So I'm looking into getting a tablet and after having a look earlier I've narrowed it down to the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 and the Nexus 7. I looked in Curry's and they were both the same price (the Nexus 7 being 16GB and the Samsung being 8GB but I'm not planning on fulling it to the brim), and the Samsung being the same price in John Lewis too.

I'll hold my hands up and say I have no idea which is the better (they both looked nice and that's what appealed), so I'm hoping you guys might be able to help me out with that

I have similar question a good fair priced tablet that works fine with nix (easy to root and change system on)

No idea on processor etc, but the nexus doesn't have a memory slot IIRC, but believe the tab does, so storage isn't a biggie if that's the case? Expect it to be down to power?

If in the market for a 7incher I would say your choices are between Nexus 7, Sammy 7 or the Kindle Fire HD but as most people seem to be saying unless you want the Amazon eco-system there is no reason to get the Kindle over the Nexus we will ignore that one for now.

Nexus 7 Pros:
Better Screen (ISP 1280x800 vs LCD 1024x600)
Better front facing camera (1.3mp vs VGA)
Jelly Bean and quicker updates (vs ICS w/ Touch Wiz)
Better CPU (Quad Core Tegra 3 vs Dual Core something)
Free Transformers 3 Movie & £15 Play credit

Samsung Tab2 7:
Rear Camera (If you want to take photos on a tab)
MicroSD slot for expandable storage
Some free content with Samsung partners

On paper the only reason to get the Tab2 is for expandable storage but I would just use external storage and USB host on the Nexus (not sure if this requires root do didn't put it on the pros/cons as its not for everyone).

does the nexus have USB host capabilities? A colleague of mine has one at work and I didn't see any ports of any kind (although I haven't had a chance to examine it closely).

Thanks Leon!

I was on the train this morning and was reading the Metro to ease my boredom and saw that in the T3 Gadget Awards Nexus 7 won 'Gadget of the Year' and 'Tablet of the Year' along with Asus being tech brand of the year, so I think I'm going to be going for that one! I would have picked one up today but alas, the rain and amount of lectures packed into my Tuesdays prevented me, so I'll be the happy owner of a shiny new Nexus 7 by midday tomorrow

Quote from: Mongoose on October 09, 2012, 18:26:42 PM
does the nexus have USB host capabilities? A colleague of mine has one at work and I didn't see any ports of any kind (although I haven't had a chance to examine it closely).

Both tabs have a micro USB and there are plenty Micro USB to Fem USB connectors around for a few pence... question is that if they support USB host out of the box.

A quick google shows that the Nexus7 doesn't support full USB host out of the box (but is possible via a quick root) but it looks like the Tab2 7 does support it out of the box (well sammy are selling the cables for it anyway).

I popped back in to this thread to ask about usb host etc and see I'm not alone.  I'm curious about the potential for using a tablet for photography and travelling.  I'm thinking I'll only have so many CF cards, it'd be good to have the ability to transfer photos from the camera,  delete bad ones and reorganise things to best make use of what memory I have.  The alternative would just be the ability to transfer from the camera and process raw files on the tablet before uploading to flickr etc. 

Any thoughts on this?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

Quote from: zpyder on November 20, 2012, 19:25:12 PM
Any thoughts on this?

Use a laptop/netbook? I'm amazed at how people really have to 'find' reasons to buy tablets. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? No one gave a dime about them until Apple marketing came along.

Can't honestly remember the last time I turned on my computer at home to do anything. My iPad has pretty much done everything I've needed so far. Took about a day to get used to touch typing and the auto correct did my head in, but now I can't see myself being without one.

Tablets are ridiculously useful.

Quote from: M3ta7h3ad on November 20, 2012, 23:29:05 PM
Can't honestly remember the last time I turned on my computer at home to do anything. My iPad has pretty much done everything I've needed so far. Took about a day to get used to touch typing and the auto correct did my head in, but now I can't see myself being without one.

Tablets are ridiculously useful.

This. I never bought one as I couldn't justify the cost when I have a MacBook and an iPhone but then I got given one for work. Barely use anything else now - MacBook hardly gets a look in. Never thought I'd use the iPad so much but it's surprising. Far more than just marketing to why it's so successful.

But do you use them for actual work rekated tasks? I look at all the things I use my laptop for i.e. MS Office, Photoshop or SMART ... and a tablet is entirely unsuitable. If I was procrastinating on the facebook it would be awesome.
Bring back the days of 'MORE POWER' and watercooling!

Quote from: ERU on November 21, 2012, 07:49:19 AM
But do you use them for actual work rekated tasks? I look at all the things I use my laptop for i.e. MS Office, Photoshop or SMART ... and a tablet is entirely unsuitable. If I was procrastinating on the facebook it would be awesome.
Bring back the days of 'MORE POWER' and watercooling!

I use a mix - laptop for office and server/network config, iPad for 99% of software applications since they've all released web clients now for just this purpose. For personal use though its pretty much all iPad - although I do use a few photo and video editing programs on OSX.

Personal use its normally iPad only.

Work I use a laptop only because backtrack 5r3 doesn't really run on a tablet, despite actually having some basic tools on my iPad yeah it's not suitable for work.

Actually writing documents though isn't a problem, I use the iOS versions of office on my pad.

I can barely manage with my touchscreen phone, I couldn't get any real work done on a tablet, its okay if you use one as a business support to send the odd emails or view someones Word document they sent you but as ERU pointed out I can't do anything like heavy typing like web design or Photoshop design work, not in any productive fashion. This is why when people talk of 'death of Intel' and 'death of the PC' they are being stupid, offices everywhere still need proper computers, even in Star Trek they still use terminals.