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Also posted on XoomForums.com
(Sorry in advance for the long post)
First off, let me say that I am a full-on Android fanboy.
After many years, frustrated by WM phones, I ditched Microsoft and picked up a Droid on launch day and have never looked back!
I have been on line, literally, every day since Nov 6th 2009, pouring over all of the android forums, blogs and reviews.
I have watched the evolution of android and have been so excited with every new update, discovery and app. I still rock the OG Droid because I have yet to see anything out there tempting enough for me to want to ditch it (o.k., maybe the Bionic but we'll have to wait and see!) but because it is also the most developer friendly friendly device anyone has released (feel free to correct me).
I love the open nature of Android, I love the quirkiness and the feeling of being part of helping to build this fledgling into a giant.
I rooted my phone long ago and have tried many, many roms, kernels and themes and I have loved all of it! (I am a bit worried that at the final reckoning I will be held accountable for the 2 1/2 years of my life I wasted dicking with my phones.)
Anyways, that's my history, now my dilemma.
Since the introduction of the first ipad, I never quite "got it". It seemed cool and everything but I couldn't see a reason, or a need it would fill, in my life. My laptop recently died and I do miss sitting on the couch surfing, working, emailing etc. So then I began to see the introduction of Android tablets and, although intrigued, I still found myself not really coveting them.
Flash forward to last Friday. I get a call from my wife who says she's at Costco and do I want anything, as a joke, I said "Yeah, how about picking me up one of those Motorola Xooms. She did.
I have spent the last week, with a browser full of Xoom related tabs, installing apps, trying everything out and I've been having a ball! (I haven't rooted yet because I don't want any hassles when the OTA's rain down from the heavens!)
Although I really like my Xoom and I can't wait to see where this all goes, I can't help but think that I could return it to Costco and pick up a pretty nice laptop with gigs of ram, a huge hard drive and the ability to do anything I wanted.
Today, my Droid can do more than my Xoom can.
I know this will change but even when all of the upgrades are complete, it will still be an Android phone on steroids. (flame suit on).
So I ask you for your opinions, input and thoughts.
I have 90 days to decide.
Thanks in advance for your time.
You, sir, have an awesome wife!
The device capabilities are there to do everything you want and more, however the success of the device and the platform large hinges on the developers. As we have seen with the android phone sphere, (lame quote time) "If you build it, they will come" or at least that is what motorola, samsung, lg, htc...etc are betting on. Honestly its hard to say if in 90 days if you will see delivered what everyone expects of an android tablet from the apps standpoint. There would be no shame in returning and waiting for the development of the android tablet scene if you aren't willing to wait. I can say I am definitely invested in for the long haul and see a bright future ahead.
When I first got my kindle fire, I was not all that impressed – really disappointed with the lack of google apps, lack of the Android Market, did not like the launcher, etc. I was ready to send it back until I discovered this (and other) forums / blogs. I was just amazed at how fast the shortcomings were being knock off one by one. I was a bit scared and had a few hiccups rooting a device for the first time, but in the end I've got a device the suites my needs nicely.
I'm not interested in purchasing Amazon media, but I do buy Kindle books and 95% of all our web purchase are made at Amazon – which is most of what we buy. Perhaps I'm not using using the device as intended, but we more than make up for any subsidy Amazon has provided.
I agree this forum is a "force multiplier" (as we military folks like to say) that makes the prospect of owning a Kindle Fire much more exciting. So I'll throw my weight behind the gratitude shown by the OP. Thanks to xda and all the people that are doing all the work!
//Tapatalk//
Same thoughts here. I have had a galaxy S for a year and enjoyed coming here and swapping roms constantly.
Wife bought me a kindle fire and I knew nothing about it, then saw it was droid. Ok, theres hope. She said I could open it tuesday, I said ehh, Ill wait.
I started reading up at work, started getting juiced and Thursday I opened it and had it rooted.
She already wrapped it by then
"You opened it?!"
"A little bit" as I held the Fire in my hand with a usb wire sticking out and command prompts on the pc.
My wife is lame, I put a ton of work on this device to make it a better device. All together she has spent about 30 minutes on it. Agreed with everybody else, without XDA love this device would be nothing.
Only reason I got this thing was so I could hack it.
Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk
cheetablaze said:
My wife is lame, I put a ton of work on this device to make it a better device. All together she has spent about 30 minutes on it. Agreed with everybody else, without XDA love this device would be nothing.
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My wife was the one that wanted one, and since I didn't have any answer for what I wanted for xmas, she said she picked up one for me.
I think she's used it once or twice.
hey guys... im a frequent reader (not poster) of the forums and have a simple question. my mom broke my tf700 so i sent it in to squaretrade and the are reimbursing me $499.99 bc they can not fix it (first time using squaretrade and im very happy i insured it through them).
What should i replace it with? i loved the tf700 but i cant see myself spending $400ish on a devices thats a year and a half old.
i was thinking nexus 10 but the same problem as the tf700 comes into play... $400ish for a year old device. it would be a big disapointment to buy it and have the nexus 10.2 come out next month at CES. i understand that tech is always gettin better and ill always be waiting for the next upgrade and yada yada yada but a year old tablet at $400 is a little pushing it. The upside is that the device wouldnt need to be unlocked as it has the best rom on it (stock kitkat).
i was also thinking of the kindle fire hdx 8.9 bc that seems like the best bang for your buck at the moment. It has the newest and best hardware out and is getting great reviews. the only problem with the hdx is that the bootloader isnt unlocked and who knows if it will eventually be (i have faith but i dont wanna drop $400 soley on faith). if i get the hdx it is a must that it would have to be on a custom rom as i cant stand the mojito rom amazon uses.
so pretty much my question is what would you buy if you were on the market for a tablet today???
PS- what is you guys opinions on 7" tablets?? i think 10" is where the swet spot is but if you guys can persuade me otherwise.
gutts10 said:
hey guys... im a frequent reader (not poster) of the forums and have a simple question. my mom broke my tf700 so i sent it in to squaretrade and the are reimbursing me $499.99 bc they can not fix it (first time using squaretrade and im very happy i insured it through them).
What should i replace it with? i loved the tf700 but i cant see myself spending $400ish on a devices thats a year and a half old.
i was thinking nexus 10 but the same problem as the tf700 comes into play... $400ish for a year old device. it would be a big disapointment to buy it and have the nexus 10.2 come out next month at CES. i understand that tech is always gettin better and ill always be waiting for the next upgrade and yada yada yada but a year old tablet at $400 is a little pushing it. The upside is that the device wouldnt need to be unlocked as it has the best rom on it (stock kitkat).
i was also thinking of the kindle fire hdx 8.9 bc that seems like the best bang for your buck at the moment. It has the newest and best hardware out and is getting great reviews. the only problem with the hdx is that the bootloader isnt unlocked and who knows if it will eventually be (i have faith but i dont wanna drop $400 soley on faith). if i get the hdx it is a must that it would have to be on a custom rom as i cant stand the mojito rom amazon uses.
so pretty much my question is what would you buy if you were on the market for a tablet today???
PS- what is you guys opinions on 7" tablets?? i think 10" is where the swet spot is but if you guys can persuade me otherwise.
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I think the Nexus 10 will suit your needs. Seriously it is really good. Even after a year. Its still a high end tablet. Maybe you should wait till the end of the month to see if the new n10 will be announced/released. But to this day only rumours suggested it would come. Nothing in sight yet.
I personally hate 7" tablets. They are just phones that are too big and hij cant call with them. I mean: too big for a phone too small for a tablet. But thats just my opinion.
I own a Nexus 10 and love it. Especially with art. I really recommend it if you are searching for a 10" tablet.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Premium HD app
mrgnex said:
I think the Nexus 10 will suit your needs. Seriously it is really good. Even after a year. Its still a high end tablet. Maybe you should wait till the end of the month to see if the new n10 will be announced/released. But to this day only rumours suggested it would come. Nothing in sight yet.
I personally hate 7" tablets. They are just phones that are too big and hij cant call with them. I mean: too big for a phone too small for a tablet. But thats just my opinion.
I own a Nexus 10 and love it. Especially with art. I really recommend it if you are searching for a 10" tablet.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA Premium HD app
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thanks a lot for you input... i really appreciate it. any thoughts on the kindle???
Hi,
While I think that Kindle tablet is really interesting, if you want to see deeper development it isn't the best choice, as you said it probably won't have the bootloader unlocked, while on Nexus 10 you just type "fastboot oem unlock" and it's done haha! The tablet you had before is a 10" tablet, so I think you'll have a better time with another 10" tablet .
Also don't really worry about the tablet age, while everything new will appear almost every month, that doesn't mean the older are bad! I have a Xoom that mom broke the display, so I got Nexus 10, both are amazing devices, while Nexus 10 is way more powerful, I can still use my Xoom on HDMI with no problems . It's just a matter of adaptation, then you won't invest "useless money" if you understand what I mean .
In other words of my adaptation metaphor. Go for one tablet that is good enough and has a good development community, then you're assured that it will last a good long life hehe.
~Lord
What about gtab 8.3?
thanks for all the feedback guys... i went for the kindle fire. Amazon extended the return period until jan 30 so i have just about 50 days to tinker with it and decide if shes a keeper. i was just stunned at the screen the kindle had. it simply is beautiful. the nexus 10 was the best android screen but i think the kindle now has the best tablet scrren in the world (ipad included). just hoping that the bootloader gets unlocked bc i dont know if i can stand this fire os crap. that is by far the only flaw i can think of on this bad boy, however, it is a big one!!
gutts10 said:
thanks for all the feedback guys... i went for the kindle fire. Amazon extended the return period until jan 30 so i have just about 50 days to tinker with it and decide if shes a keeper. i was just stunned at the screen the kindle had. it simply is beautiful. the nexus 10 was the best android screen but i think the kindle now has the best tablet scrren in the world (ipad included). just hoping that the bootloader gets unlocked bc i dont know if i can stand this fire os crap. that is by far the only flaw i can think of on this bad boy, however, it is a big one!!
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I was going to suggest the new TF701T or Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 as possibilities. If you're okay with Apple, the iPad Air looks nice and is the lightest 10" tablet out there now.
I really want to get this tablet but my only gripe with it is the lack of development support on this compared to the nexus 7 (no offence to anyone who works hard on this tablet). This will be my first tablet since the ipad 1st gen but i have had the razr hd and s4 which have had a lot of support for roms and customization. Would you recommend this tablet over the nexus 7?
edit: Kijiji has a blacklisted hdx fire 8.9 for $200 is it worth getting and will it still work if I can get google play store installed on it, or is it too good to be true?
I was bought the hdx7 for Christmas by my partner. I like my tech, but I think I would have rather had the nexus.
After about a week I got fed up with the carousel and amazon app store and the complete removal of google so I decided to give modding a go using some of the guides on this site.
I gotta say, If I had a nexus, I wouldn't have bothered modding it, but the Fire has been a fun, anger filled experience.
The 7 you can defo get google apps running on as mine runs perfectly well now, the 8.9, as I understand isn't as developed as the 7, but I'm sure I saw that people have rooted at least. Check about the forum
OurFriendIrony said:
I was bought the hdx7 for Christmas by my partner. I like my tech, but I think I would have rather had the nexus.
After about a week I got fed up with the carousel and amazon app store and the complete removal of google so I decided to give modding a go using some of the guides on this site.
I gotta say, If I had a nexus, I wouldn't have bothered modding it, but the Fire has been a fun, anger filled experience.
The 7 you can defo get google apps running on as mine runs perfectly well now, the 8.9, as I understand isn't as developed as the 7, but I'm sure I saw that people have rooted at least. Check about the forum
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The hdx 7 and 8.9 are both about equal right now. You can do pretty much what you want with google apps. It's just that you will most likely lose some amazon apps and at least the amazon app store. With multiple "roms" or a script you can switch between stock amazon and gapps on the 7" but mostly it's not all perfect yet. However, many people are happy with the current state of "mostly works" and so we aren't seeing much new development. It's nice being able to use some of the amazon stuff... and the kindle hdx hardware is excellent.
A nexus 7 should not disappoint and will not be as much of a headache. One click root and full recovery options are definately luxuries we wish the kindle could be afforded. Not to mention real roms that can use the entirety of the storage of the device. When/if the Kindle is fully sorted out, I'd say it will be better because of the hardware... until then, there is a lot of painful work around.
yes I would, the hdx has a snapdragon 800 in it while the 7 has only the old APQ8064 ,the GPU part is quite a deference.
and hdx will have original android sooner or later.
i have both and latest iPad Air
i received a gift this year to spend on tech and got an iPad Air, a Nexus 7 and a 7 Fire HDX. (i could get both N7 and HDX for price of iPad Mini) I'm pretty much an apple fan-boy (i've built 3 or 4 hackintoshes, have a MacBook Pro, wife has an MBP Air, Apple TV, and airport's around the house for whole house music). i love the iPad Air - by far the finest piece of quality tech of the 3, but i seldom take it out of the house.
to run around with, i'm finding myself reaching for the N7. So far, I've had none of the QC issues that some sites are reporting. the stock interface i'm finding more useful than even the iPad Air, with the widgets and such. the OS is still not as bullet-proof as iOS, nor quite as smooth. but, it's come a long way from the first couple of years.
the HDX also feels like a quality piece of gear. the guts and specs are amazing. i really like the feel of the device, love the screen, the sound, and even like the button placement that others have complained about. i love amazon (have a prime membership) but FIREOS sucks. it's just not as intuitive and useful of an interface. the only person i'd recommend this to is someone who is totally new to tablets, only wants to view content, and is not tech davy. with Mayday it's basically the perfect device for my 77 year old mom. i'm going to hold on to my HDX for another month or so in hopes of a better custom ROM, but if nothing comes up it's going up for sale on craigslist.
if i could have only one, i'd have a really hard time parting with the N7. for the price, i think it's the best deal going.
I currently own both of these devices. The HDX beats the nexus 7 in sheer hardware pound for pound. PLUS the nexus 7 is plagued with touchscreen and wifi issues that have pissed me off pretty badly. The HDX with the google experience launcher and the playstore is fantastic. None of the general lag I got on the nexus 7. None of the hardware issues.
I get some backlight coming through the edges on both devices though. However the nexus 7 is worse.
The HDX has some problems with some apps.
The nexus 7 you can install many custom roms.
I hope this helps a bit. I do want to say one lats thing though, the HDX feels SOOO much smoother. I can literally feel the lag when tabbing through things on the nexus 7, the hdx has none of that. That's not to say that the nexus 7 is horribly laggy, it's just noticeable to me.
Hey gang,
New to the XDA community, and wanted to show my appreciation for all of the hard-work and dev that has gone into allowing people like myself to experiment and tinker with the new fire tablet (and for 50 bucks who wouldn’t?)
I've been having a lot of fun these last few weeks troubleshooting, rooting, flashing and everything in between (even bricking and bringing back to life)- its been a great exercise as i haven’t done any heavy modification in the hardware/software realm since my days doing Nintendo DS homebrew https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_DS_homebrew ; and rooting that beast required shorting out the mobo with tinfoil, so this was a less painful process all around.
so after spending the last few days running CM12.1 ; im absolutely thrilled to see how zippy this little device is. Amazons flavor of android was "okay" at best, but this is outstanding and dare I say, lean.
looking forward to future developments and seeing where i may be able to chime in, and what i may be able to flash in the future!
thanks guys,
D
Nice post bought 3 of them one for myself and 2 more for my siblings. Have mine rooted and running SlimLP. Planning on blowing away fireos and have them all on Android seeing Amazon is complicating the process if you get the update.
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