Tag Archives: donald bell

May 02

Toshiba Tegra 3 tablets offer extras we’ve ...

Posted on by

The Excite 7.7's AMOLED screen is, quite likely, the same fantastic screen used in the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7.

(Credit:Donald Bell/CNET)

With its Excite 10 LE, Toshiba offered a well-designedtablet with disappointing performance, and (in my opinion) too high a price tag for what was offered. With the company’s announcement of new 10-, 7.7-, and 13-inch tablets today, it doesn’t seem as if much has changed on the pricing front, but at least now it’s offering Tegra 3-based devices.

Excite 10The Excite 10 is yet another 10-inch tablet from Toshiba. I believe this makes it three in about a year? Not that it matters really, but if anyone asked, I’m counting. Anyway, the Excite 10 takes closer design cues from the Excite 10 LE than the Thrive as it sports a thin 0.35-inch depth and weighs just 1.32 pounds. That’s 0.05 inch thicker and 0.18 pound heavier than the 10 LE.

The 10.1-inch screen runs at a typical 1,280×800-pixel resolution. Like the Excite 13, it houses 1GB of RAM and feature Micro-USB, Micro-HDMI, and a full-size SD card slot.

Rounding out features is a 2-megapixel front camera and a 5-megapixel back camera.

Excite 7.7Extremely thin and incredibly light, the 7.7 boasts a 0.3-inch thickness and weighs only 13.4 ounces. The tablet includes a Micro-USB port, no HDMI support, but does feature a microSD card slot and 1GB of RAM.

The 7.7 also becomes only the second tablet to boast an AMOLED screen after Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 7.7. Like its larger brother, the 7.7 features a 2-megapixel front camera and a 5-megapixel back camera.

Toshiba unveils Tegra 3 tablets

So, how about these prices?The Excite 10 tablet will be available in early May at $450 for 16GB, $530 for 32GB, and $650 for the 64GB model. The Excite 7.7 comes out in early June at $500 for 16GB and $580 for the 32GB model.

It’s encouraging that the Excite 10 at $450 with Tegra 3 is (on paper at least) a better deal than the Tegra 2-based Excite 10 LE at $530 for the same amount of storage. also, the Excite 7.7 at $500 with an AMOLED screen is, again, on paper, a better deal that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 at its non-contract price of $700.

This of course, doesn’t take into account things like build quality, comfort, potential bugs, performance issues, and other extras.

Also, with Google’s rumored $200 Nexus Tablet supposed coming this summer and the $250 Asus Memo 370T still scheduled for release, getting consumers to pay these fairly reasonable prices will only get more and more difficult.

Still, I’ll have to wait and see before I can fairly judge each tablet’s true strengths and weaknesses. As such, look for full reviews over the next couple of months.

Toshiba Tegra 3 tablets offer extras we’ve seen before

Apr 13

Hey, Toshiba: There’s such a thing as too ...

Posted on by

The Excite 13 from Toshiba is a beast of a tablet.

(Credit:Donald Bell/CNET)

commentary when it comes to mobile devices — specificallytablets — size certainly matters.

Toshiba has apparently forgotten this concept with its new Excite 13 tablet. The new tablet comes in at a whopping 13.3 inches. And it has the price to match its supersize frame: $650 for the lower-end 32GB model and $750 for double the capacity.

If Toshiba is looking to stand out from the crowd, mission accomplished. But being different doesn’t necessarily mean better.

To be honest, I haven’t played with this beast of a device. my colleague, Eric Franklin, said the Excite is heavier than he’s used to for a tablet, and he’s a pretty big guy. I have handled many 10-inch tablets, ranging from the Apple iPad to the Motorola Xoom, and they are just small enough for everyday use. Any larger, and things get a bit unwieldy and uncomfortable to use.

Yes, it comes with a stand. But needing to carry a peripheral just to prop a device up sort of defeats its so-called mobility. The 13-inch body of the tablet more or less negates its categorization as a mobile device.

The Excite is just the latest device to attempt to break the normal convention for how large a mobile device can be. The other prominent product is Samsung Electronics’ 5-inch Galaxy Note, an unusual tablet-smartphone hybrid.

It’s still unclear how consumers will readily accept the Note, although early sales have been decent. But in that case, it gets a nice subsidy from AT&T and benefits from the marketing heft of Samsung.

Toshiba doesn’t enjoy the same kind of cachet. while the company has an established brand, when it comes to laptops, it has virtually no presence, when it comes to mobile devices. The last few tablets came and went with little noise. Can you name the last line of tablets Toshiba put out? If you said Thrive, you probably follow Toshiba way too closely.

Toshiba has opted to go alone in building Wi-Fi-only tablets, following the laptop model of distribution to big-box retailers and other electronics stores. The company gets no support from the carriers, though it’s unclear if a carrier would even sell this product.

As for Samsung, the company has experimented myriad tablet sizes, ranging between 7 inches and 10 inches. But with all the market research Samsung has done in this area, it’s telling that it has never attempted a 13-inch tablet.

Companies should strive to be different and innovative. A Toshiba representative told CNET atCES that a larger tablet makes sense in Japan, where tablets are used as portable movie screens and televisions. But it’s unclear why it would make sense in the United States, where homes have multiple televisions and many more computer screens.

Companies should be creating products that are easier and more fun to use for consumers, not ones that place a heavier physical burden on them. Can you imagine holding a massive tablet for more than a few minutes to read a book or play a game?

The bigger screen, meanwhile, shouldn’t justify a higher price. Its base model is $150 more than the cheapestiPad and $50 more than the 32GB version of the 10-inch Wi-Fi-only iPad.

Will consumers pay $50 for those extra 3 inches? I would say it’s unlikely.

Brooke Crothers contributed to this story.

Hey, Toshiba: There’s such a thing as too big

Mar 15

Making sense of Samsung’s tablets

Posted on by

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 (left) and Galaxy Note.

(Credit:Donald Bell/CNET)

Samsung’s prolific output ofAndroidtablets can be confusing to navigate. honestly, I have a hard time keeping them straight myself, and it’s my job.

Samsung has no fewer than seven tablets that are either available now, or on their way. and that’s not even counting Wi-Fi-only and cellular models separately.

You can make the argument that this abundance of Samsung tablets offers consumers more choice, but it’s all really the same stuff. It’s like congratulating Taco Bell for figuring out a dozen ways to organize beef, cheese, and tortillas into separate menu items.

Still, in spite of Samsung’s spastic hemorrhage of tablets over the past year, the company’s managed to put out some great products. hopefully, this post will serve to highlight these accomplishments and give you a sense of where things are heading.

To start things off, here’s a chart of Samsung’s tablets that are either currently on sale or recently announced.

Galaxy Note$2492.31.5GHz SnapdragonAT&T 4GTab 7 Wi-Fi$3502.31GHz A8 CortexCarrier models discontinuedTab 7.0 Plus$3503.21.2GHz dual-core Samsung ExynosT-Mobile 4G model availableTab 2 (7.0)TBD41GHz dual-coreTBDTab 7.7TBD3.21.4GHz dual-coreVerizon 4GTab 8.9$4503.21GHz dual-coreAT&T 4G model availableTab 10.1$4503.21GHz dual-core, Nvidia T720Verizon 4G model available

For the newly initiated, I should point out that the numbers included in each product name are an indication of the tablet’s screen size. for example, a Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a tablet with a screen that measures 10.1 inches across on the diagonal. The Galaxy Note listed at the top is the exception. it has a 5-inch screen, and is arguably more of a smartphone than a tablet. since Samsung is keen on including it in the tablet camp, I figured I’d oblige.

Once you’ve correlated the whole name-size thing, you’ll probably notice that Samsung has a total of four tablets sized at or around 7 inches. The reality is that only two of these (the original Galaxy Tab 7 and the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus) are actually floating around on store shelves. The Galaxy Tab 7.7 and Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) are due out this year, and will likely enter the market once the original Tab 7 has been fully retired. so really, for most of 2012 there will probably be only be three different Samsung tablets with the number seven included in the product name. I mean, four 7-inch tablets would be ridiculous, but three is manageable, right?

Not helping things is that Samsung is now coming up on its second generation of tablets named after numbers. this is leading to a naming convention in which the new tablets will have a “Samsung Galaxy Tab 2″ prefix, followed by their screen size in parenthesis. for example, the Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) is Samsung’s second-generation Galaxy Tab with a 7-inch screen size. that is, of course, if you don’t count the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 plus, which precedes it, but follows the original Galaxy Tab 7.

Rest assured, there is some twisted logic to all of this. I’m just not sure what it is.

It’s the Galaxy Tab 7.7, for the Goldilocks in you

Interestingly, one thing all of these tablets share is either a 1,280×800-pixel or 1,024×600-pixel screen resolution. Those numbers aren’t such a big deal for 10-inch tablets (especially with the iPad 3′s rumored 2,048×1,536-pixel resolution possibly on its way), but when you squeeze that many pixels onto a smaller 8- or 7-inch display, the results are impressive.

The two Samsung tablets that really show off in terms of this pixel density are the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and Galaxy Tab 7.7, which pack a 1,280×800-pixel resolution. Really, the best screen of the bunch is on the Galaxy Note, which shrinks a 1,280×800-pixel resolution into a 5-inch screen–but I’m still convinced that the Note is too small to qualify as a proper tablet.

Another bit of buying advice when shopping for a Samsung tablet: beware the microSD card slot. Most of Samsung’s tablets include some form of microSD memory expansion, but a few go without. The notable examples here are the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Tab 8.9. As with theiPad, you can buy dock adapters that allow you to transfer SD content to these tablets, but it’s not as handy as popping in a microSD card.

Finally, recognize that Samsung likes to give each carrier an exclusive to a slightly different model. Verizon has the Tab 10.1 and the upcoming Tab 7.7, AT&T has the Tab 8.9, T-Mobile has the Tab 7 plus. Maybe this profusion of Samsung tablets can be blamed on each carrier needing to feel special. whatever the explanation, history has shown that these exclusive arrangements eventually give way to a more consumer-friendly (that is, contract-free) Wi-Fi-only model down the line.

In my experience, the pattern typically goes like this. Samsung announces Tablet X, featuring some new hotness and the unique ability to feed your pets while you’re on vacation. The announced price is about $100 more than you were hoping for and it’s available exclusively from Carrier X either on a two-year contract, or at an absurdly high contract-free price. The excitement generates buzz for Samsung and gets people motivated to visit their local carrier store. then, once the buzz has run its course, Samsung releases a Wi-Fi-only version of the product to considerably less fanfare while soon thereafter announcing Tablet Y, exclusively for Carrier Y.

Point being, if you can stand not to have the latest and greatest, Samsung does seem to inevitably produce a Wi-Fi version of all of its tablets. Patience is a virtue.

Making sense of Samsung’s tablets

This Tablet PC Post was also found by:

    samsung tortillas
Mar 02

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 arrives March 1 on Verizon

Posted on by

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 will be available to customers this Thursday on the Verizon Network for about $500.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 (left) held alongside the Galaxy Note (right)

(Credit:Donald Bell/CNET)

Back in January duringCES (yeah, with all this Mobile World Congress stuff, it can be hard to remember), Samsung announced itstablet, the Galaxy Tab 7.7.

We liked the initial look and feel of the device, and if you’re interested in purchasing one, it will be available this Thursday, March 1, on Verizon’s 4G LTE network.

As CNET’s Stephen Shankland reported, the Galaxy Tab’s 7.7-inch Super AMOLED Plus display uses “active matrix organic light-emitting diode technology.” Combine that with a 1,280×800-pixel resolution, and it’s easy to expect that graphics and videos will be bright, clear, and vibrant.

The Tab 7.7 will run Android 3.2 Honeycomb, and will support your standard Google apps like Gmail, YouTube, Google Talk, Search, Books, and Maps–along with access to theAndroid Market.

It will have a 1.4GHz dual-core processor inside, a 3.2-megapixel rear-facing camera (with flash) that can record in 720p, and a 2-megapixel camera in the front for video chatting.

The device is going for $499.99 with a two-year contract and will be available for online purchase. Owners will be required to subscribe to a LTE mobile broadband data plan that starts out at $30 a month for 2GB of data.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 arrives March 1 on Verizon

This Tablet PC Post was also found by:

    galaxy note7 7
    samsung galaxy note7 7
    note7 7
    galaxy note 7 7
    samsung galaxy note7
    samsung galaxy note vs samsung galaxy tab 7 7
    galaxy note7
    samsung galaxy tab 7 7 plus
    ces 7 7 note
    samsung galaxy note vs 7 7
Dec 18

Dell drops its Streak 7 tablet

Posted on by

The Dell Streak 7 is no longer available online.

(Credit:CNET)

Dell has stopped selling the Streak 7Android-basedtablet.

When customers go to the tablet’s page, they’re presented with a message, saying that the “Streak 7 is no longer available online.” The page now features information on other mobile devices Dell sells, including the Venue and Venue Pro. Dell is also still selling accessories for the Streak 7.

Dell’s decision to stop selling the Streak 7 comes just a few months after the company announced that it had discontinued the 5-inch Streak 5 tablet.

That said, it’s worth noting that Dell has not officially announced the death of its 7-inch tablet, so until it responds to CNET’s request for information on the Streak 7′s status, saying that it’s discontinued might be too strong. Amazon, for instance, continues to sell the Streak 7.

The Android-based Streak 7 featured a 7-inch display, a dual-core processor, and came with a $199 price tag when consumers entered into a two-year agreement with T-Mobile. without a contract, the device set customers back $450.

In his Streak 7 review, CNET editor Donald Bell gave the device a “very good” rating, but cautioned that it wasn’t “enough to distract us from the incoming wave of Android 3.0 tablets.”

Aside from its shortcomings and Android competition, the Streak 7 was also caught in theiPad‘s shadow, making it nearly impossible for the device to gain traction.

Even with the troubles Dell has faced with Android-based tablets, the company isn’t ready to turn its back on the software. In fact, last month, a Dell spokesman told CNET that it has no plans to exit the Android tablet business.

(Via Electronista)

Dell drops its Streak 7 tablet