Refurbished Kindle Fire for $139 (Again)…Today Only
Amazon is once again selling refurbished Kindle Fire's for $139 here in the US. The deal is only good today while supplies last. They still had them in stock at the time of this post. You can find the deal here.
Buy A Kindle Fire for $139 (Refurbished)
Amazon is selling some refurbished Kindle Fire's today for just $139. They are being sold by Amazon, so I assume they have been checked out to ensure they work properly. I know some folks don't like buying refurbished products, but if you want to save $60 on a Kindle Fire, today is your day. I imagine they won't last long.
You can find the sale page here.
Edit: Looks like this deal is sold out (though you can check anyway in case more are added later).
Just Played With The New Nook Tablet
So I am at the Android Developer Conference this week (AnDevCon II) and Barnes & Noble has a booth in the exhibition hall. When I stopped by yesterday, all they had on display was the NC. I stopped by again this afternoon between classes, and what do you know..they had a couple of Nook Tablets we could mess around with.
Random thoughts after playing around with it for 10 minutes, and talking to one of the technical reps:
1) I thought there was notably less glare than the Nook Color (NC). I stood under a bright light in the exhibit hall, and while there was glare, I could still read pretty well. I even tried to position the screen for maximum glare and thought the screen was still readable.
2) While it might be just 2 ounces lighter than the NC, it is noticeable.
3) Other than the glare reduction (i believe the rep told me there is an anti-glare layer between the glass and the screen itself)..the screen is exactly the same as the NC
4) Device seemed pretty responsive. No noticeable slow downs when moving between screens, flipping pages, etc. Didn't play any games or video.
5) NICE: the Nook Tablet is still bootable from SD. The rep said that while they think only 3% of sales of the NC go to people who want to root it, they are still sales they wouldn't otherwise have. And they aren't interested in removing the ability to root for those who want to do that. I was pleasantly surprised how ok they are with rooting. Plus, he said they have to keep the boot from SD option. When someone brings a messed up device into a B&N store, they can wipe the device clean and restore it to its original condition by booting the system from an SD card (by using the OS on the card to restore the system on the device).
6) the android version is 2.3.3
7) the UI of the device is pretty nice. I haven't played with my NC on the stock B&N OS though (i run CM7), so I'm unsure how different the UI is between the NC and Nook Tablet.
Overall, felt like a nice 7 inch device. Didn't feel much different than the NC, but I am guessing the spec bumps will make it a noticeable upgrade if you use it for things other than just reading.
Why I Returned My Sony Tablet S After 3 Days
This won't be a formal review or anything like that...just wanted to pass along my thoughts on the Sony S Android tablet I bought last Friday, then returned on Monday (thus owning the Sony tablet for just 3 days). The details for the Sony tablet are here (Amazon).
If you browse the page linked to above, you can see how, in many ways, it is different than most of the other Android tablets out there. I had owned the Acer A500 10.1 inch tablet since July and liked it quite a bit. It was a good device for browsing the web, reading, twitter, streaming video, etc. I found over time, however, that I was using the tablet mostly for reading. The Acer tablet was just a little too heavy, and big, to be comfortable for long periods of reading. So I decided to look for something smaller. For the smaller tablets (screens under 10 inches), there aren't many options yet. My choices were:
1) The HTC Flyer (7 inch)..specs seemed outdated at launch, so even more so now. I don't believe it runs Android 3 yet either (at least not without rooting and installing a custom ROM. If this is incorrect, feel free to correct me)
2) The Acer Iconia A100 (7 inch)..this is almost exactly the same as the A500 I owned and traded into Best Buy. Just smaller and a little lighter, no full USB port..but otherwise the same. This was an option. However, I also own a rooted Nook Color that runs CyanogenMod...meaning I already own a 7 inch Android tablet. Yeah, the A100 would have more features and be more versatile, but for reading Kindle books or epubs in the Mantano Reader..the Nook Color is fine.
3) The Sony S tablet (9.4 inch)..this one had some nice features that made it a little different from the other android tablets. Namely, the IR Blaster, PlayStation certification, the wedge shape, The Sony music/video unlimited service, Crackle video service, light weight.
4) The Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 (8.9 inch screen) - pretty much the same as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, just with a smaller screen. It is however a perfect size for me, extremely thin, and very light. Negatives are the total lack of ports and no easy way to add memory via an SD or microSD card.
Based on the above..I decided to go with the Sony S. Brought it home Friday night, charged it, and played with it quite a bit over the weekend.
Likes:
-Playstation compatibility
-Remote functionality
-The wedge shape was comfortable, though maybe not quite as awesome (for me) as some others claim
-lightweight
Dislikes:
-The ridiculous, mysterious battery drain issue. I read a few people report issues with the battery draining for no reason, and I fell victim to this too. I noticed on Saturday that the battery seemed to be dropping very quickly, even when not in use. So Sunday and Monday, I charged the tablet overnight so I had 100% battery in the morning. Turned off WiFi and the GPS. Didn't use the device from 6a until 5p. Both days, by 5p, with no use..the battery was down to 75%. Sure, I still had 3/4 of the battery, but it was disheartening to see the battery drain so quickly when not in use. By the time I used the device in the evenings for a couple of hours of reading/surfing, I was down to 30%. Yeah, the battery lasted all day..but barely and with rather light usage. I was afraid that on days when I actually get some time to read and relax, the battery wouldn't make it through the day. If I am gonna spend $499 on a device, I want to know I can get a full day's use out of it. 3 days is obviously a small sample size, and maybe the battery would break in and get better. But it made me nervous, especially for the high cost of the device. I read on another forum that a guy had a full charge on Saturday morning, didn't use it all weekend, and it was completely dead by Monday morning. Just not acceptable to me. Especially since the battery seemed to charge rather slowly. I'm guessing a full charge would take 4 hours or so.
-The power chord and power chord connection was just bad. You can't charge this device via USB (in fact, the darn thing didn't even come with a USB cable to connect it to the computer. $499, and I had to supply my own USB cable. Really, Sony?) Anyway..the charger felt the same as the chargers you get for laptops. It had one chord that goes from the wall to this heavy, brick-like device. Then you have a second chord that connects the brick to the tablet via a proprietary connection. And this connection to the tablet felt extremely fragile and easy to break. The connection wasn't "solid".. it was still loose and flimsy..felt like if I bumped it accidentally, I would snap off the connection prongs and need a new adapter. Plus it means hauling around this big, bulky charger..much different than most devices that can charge via USB or with just a small chord.
-The display was just ok..the screen looked fine for the most part, but was a little dark. I had to turn up the brightness pretty high for it to be comfortable. On my Acer and Nook Color, I can keep the brightness fairly low, thus saving the battery. With the Sony, I had the brightness up much higher..which just compounds the batter issue mentioned above.
-It felt cheap...and I mean really cheap, like a toy. Sure it was lightweight and the wedge shape was nice, but I felt like I was holding a $100 tablet, not an expensive piece of electronics. And inside the wedge, it felt hollow (I'm sure it probably is). Even the screen felt like plastic..I guess i prefer the Gorilla glass that most other tablets have. The "hollow" feeling, along with the plastic body, outweighed the positives of the wedge shape. Its felt like a 2 foot drop could completely do it in..and that the plastic feeling screen (Sony says it is indeed glass) would scratch easily.
In the end, I decided that the negatives were too much to overcome, so I returned the Sony Tablet. Does it have potential to be a great device? I think so, which is why I bought it in the first place. But I wasn't willing to wait to see if the battery issues went away (or were fixed by a software update). And the feeling that my $499 device felt cheap and flimsy..not good for me. I know a lot of folks have positive things to say about this tablet, so I might well be in the minority. But if I spend a lot of money on a device, I want to feel like it will last..as in having a battery that will let me read for long periods, and being made well enough that I will still be using it a year from now. I just didn't get an overall sense of "hey, this was a good purchase for my money". Thus I returned it...and bought the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9. I am really enjoying the Samsung so far..but more on that in a later post.
So..anyone own the Sony Tablet? Interested in buying one despite this review, and want me to answer any questions? Heck, if you have any questions about Android tablets in general, feel free to ask.
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