Can't decide: Evo 4g & Kindle/Laptop vs Hero & iPad?

[akdms]

I currently have a Hero (Sprint). I have some money and am trying to decide whether I want to buy an Evo off Craigslist (I'm not eligible for upgrade until October--I'll just sell my upgrade then for ~$200) and sell my Hero, or if I want to buy an iPad and sell my Kindle.

I was hoping to get some feedback here from people who own an iPad and could be a little more objective on how they use it than the Apple Fanboys out there.

Cost wise the Evo would be a little less -- I could probably buy the Evo for around $350-$400 and sell the Hero for around $100-$150, whereas the iPad would run me about $530 and I could sell my Kindle for $200. It's fairly negligible difference though.

I don't live in an area that has 4g or will in the foreseeable future. I do a lot of web-browsing on my Hero and spend around ~30 minutes a day reading RSS feeds (NewsRob). I read a lot of news sites and blogs throughout the day (outside of RSS feeds) on my laptop. I don't really use my Kindle as much as I thought I would -- I've read a few books, but I'm not an avid reader. I spend 80% of my reading time on news.

I very much miss my BB Tour's camera flash. I don't carry a regular camera and miss being able to take low light pictures (not looking for anything spectacular -- just the ability to take group pictures of friends and such).

I've played with the iPad and it is fun, and I could see browsing and reading news articles been very comfortable and more enjoyable, especially on the couch or something where I don't have a table. Some of the games are pretty fun (Plants vs Zombies!!!). I don't get eye strain from staring at an LCD screen.

The problem with the iPad is I'm just not sure when I'd use it over the Evo and my Kindle/Laptop. It's large enough that I can't carry it without a backpack, and then at that point I might as well carry my Laptop and/or Kindle with me. I'd also have to decide when to buy apps for the iPad vs the Hero.

Any thoughts?

 

[grainysand]

Let's see.

The Hero: outdated hardware, tiny screen (relatively speaking).
iPad: piece of shit with no USB ports, no ability to multi-task, no Flash, no camera, limited compatibility, shitty ported iPhone OS, dependent on Apple's app store.

The Evo: big screen, latest hardware, more likely to receive 2.2 update and therefore have real Flash instead of Flash lite (Flash games eliminate the need for buying casual rubbish from the app store), decent camera.
Laptop: can actually be used to get things done, runs full-blown games instead of casual rubbish from the app store (yes, sorry, iPad games are casual rubbish and not real games in the vein of Assassin's Creed 2, Starcraft 2, WoW, whatever), runs productivity software, full web browsing experience, has USB ports (omg flash drives), much bigger storage than the iPad's shitty shittastic 64 GB.

You've said yourself that you can't see the iPad replacing your laptop, since the laptop can do... every single thing better in any case.

 

[akdms]

Thanks for the reply. Not that I disagree with you, but to be fair the iPad will have multitasking before the Evo has full Flash. And I would jailbreak the iPad long before then anyway.

To be honest, I never thought I would even consider the iPad until a recent IT/CIO conference I attended where almost half the attendees were carrying around iPads talking amongst each other about how they were the best products ever created and would have an impact on our culture that rivals the Internet (no, I'm not $#*#ing you--IT Directors and CIOs of Fortune 500 were saying this).

I don't understand it, but it peaked my interest a bit. To me though it's more of a Kindle (eReader/news reader) replacement than a full laptop replacement.

My only concern with the Evo is the battery life. I barely make it through the day with my Hero. I'm usually at 10% battery at the end of the day, and the larger screen is going to kill the battery even faster (other thing I miss about the BB Tour... the week long battery life).

 

[vandyblackandgold]

Let's see.

The Hero: outdated hardware, tiny screen (relatively speaking).
iPad: piece of shit with no USB ports, no ability to multi-task, no Flash, no camera, limited compatibility, shitty ported iPhone OS, dependent on Apple's app store.

The Evo: big screen, latest hardware, more likely to receive 2.2 update and therefore have real Flash instead of Flash lite (Flash games eliminate the need for buying casual rubbish from the app store), decent camera.
Laptop: can actually be used to get things done, runs full-blown games instead of casual rubbish from the app store (yes, sorry, iPad games are casual rubbish and not real games in the vein of Assassin's Creed 2, Starcraft 2, WoW, whatever), runs productivity software, full web browsing experience, has USB ports (omg flash drives), much bigger storage than the iPad's shitty shittastic 64 GB.

You've said yourself that you can't see the iPad replacing your laptop, since the laptop can do... every single thing better in any case.

i like how you took the opportunity to give your opinion and slam the iPad, but you failed to actually make any real comparisons between items like the kindle and the iPad which is what the OP was asking for. good job.

OP: Not really sure about your phone. its june. why not just wait 4 months and use your upgrade? we all know that by then there will be something else to compete with, if not best, the evo. that just my $.02

now for the kindle vs ipad vs laptop. based on what you have said, here is what i would do: based on the usage that is listed as far as reading, blogs, news, etc...i say go for the ipad. it doesnt sound like you do any "getting things done" when you are out and about. and i am like you, reading from a non e-ink screen does not bother me. for what you you do with most of your time, why not alleviate the need to carry your laptop around, which probably wont hold charge for longer 2-3 hours, and carry around your kindle, and just carry around one product that will do exactly what you need it to do, for your needs, and make that backpack a lot lighter. and since apple launched their own ebook store, coupled with the kindle store, you should be able to get all the newspapers, magazines, and blogs you want on one product. kindle was on the right track, but magazines and newspapers work so much better on the ipad. my wife works in publishing and i have seen some mock-ups of some of their products on the ipad and they look so nice and are so functional.

we have first gen kindles in the house. presently, all of our money is typed up in an international adoption, but as soon as we get the chance, we will be replacing them with ipads and my macbook can stay at the house when i need to actually get things done.

hope that helps some.

 

[grainysand]

To be honest, I never thought I would even consider the iPad until a recent IT/CIO conference I attended where almost half the attendees were carrying around iPads talking amongst each other about how they were the best products ever created and would have an impact on our culture that rivals the Internet (no, I'm not $#*#ing you--IT Directors and CIOs of Fortune 500 were saying this).

What about that? They're caught up in Apple hype. It's common enough; the most the iPad will do is carve out a market for tablet PCs, which hitherto has been stuck in a quagmire of failure. If I were to get a tablet, and I see no sane reason to, I'd be better served waiting for something that's really beefed-up and runs a touch-optimized Win7 (so, as I said, it can actually run shit and get things done) or Android/Chrome.