Tablets faster than iPad 3? UPDATE: The Nexus 7 is faster.

[Lifted]

Has anything been announced that will be faster than iPad 3 in the Android space? I assume MS Surface and other x86 Windows tablets will be faster, but was hoping there might be something new in the $300 - $400 market that uses some speedy new hardware.

UPDATE:

OK, so I got the Nexus 7 today. This thing loads the pdf's SOOOOO much faster than the iPad 3, which was previously the only tablet that would reliable load them at all. Android tablets would just crash. Loading the pdf takes a good 10 - 20 seconds, but when panning and zooming around the plans render in 1 - 3 seconds. The previous champion, the iPad 3, would take 10 - 20 seconds to render after pan or zoom.

I'm impressed. Obviously the quad core tegra kicks ass.

 

[Oyeve]

There's more to speed than hardware. Sw optimization will affect speed. That being said, no, I haven't heard a thing.

 

[TuxDave]

I haven't heard of any good $200+ tablets coming out. On the other hand I played with a Nexus 7 at Office Depot w/ Android 4.1 and it's nice. I don't understand what I doing half the time but it was pretty good. And then next to it was another tablet running 2.3. Complete garbage... jesus.

 

[s44]

Android tablets have had more CPU power for a while.

Apple is using a much bigger die for GPU, so that's unlikely to flip soon. Well, maybe for a short time between this fall's new Android/RT releases and the next iPad generation.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

What the iPads have an advantage is GPU power.

CPU is also good but not good as some new ones that are coning out in tablets.

 

[Bateluer]

Pretty much all Tegra 3 based tablets have more CPU power than an iPad 3.

 

[psych2]

Not to mention most of the games don't even come close to taxing the iPad3's GPU since they're targeting 3GS level performance. I'd rather have a faster CPU to speed up day to day tasks.

 

[Lifted]

I have a Nexus 7 arriving soon, but I somehow doubt that it will be faster than an iPad 3 with vector PDF's based on benchmarks I've seen and past experience. I didn't purchase the Nexus 7 for this purpose as I figured it will take years before non-x86 tablets can handle these files, but I'll give it a shot when it arrives.

 

[Phynaz]

Pretty much all Tegra 3 based tablets have more CPU power than an iPad 3.

I noticed you didn't answer his question

 

[OBLAMA2009]

i also am dissatisfied with the speed of tablets and am considering a chromebook as an alternative. it has almost all the advantages of a tablet but with the power of a notebook

 

[GT1999]

Love my iPad 3 LTE. 0 buyers remorse. Nexus 7 looks great, but low end. Pick your budget. JellyBean is a champ on my Android phone. Love the combo.

 

[Bateluer]

I noticed you didn't answer his question

Asus Transform Pad TF300. MSRP 379, Tegra 3. Falls right into the OP's budget.

 

[Aikouka]

Asus Transform Pad TF300. MSRP 379, Tegra 3. Falls right into the OP's budget.

I have an iPad 2 and a TF300. When I want to browse something, I still pick up my iPad 2.

EDIT:

That's partially because I prefer Atomic Web Browser on iOS compared to everything on Android. I've used Chrome, Firefox Beta and the stock browser, but none of them are that great (to me). I can deal with no Flash since AWB actually blocks ads. Firefox can as well, but the browser has such a weird UI.

 

[luv2liv]

you know, i have yet to hear anyone complains ipad 1, 2 or 3 being slow.
the complaints i heard of are: no memory expansion, no standard usb cord, and no hdmi

 

[Mopetar]

Really need to define faster, as in faster in what regard. Are you looking at raw CPU power, graphics performance, or some kind of actual real world result? The answers vary pretty widely depending on what it is that you actually want.

I general though, any Android tablet released recently should be fine in terms of performance. Android 4.1 is also a nice performance boost so you'll also be able to get more out of some older hardware as well. And really, unless there's some processor intensive application that you need, anything will probably be acceptably fast.

 

[dagamer34]

Has anything been announced that will be faster than iPad 3 in the Android space? I assume MS Surface and other x86 Windows tablets will be faster, but was hoping there might be something new in the $300 - $400 market that uses some speedy new hardware.

Android 4.1 on a Galaxy Nexus vs. Android 4.0 on a Galaxy S III is a perfect example of how having faster hardware will not always outpace software optimizations.

 

[SKORPI0]

you know, i have yet to hear anyone complains ipad 1, 2 or 3 being slow.
the complaints i heard of are: no memory expansion, no standard usb cord, and no hdmi

No stereo audio too and 4x3 aspect ratio.

 

[Mopetar]

No stereo audio too and 4x3 aspect ratio.

Honestly, I prefer to the 4:3 aspect ratio for a lot of things, but maybe that's because I almost always use the tablet in landscape. In landscape 4:3 is closer to the ratio for which most web pages are designed and is much closer to the ratio of a printed book. It's obviously worse for video (unless you're into older video I guess), but I don't watch too much video on my iPad so I guess I don't mind that as much. In portrait it's perfect for displaying academic papers, which is the only thing I use it for in portrait.

16:10 isn't bad either, but I have a feeling that I'd find it a little too long in portrait mode to use comfortably. People with larger hands might not have that problem, but with the iPad and it's current bezel size, I find that any larger would make typing with thumbs uncomfortable.

16:9 is probably the most worthless aspect ratio possible for a device that isn't going to be used almost exclusively to watch television programs designed to fit a 16:9 aspect ratio. Every time I see a 16:9 computer display I die a little inside.

 

[AFurryReptile]

I really think that comparing the speed of iOS and Android is going to become a thing of the past, very soon.

I have a Nexus 7, and I've used the new iPad, and they are both fast enough. That's it. Google has, in my opinion, leveled the playing field with Jelly Bean. I much prefer Android's interface, and it really shines when you can do things "fast." My Nexus never stutters, never hiccups, and runs every bit as smoothly as the iPad's I've used.

If you like Android, get a Nexus. If nothing else you can guarantee community modding for at least two years.

 

[Phynaz]

Asus Transform Pad TF300. MSRP 379, Tegra 3. Falls right into the OP's budget.

Does what faster than an iPad?

 

[runawayprisoner]

As said, it's also a software issue.

I haven't seen a half decent PDF reader on Android that can take vectors.

The built-in PDF renderer in iOS (the one used in Mobile Safari and iBooks), on the other hand, is blazingly fast and very smooth. Vector is only a matter of whether the device has enough memory to spare, and the iPad 3 has plenty with 1GB.

 

[Bateluer]

Does what faster than an iPad?

Anything that hits the CPU heavily. Tegra 3 is a quad core, while the iPad 3 is merely a dual core A9. The GPU Apple paired with it is unmatched, but for raw computational ability, Tegra 3 usually bests it.

Hopefully, we can see Samsung utilize that Exynos 4412 in a true successor Galaxy Tab. The Tab 2s were underwhelming, and with the Nexus 7 out, even the Tab 2 doesn't raise an eyebrow any more.

If Android tablet makers can rise to the challenge, there should be plenty of good SoCs to choose from in a few months, S4 Pro and OMAP5/Pvr6 should raise the bar significantly.

 

[Lifted]

The following 2 PDF's are average examples of what I would need a tablet to render, but some can get quite a bit larger.

https://www.filesanywhere.com/fs/v.aspx?v=8a71628c5d657579b298

https://www.filesanywhere.com/fs/v.aspx?v=8a71628c5d6576b4b46b

If anyone wants to try these on their Android tablets and let me know how well things go.

I'm thinking best to wait for Windows 8 as these appear to be too much for either the ARM architecture and speeds at this point, unless somebody decides to optimize the heck out of rendering vectors. You'd think it would be possible with all of the fancy 3D games they have available these days on ARM tablets.

 

[stormkroe]

The following 2 PDF's are average examples of what I would need a tablet to render, but some can get quite a bit larger.

https://www.filesanywhere.com/fs/v.aspx?v=8a71628c5d657579b298

https://www.filesanywhere.com/fs/v.aspx?v=8a71628c5d6576b4b46b

If anyone wants to try these on their Android tablets and let me know how well things go.

I'm thinking best to wait for Windows 8 as these appear to be too much for either the ARM architecture and speeds at this point, unless somebody decides to optimize the heck out of rendering vectors. You'd think it would be possible with all of the fancy 3D games they have available these days on ARM tablets.

My desktop didn't even like viewing those things <
Just curious, what part do you play in that project? It reminds me of a 65 unit hotel I wired 2 years ago.

 

[Aristotelian]

i also am dissatisfied with the speed of tablets and am considering a chromebook as an alternative. it has almost all the advantages of a tablet but with the power of a notebook

I'm not sure why you are posting this here. I responded to you in another thread showing my misgivings about the power of chromebooks. My ipad 2 is faster than my chromebook, let alone an ipad 3. May I ask why you think a chromebook can compete with the ipad 3 in terms of speed?