Tablets racing to the bottom, phones the opposite

[Midwayman]

What tablets have gotten down to the "sub $300 levels" in the last few months that is actually worth buying and not made by Google (ASUS), Amazon, or B&N? There are older tablets and new tablets with absolute garbage specs at under $300. But I haven't see anything worth buying other than one of the content subsidized tablets from the big 3.

There were quite a few 10" tegra 3 tablets getting there on sale over christmas. Basically 10" nexus 7 tabs. Asus tf300t is available under $300 right now. I saw several similar ones drop that low. Not high end by any means, but I wouldn't consider a tegra 3 garbage.

 

[Riceninja]

7 inch tablet is useless when smartphones are now 5 inches, with note 2 at 5.5 and maybe 6.1 for note 3.

personally id spring for a 5inch gs4 and 10inch tablet

 

[Bateluer]

Disagree completely.

Battery is inline with other high end phones the same size, low storage is a deliberate design decision of the Nexus line and the screen is up there with the best 4.7".

I have both a N4 and N7 and I can assure you, the 4 is way ahead of the 7. I imagine tablets consume way more paid content so getting them into as many hands as possible is probably desirable.

I have to disagree with you. The Nexus 4 has good specs, very good for its price, but not excellent. The battery is tiny and non-removable, the RAZR HDs, Note 2s, and GS3s all boast better battery life than the N4. In the case of the MAXXs, the N4 has the life span of a paper match. The CPU is one of the fastest available, but it throttles so much that even dual core S4s perform similarly. To say nothing of devices with S4 Pros that don't throttle.

Screen on the N4 is decent, or so I hear, but the SLCD3 on the Droid DNA is truly drool worthy. And there's a slew of ~5in 1080P phones coming very soon. The 720P display in the N4 is going to look very last year in a month.

When you combine the tiny battery, tiny storage, no LTE, and overall fragility, I don't think the Nexus 4 can be called the best phone. Its price tag is its best feature.


On on unrelated point, I hope the supply issues kick LG out of the running for future Nexus models. Motorola has a proven track record with hardware build quality, but a lackluster one with the software side. A Motorola built phone with Google supplied software is the phone that every Android fan has been clamoring for since Google bought Motorola.

 

[Red Storm]

Yeah, a Motorola Nexus with Maxx like battery life is probably the only thing that could pull me away from the Note.

 

[thecapsaicinkid]

I have to disagree with you. The Nexus 4 has good specs, very good for its price, but not excellent. The battery is tiny and non-removable, the RAZR HDs, Note 2s, and GS3s all boast better battery life than the N4. In the case of the MAXXs, the N4 has the life span of a paper match. The CPU is one of the fastest available, but it throttles so much that even dual core S4s perform similarly. To say nothing of devices with S4 Pros that don't throttle.

Screen on the N4 is decent, or so I hear, but the SLCD3 on the Droid DNA is truly drool worthy. And there's a slew of ~5in 1080P phones coming very soon. The 720P display in the N4 is going to look very last year in a month.

When you combine the tiny battery, tiny storage, no LTE, and overall fragility, I don't think the Nexus 4 can be called the best phone. Its price tag is its best feature.


On on unrelated point, I hope the supply issues kick LG out of the running for future Nexus models. Motorola has a proven track record with hardware build quality, but a lackluster one with the software side. A Motorola built phone with Google supplied software is the phone that every Android fan has been clamoring for since Google bought Motorola.

What do you mean the battery is tiny, it's 2100mAh, same as the GS3. Regards to the SoC throttling, you're talking purely current benchmark results aren't you, not actual performance. Have you actually used an N4? Phones don't get any faster.

I think you're very susceptible to marketing hype if you think 400+ PPI screens make ~340ppi screens look 'last year', whatever that means. I'm not even going to touch the 'no LTE' argument. The whole concept of carrier independence is lost on most people here.

Fragility is definitely a problem, something I complain about frequently. I've said it before, large internal storage is a thing of the past.