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Is it worth it?

PostPosted: May 10th, 2012, 11:08 pm
by burgergetsbored
Hey, I'm thinking about buying a tablet for a few things and to save having to carry my laptop into university. I need something I'm going to be able to write a few short notes on (text notes and drawings), view slideshows, read pdf's smoothly, view my calendar and watch some videos. Does the extreme suit these or am I better off paying the bit more for a more known tablet?

I've read about a few problems on here, I can imagine video being a deal breaker for me as I don't think I could watch a video to have it jitter after about 2 minutes, but this doesn't seem to be on everyone's on here? Also is there much speed different between a single core and a dual core processor, as I have a samsung galaxy s2 smart phone which I think also has the same mali 400 GPU but it has a dual core processor too which I never manage to get any lag on. Does the extreme lag much if you have multiple things open at once or does android manage to do a good job of organising it? Thanks for any responses.

Re: Is it worth it?

PostPosted: May 11th, 2012, 6:15 am
by Whistler23
I can only really speak from someone who uses it for personal use, not school/work use.

For general web browsing, games (nothing ground breaking in 3d etc etc.), I find mine fine and I do notice lag and when things don't work as intended and always want the best and to work! (This is a stop gap until new Tegra 3 tabs come out in the next few months).

It does seem that it's a pit pot luck as to whether yours is ok or not. Take Piers for example, I am pretty sure we got ours in the last week and mine is fine but he has had issue after issue.

I've only tried one video (which was a TV show, 720p, MKV) and watched for a few mins and it was stunning. No lag, no juddering. Voice and picture was in sync. This is actually the main reason I bought it. There are various places I stay with no inet and no tv or tv with no sky or something so this being able to be a stand alone meadia player but also plug in to a plasma was the deal breaker for me.

I've also tinkered with mine slightly. Removed a few bits from standard build and used Apex Launcher, using ICS browser + and to be honest I think it's even quicker now.

Hopefully someone who uses it for school/work will pitch in but from a general user I love it so far!

Re: Is it worth it?

PostPosted: May 11th, 2012, 8:39 am
by burgergetsbored
It does seem to be a game of luck to whether yours works or not :L Bit weird... I should have specified but I meant for internet based video, I know if you have the file video plays fine but the big issue a lot seem to have is watching online videos, itv, iplayer, youtube which when I have a 10" tablet it be nice to be able to use it for online videos.

Haha that's the problem with me! I always want the best to work! I want a tablet that I can just run something on without having to think first "I wonder if this app is going to run correctly", and without lag. Maybe I'm asking too much for a £180 tablet!

Re: Is it worth it?

PostPosted: May 13th, 2012, 7:42 pm
by burgergetsbored
I don't suppose anyone has tried any remote desktop apps on the extreme? namely Teamviewer(free) or pocketCloud(paid) to a desktop computer? Seeing as my laptop is constantly turned on I can see this being a pretty good feature as I can access all my programs (Dreamweaver, eclipse and photoshop) and as the processing is on the pc it wont put any impact on the tablet as all It needs to do is transmit video really. It be useful to be able to do some programming when I'm at a wifi hotspot and only have my tablet. Anyone?

Re: Is it worth it?

PostPosted: May 13th, 2012, 8:04 pm
by suggsy89
I did try a RD app and it worked nicely, cant remember what it was though.

Re: Is it worth it?

PostPosted: May 13th, 2012, 9:40 pm
by burgergetsbored
can imagine programming on a on screen keyboard would take an age mind...

Re: Is it worth it?

PostPosted: May 13th, 2012, 9:44 pm
by suggsy89
burgergetsbored wrote:can imagine programming on a on screen keyboard would take an age mind...


Well yes you are right, lol. I wouldnt want to do that. I prefer sitting in front of the PC.

Re: Is it worth it?

PostPosted: May 13th, 2012, 9:46 pm
by Piers
I bought LogMeIn and tested it on the Extreme, overall it's pretty impressive. I was able to browse my desktop using my tablet, open links, load a game etc. It is pretty laggy even over a 100mbps internet connection but might be a good place to start.

Re: Is it worth it?

PostPosted: May 14th, 2012, 10:50 am
by burgergetsbored
Ah it's just that I'm studying computer science at university, and my laptop is a fair weight t be carrying around everywhere in my bag so my plan was to get a tablet and remote desktop to it in case I want to do any high performance stuff. I also have a fair few gaps in my timetable so it be good to be able to crack on with some of my java, C programming tasks but obviously you cannot do this directly on android. I think if I were to be doing any programming something like the transformer prime would be better with the detachable keyboard dock, but then again it's over double the extremes price :P I know for that I could be getting a net-book but I want to have a touchscreen device so that doesn't really fit in.

I'm thinking It's gotta be either one or the other for me tbh :P Either a tablet and no programming or a netbook with no touch screen :/

Re: Is it worth it?

PostPosted: May 14th, 2012, 7:23 pm
by Mitre
Loads of wifi keyboards you can use with rhe scroll usb OTG plug in a mini or lightweight usb keyboard

Sent from my ICS Excel