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- Oct 1, 2010
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eBooks might be all the rage now and every indicator out there says that they are the future of publishing. Consumers have many choices in terms of portable devices (other than laptops) that they can use to read them. I thought I'd weigh in with my own experiences in choosing one.
After months of research, listening to friends, and coveting their iPads from a distance, I took the plunge and bought a tablet (this one). I had my heart set on an iPad since I already use a Mac for most of my work. I considered other options because of cost-effectiveness; like any tech-lover, I consider cost-effectiveness to be more important than price alone. I decided to go with an Android tablet, specifically, one running Android 3.1 ("Honeycomb"). All things considered, I think I made the right choice.
First, the physical device itself: I ended up getting a tablet that has as much memory as an iPad that costs $100 more, and that weighs a scant 80 grams (~2.8 oz) more; it's visibly thicker than an iPad but the technical specs pages at both manufacturers' sites indicate that mine is only 4 mm (less than a quarter of an inch) thicker. There are other tablets that run Android 3.1 out there, notably the Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy 10.1; I got the Asus Transformer first because it cost less and second because the vendors in my area don't seem to be selling the Samsung except as part of a cellular phone service package (though that might change soon).
I can't complain about its performance. The thing takes a while to start up (about a minute) but that is not a big deal. Every app I have on it works frightfully fast. For reading ePub and similar formats, the only complaint I have is that the reader that it came with was sub-optimal in its performance and not very user-friendly; there are quite a few others to choose from and the best I've found so far is Aldiko. I loaded up an ePub that I bought of something that I already have in hard copy that is over 1000 pages long, and it was ready to read before I could blink. I loaded two monster-sized PDFs on it with Adobe Reader (one was the complete works of HP Lovecraft, the other was the ISO specification document for Adobe PDF) and both were ready to read in seconds; the delay to load a new page was negligible. PDFs that I would loathe to load on a fairly new Mac or a fairly old PC laptop are a breeze on Android.
Sure, it's more expensive than a Kindle or a Kobo, but it's way more flexible and useful than either of those devices. (Plus, unlike the Kobo, the company that stands behind it is not bankrupt!) I won't say that everybody should hunt down an Android device and forget about the iPad; however, there is a really good alternative out there if you want a useful tablet that performs well.
After months of research, listening to friends, and coveting their iPads from a distance, I took the plunge and bought a tablet (this one). I had my heart set on an iPad since I already use a Mac for most of my work. I considered other options because of cost-effectiveness; like any tech-lover, I consider cost-effectiveness to be more important than price alone. I decided to go with an Android tablet, specifically, one running Android 3.1 ("Honeycomb"). All things considered, I think I made the right choice.
First, the physical device itself: I ended up getting a tablet that has as much memory as an iPad that costs $100 more, and that weighs a scant 80 grams (~2.8 oz) more; it's visibly thicker than an iPad but the technical specs pages at both manufacturers' sites indicate that mine is only 4 mm (less than a quarter of an inch) thicker. There are other tablets that run Android 3.1 out there, notably the Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy 10.1; I got the Asus Transformer first because it cost less and second because the vendors in my area don't seem to be selling the Samsung except as part of a cellular phone service package (though that might change soon).
I can't complain about its performance. The thing takes a while to start up (about a minute) but that is not a big deal. Every app I have on it works frightfully fast. For reading ePub and similar formats, the only complaint I have is that the reader that it came with was sub-optimal in its performance and not very user-friendly; there are quite a few others to choose from and the best I've found so far is Aldiko. I loaded up an ePub that I bought of something that I already have in hard copy that is over 1000 pages long, and it was ready to read before I could blink. I loaded two monster-sized PDFs on it with Adobe Reader (one was the complete works of HP Lovecraft, the other was the ISO specification document for Adobe PDF) and both were ready to read in seconds; the delay to load a new page was negligible. PDFs that I would loathe to load on a fairly new Mac or a fairly old PC laptop are a breeze on Android.
Sure, it's more expensive than a Kindle or a Kobo, but it's way more flexible and useful than either of those devices. (Plus, unlike the Kobo, the company that stands behind it is not bankrupt!) I won't say that everybody should hunt down an Android device and forget about the iPad; however, there is a really good alternative out there if you want a useful tablet that performs well.