Tablets

Compared to the original A500, Acer’s second attempt at a 10.1in Android tablet gets a couple of key things right straight off the bat, including a decent price cut and a slimmer design. The Iconia Tab A200 is now the cheapest 10.1in tablet on the market, with a recommended retail price of $349 — the same as Toshiba’s 7in AT1S0. It comes with the same basic hardware inside, too: 1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 T250 chip, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of onboard memory.

Toshiba's AT1S0 Android tablet doesn’t have the sharpest name, but it does buck current trends in some interesting ways. First, it comes with a recommended retail price of $349, making it one of the cheapest dual-core Tegra 2 tablets available. Second, while it uses a 7in touchscreen it still features 1,280 x 800-pixel resolution; typically, you’ll see 1,024 x 600 pixels (at best) at this size. What’s also impressive about the screen is the vibrant colours that really stand out, making gaming and videos more enjoyable.

The "new iPad" may be hogging the headines, but it's not the only new tablet that has hit the streets recently. There's no denying Apple's tablet is a worthy market leader, but if you're on a tighter budget or prefer the Android operating system, here we review two new affordable tablets that may be worth considering – a 7in model from Toshiba and Acer's latest 10.1in tablet.

Samsung's Galaxy Note defies easy categorisation and really begs the question: just how big is too big? This Android 2.3-powered device packs a 5.3in screen, but it’s a little too large to really be called a phone and a little too small to be called a tablet. Samsung itself describes it using the slightly cringeworthy moniker of ‘phablet’. It’s not all bad, however, and in both design and use the Note actually fills its unusual niche quite effectively.

The release of Amazon’s first Android tablet called the Kindle Fire, which was still unavailable outside the US at the time of this review, has also heralded a new range of budget-priced ebook readers, starting with this new entry-level WiFi-only Kindle. This new budget model has no free 3G access or physical keyboard. The latter is replaced by a virtual keyboard, navigating with a four-way rocker and four other buttons. It works well enough but what didn't impress us was the new way the 6in electronic ink display works on this new model.

It’s not clear why Samsung has not yet officially released this 8.9in Android tablet locally, particularly as Apple's court case against Samsung (temporarily) prevented the sales of the bigger Galaxy Tab 10.1 only. Perhaps it’s because the Galaxy Tab 8.9 is essentially just a smaller clone — size aside, they’re indistinguishable from a looks, features and software perspective. However, shaving 10% off the size has made the 8.9 a whole lot more portable, weighing over 20% less at 440g (the 10.1 is 560g).

With Apple having lost its High Court bid to block the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia, Samsung's flagship tablet has finally gone on sale here officially – but how does it actually stack up? We received our review unit of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from the online retailer MobiCity, which imported the tablet into Australia even while Samsung was banned from selling it – and, generally, we were quite impressed.

Acer has recently gone big into the tablet arena, offering both Windows 7 and Android models. On the street for around A$800, the Acer Iconia Tab W500P is its newest Windows 7 version, powered by a 1GHz AMD dual-core C-50 CPU with Radeon HD 6250 graphics driving a 10in, 1,280 x 800 LCD panel. The novel feature here is the unit’s removable keyboard dock, which basically turns it into a notebook.

On the surface, Pioneer Computer's DreamBook H10 HD Tablet looks to be a reasonable example of an Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) tablet. Its big 10in multi-touch capacitive screen features 1,280 x 800-pixel resolution and it’s powered by a 1GHz dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor. There are dual cameras (front 2MP and rear 5MP), there’s 16GB of onboard storage, plus a microSD card slot for adding up to 32GB more. Unlike some other Pioneer Android tablets we’ve seen, this one comes with Android Market and Gmail preinstalled.

The Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 is a tablet PC aimed squarely at business, although its features and pricing will likely see it remain a niche product. Built around a 10.1in 1,280 x 800-pixel touchscreen panel, it combines Windows 7 Professional SP1 with Intel’s new Atom Z670 single-core CPU and a 62GB Toshiba solid-state drive. It’s a rarity with its removable battery, fingerprint scanner and SmartCard reader, but the Windows interface makes it necessary to use the supplied battery-powered touchpen.