Gadgetory

all right welcome to the scene at stage at CES 2014 in Las Vegas i'm donald bell he's Eric Franklin and we're here to talk about tablets its tablet talk with Donald and Eric it's a new show no more episodes tablet talk yeah you know I'm just you know I haven't talked to you all week I hope you guys don't mind yeah because we're like I've talked to you for a little like five minutes cuz I don't get to talk tablets with you that much anymore like I usually talked that was with you and like you with TV seen at TV so you know you don't really get to do this that much now this is good not everyone can see it so tell me about the tablets of CES what do want to know what do you got a roundup here I'm gonna go off the roundup okay first off the snakebite Viper a three in one home gaming console and tablet in your hands right right that's basically a seven-inch tablet it has a kind of a customized interface I has adopted you connect the tablet to and then you can hook it to your TV comes with a remote control you can control it with your mo control like you can watch Netflix movies and stuff like that it's $200 and for an extra $50 you can get this this Bluetooth gaming controller and this Android bass but plays android games but you know the problem with this and a lot of these kind of gimmicky tablets like this is that it's too expensive you know it's $200 to for a kind of streaming box it's portable yeah but it's a kind of a streaming box gaming device you know if I'm gonna play games on my TV I'm gonna play xbox 360 I'm gonna play ps3 those are both I feel like especially if they go into the gaming thing there's already systems that are dedicated towards Android gaming content like the we are in videos like shield yeah which can connect to your TV via HDMI I feel like also the fact that you can use like a Bluetooth controller with your tablet and connect your tablet over HDMI that's a feature that has been in like every Android tablet over the last year yes putting that up front as something that you'd go buy it and do it's not really doing anything new I mean it's you know gives you the remote control and they you know for an extra 50 bucks like I said then you get the Bluetooth controller but like you said it's it's there's nothing novel here the dock is the dock that makes it kind of cool I don't know I mean you may be you know the dock it has an IR blaster on it you can control it with a dock then you control it with the remote controller you know I mean it's on the list so that's why we're tied to give it to them at least they came up with a really badass man yeah the snake bite Viper yes like it's like a new Cobra character rights like a new like GI Joe toy like coming this summer this make my Vipers alright next one's got a pretty great name too but not quite as you know macho it's kind of an ironical name for sure Seba push you back the Toshiba Excite yes yes seven yeah because there's many excites before yeah we've been more or less excited about yeah I've yet to be excited about one of them to be honest and this is the first thing unless like the first rule of product naming is name it exactly the opposite of what it is what's all I mean that's you know this subjective I guess right I mean I'm sure there's it's excited about it it's $99 its Android base you know it has you know modest specs and if you want a functional Android tablet from Toshiba this is one that you can buy you can buy this tablet functional forgettable device that you know money is you for you can spend money on this alright excite seven hands on go check it out a Seuss transformer book duet TD 300 now we put a few of these two and one tablet laptop II devices on our must-see list I think this might have been one of them this is a dual not just dual boob but like a switchable yeah OS so you can go from Windows 8.1 yeah really quickly like there you go it's happening in like two three seconds so that's cool what it has windows-based specs you know it has core i7 I believe inside 128 gigs of storage you know it's kind of a neat idea in that you know you get the dual boot windows and Android and you're getting the the powerful specs of a Windows machine on Android sure so you know if you like you know but the tablet itself I mean a lot of the windows tablets I've seen they're chunky they haven't quite quite got as thin as Android is still suffering from that it does don't suffer because it has those windows that Intel based architecture so it's always gonna be a little bit thicker than like you're you're in video or qualcomm based architecture but you feel like this is one of the the big tablet stories of CES this guy I think it's I think it's the start of a big tablet story for 2014 you probably gonna see a lot of dual boot duals you know easily switchable Android Windows tablets and this is probably the first one all right next up the Acer Iconia b1 720 right now the naming people have clearly phoned it in at this point no so yeah this is another like one of those cheap modestly spec tablets if you just want just pure function you don't want do anything special you just want to tablet that you can I guess stream movies on you know surf the web check email it's pretty cheap I think it's 129 I believe you know it's it's what all things cuz I'm such a hardware guy I get excited about you know like high resolution screens bright Smee this one it feels like almost like that specs wise it feels like a tablet from 2012 I know it has like a 1024 by by 600 resolution screen that's not exciting you know it's not exciting to me you know but for someone who doesn't care about that kind of stuff and there wasn't to pay that kind of money I do feel like there's that whole segment of Android tablets and has been here for a while but it's it's rare that I see names like Acer or even Toshiba even bother with it of like the tablets that you just fall into as like the person who buys it just you know like I'm it you know electronics store X and there's a bin of these tablets II write on sale that's you know or 200 bucks I'm uh whatever the name is right it works I'll buy I'll pick it up yeah yeah yeah like that's for that person like a flagship device where like you going to the specific store to buy this exactly that's me that's like who that's for you know that's who that's that's for those bargain bin bargain shoppers who just want a tablet just what an Android tell it doesn't want to it doesn't care about specs and stuff like that and it'll probably work another back of the box right from Aaron Franklin Cena's there at frame he'll probably work all right a soos yes again these tab note eight this is them starting with an actual stylus oriented tablet kind of getting into the Samsung Note realm yeah yeah it's kind of taking on Samsung although this one is running Windows 8.1 not Android and you know it's you know people are interested in using their tablets with a stylus this one is using Windows so there's not really that much like native functionality for the step that the stylus built in like the Samsung no you know Samsung oh you can search by just you know writing and you don't have to type anything in yeah this one I'm not sure if it has that you know when we use it this week it didn't really have that kind of functionality ask me this question is this ever gonna go away where the branding is very specifically in one orientation you know you know what up I'm wondering what's gonna go away the Nexus 7 2012 designed from Asus I feel like they've been leveraging that you know they've been loving that for like a year and a half now that's why I'm wondering I know I mean I know there's not a lot to be done about making a tablet that much sexier at this point it's a slab of plastic all that all the content as well basically the screen usually screen quality black bezel but I really feel like that branding annoys me just my type a right you know if I want to use it this way and have masseuse running running down it just feels yeah you just want to throw it across the room when you see that is exactly you know how I get all the acer the a1 a 30 another tablet here from CES 2014 that one yes what makes this one memorable well it and what's make it's basically a like a slight upgrade from the a1 820 which came out I think last summer it has a seems like I'd like a little thinner design it still has this like but again it has this like low resolution screen it's when it was like hey it's functional it works it 150 bucks you don't want a lot of you know you know high specs you want a lot of features you just want to tell but that works it has a you know a larger than usual screen for a small tablet 7.9 instead of 7-inch but then it has that 1024 X 600 resolution which is always disappointed in me yeah you know I'm just kind of a you know I'm a kind of a graphic snob and when it comes to that kind of site I got another question for it all right you got it answer this honestly are some of these designs to be used as a cheap tablet for the bathroom you know I would imagine so I don't care what the resolution is as long as it's $200 I just need to you know I need it for five minutes at a time pretty much and it needs to be portable you know so yeah I think you're right they should make the naming more suggestive of that asu's well it is called the B was it they was the a1 yeah maybe a different tablets for different uses all right Samsung finally we're kind of getting into I mean let's just be on a Samsung kind of owns the high-end Android you know not I've had tablet category sure what are they showing off here it's yeah they're showing off something pretty exciting they're showing off the the new proline denote Pro and the Tab pro the Tab pro comes in 8.4 10.1 and 12.2 inch sizes first time going up to 12 point - that's person they've gone yeah yeah I think Toshiba had a like a 13 inch a couple years ago that's right but yeah and the no pro which is a you know stylus based tablet goes up the 12.2 inches and you know it's high-end specs 2560 by 1600 resolution on all of them even the low be smaller 8.4 you know using you know high-end Exynos processor three gigs of ram you know you can do multi window you can have four apps running concurrently on the the 12 point 2 inch screen so that's part of the story here is the update is also the interface for has been updated so yeah so it's widget base it's all widget base now is I mean you can still go back and you can look at app icons if you want to but most of it is just widget base so you can have basically you can't be weather on your left side you can have News you know on the right you have below that you can have like your recent apps and stuff like that it's just a very much more graphical hopefully much more for most people intuitive interface for me I it was it was a little hard to get used to but for someone just starting their tablet career whatever where do you fall on that debate though about yeah pure Android versus like the skinned Android I mean Samsung it's really big on their particular version and Stan of for you actually how do you feel about TouchWiz is what they should call the bathroom tap the more Samsung invests on making the Android experience on a tablet their specific flavor of it yeah there's they're alienating some people but they're also hopefully chasing after like a new person who's only gonna seek out a Samsung tablet because of that experience right as a person that says you know who people there are fans of the Samsung interface people who you know maybe haven't used tablets before I think that honestly the TouchWiz has come a long way since when you were reviewing tablets it's much more customizable as much more useful has like a lot more features than even you know stock pure Android 4.3 4.4.4 I like in the last couple of months I've really come to like touch ways and this is kind of an evolution of that that's just much more graphical but still just as customizable I'm kind of excited about it you know I haven't used it that much you know I got a few moments to use it this week with Samsung but you know it has a lot of potentials all right and then also in that Samsung family was the note Pro this was the like the twelve point two inch yeah mega tablet so yeah there's a tab pro this 12.2 inches of no pro less 12.2 inch this is just a stylist version of that same time exact same specs as the 12.2 Tab pro just the uses of stylus if you want to stylus right if you're so inclined to use a stylus yes I never got the stylus class Alcatel OneTouch pop seven and pop eight yes yes I think the you know the kind of like defining feature about these tattles is that they're gonna offer if they come out here Alcatel tells me they'll be released in North America this year they didn't really say the US but I push them and they were like Canadians get ready yeah they were just silent they're there but um so like they it's the seven inch will be under two hundred dollars and will offer LTE the eight inch will be under $300 and offer LTE as well it's pretty cheap for cellular LTE based based tablets usually if you're gonna go that you know the LTE cell your self cell your small tablet rail you're gonna pay you know upwards of 350 bucks so now I remember back in the day back in the day that was the first strike against the iPad was like a wave of tablets they're all carrier attached yeah came with 3G right data and there was no way you could get around it if you're gonna buy that first wave of like Galaxy Tabs right there all carrier subsidized if you're gonna buy that you're gonna be stuck with it for two years very much but then I felt like everyone came to their senses and all the Android tablets you're gonna buy would be Wi-Fi only and maybe you would buy like like a month-to-month kind of plan or you could like just you know attach it to your current plan you have a so you a cell phone plan you're gonna attach it like that they think a lot of them are offering that kind of right so are trying to lock you in anymore okay which is great there's it's still a thing though to go out and buy your tablet at a Verizon store or something and come with like a month by month yeah yeah that's still thing that so what happens yeah I mean luckily they're not trying to like I said they're not trying to lock you in for two years it's a little bit more freeing these days yeah all right so what on this list is do you think if you're you're you know putting as the the one you had to write about or actually you know be excited I have to write about all of them you know I was like the the tablet the takeaway tablet to see yes you probably the pro line from Samsung Galaxy Pro line I just think that you know see yes I want to see something exciting I want to see vendors doing something risky you know I want to see them doing something that's you know kind of off the beaten path of Talas like oh here's another tablet you know app icons or whatever and that's fine that worships functional but I see yes I want to be excited so I'm being kind of selfish here you know so those things excite me because they're doing something really now but these are not all the tablets we're seeing this year right I mean yes it's not historically the place where the the big tablets aside from maybe the Samsung crop yeah yeah I think I think over the last couple years Mobile World Congress has kind of been more of a kind of staging ground for tablet debuts I think we're gonna probably see I think it's a good it's kind of a good in-between you know it's still early in the year so they get that that quarter that quarter one buzz but it's a little bit later than January so they have a little bit more time to work on it so if you have to project though what you might be saying Mobile World Congress but we didn't see here who are the players that you think I'm gonna be showing something off worth getting excited about well I'm really excited about you know Nvidia announced the NVIDIA Tegra k1 this week it's a new processor it's supposed to be as possible for computer products yeah well they say that but then they go well it's as powerful as a 360 or ps3 you know graphically which is not really a super I don't know how do we define super computers these days does that change like every years like there's like more as long as they're all super I'm getting really I guess yeah I'm really excited to see tablets announced with that process I'm really excited to see what that can actually do but the thing about that is is like yes you have the three six you have the ps3 those are really capable devices but there's all those are also the best game developers in the world working on those those two devices and you know making their engines and you know fine-tuning their engines they're really getting to know the heart where you don't really see that that much on Android you don't see me you might get some good developers on there but you don't see that maybe we're talking about Android gaming specifically right - like maximize that gaming performance from an Android tablet or an Android box like yeah we are something like that right exactly you don't really get to see that kind of stuff and you know a lot of these developers don't have that that was the claim from the Nvidia conference right was that Android gaming was gonna be like the future of where things are going yeah they were saying that I don't I'm not buying it you know I I'm gonna still choose to do my gaming on like my console gaming my console box is my dedicated console box my Nintendo is my almost almost a Sega man how old am I my sonís my Microsoft I'm gonna do it on my PC a high-end PC you know so like that project Christine that kind of stuff I'm getting off subject you know that's what really amazing never come out sounds like weird science to me you start naming your different computers after women after women weird science great movie though yeah okay no talking about the projection for this year beyond CES right k1 tablets interesting yeah anything else any other but it was like Nokia is a Nokia coming out well I'm trying to think of you people aren't you aren't represented here I mean hopefully you'll see a new version of surface tablets hopefully they will probably go in a more refined direction you know surface 2 was fine was a fine upgrade from the first surface I'm hoping to see a new design from that open and see you know a little bit more powerful specs a little bit more thoughtfulness on Microsoft Microsoft's part and designing that you know it's pretty good but it just didn't didn't push it far enough above the first surface you'll probably see you know new Nexus tablets um I still feel like isn't there like a stock pile of surfaces like buried in like the Nevada desert on it but I also don't really have a sense that it's that it's did what they wanted it yeah I don't think it did I mean I think I think you're touching on something that's I think you're right about that I think I think it's it's kind of a weird thing because it's a Productivity tablet but it's also it's not that powerful so it's a you know it has to like the kickstand so it's not it you know you have it on your lap or something like that it's not really that comfortable you always do the lap test let's turn it into wearable tech at that point all right well thanks so much Eric for talking to me for doing some hello Tom Donald with Donald Bell and Eric Franklin we are going to have more coverage here at CES and you can stay tuned for all of it at CES CNN comm we've got Bill Detweiler heading to the stage shortly to break apart another expensive device and cracking open it so stay tuned