A $200 Tablet You Could Actually Consider Buying
If you simply want to keep up with the tablet craze, but you aren't willing to shell out $500 or more for an iPad or a high-end Android tablet, there are some reasonable options, such as the Pandigital Supernova.
The new Supernova stays in line with previous Pandigital tablets and is offered as the company's flagship model with a street price of $200. There is the cheaper Nova ($190), which has the same industrial design as the Supernova, but it has just a 7-inch screen instead of an 8-inch screen and comes with a resistive instead of a capacitive touchscreen display (both displays have a 600x800 pixel resolution).
While the Nova has come a long way and shows just how good resistive touchscreens are today, it is the capacitive screen of the Supernova that provides a much more sensitive control and is the superior technology, especially in entertainment applications. Playing Angry Birds on a capacitive screen is obviously not as awkward as on a resistive device. The Supernova also comes with a Samsung 1 GHz processor that is notably faster than the Nova's chip.
After a few days with the Supernova, it is somewhat apparent that $200 tablets are beginning to make sense and offer a feature set that is likely to be perceived by a large user group as an acceptable compromise over a much more expensive high-end tablet. In the Pandigital tablet, you get most of the features of a high-end tablet, including front and rear cameras, an accelerometer as well as a lightweight design that is 16.6 ounces (the iPad 2 is 21.3 ounces). The design has evolved and looks much more classy in matte black than the previous shiny black surface of the Novel, the company's first-gen tablet.
The compromise you will have to make for the price is in some hardware features and platform value. The Supernova does not include a GPS chip, for example. Due to the hardware limitations, Pandigital did not get qualified for Google's Android Market, but is offering GetJar as a third party app market. You will be able to get productivity and entertainment apps, as well as essential apps such as Gmail or YouTube. However, there is no such thing as Google Maps for this device. On the upside, GetJar does offer a substantial portfolio of free apps, which should keep users on the Supernova occupied for some time.
In its competitive field, the Supernova is not so much a comparison to the iPad 2 as it is to other $200 tablets such as the Kindle Fire. It is unclear how the apps for the two devices will compare, but Pandigital offers Barnes & Noble integration on the Supernova and said that Netflix will be available on its device soon. Compared to the Fire, the tablet also offers a microSD memory slot as well as two cameras, which the Fire lacks. On the downside, Amazon may be offering the better platform value through its services on the Fire. Also, the Supernova's screen resolution of 600x800 is a bit on the skimpy side as the Fire provides 600x1024.
The Supernova, however, is one of the first $200 tablets I have seen that is good enough to be used on an everyday basis for web browsing, email and games. It misses the access to Android Market, which may only be resolved if Google scales back its hardware requirements with Android 4.0 (and if Pandigital updates its tablets with the new OS). Clearly, the Supernova is no iPad, but for $200 it carries impressive value that can hold its own against the Kindle Fire.
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Why this if you can have a Kindle Fire/Lenovo IdeaPad K1?
if i would buy a tablet it would be the kindle fire but since nothing makes me want one ...
there needs to be a more tierd structure for tablets.
i mean some of the tablet things, like a gps, would that really be nessassary for most apps, or how about cameras?
there should be a
low end, purely for intenet and some videos,
mid range, that has the cameas and such, used for more than just internet browsing
high end, the apple defacto standard
ultra, whatever they want to include.
and just not show apps that are not useable on a low end and only show them to the higher ones.
or wait for windows 8...
I'd either get a Kindle Fire (which I'm planning to do) or wait for Windows 8.
A $200 Tablet You Could Actually Consider Buying If You Are Stupid
There... corrected...
Maybe this will end up as Best Buy's house brand selling for $170 by April.
And the Kobo Vox at 200 dollars is not in this article. I guess it was conveniently forgotten and on the Vox, Android market is available which makes a huge difference. Kobo Vox in this article = *tumbleweed*
i hope i am WRONG AS HELL but a 200$ tablet...... i dont expect to much out of it, not even for kindle fire, as i said, i hope i am wrong, but we will have to see it how it goes for the low-end tablets.....
How the hell is this gonna help me get laid?
As an owner of a firesale Touchpad, I can see the usefulness of cheap tablets for web browsing and reading things or watching videos, as that is pretty much all any of them are good for. You aren't going to do serious work without a keyboard and mouse, so the differences in hardware amount mostly to a limit on multitasking and maybe a bit of difference in application launch speed.
Anyone who pays $500+ for any tablet is a certified idiot, but cheap ones like this could make the tablet concept mainstream and useful.
I like this brand actually and own not one but three Pandigital Novels (white). They are built very well and unlike Archos or coby, amazon kindle, and others the lcd panel isn't going to crack. They need to improve the quality of the digitizer and a few others things but they are very solid. Most of them have the boot rom and internal storage separate unlike most tablets so it is less likely to fail due to normal wear on the land flash.
How the hell is this gonna help me get laid?
Chicks dig tablets..... or you could go outside.
LMAO. Get a novo7. a lot better tablet with maali 400 graphics just under $150.
If I had a use for a laptop--like if I traveled for work, then maybe I'd...well, I'd get a laptop. What are tablets for again? Unless that question gets answered, I have to say they will have a worse fate than the Ultrabook (which will eventually {read as in 6 years or so} replace laptops if the form factor survives).
that tablet looks really cheap and plastic-y. at least it might make a good color ebook reader.
If I had a use for a laptop--like if I traveled for work, then maybe I'd...well, I'd get a laptop. What are tablets for again? Unless that question gets answered, I have to say they will have a worse fate than the Ultrabook (which will eventually {read as in 6 years or so} replace laptops if the form factor survives).
Tablets are suppose to be devices priced under $200 the price point below the entry level netbooks
a netbook is faster, has more memory and more storage at the $200 price point than a tablet or ipad has at the $500 price point.
There is no benefit to getting a tablet over a netbook if you are spending $200 or more as if there is a location where you cant being a netbook due to the size, then you also wont be able to bring a tablet
Also one of the most popular accessories for a tablet, is a bluetooth keyboard.
That brings the price of a decent tablet to the price range of a gaming laptop
I currently have a HP touchpad, which was well worth the $120 (with you include the shipping and tax)
I will never spend more than $200 on any tablet
I think I'd like to try the Slate 2
I'd like a sub $150 10" tablet with just a web browser, wifi, 4g, and pop up on screen keyboard. Resolution would be 1024 x 600 like my netbook.
My experience with Pandigital has been abysmal. Their products are cheaply constructed and support is almost nonexistent.
I think the Kindle Fire will end up being far more successful. Ignoring the possibilities of getting root and flashing your own rom to the vastly superior (hardware wise) kindle fire, you also have the problem of development. 800x600 is an oddball Android resolution. Most Android devices use a 16:9 - 16:10 aspect ratio. Most tablet-aware apps will likely be coded to work with that aspect ratio. Besides that, it wouldn't suprise me if the Kindle Fire became the new base spec for coders to write for as far as CPU/GPU performance is concerned.
Finally, people are pretty shallow. The iPad is a great device that works well. It's also flashy, and often used as a status symbol. Kindle is a respected name in the consumer space, so you don't look like a k-mart shopper using one.
The Kobo Vox is just another cheap chinese tablet that is super unstable, DOES NOT HAVE Android Market, or any of the Google stack of apps, what you see on the screen are just links to the browser versions of gmail etc., I'm returning mine tonight. I'm opting for a $150-200 discount tablet, their seems to be quite a few decent ones out their these days, including the one mentioned above. duronftw; don't bring the Kobo Vox into it when you obviously haven't tried one.
I could get some use out of this, but when I see apps (Netflix) available soon I wonder how much else I wont be able to use and how many months will I wait to get it. Will these lesser known brands of tablets work well in the long run with the things I want to use them for? Will they update anything? Will they support it , or are they just thowing it out there hoping you'll buy it for a low price. I dont care who makes them, I care about how much usability I'll get out of it.
Tablets are suppose to be devices priced under $200 the price point below the entry level netbooksa netbook is faster, has more memory and more storage at the $200 price point than a tablet or ipad has at the $500 price point.There is no benefit to getting a tablet over a netbook if you are spending $200 or more as if there is a location where you cant being a netbook due to the size, then you also wont be able to bring a tabletAlso one of the most popular accessories for a tablet, is a bluetooth keyboard.That brings the price of a decent tablet to the price range of a gaming laptopI currently have a HP touchpad, which was well worth the $120 (with you include the shipping and tax)I will never spend more than $200 on any tablet
Exactly--tablets are only worth anything if you can get them for under $150. But I'd rather an old netbook for $150...so they've gotta be more like $100 for me.
Why this if you can have a Kindle Fire/Lenovo IdeaPad K1?
For a basic android tablet, the SuperNova gives you 8" screen, dual camera (font/back), 4GB storage, Micro SD slot, hdmi port, and mini-usb. The SuperNova's weak points are the single 1GHz cpu and the 800x600 Resolution. Kindle doesn't have any cameras, hdmi port or a MicroSD slot to upgrade the storage to 32GB.