Aries on an Android
Member
- Mar 20, 2011
- 60
- 3
... Now i should say this is purely from a personal perspective as an ipad and FT2 owner after a few months with both.
To be fair i put both pads through there paces as both a business tool and for general internet browsing not to mention music, movies and gaming etc. etc.
Long story short and the reason im posting this here is the FT2 beat Apples boy toy over the head dragged it home, had its way with it and kicked it out in the morning in its jockstrap and left it feeling sheepish.
But why? well lets look at it from an end user's point of view:
* Price
FT2:
Yes the FT2 is ridiculously cheap when compared to its contemporary cousins and yes this shows in both is very very shoddy build quality and support BUT when it comes to community builds and help/support the FT2 shines.
Look at it this way would you rather carry around your shiny ipad worth £400+ with its oh so purdy glass screen that will crack and shatter with its first drop or your cheap as chips FT2 that i have proven time and again will actually bounce when dropped and keep on working.
iPad
er...yea its pricey, some would say stupidly pricey for what is essentially a 10" ipod touch. Considering this hike in price for anything other than the 16gb starter version combined with the fragility of the ipad itself means that you will be splashing out for every possible jacket and cover you can get your hands on to keep this money sink safe from day to day use.
* OS and Firmware
FT2:
Ok so Android may have started of as Linux but since it has been adopted as a phone OS and recently modified as the most adaptive OS for touch tablets you could say that it has shaken off its nerdy image somewhat, but that hasn't stopped the geeks and unique's of the world wide web creating firmware updates such as the amazing FT2 update 3245! that has transformed this humble little pad into a monster in terms of speed, usability and interface.
Ipad:
No one can deny that Apple excel when it comes to both hardware and software. What we can say is that the ipad has little to no real support of ipad specific operational ability. The ipad's OSX is sublime in its subtlety and truly a thing of beauty to behold but sadly simply fails to take advantage of its shiny 10" screen and merely fleshes out the ipod touch and iphones graphic design to fill the space rather than adapting to the much more flexible "home screen" and "app screen" variations used by Android.
* Applications
FT2:
The Android OS offers so much in the way of Apps. that adapt to the tablet interface its almost impossible to even begin to pick specific functionality to review, but given how simplistic many apps are in order to function on android based phones this means that they can look stretched and sadly a little silly on a 10" screen. lucky for us then that the android market is so varied and adaptive and by adding rooted functionality and "non approved apps" to this opens up the available content in a way that itunes simply cannot compete with.
ipad:
iTunes is and continues to be the be the defining market place worldwide without exception, but when it comes to making your own or seeing the breadth and scope of free apps it staggers a little under Androids freeware & homebrew onslaught. Sadly Apple have more that a few rules that border on the despotic in regards to its itunes store and what you can put on its system via its market. add to this that rooted and non verified apps only exist in the oh so very few jailbroken ipads unlike its rooted android using kin.
* Media
FT2:
Ah yes the meat of this particular meal. The FT2 has many many feathers in its electronic cap, sadly visual crispness isn't one of them the tactile interface is designed for physical interface with mobile liquid crystal that is constantly being moved, this sadly does not a good picture quality give. However the FT2 does have one major advantage when it comes to media and that is its flexibility. Without the constraints of Microsoft and with home developers constantly applying new codec's and adapting on board software there really is no limit to what this little tablet can play abet in slightly diminished resolution.
ipad:
Given the massive amount of effort Apple put into the ipads screen its no surprise that it is the leading edge in terms of clarity and functionality. no doubt no way and no point arguing in this round the ipad dominates.
* Storage
FT2:
The SD micro and USB storage solution for the FT2 means that the limitations of conventional on system storage is destroyed put back together again and destroyed just for laughs. No ipad can boast the storage available to the FT2 when both SDM slots can carry 32Gb cards and a FAT32 external drive can be slotted into one of the two availabel USB slots and that's before taking into account that any standard USB storage device and be thrown in to make storing any damn thing you want and breeze...oh did i mention the built in 2Gb standard storage too? no? well it has that too.
ipad:
Its an apple product, you get exactly what you pay for and no more, you buy a 16Gb model you get 16Gb you pay for the 32Gb model that's what you get only this and no damn more. is it frustrating? yes it is and the fact that you cant just add more as needed is very annoying.
Final thought:
So what conclusions am i left with? well after gearing them out with a number of apps as well as music and movies i have to say that although i enjoy watching movies and listening to music on the ipad's shiny screen i simply cannot justify its limited storage and near constant need to sync and back up on my PC not to mention tethered charging via USB on a stupidly short sync cable.
The Flytouch on the other hand with its plug charging (although also stupidly short) combined with 2x 32Gb SD cards and the fact that im comfortable carrying it around in a way i simply cannot justify doing with the ipad means that in my humble opinion the cheap and tough little FT2 tablet wins this race with gusto.
Edit: technically i have owned the ipad for a little under 2 months and the FT2 for just under 5 weeks but honestly it seemed more than long enough to make a comparative study on both tablets
To be fair i put both pads through there paces as both a business tool and for general internet browsing not to mention music, movies and gaming etc. etc.
Long story short and the reason im posting this here is the FT2 beat Apples boy toy over the head dragged it home, had its way with it and kicked it out in the morning in its jockstrap and left it feeling sheepish.
But why? well lets look at it from an end user's point of view:
* Price
FT2:
Yes the FT2 is ridiculously cheap when compared to its contemporary cousins and yes this shows in both is very very shoddy build quality and support BUT when it comes to community builds and help/support the FT2 shines.
Look at it this way would you rather carry around your shiny ipad worth £400+ with its oh so purdy glass screen that will crack and shatter with its first drop or your cheap as chips FT2 that i have proven time and again will actually bounce when dropped and keep on working.
iPad
er...yea its pricey, some would say stupidly pricey for what is essentially a 10" ipod touch. Considering this hike in price for anything other than the 16gb starter version combined with the fragility of the ipad itself means that you will be splashing out for every possible jacket and cover you can get your hands on to keep this money sink safe from day to day use.
* OS and Firmware
FT2:
Ok so Android may have started of as Linux but since it has been adopted as a phone OS and recently modified as the most adaptive OS for touch tablets you could say that it has shaken off its nerdy image somewhat, but that hasn't stopped the geeks and unique's of the world wide web creating firmware updates such as the amazing FT2 update 3245! that has transformed this humble little pad into a monster in terms of speed, usability and interface.
Ipad:
No one can deny that Apple excel when it comes to both hardware and software. What we can say is that the ipad has little to no real support of ipad specific operational ability. The ipad's OSX is sublime in its subtlety and truly a thing of beauty to behold but sadly simply fails to take advantage of its shiny 10" screen and merely fleshes out the ipod touch and iphones graphic design to fill the space rather than adapting to the much more flexible "home screen" and "app screen" variations used by Android.
* Applications
FT2:
The Android OS offers so much in the way of Apps. that adapt to the tablet interface its almost impossible to even begin to pick specific functionality to review, but given how simplistic many apps are in order to function on android based phones this means that they can look stretched and sadly a little silly on a 10" screen. lucky for us then that the android market is so varied and adaptive and by adding rooted functionality and "non approved apps" to this opens up the available content in a way that itunes simply cannot compete with.
ipad:
iTunes is and continues to be the be the defining market place worldwide without exception, but when it comes to making your own or seeing the breadth and scope of free apps it staggers a little under Androids freeware & homebrew onslaught. Sadly Apple have more that a few rules that border on the despotic in regards to its itunes store and what you can put on its system via its market. add to this that rooted and non verified apps only exist in the oh so very few jailbroken ipads unlike its rooted android using kin.
* Media
FT2:
Ah yes the meat of this particular meal. The FT2 has many many feathers in its electronic cap, sadly visual crispness isn't one of them the tactile interface is designed for physical interface with mobile liquid crystal that is constantly being moved, this sadly does not a good picture quality give. However the FT2 does have one major advantage when it comes to media and that is its flexibility. Without the constraints of Microsoft and with home developers constantly applying new codec's and adapting on board software there really is no limit to what this little tablet can play abet in slightly diminished resolution.
ipad:
Given the massive amount of effort Apple put into the ipads screen its no surprise that it is the leading edge in terms of clarity and functionality. no doubt no way and no point arguing in this round the ipad dominates.
* Storage
FT2:
The SD micro and USB storage solution for the FT2 means that the limitations of conventional on system storage is destroyed put back together again and destroyed just for laughs. No ipad can boast the storage available to the FT2 when both SDM slots can carry 32Gb cards and a FAT32 external drive can be slotted into one of the two availabel USB slots and that's before taking into account that any standard USB storage device and be thrown in to make storing any damn thing you want and breeze...oh did i mention the built in 2Gb standard storage too? no? well it has that too.
ipad:
Its an apple product, you get exactly what you pay for and no more, you buy a 16Gb model you get 16Gb you pay for the 32Gb model that's what you get only this and no damn more. is it frustrating? yes it is and the fact that you cant just add more as needed is very annoying.
Final thought:
So what conclusions am i left with? well after gearing them out with a number of apps as well as music and movies i have to say that although i enjoy watching movies and listening to music on the ipad's shiny screen i simply cannot justify its limited storage and near constant need to sync and back up on my PC not to mention tethered charging via USB on a stupidly short sync cable.
The Flytouch on the other hand with its plug charging (although also stupidly short) combined with 2x 32Gb SD cards and the fact that im comfortable carrying it around in a way i simply cannot justify doing with the ipad means that in my humble opinion the cheap and tough little FT2 tablet wins this race with gusto.
Edit: technically i have owned the ipad for a little under 2 months and the FT2 for just under 5 weeks but honestly it seemed more than long enough to make a comparative study on both tablets
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