Ask Slashdot: Why Do Most Tablet Specs Suck?

Slashdot reader Qbertino describes himself as a "happy tablet user," moving from an old HTC Flyer to his Yoga 2. But he notes that most other tablets "have laughable battery times," and "I've yet to find a tablet that does not give me storage or memory problems in some way or other, lasts for a day or two in power and doesn't feel chintzy and like it won't stand a month of regular everyday use and carrying around..." He asks why none of the manufacturers seem willing to offer more than one gigabyte of RAM -- and why they're so stingy with storage. "Where is the rugged 16GB RAM / 1TB Storage / 20-hour battery tablet?"

So leave your educated opinions in the comments. What are your thoughts on the current tablet market? And are they the ultimate all-purpose "convergence" device that Apple and Ubuntu seem to think they are?

Comments

people want cheap

[Anonymous Coward]

apparently these days cheap is all that matters - quality doesn't

Re:people want cheap

[Tx]

apparently these days cheap is all that matters - quality doesn't

This.

Nobody is interested in making a good product, only a cheap product.

The issue is that nobody is willing to pay for high-end tablets. A few years ago, there were more premium tablets around, and they didn't sell.

The fact is that high end phones sell because a) many people get them on contract with low up-front cost, and b) people carry their phones around and use them a lot every single day, so it's easier to justify. By constrast, you mostly have to pay up-front for a tablet, and for many people it's used a lot less than a phone, and so for the majority, a cheap tablet is just fine, especially since today's premium tablet will be outperformed by budget tablets in less than two years.

Re:people want cheap

[Sax Russell 5449D29A]

I don't think it's about costs, it's about demand. Having a tablet with such specs would be like cramming a 5 liter V8 into a moped. It can be done, but there likely aren't many people who'd want an unstable and unbalanced vehicle.

Advertising, that's why there's no storage

[CRCulver]

and why they're so stingy with storage.

Because the business model of a number of tablet makers is giving you little on-device storage so that you start using their cloud storage service, which gives them an opportunity to sell you an additional service or sell your data to advertisers, duh.

Convergence device?

[krisbrowne42]

Most pundits decry Apple for not making the iPad a convergence device. The tablet condenses nearly every hard problem in making computers - big, high-res displays take more memory and compute to drive. Memory takes battery to drive. Battery weighs a lot. Nobody wants to carry that weight. Every tablet is a compromise - no matter what MS tries to tell you.

The perfect tablet is impossible.

[jellomizer]

RAM: the more you want the more power it uses. Every one of those bits in RAM being used or not needs that charge to keep its state.
CPU/GPU: the faster the more power it uses. Every tick is a pulse of electricity
Video: The higher the resolution the more RAM and CPU/GPU needed.

Now what happens to this power once the calculation is done. Most of it becomes heat. Excess heat from these devices can damage components in the table. As well damage your body as well.

Then we have battery life. Battery storage capacity has been improving linearly, while computing power has been growing exponentially. So while the computer components get smaller leaving more room for battery, however it will rarely allow doubling the power capability.

Your Desktop PC can have loads of performance as you can burn energy right off the grid, filled with big empty spaces for heat dissipation
Your Laptop PC has less space and weight, however due to the space needed to type on a keyboard they are allowed much more room for battery power, as well some air pathways to keep the device cool.
Tablets are self contained computing devices. with nearly 0 room to spare. So any components are often underpowered or under clocked to keep heat down and extend battery life.

Normally this is a good tradeoff as they are normally just browsing web pages, or running simple apps. or more complex apps off of the could.