Advent Android tablets set to hit the Dixons Group stores shortly

[Guest firedup]

Toshibafolio and Samsung galaxy will be available from Dixonsretail stores tomorrow, delay on delivery.

Any news on whether the Folio will be in stock in either Curry's or PC World today?

Edited November 3, 2010 by firedup

[Guest Carbonize]

Yeah well the tab is a laughably expensive piece of junk. The vega has much better hardware and price so any such problems are much more forgivable on that device. I'd have to be banking on Vega being easily updateable to the proper Android Tab OS in the future if Im still to buy one. Im not convinced Android 2.2 will provide a satisfactory tablet experience. Its no where near as polished as the iPad where the proper iPad apps look and perform stunningly.

Right now in my book the choices are to buy an iPad or wait 2/3 months for a proper android tablet with a specialised OS and proper tablet apps. If people just want a device to run stretched out smartphone apps and media then there will be plenty of generic tablets in the £100 bracket that can do the job well enough

Who would of thought it. A company that only produces a single tablet device and also produces the OS for that device and which will only be used on that device works better than an OS that is made to work on multiple hardware configurations. Will wonders never cease.

And of course not like people use iPhone apps on their iPad and then have to put up with them looking ugly and enlarged.

[Guest JCB_Digger]

And of course not like people use iPhone apps on their iPad and then have to put up with them looking ugly and enlarged.

Well, IMO the iPhone->iPad works well because the pixels are just doubled up, so the original iPhone resolution of 320x480 is resized to 640x960, which fits well centrally on an iPad screen.

I've not seen it, but I suspect the resolution increase from 800x480->1024x600 will be pretty gnarly, and appear 'out of focus' due to the 1 pixel being increased to 1.25 pixels.

[Guest Carbonize]

To quote XKCD "Someone is wrong on the internet!" I literally just ran over to our local PCworld, (I live in the town centre so it's a couple of mins walk) lo and behold they had a Galaxy Tab on display.

Firstly, I'll say it not the device for me. Its too small and too thick for it's size, however:

I tried out each of the included apps and they were beautifully crisp. I tethered to my N1 and created a junk google account to get a look at gmail and the market and they too were not pixel-stretched but simply flowed nicely to the dimensions of the screen. Once I had the market running I tried Facebook, Google Earth, Connectbot. All were perfectly crisp and pixel-perfect. The built in media-player had a selection of hi-res videos available that were likewise just as crisp as the display suggested it should be.

Games that relied on fixed size bitmaps scaled as I'd expect, with some bluryness. Though the included Gameloft HD games were beautiful (Cunning that, just like the iPad, old game=grungy remade"hd" game=crystal clear)

I think most of the tablet-buying public understand the "phone app looks grungy on tablet" and in that respect Android's fluid UI elements perform _much_ better that Apple's "scale all iphone apps" approach

But given that I'm an "egg head" perhaps you'll take my advice and look at getting some new glasses.

[Guest mingoid]

Well, IMO the iPhone->iPad works well because the pixels are just doubled up, so the original iPhone resolution of 320x480 is resized to 640x960, which fits well centrally on an iPad screen.

I've not seen it, but I suspect the resolution increase from 800x480->1024x600 will be pretty gnarly, and appear 'out of focus' due to the 1 pixel being increased to 1.25 pixels.

The app-resizing picture is not as simple as that on Android. On the iPad they knew that every iPhone app was developed using a particular resolution, so took a decision to just run them at double size on the iPad.

On Android most developers have been developing for multiple resolutions all the time. As long as the developer has used resolution-independent units most things will scale. The issue may be more around bitmapped resources and textures, so will show up most often in games. For other applications, unless the developer has relied on a lot of low-resolution PNGs and has been relatively sensible with layouts, things will display relatively well and will be sharp.

This doesn't mean that developers shouldn't come up with Tablet specific apps or layouts - the increased screen space on a 10 inch device is crying out for different use-cases regardless of resolution - it's about how easy it is to use the touch screen and how accurate fingers can be. Presumably Honeycomb will be the major change (maybe parallel) in the Android SDK to support these things.

Edited November 3, 2010 by mingoid

[Guest Bisto321]

Any news on whether the Folio will be in stock in either Curry's or PC World today?

yep, they have them! PC World Tottenham court road. Played with one fresh off the lorry, liked it and I am now the proud owner of a Thosh Folio.

It suits my needs, has the Toshiba brand behind it (good or bad?) and 24 month warranty.

I hope my colleagues can do all my work today :)

[Guest removed-14]

yep, they have them! PC World Tottenham court road. Played with one fresh off the lorry, liked it and I am now the proud owner of a Thosh Folio.

It suits my needs, has the Toshiba brand behind it (good or bad?) and 24 month warranty.

I hope my colleagues can do all my work today :)

Cool! Can you upload some pics? What apps does it come with? Market, GMail, YouTube, Google Talk? How much was it? I can't see it on the PC World website yet.

[Guest tsh]

If anyone is thinking about going to PC World in Cambridge - don't bother - it's closed for another week. The fact that they couldn't be bothered to indicate on the website that they do not have a store open in cambridge at the moment makes me very angry - and only re-enforces my view that PC world is the very last resort to every buy anything from.

[Guest Paul]

No GMarket on Folio 100.

P

[Guest removed-14]

No GMarket on Folio 100.

P

What about the other apps I mentioned? Is there a way to hack the Market onto it?

[Guest Bisto321]

What about the other apps I mentioned? Is there a way to hack the Market onto it?

unfortunately my colleagues won't do all my work today!

Not had much chance to play.

Yet to download the Flash update from Toshiba site yet.

Confirm no Google apps(we all knew that though) but media streaming and slickness of interface seems good so far, will side load some apps later. Anyone want me to try anything for them?

[Guest P.K]

yep, they have them! PC World Tottenham court road. Played with one fresh off the lorry, liked it and I am now the proud owner of a Thosh Folio.

Ooooh! Im heading to PC World at Tottenham Court road for lunch. Will take a gander at the folio and share thoughts.

[Guest shutdown]

how much was the tosh?

[Guest Bisto321]

Ooooh! Im heading to PC World at Tottenham Court road for lunch. Will take a gander at the folio and share thoughts.

They have the Folio and the Galaxy in now.

Store still a mess and I opened the box for the display model (and then took a fresh one for me! Only have 10, well 9 now) not even taken mine out of the plastic bag yet! Screen works well through it though.

Most of the gaggle of staff and customers looking at both, thought the Galaxy was poor value compared to the iPad and I do agree - neither are for me.

Cost is as displayed on other sites - £329 (I had £100 'good boy' tokens from work)

[Guest SilentMobius]

They have the Folio and the Galaxy in now.

Store still a mess and I opened the box for the display model (and then took a fresh one for me! Only have 10, well 9 now) not even taken mine out of the plastic bag yet! Screen works well through it though.

Most of the gaggle of staff and customers looking at both, thought the Galaxy was poor value compared to the iPad and I do agree - neither are for me.

Cost is as displayed on other sites - £329 (I had £100 'good boy' tokens from work)

PC world sales says nowhere has stock yet, do you think they aren't "on the system" yet or have they sold already?

[Guest shutdown]

i want good boy vouchers too!!!

look forward to hearing your thoughts on the device and if it's worth the price

[Guest P.K]

They have the Folio and the Galaxy in now.

Store still a mess and I opened the box for the display model (and then took a fresh one for me! Only have 10, well 9 now) not even taken mine out of the plastic bag yet! Screen works well through it though.

Most of the gaggle of staff and customers looking at both, thought the Galaxy was poor value compared to the iPad and I do agree - neither are for me.

Cost is as displayed on other sites - £329 (I had £100 'good boy' tokens from work)

Did you make sure you had a play about with the device before you bought it? I played with the tab on Dixons Oxford St store yesterday and for some ungodly reason it had a £999 price tag next to it. Im just around the corner from PC World but Ive been avoiding the store recently since they noticed I was in there practically everyday in the lead up to the Vega. Their staff had said they're going to have a big drive pushing Android tablets this year. However its the Tegra that's sealing the deal for me. When you review your Tosh let us know how slick the interface and operation is, the build quality and also how well Toshiba have stocked up their app store. If they've got a 1080p media player, high res web browser and magazine/ebook running then I'll be half tempted to pick one up. Its not a big price difference over the Vega considering the superior brand and if they've got their app store in order then it might be the better buy out of the two.

[Guest Bisto321]

PC world sales says nowhere has stock yet, do you think they aren't "on the system" yet or have they sold already?

I asked in store an was told that they expected them in tomorrow, as i turned to walk away one of the 'clued up' chaps shouted after me and said they had just arrived and had not yet been entered into stock.

I suspect that this may be the case for most stores. I unpacked and configured the first one for them as the display model.

Off to a meeting now still not touched it yet! vfrustrating

[Guest Kevrae]

the tablets should be due into all branches today, there was a a delay on shipping from the warehouse and they were dispatched by DHL yesterday to stores. vega still on course for 18th launch

In response to TSH, the cambridge store is being refitted into a new WNR store. unfortunately it does mean they're closed during the transition but I'm sure it will look impressive once opened.

Edited November 3, 2010 by Kevrae

[Guest SilentMobius]

the tablets should be due into all branches today, there was a a delay on shipping from the warehouse and they were dispatched by DHL yesterday to stores. vega still on course for 18th launch

In response to TSH, the cambridge store is being refitted into a new WNR store. unfortunately it does mean they're closed during the transition but I'm sure it will look impressive once opened.

Thanks Kevrae, really appreciate the information.

@Bisto321 I assume thes is the wi-fi only Folio? no 3g?

So, the differences between the Vega and the Folio that I can see:

1. Folio has 16GB built-in flash Vega has 512MB

2. Folio definitely has bluetooth (if someone could test for HID, that would be awesome) Vega has one reviewer saying no bluetooth (Even though the OEM says yes)

3. Folio has a full set of Android nav buttons, Vega only has one

4. Folio is much more likely to get OS updates

5. Folio has Micro(or was it mini?)-usb client and full-usb host Vega only has full-usb that is reported to work as a host

6. Folio has a full-size SDcard slot Vega has MicroSD

7. Folio is available NAO!

8. Folio has 802.11n Vega tops out at g

Hmmm, is that worth an extra £80 I'm leaning towards yes. Thankfully I can get out of work a little early tonight, I hope the Reading town centre store got the DHL order

Edited November 3, 2010 by SilentMobius

[Guest removed-14]

Hmmm, is that worth an extra £80 I'm leaning towards yes. Thankfully I can get out of work a little early tonight, I hope the Reading town centre store got the DHL order

The more I read about the Folio the more I'm thinking it is the tablet for me. No sign of it on the PC World website yet though? Dreading calling my local store to see if they have it in yet!

[Guest shutdown]

i wonder if Mansfield pc world will have the tablets on show today

[Guest removed-14]

Just rang to ask if my local store had stock and got "We don't have any record of that product sir"!!! Huh?! How has someone been and bought one then?!?! Lol

I asked is there any way to contact the store to check for deliveries of an item... "No sir. We just work from the site on the internet."

What a load of use that was!

[Guest firedup]

i wonder if Mansfield pc world will have the tablets on show today

Apparently not. I called the PC world customer services (as you dont seem to be able to actually call the store anymore) and they said stock was showing in Sheffield Meadohall (Curry's) and PC World Leicster but nothing in Notts yet. I'm thinking though that some might have had deliveries but just not scanned them in yet.

[Guest firedup]

If it helps anyone with the enquiries the product number is 434095