Hi Mark, and also diamond.s.ranch and others.
I don't know if I am out of order resurrecting and hijacking this thread or if I'd be more out of order cluttering up the forum with a new thread so mods please feel free to advise me if I made the wrong decision. [EDIT in the end I obviously decided to start my own thread but again if this is the wrong decision then please mods append it to the "talk me into keeping the ipad 2" thread.
I am kind of in a similar position to DSR except I don't have the privilege of trying both to give one back. And unlike you Mark I don't have the money to keep both.
I'm interested in the ipad 2 but my experience with Apple (vs my mother's samsung android s2) is that an unjailbroken Apple device is a horridly suffocating device. Yet when its jailbroken it's worth almost any money to own. The trouble is I'm not sure if the iPad 2 will ever be jailbroken with iOS 5 so I have to look at the Tab.
The Tab looks incredible. Hardware specs destroy the iPad and the OS *looks* infinitely better than iOS and the customisation and openness of the whole thing just makes it seem SOOO much better than iPad.
BUT I remember having the same dilemma when looking at iPhone 3g vs samsung Omnia back in the day. The omnia had much better specs and was open etc but in the end I risked the iPhone (weird move for me given I don't like Apple and will never buy a Mac over a PC) and it is the best decision I ever made. I always kept an eye on new phones coming out though and each time a phone would be hailed as an "iPhone killer" but within weeks the hype would be over and it was clear nothign could beat the iPhone. The same with 3GS - when I bought that there were other techinically more superior phones available, all touted as being iPhone killers, but to date none of them has had a hope in hell of killing the iPhone.
I still have the 3GS but my mum has a Samsung Galaxy S phone, which is awesome. Better screen, better everything and on Android... but even though it should be better than the 3GS (more comparable to the iPhone 4) it doesn't even come close to beating even the 3GS. Why? Useability, slickness, sexiness. No matter how technically superior something is, if it's even a tiny bit laggy trying to swipe pages I'm less likely to even bother using it so the features become redundant. The iPhone is VERY useable. (swift moving pages, smoothness, etc). In fact the whole Android experienc on my mums allegely superior phone is vomit inducing. Laggy, choppy, horrid icons, amateur looking. Then there's the question of apps... Android has a bunch sure, but I looked on their Appstore for a good to-do app for her and by God the appstore is a *complete mess*. I didn't find what I wanted for her - nothing really good enough. Apple app store is infinitely better. Then I checked plants vs Zombies for my GF's new android and guess what - a ported version which apparently has problems and a couple of fake (yes... fake!!!) versions. I couldn't believe it.
Why am I going on about phones? Well I fear the same may be true for iPad vs Android tablets. I've been there before and I've seen it before. The Android OS looks better, it's open and customisable, the machines beat the pants of the Apple machines and they are being touted as iPad killers already - certainly the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is!. And even Apple are throwing their toys out of the pram it seems believing the hype and trying to ban it. BUT I fear that actually as before and as with phones actually nothin will beat the slickness and useabliity of the iPad and certainly nothing ill come close to the quality and availability of the apps.
So why am I not going with the iPad? Well... two things 1) I adore the look of the Tab (just like at every point in the past I always preferred the looks of iPhone competitors) and 2) my fear that the iPad 2 IOS5 may never get a jailbreak - because everything I write above is with me using a JAILBROKEN iPhone. The few times I've had the misfortune of being stranded in an unjailbroken state I almost threw the piece of junk in the bin and went out and bought an Android.
So if my JB fear is true I may want to jump ship to Tab, but then I don't want to go out of the frying pan and into the fire with a tablet that looks awesome but just doesn't deliver anything like an iPad experience.
I'm stuck!
Anyone who has both or has at least tried both and is genuinely unbiased, please can you advise me....
(ps I'll be using it mainly for web browsing/ calender/ to-do lists/ games/ any other fun apps etc)
Thanks in advance for any input and apologies for the longwinded post!
Sam
I don't know if I am out of order resurrecting and hijacking this thread or if I'd be more out of order cluttering up the forum with a new thread so mods please feel free to advise me if I made the wrong decision. [EDIT in the end I obviously decided to start my own thread but again if this is the wrong decision then please mods append it to the "talk me into keeping the ipad 2" thread.
I am kind of in a similar position to DSR except I don't have the privilege of trying both to give one back. And unlike you Mark I don't have the money to keep both.
I'm interested in the ipad 2 but my experience with Apple (vs my mother's samsung android s2) is that an unjailbroken Apple device is a horridly suffocating device. Yet when its jailbroken it's worth almost any money to own. The trouble is I'm not sure if the iPad 2 will ever be jailbroken with iOS 5 so I have to look at the Tab.
The Tab looks incredible. Hardware specs destroy the iPad and the OS *looks* infinitely better than iOS and the customisation and openness of the whole thing just makes it seem SOOO much better than iPad.
BUT I remember having the same dilemma when looking at iPhone 3g vs samsung Omnia back in the day. The omnia had much better specs and was open etc but in the end I risked the iPhone (weird move for me given I don't like Apple and will never buy a Mac over a PC) and it is the best decision I ever made. I always kept an eye on new phones coming out though and each time a phone would be hailed as an "iPhone killer" but within weeks the hype would be over and it was clear nothign could beat the iPhone. The same with 3GS - when I bought that there were other techinically more superior phones available, all touted as being iPhone killers, but to date none of them has had a hope in hell of killing the iPhone.
I still have the 3GS but my mum has a Samsung Galaxy S phone, which is awesome. Better screen, better everything and on Android... but even though it should be better than the 3GS (more comparable to the iPhone 4) it doesn't even come close to beating even the 3GS. Why? Useability, slickness, sexiness. No matter how technically superior something is, if it's even a tiny bit laggy trying to swipe pages I'm less likely to even bother using it so the features become redundant. The iPhone is VERY useable. (swift moving pages, smoothness, etc). In fact the whole Android experienc on my mums allegely superior phone is vomit inducing. Laggy, choppy, horrid icons, amateur looking. Then there's the question of apps... Android has a bunch sure, but I looked on their Appstore for a good to-do app for her and by God the appstore is a *complete mess*. I didn't find what I wanted for her - nothing really good enough. Apple app store is infinitely better. Then I checked plants vs Zombies for my GF's new android and guess what - a ported version which apparently has problems and a couple of fake (yes... fake!!!) versions. I couldn't believe it.
Why am I going on about phones? Well I fear the same may be true for iPad vs Android tablets. I've been there before and I've seen it before. The Android OS looks better, it's open and customisable, the machines beat the pants of the Apple machines and they are being touted as iPad killers already - certainly the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is!. And even Apple are throwing their toys out of the pram it seems believing the hype and trying to ban it. BUT I fear that actually as before and as with phones actually nothin will beat the slickness and useabliity of the iPad and certainly nothing ill come close to the quality and availability of the apps.
So why am I not going with the iPad? Well... two things 1) I adore the look of the Tab (just like at every point in the past I always preferred the looks of iPhone competitors) and 2) my fear that the iPad 2 IOS5 may never get a jailbreak - because everything I write above is with me using a JAILBROKEN iPhone. The few times I've had the misfortune of being stranded in an unjailbroken state I almost threw the piece of junk in the bin and went out and bought an Android.
So if my JB fear is true I may want to jump ship to Tab, but then I don't want to go out of the frying pan and into the fire with a tablet that looks awesome but just doesn't deliver anything like an iPad experience.
I'm stuck!
Anyone who has both or has at least tried both and is genuinely unbiased, please can you advise me....
(ps I'll be using it mainly for web browsing/ calender/ to-do lists/ games/ any other fun apps etc)
Thanks in advance for any input and apologies for the longwinded post!
Sam
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