Tablets: What's the difference between the Android 2.1 $169 tablets and the Galaxy at $600+

Question

What's the basic difference between the Android 2.1 $169 tablets and the Galaxy at $600+.

I see inexpensive ($169-$199) Android 2.1 tablets here: http://www.lightinthebox.com/wholesale-Laptops--Notebooks_c1386?gclid=CPH4r42V8aUCFRtqgwodnhPNnQ

but at Sprint Store, the latest greatest Samsung Android Galaxy is $600 without contract.

Answer 1

Aside from the Galaxy Tab having superior specs in every way there are a couple MAJOR differences:

1. All those use Resistive Screens while the Galaxy Tab (and most Android phones for that matter) has a Capacitive Screen. This is the biggest difference. A resistive screen really doesn't provide a pleasant touch screen experience.
2. Galaxy Tab has 3G data capabilities those others do not.
3. I'm guessing those are cheaply made although I can't say that from experience.

You can find some of these cheap models with Android 2.2 but they still won't hold a candle to the Galaxy Tab.

If you want a cheaper alternative to the Galaxy Tab I'd look at the Archos Gen8 line of tablets. I bought an Archos 70 IT for $250 and it is great. It doesn't have 3G data (only wifi). It runs Froyo but it doesn't support the Android Market (but I was able to load it anyway). It has a very responsive capacitive screen, a 1ghz processor, HDMI out, microSD expansion slot... it's not quite as good as the Galaxy but it's close and less than half the price.

Answer 2

Though I didn't look at every tablet on there, I took a peek at the most expensive ones. Based on a quick glance, in general most of those:

• Have a slower processor than the Galaxy (which is clocked a 1 GHz)
• Have less RAM than the Galaxy (which has 512 MB).
• Don't support cellular data bands (3G/WiMax/LTE/etc), so they only have WiFi chips.
• Have a fair bit less internal storage. The Galaxy is available with 16GB, and I believe there's a 32GB model as well; the largest I saw on your linked page was 4GB. Both the Galaxy and most (if not all) of those also support up to 32GB microSDHC cards, so a Galaxy could potentially support up to 64GB of total space.
• Some of them don't appear to have cameras. The Galaxy has a back camera at 3.0 MP, and I believe it has a front one as well (not positive on that).

And of course they're running an older version of Android. Whether it's worth the price difference...well, that's an individual choice. That's a fairly broad overview of some technical differences, though.

Some Galaxy specs from Samsung here.

And specs on Wikipedia here.

Answer 3

Many of the cheap tablets are not GPL compliant. This isn't just a Linux nerd thing or a pedantically legalistic/moral question, but a practical litmus test of the quality of support the device will have.

To quote Matthew Garrett (who takes care of the linked-to list), this gives "Some idea of whether there's any realistic chance of you getting further updates once the vendor has decided that last year's devices are, well, last year", not to mention "Some idea of whether you're funding the theft of sweets from innocent children".

The Android tablet GPL compliance list is here: http://www.codon.org.uk/~mjg59/android_tablets/

Answer 4

What are the risks and disadvantages of cheaper chinese tablets compared to tablets of known brands guys? Let me emphasize some of my points and let me know if I missed something or been wrong somewhere.

I keep observing as new tablets made in China keep emerging like PIPO, Ainol Novo etc. and many have pretty strong hardware I might say. My relative also has similar to these which is MagTab. In Skype tablet's camera didn't work, neither front or back seemingly because of a lacking support yet while all other tablets of known brands didn't have any problems. It is clear that one disadvantage of getting tablet of less-known brands is applications' support. I have also heard that some tablets' OS is fully in chinese and lack Google Play (formerly Android Market).

The other problem is warranty because unless you know Chinese, you won't be able to communicate with Chinese speaking support. Although, some chinese stores where such tablets are brought from offer handling and sending tablet to manufacturer.

So above were disadvantages and now about risks associated of owning tablet of less-known and non-name brand. It seems to me that such tablets may bear malware or harmful spyware because these are not made by known brands, so who knows if OS has been modified and your sensitive data is being spied on... By the if they don't comply with GNU, that means they could modify OS?

Let me know your thoughts!