With the vast and varied number of tablets arriving fresh on the market every month, it's useful to know a little of which tablet does what, and why. Various tablets do different things and all having their own strengths. When choosing a tablet it is essential to know exactly what you need in relation to functionality and physical features, so that your tablet can fulfill your requirements and become the only device that you need. Hopefully this guide will help you in choosing your new tablet.
For those in the know, there are two different touch screens available, either a resistive or a capacitive touch screen. iPad uses a capacitive touch screen whereas many other brands use the resistive touch screen. This difference is quite important. With the capacitive touch screen, you can only use fingers for essential on-screen navigation. It also allows features such as multi-touch support, great visibility in sunlight, and a high sensitivity to finger touch, making the screen fast and efficient. Resistive touch screens are sensitive to any touch, because they rely on pressure to register input. This makes it useful for stylus and navigating on your tablet, and is easy to use with gloves or pens, but at the same time it lacks multi-touch functioning. It is worth noting that the resistive touch screen is ideal for people wanting to use a handwriting recognition system.
When it comes to choosing a screen size, it largely depends on the resolution that you are looking for. For those largely wanting media files, video and TV, then resolution is the most important aspect. For others more interested in notebook, e-mail and word processing, then a larger screen and lower resolution is more suitable. Android can support an incredible 1920x1080 pixel resolution display but most current Android tablets are 1024 x 600 and under, as opposed to the iPad 1024x768 pixel resolution. Generally, the larger the screen the heavier the tablet, so for those traveling, a smaller screen size such as 7 inches is definitely better, but for those who want to use the tablet for entertainment purposes a 10 inch screen might be preferable.
The two main operating systems, storming the market are the Android and the IOS. There are other operating systems such as the RIM, but they tend to have fewer app options available at the present time. Androids' app store currently has over 200,000 apps, whereas IOS (Apple) takes the lead with 300,000 apps. The main differences between the operating systems are that because IOS is licensed exclusively to Apple, applications such as Adobe Flash are not supported by the iPad. This is where Android comes in and takes the lead. With over 79 software/hardware companies assigned to their Open Handset Alliance, the sky's the limit with where and what the apps might be available. Of course, this gives the Android significantly better usability, especially for multi-tasking professionals, and for gamers, who have the ability to play flash games. The Android operating system is used by more than 95% of all current tablets.
The processor is the most important component of the tablet relating to tablet speed, and performance. Most currently used processors are single core but Nvidea has just launched the new Tegra processor. This processor has shown amazing developments in tablet technology. Developments include super quick browsing, high-resolution pixilation, and the ability to used Adobe flash 10.1. It also has an incredible 3D user interface. The reason why Nvidea Tegra is capable of these many functions is due to the two processors which are used individually or at the same time. The Nvidea Tegra 2 processor is without doubt the best on the market and most future tablets will be based on the Tegra 2 chip such as the RIM playbook, 'Motorolla Xoom, Toshiba Honeycomb tablet, Dell Streak, and many more.
Most tablets are available with hard drives with less than ideal amounts of space due to the tablets physical constraints. Most tablets have up to 64 GB of space, such as the iPad, HP Slate, and most Android tablets, but in some cases tablets can be upgraded to have as much as 250GB of hard drive space. It is worth noting that to fully utilize a tablet as a multi-media device, you will need to have the most hard drive space as possible. 8 GB or even 16 GB is not going to cut, when 1 movie takes up to 700MB of space.
A good amount of memory is also very important when looking for a tablet as you will most likely be trying to multi-task. You will also be most likely doing some intensive video tasks or play games. For example Android 3.0 will require a minimum of 512MB of ram, but most current tablets, especially in the lower range come with only 256MB and surprisingly the current iPad also come with 256MB, which can make the user interface somewhat sluggish.
Hopefully this tablet pc guide helped you in understanding more about what to look for when purchasing a tablet. If you would like to learn more about current tablets, future tablet, read tablet reviews, and view tablet comparisons visit tablet PC 2011.com.
