Fire, Nexus or Galaxy Tab 2 7"?

[wellreadfred]

Hi everyone,

I am looking to buy either a Kindle Fire, Nexus 7 or a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7" (wifi). I own a Kindle Keyboard and have had it 2 years. My wife has an Ipad and I do not care for it.

The Kindle keyboard is jailbroken with the screen saver hack. I have several hundred books on it and love it. I use calibre to manage books on the Kindle.

However I hate the way it handles PDFs. I enjoy reading Sky & Telescope, Astronomy, and Sky at Night via PDFs on my laptop. I would really like to read them on a ebook reader. Plus there are a few astronomy books available on PDF that I'd like to add to a reader.

I am not a gamer, the last game I played was Angband, many, many years ago. So gaming is not a big thing for me. I sometimes watch a Youtube video but never use my reader as a music player. I do like to read several astro forums, and general web browsing. I'd like to check my email from a POP account, can any of these readers accommodate POP and SMTP email accounts?

I am curious about an astronomy app called SkySafari and would probably add that to one of the above readers/tablets.

From what I read the Galaxy will not run or install apps to the SD card, is that correct?

I have read and re-read until I have analysis paralysis on these three tablets. I would like to know if any of these play Flash? Can they be made to run Flash? Are there any cons that I am blatantly missing?

I would appreciate your recommendation on which tablet would be best for my use. Thanks.

peace & happy reading,
~wellreadfred-

[Rizla]

android tabs do support flash, but you have to look around for an older version of flash.

The Samsung tab is a good device. That's the first I've heard about not being able to install apps to the SD-card. You can on the phones...

Personally I wouldn't touch a Kindle fire.

I imagine the Nexus is a fine device.

[GeoffC]

I too would be interested in any comments on these three tablets. Pros & Cons....

[Shack70]

Go to your local Best Buy and compare the 3. They all have pros and cons. The Kindle is tied into Amazon and runs a custom version of Android. The Nexus has no SD slot but runs the newest version of Android. The Samsung has an SD slot. They all look nice but when comparing them the colors on the Nexus didn't pop like the others. This may have been just the particular tablet I was looking at.

I ended up going with the Kindle because I use Amazon and I am already tied into it.

[Cdesja5]

Originally Posted by Rizla

android tabs do support flash, but you have to look around for an older version of flash.

The Samsung tab is a good device. That's the first I've heard about not being able to install apps to the SD-card. You can on the phones...

Personally I wouldn't touch a Kindle fire.

I imagine the Nexus is a fine device.

Rizla is correct, you can install apps to the Samsung's sd card... I've done it for a friend who owns a Tab 2; my own Galaxy Tab has no sd slot.

[BadBilly]

Adobe is no longer updating mobile versions of Flash. JellyBean, the latest Android OS is not compatible with Flash. Searching suggests that there are ways to access Flash on Android, but it requires some effort. Google has taken Flash out of the Google Play store as it is no longer supported. Ipads don't support Flash either.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/14/32...r-android-dies

All that said and done, I'd suggest the Nexus, since you'll be able to get all the latest updates directly from Google. I think both Kindle Fire and Samsung have fiddly bits added by the manufacturer and you'd need to wait for them to do updates, which means you could be stuck without the lastest features.

[omega34]

I think the Nexus 7 is definitely the superior device out of those three while still being cost-effective. If you're going to be reading on the device a lot, I'd go with the Kindle Fire. Flash is hard to use for tablets and I'm not sure if any of those three have Flash.

[wellreadfred]

Rizla said:

android tabs do support flash, but you have to look around for an older version of flash.

Rizla, thanks for responding and after a couple of searches on YouTube I see that you can add Flash to the tablets.

Shack70 added:

Go to your local Best Buy and compare the 3. They all have pros and cons. The Kindle is tied into Amazon and runs a custom version of Android. The Nexus has no SD slot but runs the newest version of Android. The Samsung has an SD slot.

I'm recouping from a stroke, so travel is difficult right now. The worry of not having enough space is important to me and the SD slot could help in that matter. I love Amazon but it is intriguing to me to have an OS that I can customize when I want to, if I want to. So with the max SD card (Tab 2) I would have 40gb of space compared to the 32Gb Nexus 7. I like the idea of the Nexus with Google updating the Android system before others do.


Chantal stated:

you can install apps to the Samsung's sd card... I've done it for a friend who owns a Tab 2;

Thanks for the correction and this would equal up the Nexus and Samsung for me.

BadBilly said:

Google has taken Flash out of the Google Play store as it is no longer supported.

Thanks for the article link. YouTube is full of videos on how to find and install Flash if you desire.

omega34 said:

I think the Nexus 7 is definitely the superior device out of those three while still being cost-effective.

Omega34, I agree with your suggestion on the Nexus and have one on the way. I decided to get the 32Gb version, knowing that the Nexus can use a USB stick for more storage, videos and music, the larger files if needed.

Why I picked the Nexus 7 over the others?

Newest version of Android
Quick updates to the OS from Google
Better processor
Better graphics chip
32Gb out of the box
Expandable storage via USB dongle (I think that's the correct word)
Many options to read books w/variety of ebook reader apps (Amazon included)
SkySafari Plus runs and looks good on Nexus
Less than $260 shipped

Fedex is showing a delivery at end of week. I appreciate all the replies to my questions.

peace & happy reading,
~wellreadfred~

[afv011]

Originally Posted by omega34

I think the Nexus 7 is definitely the superior device out of those three while still being cost-effective. If you're going to be reading on the device a lot, I'd go with the Kindle Fire. Flash is hard to use for tablets and I'm not sure if any of those three have Flash.

Agreed. And the N7 will get timely updates, plus has the support of a community of developers should you wish to tinker with it.

[WillysJeepMan]

I own all 3 devices... well, except for the N7 that I returned. In my opinion the gushing praise for that device is unwarranted. It is praiseworthy, but doesn't rise to the level of "OMG! This is awesome!" that is common.

As an all-round device, the GTab 2 7.0 is a great choice. It may not have the same snap in performance as the KFHD or N7, but the support for microSD and available peripherals such as the keyboard dock, make it enjoyable to use.

Out-of-the-box, the KFHD is fairly limited. Usable, but limited. But when rooted, it makes a terrific Android tablet. Comparing the N7 and a rooted KFHD side-by-side, the KFHD wins out, in my opinion of course.

In my experience, the OS update capabilities for an Android device are not as important as they would be for other platforms, such as iOS. iOS devices generally speaking are on a "forced march" to upgrade... by requiring the latest version of the OS to obtain one of the "baked in" features/apps, or the nagging white-on-red "1" notification flag on system settings icon that stares out at you relentlessly pursuing you like Poe's telltale heart.

Having said all that, all 3 of those devices are fine. Even though I didn't keep the N7, it wasn't a bad device. Ultimately it comes down to personal preference and need.

[khalleron]

I bought myself a Nexus 7 for a combined birthday/Xmas present to myself, and I love it. My prior tablet was a Nook Color, and except for one thing, the Nexus beats it hands down.

The processor is SO FAST - there's a reason it's generally considered the best 7" tablet on the market at the moment.

The one thing it didn't beat the NC on was the screen - the screen is nice, but the NC was Technicolor eye-popping. Really saturated colors that made me go, 'Wow!' every time I played a video on it.

The absence of an SD card slot doesn't really affect the comparison for me, as I was using the SD card slot to run a custom ROM so it was only marginally useful for other purposes. A tablet is not my preferred video watching device anyway, although it's nice to have as an alternative.

One thing I do LOVE about the Nexus 7 is the ergonomics for reading. I can hold it comfortably in one hand and use the volume button to turn the page, which is my preferred method. One-handed reading beats two-handed reading any day, and the N7 is the most comfortable device I've used since my old, old, old Franklin Ebookman.

It all comes down to what you need - I think the N7 gives the most bang for the buck, which is why I bought it in the first place, but it's also very comfortable and very easy to use.

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by WillysJeepMan

Out-of-the-box, the KFHD is fairly limited. Usable, but limited. But when rooted, it makes a terrific Android tablet. Comparing the N7 and a rooted KFHD side-by-side, the KFHD wins out, in my opinion of course.

So can you get rid of that carousel and use the tablet how you want?

Re: flash, I fear that having the latest version of android might be a problem as the newer versions not work with the older compatible versions of flash, but I could be totally wrong about that.

[Teknikal]

Flash is still updated quite frequently on android trouble is you only get the updates if you already have it installed. I'm lucky enough to still have it and it works easily as well on my phone as my Desktop PC so I don't understand at all why it's being discontinued on new devices I think it's more political than anything else but you should be able to find a way to get it on there if you really wanted it.

There are also some alternatives to flash like Puffin web browser which runs the flash content on a server before streaming it to you, it seems to work ok also.

As for the tablets Nexus 7 has the best CPU easily but the Samsung has the Micro SD slot, rear camera etc so it's a tough choice in honesty, it's only the lack of storage that has stopped me buying Nexus devices.

[WillysJeepMan]

Originally Posted by Rizla

So can you get rid of that carousel and use the tablet how you want?

Yes. This is a screencap of what my KFHD now looks like.

Here's a link with more info:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=199029

[flips01]

Is there any important feature(s) present only in Kindle tablets, and not other android tablets?
(Like text-to-speech?)