# Tablet Comparison?



## DoubleTakeUno (Jun 12, 2011)

I have been saving for a tablet and I have been wondering what would be the best choice. So far the Galaxy S Tab 10.1 looks like the best choice, but the Asus Transformer looks promisable.

Also, if I can SBF, root, and successfully ROM flash, would rooting any of these tablets be challenging for me? Or would it be just as simple as SBFing (which is the hardest phone modification I have done).

Thank you for your imput! 

- Jaden Tuma


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## Krymsyn (Jun 13, 2011)

OK, so, while I can't comment on the other tablets too much, I can tell you about the Acer Iconia A500.

I originally went in to my local chain electronics store to get a Nook Color (to get a cheap tablet and put CM7 on).
I bought one, walked out, and went home to play. 
Plugged it in and it wouldn't charge.

At all.

The purchase was a mistake, not because it won't perform the way I wanted it to, but because based on hardware design, there are a lot of problems being reported regarding the charger and charging system.
Reports of some people being on their 4th charger or on their 3rd tablet.
I did not want to have to worry about that kind of crap.

I took it back the next day, and examined the other tablets in the store. My price point was not going to allow me to look at the ones closer to $500+, so what I was really looking at were the Transformer, the Iconia, and some off-brand ones that I really wasn't feeling too comfortable about.
I picked up and played with both the Transformer and Iconia.
The Iconia feels not just heftier, but also like it was solidly built.
The Transformer... I felt like I'd have to baby it too much (I'm a fairly large guy, and I don't like having to be extra gentle at all times with my devices. Hence the Droid X for the heft).
They both have root and ROM options.
I was literally checking Rootzwiki on my phone as I was standing there in the store to make sure they were exploitable.
They both were running Honeycomb, and both seemed to be equally responsive. The features of both for what I would use them for meant that they were basically the same tab, except for the construction.
After talking with one of the sales associates, I will concede that the Transformer is a little easier to dock a keyboard on and use like a laptop, if what I understood was correct. Can even fold it up with the keyboard docked like a laptop, iirc.

But I ended up siding with my gut, and getting the Iconia A500. 16GB internal memory, since I had an additional 16GB mSD sitting at home. Price point of $400, I believe.
Took it home, plugged it in, and started to play.
Out of the box, it felt goood. Stock 3.0.1 worked just fine, and there was an OTA to 3.1 waiting to be downloaded.
Installed that, and I had no complaints.
Being the tinker that I am though, I started looking at root and recovery and rom options. For that, I'm goign to link you a few threads, two of which are by me right here on Rootzwiki, that link elsewhere to threads I found that were extremely helpful.

Root/Recovery

ROMs

and finally, a hackery mod for Netflix

I personally settled on the Virtuous Xoom HC3.2 rom.
It's snappy, doesn't have bloat that gets in the way of my sensibilities, and getting there was extremely easy.
Just do your reading on the threads above, and you should be fine.
As a disclaimer, I will state again, that if you break something, I am not responsible.
But in all reality, it was easier than getting any rom onto my DX had been, and as far as I can tell, going back and forth from a rom to stock (which is one of the things I have not done yet) isn't hard either.
Should be as simple as downloading the stock rom and flashing that in recovery.

Anyway, probably been too longwinded, but I hope the info helps.


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## DoubleTakeUno (Jun 12, 2011)

Thank you very much for this comparison. This was very helpful. Do you know if the Acer Iconia A500 have an unlocked boot loader?


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## Krymsyn (Jun 13, 2011)

If you're asking due to being able to run custom kernels, I believe so. The Virtuous series of roms use various builds of the unity kernel. And while flashing the rom in recovery it also states flashing kernel.


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## DoubleTakeUno (Jun 12, 2011)

DoubleTakeUno said:


> Thank you very much for this comparison. This was very helpful. Do you know if the Acer Iconia A500 have an unlocked boot loader?


Awesome. How is the display on the A500?


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## Zach (Jun 25, 2011)

How is the video and picture quality on both the transformer and Iconia?


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## Krymsyn (Jun 13, 2011)

Display on the A500 is nice and vibrant. I have no issues with my purchase. Running Netflix and the video looks great. Camera is 5MP. Really, pull up a technical spec list between the two, since what I am happy with is subjective. Go in and play with them both in the store. You need to be happy with what you buy.


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## JsinLegacy (Jun 7, 2011)

I think price wise the Transformer is the best deal... its a solid tablet .. and I have not met anyone who has it that does not like it... 
I myself use a Xoom and have no complaints about the device... and honestly SDCard slot not working does not bother me really... I only want it working because the feature is there... thats it.... but with root and custom kernal you can have it working no problem... Spec wise the Xoom and Tab 10.1 are pretty much the same... the difference between the two... the screen on the Tab 10.1 is better... but it will be running the tablet version of TouchWiz soon... its also thinner and lighter, but more susceptible to drops... but the Xoom should receive updates before any other tablets as its a Google experience device and it does (eventually) have expandable memory...

Really I would go with one of those 3 tablets... but I don't know a whole lot about the Transformer... I tend to view the Tab 10.1 as very feminine while the Xoom is very masculine


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