This is the third tablet we've owned, though I also have extensive use of a few others. I started things off with the awful abomination Viewsonic gTablet. It was a woot impulse buy, one that I deeply regret. Unstable, poor hardware design and a proprietary interface (tap n tap) that had to be removed just to make the device usable. I had a iPad2 and iPad (3) for ~ 2 weeks each to try them out. I was never an Apple fan, and I've grown more and more negative about them as they've gone down their litigious path to domination so I'm not the most neutral of reviewers. Still, I expected so much more considering the hype. Nice looking screens and great app selection, but where's the magic everyone goes on about? Too heavy for its intended use and too big to use as an ereader. I found myself always lookeing for a place to rest or prop up the thing. The 4:3 screen means that when playing anything but 4:3 content, the viewing size is not much bigger than a 7" tablet, but it does have wonderful black bars. Though a far batter product, in a way I was more disappointed with the iPad than the gTablet. I was able to use a rooted Nook Color for a few days and was impressed with what the dev community was able to accomplish. I immediately went and bought the newly released Nook Tablet. Faster, brighter with better battery life! What could be wrong? Locked bootloader! The dev community never took a liking to the NT and you have to make a choice between >a< stable 2.3 ROM with tons of B&N induced quirks (fonts, formatting, white on white menu's, etc) or unstable incomplete CM alpha builds. Ughhhhh! Finally, I bought a N7 and so far it seems to be what I have been looking for in a tablet. Price, size, speed and screen are all solid. It's that bigger screen that fits between my phone and laptop. I've had it 3 days, and haven't felt the need to root it. That speaks volumes! I will root it eventually for the heck of it if nothing else, but I don't need to to make it function properly.
