[ale] need tablet buying advice, bought nook, liked it, returned it

[Ron Frazier (ALE)]

Hi all,

I'm back on the tablet hunt again.  I bought a Nook yesterday, used the 
SD card trick to put CM7 on it without affecting the original system, 
really liked it, then returned it.  BN works so hard at foiling anyone 
trying to run something else, it's a major pain.  I got CM7 to boot, 
then shut down the tablet.  Rebooted into BN, since I wanted to be able 
to flip back and forth, and then tried to boot CM7 again.  I never got 
it running again.  I reflashed the SD card and tried again.  Again, I 
got CM7 to boot only once.  The BN software was 1.4.1 I think.  Anyway, 
while I really like the tablet, I just don't want to be fighting the big 
corp all the time to keep my alt version of the software running.  So, 
I'm back in the market and, if you all have experience with such things, 
I'd like some advice.

I'd like to get the following minimum features.  The Nook didn't have 
some of these, but I wanted the ability to read BN books in the BN 
store.  I realize I won't be able to do that with another tablet.

7" or 10" screen (10" is probably not possible in my price range.)
capacitive touch screen
Android 3.2 or 4.x, or at least upgradable to 4.x.
1 GHz processor, preferably dual core
1 GB ram
16 GB flash
sd or micro sd card slot
front and back cameras
microphone
headphone jack
hdmi output
usb port (full USB functionality is preferable)
access to full android market and google apps
accelerometer
wifi b/g
Thin is good.  The nook is .48" and feels good in your hand.

The following features would be nice to have but not critical.

haptic feedback
wifi b/g/n
gps
gyroscope ? (I saw this on a spec sheet somewhere.  Is that different 
from an accelerometer?  If so, what's it for?)

I'd like to keep the price of the tablet itself under $ 320.

I haven't studied all the specs yet on these, but my current candidates are:

Acer Iconia 7 - Best Buy - $ 259 (or was it $ 269)
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 - Best Buy $ 300 (currently, normally $ 350)

By the way, Best Buy now has 30 day returns, 30 day price match, and 30 
days of tech support by phone.

I'm sure there are other tablets which meet this criteria.  I'd 
appreciate your thoughts on this.  I don't want to root anything or 
fight the designers to make it run.  The tablet has to run Honeycomb or 
Ice Cream Sandwich natively.  I could go slightly higher in price, but I 
want to also have some money for a case, android book, etc.

Sincerely,

Ron


-- 

(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
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Ron Frazier

770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
linuxdude AT techstarship.com