB or more. But usually they come with external SD card slots that supports up to 32GB So you want to make sure they have SD card slot.
* Internet 3G and Wi-Fi: This requirement is also depend on how you want to use your tablet. If you want to keep your tablet PC with you all the time, you would probably want to buy 3G supported version. But you need to spend few hundred dollars more in the 3G supported version. Some of tablet PC planned to be announced later in 2011 will have the blazing 4G such as Motorola Xoom. You can still bring around your Wi-Fi only version tablet PC and enjoy the Internet at various places since many public libraries, book stores, coffee shops, and airports provides free public Wi-Fi hotspot services.
* Camera and Video recording: Does it have Camera? In rear or front or both? What is the pixel size? At least front camera is necessary, so you can video chat. Also you want to check if it supports 720 HD or Full HD video recording.
* Touch Screen: Capacitive or Resistive? Capacitive is better over resistive screen, but some prefers resistive. Capacitive screen detects the touch when touched with a electrical conductor such as human body. Resistive screen detects the touch when pressure on the screen is detected. It is more often better to work with fingernails or sharper object such as stylus than finger. Also make sure that it supports multi touch which is required for multi finger zoom in and out.
* Battery power: How long does the battery last? iPad is known to last 10 hours of web surfing, watching movie, and listening music. In fact, if you can get from Android device with 10 hours support, it has very good battery.
* Other connectivity and ports: USB, Bluetooth, 4G, HDMI output,
* Other features: Accelerometer, GPS, Gyroscope.
The more important features should be Processor, Display Size and Storage size. Many other features are often provided as default features for the latest popular Android tablet PCs. But do not assume that the new fancy android tablet PC will have all the popular features. It is important that you visit their website or popular gadget review site and confirm the existence of desired feature from the detailed specifications before actually purchasing the product.
In terms of price, you usually have to pay around $500 ~ $700 for Wi-Fi version and $600 ~ $1000 for 3G version for higher ends tablet PC, but if you are willing to sacrifice some of the features, you can get a nice decent tablet PC around $300 too. I will talk about this later in a different article.
I hope that this introduction to the features of Android tablet PC helps you shopping for the best android tablet.
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