Forget the HP Touchpad

Forget about getting an HP Touchpad.  I read just recently that they may release another 200,000 more but for the US only, NONE for Canada.  So just forget about it.  Instead look at the slew of tablets coming out or on the market already and some at better price points than in the past.

I was hoping to buy a few of them, for my wife and son and two nieces and one nephew and the $99.00 price was ideal.  I could afford to give them as gifts; but they are virtually impossible to get unless you want to buy them off of EBay, Craigslist, Kijiji or elsewhere for 2x or 3x the firesale prices and at that price I’ll buy Android.

The larger screen tablets 10″ and above are in the $399.99 range and up, my favorite is the ASUS Transformer.  Great price point, and quite powerful.  Spend an extra $100.00 at the time of purchase and you can pick-up the docking station for it which provides a bluetooth keyboard and an extended battery.  I’ve seen this priced as low as $449.99 – complete package.

If you prefer the 7″ tablets, there are a few to choose from from notable companies:

• Viewsonic 7″ tablet can be purchased for $299.99 but many stores (including Best Buy) have it on sale.  I’ve spotted it as low as $269.99
• Acer Iconia 7″ tablet can be purchased for $299.99 or less
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 7″ can be purchased for $299.99 or less

Most of the older tablets on the market (yah, they’ve only just come out) are running older versions of Android (either 2.1, or 2.2) and may not be upgradable so keep that in mind.

You may also want to wait until November/December to buy one – rumor has it that’s when Amazon will announce their 7″ tablet which is supposed to be priced quite aggressively – I’ve read anywhere from under $200.00 to $250.00.

You are correct, you can’t buy one each for everyone in your family but at the aggressive pricing that is sure to hit the market with the $99.00 Touchpad you will be able to buy at least two high-quality tablets.

Internet Stick & Laptop or iPad with 3G

I had been looking at purchasing an Internet Stick for some time, but as usual the main carriers in Canada don’t offer anything competetive in pricing.  You pay over $200.00 for the stick if you don’t want a contract, and under a contract you’re paying well over $50.00 per month for as little as 3gb of data transfer.

Then came along a few competetive carriers, namely Wind Mobile and a couple of others.

Wind has been agressivly looking for customers so offer some excellent deals, like the one right now where you get unlimited data transfer for only $25.00 per month plus you buy the stick for around $100.00 and get a free Mifi adapter (turns your laptop & stick into a Wifi hotspot for other devices).  Seemed like an excellent deal, so I was planning on getting this however most Wind stores were sold out of it so the next step was to order it online directly.

Then Apple went and had a sale on their iPads on Cyber Monday for $50.00 or so off.  Not a bad deal, and probably one of the best unless you buy a refurbished unit.

So which one to buy?

Taking my netbook had quite a few advantages:

• Portable
• Power of a semi-notebook
• Access to VPN to the office

But also has disadvantages:

• Battery life
• Need to carry an adapter everywhere I go (man purse/satchel – here I come!)
• Battery life
• Battery life
• Battery life
• Maybe need an inverter for the car

I could buy a higher capacity battery, but that means spending at minimum another $100.00 which will get me around 8 hours so long as I dim the screen, perhaps slow the already slow processor even more.  I might even need to buy a inverter for my car so that I can plug the laptop into the inverter and into the cigarette lighter – another $100.00.  My car is slowly a tangle of cables – not something that my wife would like, nor would I.

The iPad was on sale, so that was my next step.

Pros and Cons:

• Relatively light
• One small package (versus the laptop + cables + inverter + stick)
• Can do most of what I could do on a laptop – access to Google DOCS anywhere
• Small adapter but needs AC and not sure if there is a car adapter but claims 8-10 hours of battery life
• Don’t need a stick!

OK so the iPad is quite a bit more and I already have a perfectly fine netbook so only would be spending $200.00 or so.

As you would have guessed – I did buy the iPad.

I’ve been using it for about 3-weeks now and have mixed feelings about it – not buyer remorse entirely, but is it really making me as productive as the netbook + internet stick option would?  I’m not quite yet ready to report on how good (or bad) the iPad is, I need to use it for at least another month or two. 

In the meantime, if you are considering an iPad you may want to wait either for the iPad 2 due out in April 2011 or later or for anyone of the many tablets due out from companies like RIM, HP and even Microsoft sometime in 2011.

Disappointed

As you can see by the title, I’m disappointed.

The iPad isn’t coming to Canada in April – but Apple is taking pre-orders (in May) as it’s coming in May.  However if you live close to the border (it’s just a stones throw for me) then I could always pop down to Bellingham, WA and pick one up at the BestBuy there.

I tried to find pricing on Apples site – but everytime I hit their iPad site for Canadian customers, it crashes on me.

I’ll just have to wait a little longer.  Or cross the border and buy one.  Maybe this weekend.