Thinking of buying a tablet

wprager wrote:

wprager wrote:The replacement LCD finally arrived.  Wish me luck.

Crap, it's not the right thing.  Looks like it's the LCD only, it's smaller than the top glass.  Crap.

This is what happens when you try and save a few dollars...let this be a lesson, Walter.

tim1_2 wrote:

wprager wrote:

wprager wrote:The replacement LCD finally arrived.  Wish me luck.

Crap, it's not the right thing.  Looks like it's the LCD only, it's smaller than the top glass.  Crap.

This is what happens when you try and save a few dollars...let this be a lesson, Walter.

Believe me, I still save over buying everything local.

(plus this might just provide enough of a rationalization to take the plunge on a new table )

Why buy a table when you need a tablet...confusing logic.

tim1_2 wrote:Why buy a table when you need a tablet...confusing logic.

What's the optical equivalent of a "silent t"?

Hmm, so the Tab S is down to $300 on amazon.com. My sister in law lives in New Hampshire, no sales tax, and we're visiting in August (dropping off the kids and then heading to London+Paris, finally!) So I could get it for the equivalent of $325+taxes in Canada. It's almost in my price range

On the other hand, I searched recently for best tablets and apparently the Dell Venue 8 7000 has taken over as the top Android tablet. Same exact screen as the Tab S (some reviewers say the colors are not oversaturated like the Tabs S appears), aluminum body, no bezel except at the bottom, better CPU/GPU benchmarks (recall that the Tab S has two quad-processors running at different speeds, and only one is active at any time allowing you to run the lower-speed one to save battery time if CPU power requirements are lower; this one has a quad-core CPU running at a faster clock speed). It has 2GB of RAM instead of 3 but all other high-end tablets have 2GB so not sure if/when having 3GB would be a benefit. It doesn't have a fingerprint unlocking option but it does have a gimmick of its own -- it's the first tablet using the Intel RealSense 3D camera. The back has 3 cameras -- the main 8MP one at the top, and two 720p ones below and to either side. This allows you to take a picture and then, later on, to change the focus between foreground and background; or adjust the colors differently for background/foreground (e.g. have a full-color picture of a person with the background in b&w). Yeah, gimmicky, of course. And reviews say the actual image quality is mediocre. Of course image quality with all tablets is mediocre, but I guess when the the camera is one of the selling points of the camera the image quality issue become more visible.

Got a trip coming up. Dropping the girls off at the in-laws (near Boston) then fly out of Boston for 9 days in Europe. Wanted to get a better camera (and smaller, too) and fix my tablet. And finally today found a good camera and the tablet replacement screen arrived. And we leave Saturday morning. Talk about down to the wire. Hopefully I can find a couple hours tomorrow to work on the tablet. Those youtube videos show them doing it in about 20 minutes. Right?

so did you buy a tablet

I think he bought a lot of screens and no tablets.

tim1_2 wrote:I think he bought a lot of screens and no tablets.

Based on price discrepancies between the US and Canada, I'm sure The Rager could have picked up a couple of tablets in Boston for what he paid for a replacement screen in Canada.

Ev wrote:so did you buy a tablet

I think on the (new) tablet front I'll wait for Black Friday or Boxing Day (week/month/year/millenium). Hopefully the loonie recovers by that time. I still want the Super-AMOLED display the Note S has (and the slightly larger screen of the 8'4"). But for now I'm still trying to fix my Nexus. Got the right part (yesterday) and will drop by Staples to pick up some adhesive transfer tape (need it for mounting the LCD on the bezel). I don't have a heat gun so I'll have to make do with a blow dryer.

But I'm stoked, I got my first interchangeable lens camera. It's not a pancake lens so carrying it around in my pocket likely means taking the lens off and putting the body and lens in separate pockets.

SeawaySensFan wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:I think he bought a lot of screens and no tablets.

Based on price discrepancies between the US and Canada, I'm sure The Rager could have picked up a couple of tablets in Boston for what he paid for a replacement screen in Canada.

And a sub or two to boot.

SeawaySensFan wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:I think he bought a lot of screens and no tablets.

Based on price discrepancies between the US and Canada, I'm sure The Rager could have picked up a couple of tablets in Boston for what he paid for a replacement screen in Canada.

Incorrectamundo! I got it on a slow boat from China. Price to fix it locally is $130 plus taxes. I paid around $30 for the wrong one and about $45 for the correct one. A bit of two-sided tape and a half hour to do the job and still come out ahead. And I pick up a valuable skill and knowledge (of what *not* to buy next time).

It's all good.

wprager wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:I think he bought a lot of screens and no tablets.

Based on price discrepancies between the US and Canada, I'm sure The Rager could have picked up a couple of tablets in Boston for what he paid for a replacement screen in Canada.

Incorrectamundo!  I got it on a slow boat from China.  Price to fix it locally is $130 plus taxes.  I paid around $30 for the wrong one and about $45 for the correct one.  A bit of two-sided tape and a half hour to do the job and still come out ahead.  And I pick up a valuable skill and knowledge (of what *not* to buy next time).

It's all good.

But you haven't done it yet, so success is still undertermined. YOU'RE INCORRECTAMUNDO!

tim1_2 wrote:

wprager wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:I think he bought a lot of screens and no tablets.

Based on price discrepancies between the US and Canada, I'm sure The Rager could have picked up a couple of tablets in Boston for what he paid for a replacement screen in Canada.

Incorrectamundo!  I got it on a slow boat from China.  Price to fix it locally is $130 plus taxes.  I paid around $30 for the wrong one and about $45 for the correct one.  A bit of two-sided tape and a half hour to do the job and still come out ahead.  And I pick up a valuable skill and knowledge (of what *not* to buy next time).

It's all good.

But you haven't done it yet, so success is still undertermined.  YOU'RE INCORRECTAMUNDO!

As usual?

I was somewhat randomly checking and the Galaxy Tab S 8.4" was down to $350 at Staples.ca. Now that's more like it. Lowest I've seen it before was $300 at Walmart in the US (if I bought in NH with no sales tax, that would be roughly the equivalent of buying it here for $350 plus 13% taxes). Getting closer to my price range.

I wondered why the drop, though, and see on Amazon.com that a newer version (the S2) available. Huh? I missed a product announcement?

Here are the diffs:
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/134655-samsung-galaxy-tab-s2-vs-samsung-galaxy-tab-s-what-s-the-difference

The S2 models are slightly smaller but use a 4x3 aspect ratio (so wider in portrait, taller in landscape, with wider top/bottom bars when viewing widescreen video). The screen resolution (and pixel density) is lower than on the older ones. The batteries are smaller.

Unless you don't like the 16x9 aspect ratio I don't see any reason to buy the newer ones (and I really appreciate the drop in price prompted by the new ones).

BTW, Factory Direct has the 10.5" Tab S (factory refurb) for $350. Available online or at the Merivale location (the Gloucester one is out). Best deal now is $350 for the 8.4" ad Staples (this is even better than in the US) so that's a pretty decent deal. But I wanted the 8'4" and I also just started (this morning) to remove the old screen from the Nexus 7 (I'll continue when my fingers stop bleeding).

My Nexus 7 is alive again! Not quite finished. The two-sided tape I got is not fit for the task so for now the screen is is connected but not fixed in place. I can use it but have to be fairly careful about it. Will try to get the correct tape tomorrow.