A Smart Pad, Smart Book or a Netbook? (Introducing the Mobile Device Chooser Tool)

Three devices compared.

Lets take a look at three devices now and let you decide what’s good for you. Do you want the best social apps or flexible connectivity. Do you want to print documents or play casual games? We’ve chosen three devices from our database that we think represent the best of the three categories of ‘smart pad’, ‘smart book’ and ‘touch netbook.’ We’ve used data from our database and created a tool that lets you choose your preferred features. Out of the bottom pops a recommendation based on our rating of the device. (We’ll be enhancing this tool soon to allow 2rd-party ratings to be used.)

The iPad will represent the best of the ‘smart pad category.’ It’s well designed, has a market-leading user interface and touch physics, is available with 3G, has a long battery life and a leading number of applications that have been written specifically for the platform. We reviewed the iPad here.

The HP Compaq Airlife 100 will represent the smart ‘book’ category. Based around a netbook form factor it uses a smartphone platform and operating system with a touch user interfaces and includes those unique features of smart devices always on, location-aware, cellular-capable, application store, touch-focused user interface. We reviewed the Airlife 100 here.

The HP 5102 will represent one of the most advanced netbooks on the market. (Note: Pre dual-core availability, Aug 2010) In top-spec form it includes a touchscreen, Windows 7 Home premium with touch features and integrated 3G. We haven’t reviewed the HP 5102.

Of the three devices, We’ve only used two of them but with our experience of the Viliv S10 which is also a touch, Windows 7, 3G netbook and other touch-enabled netbooks we are able to apply our experience to the HP 5102 specs and related reviews.

Comparison, evaluation and YOUR requirements.

The devices are rated (0-10, 0=n/a and 10 is best across all mobile computing devices we cover in our database) using the following categories as chosen and refined by us and some of our twitter followers.

• Battery Life – Working battery life, standby, always-on. Relative to size and best in class.
• Connectivity – Connectors, radio connectivity. USB, BT, ports, WiFi, 3g, removable storage.
• Screen quality – DPI, brightness, reflectivity, colour considered here.
• Portability – How light/small is this to carry, hand-hold. pocket.
• Storage – Based on a combination of speed and size
• Internet Experience – From WAP to desktop quality. Speed, quality, usability considered. (Connectivity is a separate consideration)
• Touch User Interface – Quality, speed, flexibility
• Processing power – Including co-processors. Compared to best of breed (at time of rating.)
• Text Input – Quality relative to size. Covers keyboard quality, size, engineering, features, flexibility, options
• Productivity – Includes PIM, sync, remote working and standard office apps.
• Ruggedness – Suitability for mobile work
• Application availability – How easy is it to find quality apps? Rates store, freeware, ease of finding and installing
• A/V/P experience – Combination of video playback, video connectivity, audio components, cam, webcam. A/V/P=audio, video, photo
• Gaming and entertainment – Considers 3D graphics support, CPU speed, games availability, controls, content availability, flexibility.
• Phone and Video Comms – Considers GSM voice, SMS, to multi-video video conferencing
• Location services – GPS hardware, maps, social and navigation software, apps, always on
• Social Networking – Considers the tendancy for the device to be getting the best/widest/newest selection of social networking apps

[We may modify categories in our Alpha stage. Some ratings may be degraded over time. We may weight our own ratings higher than 3rd party input. Some ‘extreme’ 3rd-party ratings may be ignored. As you can see, we’re still working things out on the chooser tool. Your feedback is encouraged. You may rate a product, any product, here.]

We’ve created an interactive page where you can input your preferences which weights the ratings in line with your requirements. The end result is a ‘Winner.’ Of course, you then have to apply ‘Value for Money’ to the equation, do some of our own research and then find the product in the market. That’s often easier said than done! (Again, the Chooser is Alpha at the moment. Bugs can exist)

Enough said. Now it’s time for you to input your ratings. Come back and tell us what your ‘winner’ is. Wasit what you expected? My ideal devices is the netbook followed by the iPad. I was surprised to see the iPad second.

Go to the MOBILE DEVICE CHOOSER for iPad, Airlife 100 and 5102

(We’ll be adding more ‘chooser’ tables and soon, the ability for you to compare the devices you want.)

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