I've had a few tablets and have done a ton of research on what kind of tablet I've always wanted. And it doesn't exist. The next best thing to what I've always wanted was the Motorola Xoom 2 otherwise known as the XYBoard. I'll start at the beginning. I do feel like I'm missing one or two in there.
Archos A70
My first tablet, it was a 7" tablet with 2.2 and what first got my feet wet with android. I learned a lot from this tablet and did a lot of customization to it. My tablet had a 250gb HDD in it. That's right it wasn't solid state. It was all the storage that got me into DVD ripping software which ultimately led to DVD catalyst which in heavily recommend. I honestly had no complaint about the tablet except for the screen and that it was too small. So I upgraded.
Asus Transformer 101
Everyone remembers this guy. It was praised as amazing. It had a wonderful keyboard dock that was very useful, but honestly? This is the most difficult to review tablet I've owned. It had decent hardware inside but everyone at the time had the same hardware. It had bad speakers and I think all Asus tablets even today (excluding the N7) have terrible build quality issues. Debris would get under the glass and the tablet would flex back and forth and make horrible noises. I hated it. This is what started my drive to find build quality. What sent me over the edge was them cranking out new models every two months and released 7 different 10" tablets within a year of each other and each one was just to fix the issues of the last. Every single one seems very flimsy to me. And just to add the keyboards for the Asus lines really aren't that nice, Bluetooth keyboards offer more features and are much cheaper and more portable.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10"
So I had gotten my Gnex while in between these two tablets and it got me thinking about Samsung. The galaxy tab got my attention and tried it out for two weeks. I think its total garbage especially for the money. It became loose and squeaky like the Asus and had a not so great screen but better than the Asus. The speakers were sweet on it but my biggest complete was the lack of storage, the dual core processor instead of quad and just general plastic feel.
Xoom 2
I didn't actually own this tablet. I ordered it and it was back ordered for 2 months before I gave up. I actually ordered it before the Samsung. What I love about this tablet is the build quality. It was water resistant, it was metal, it had exposed screws, it was an awesome military looking style tablet. I loved it. The screen was decent but it was restricted by its dual core processor like the Samsung. I honestly thought the build quality was worth it. I would pay $800 today for a Xoom 2 with a quad core processor, 2gb of ram, 32gb of memory, and a HD screen.
I took a break from tablets feeling disheartened.
Nexus 7
So I loved my nexus phone and decided I wouldn't buy any other phone but a nexus. The cheap price of the N7 scared me. I had $800 set aside for a tablet but this guy was 250. Could it really give me everything I needed? It has a better build quality than everything other than the Xoom 2. It had the newest and best hardware which was a must. It was everything I wanted. I think I figured out what the deal was with build quality was on tablets. The 10" tablet form doesn't have enough support behind the screen to keep them from flexing and stressing which will ultimately lead to their demises. The Xoom 2 had a magnesium chassis in the shape of an X that prevented that which is why its so much better. 10" tablets should be made out of metal. That is why I'm skeptical of the N10, and its lack of quad core.
I will be looking forward to Google glass. I think that will be an amazing thing if it can deliver what I want it to.
