Just something for you to bear in mind Kate, all of the tablets that you have linked to have limited amounts of RAM. This will limit the number of apps that you can install, even if the apps support App2SD. Also part of that RAM will be used by the OS, on Honeycomb you could be looking at anything up to 130 - 150MB.

Also a lot of Facebook games will not run on a the mobile version of Flash, so if this is important to you check the game is compatible before you buy, to avoid being disappointed.

My advice for what it is worth is to get an Advent Vega, if you can. It is excellent value for money, even with the limited RAM. It has an good user community who will help you with any problems that you face and developers are still updating custom ROMs for it.

thanks padre, i'll have a look at that one

The Archos 101 is A8 as well. The Arnova 10 G2 is able to decode 1080p video.

is totally confuzzled

Why?

so many to choose from

Sorry to butt in, but: what's the battery life like on that?

butt away
are you looking for a tablet too? i still can't decide!
i dont want to spend a fortune but i dont want to waste a lot of money ie £150 which is a lot of money to me on a load of rubbish either

I'm in pretty much the same position you are, including budget.
I'm umm-ing and aah-ing between a tablet and a smartphone. I was initially going for a phone but given that I rarely use my mobile for calls, it seems a tablet would actually be cheaper than a decent smartphone (I don't want any Fruity ones!) so I'm wondering... I looked at the Advent Vega as a result of reading this thread and I may well go for it!
The problem is, when you haven't owned something before, it's hard to know what to buy. I could buy a new laptop with reasonable confidence because I know what I want and what works well for me. But tablets are a whole new Thing, and I've no idea what's good or bad!

same here, i already have a netbook so i didnt want to replace that, just have something for when im out and about, im changing my blackberry in december to another phone as i've had so many problems with it but for surfing a smartphone doesnt have a big enough screen and i dont always want to cart my netbook about!!


i still really like this one...and it has fairly good reviews
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tabtech-A816...cm_rdp_product

and this one..
http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-revi...owViewpoints=1

About 6 hours of movie playback. All day for general useage. Not as good as the top end models like the Xoom or Galaxy Tab 10.1, but that's part of the trade off for a cheaper tablet.

One thing I will say about the Vega, to get the best out of it you will have to install a custom ROM, its a fairly easy process to do and there are plenty of step by step guides to follow.

Nobody has ever managed to brick the Vega installing a custom ROM, so if for some reason it goes wrong it's only an inconvenience and not a disaster.

I bought a Archos 10.1, £149 in HMV, got the last one, same thing in store in Carphone warehouse was £259, strange, cos it is on their website at £149.

HMV also had the Archos 7 for £119, and the Galaxy for £199

About the same battery life on mine, the kids love it, gaming with a few of the HD apps is pretty good.

The stock rom is pretty useless, I've been running the Corvus r5 rom for a while (why is it called a rom, it isn't a rom!), I really should move over to Vegacomb.

Although at least with the Corvus r5 it doesn't do a great job with 720p video unless you take it up to 1.5gHz.

For the Vega, about 4 to 5 hours of general purpose use, web browing, games, video playback, etc

It also takes around 6 hours to charge from empty to full.

Sounds like an OK battery for what I'd use it for (train journeys mostly)

Now what does it mean to "install a rom" or should I just go and google? What is it coming with that is insufficient that it needs replacing? And would it void any warranty/etc in any way? Is it equivalent to chipping a playstation i.e. frowned upon?

A ROM is a customised version of the OS. The OS that comes with the Vega out of the box is missing all the Google Apps, such as the Android Market and Gmail.

A custom ROM will at a minimum give you access to these apps and if you install the Vegacomb ROM you will have the latest Android Honeycomb OS on the Vega.

There are a number to choose from, at a minimum I would advise installing the MoDaCo Custom ROM. Not many people use this as their day to day OS. Most are on either Corvus 5, Vegacomb or the Honey Ice ROMs.

Its a pretty straight forward process to install a custom ROM on the Vega and if you have never installed a custom ROM there are plenty of step by step guides to installing, all will be linked to in the above threads and you will also find videos on youtube which will guide you through the process for some of the ROMs.

It does in theory void your warranty, but if you have a problem with the device you just flash it back to the original ROM, which you would not even need a working screen to do.

As for it being frowned upon, Android is based on Linux which is open source, so anybody has the right to develop the base system. Only things like Android Market and Gmail are copyrighted and subject to licence agreements and up till now Google has shown no interest in stopping the dev communities from including these apps in their ROMs.

Thanks Padre