I am sooo confused about Tablets

[Mousey]

I no sooner think I know what I want when I read something online that makes me go back and start 'shopping' again. *sigh*

Do I want a Nexus7? or a Kindle Fire HD? or maybe a Samsung Galaxy thingy? Or maybe some offbrand with decent specs? I know I want power... dual core, no less than 1g ram (why do most tablets specs online completely skip over the RAM?). I also need a good resolution with a nice bright screen so reading won't make my eyes bleed.

And can someone explain what 'rooted' means to me as a user (in plain English)? If a particular brand of tablet is 'rooted' does that mean I can't use apps and books from other sources? in various formats?

I've noticed that the Nexus and Kindle don't have an SD or USB slot. So I'd have download any apps or books directly from the web and store them all on the tablet? Maybe I should look closer at an Asus tablet I've seen mentioned (with an SD slot)?....

What I want to do with it... reading books or mags, maybe goof off with some games, check emails online, maybe a little surfing or research online while sitting in doctors offices or in my recliner at home. I'd like a 7" because of its portability. I've got a little 10" netbook that weighs a freaking ton by the end of a long day traipsing from one part of a hospital/clinic to another all day.

 

[homerbert]

hey, i had nexus 7
very nice and cool, but - is that it have no 3G.
Also, rooting very easy(but need google how to do, then 10 min and it done). Rooting give you possiblity to install aplications directly from your PC, also give you possiblity to download many applications, that you can use without rooting. If you have any other questions, just ask

 

[homerbert]

also rooting give you possiblity to use hard drives via USB , or SD cards, etc.

 

[Jinn]

I have the recently released Galaxy Note 2. Technically, it's a phone, not a tablet. But it's so big that when people see it, they often say "That's not a phone, that's a tablet!" Screen is 5.5 inches, which makes it big enough to read almost anything (eg. small print on webpages) without needing to zoom, but small enough that it can fit in a (big) pocket, unlike a 7 inch tablet. And it's quad-core with 2Gb of RAM, making it more powerful than most tablets! And yes, I too have been frustrated recently looking for RAM specs for mobile devices, they're often never provided even on the official manufacturer sites, only shown on tech sites and you're never really sure if they're accurate.

So anyway this phone/tablet (also known as a 'phablet') may not meet your needs, but I use it for work and it's great, I can remote-access my PC and do work without even needing to zoom in because the screen is so big, yet it fits in my pocket so I can always have it with me (unlike a tablet that usually needs to be ported around in it's own case!)

As for rooting an Android device, it basically allows you to access functions that are usually protected. For example, I use some apps that require a rooted device, like a backup program (Titanium Pro) that can backup all system files allowing a total restore (unlike other backup apps that can only backup user data), or another example is AdFree that automatically removes annoying ads from most apps. Another root app allows you to change the SD-card cache size which greatly increases card transfer speeds. And since you can access the system files with a rooted device, you can make any changes you like - for example my device came with an annoyingly loud camera-click sound, so I just copied another more subtle sound file over the top, this isn't possible with an unrooted device since the sound files are part of the protected operating system. So it can be handy, but is not essential.

Hope that helps