Ruined,
I pretty much agree with you spot-on. I liked the price of ARM tablets the most, and while the Clover Trail tablets have a lot of potential, I still think they have another generation or two before they become mainstream. The i5 tablets today are simply too hot, too heavy, and too little battery for what I want a tablet for. This device is supposed to supplement my main computer (which is a desktop), not replace it entirely. Then again, that's just me, but I think in a few years, Intel will have a powerful, low voltage chip that gets passive cooling and the battery benefits of the Atom, but much more powerful.
For now (for me at least) the Surface RT and the ARM architecture is the best option for a windows tablet.
Yeah I think it is a very personal decision.
For the hardcore gamer, neither the Tegra3 ARM nor Intel Atom will work, as both fail at Steam. So that person needs an i5-i7 based tab like the surface pro.
For the gamer that likes 3D games but does not need the depth of the Steam library and wants extended battery life, a Tegra3 ARM WinRT like Surface will probably work fine - while on the other hand the Intel Atom will be too sluggish for these type of games.
For the business user that wants a tablet with extended battery life, the Intel Atom tablet is the best choice due to its ability to run legacy apps.
And, for the casual net user probably either a Tegra3 RT device or Intel Atom device will work fine. It boils down to preference, I think. The Atom is prone to have more quirks, but then again it has more flexibility in what it can run.
I personally have a tough time deciding between the Surface RT and HP Envy X2. I can get both for the same price, but the latter at the same price I can get with 128gb storage instead of the 64gb in Surface. And, while I do believe Surface is going to be less quirky, this tablet is going to be someone's main computer essentially. They do want a tablet as their main computer, though - but one that has a physical keyboard option. So if I get Surface for them for their main computer they will be 100% dependent on the WinRT app store and I'm not sure I'm fully comfortable with that idea. Also I like the HP's keyboard dock over the surface's keyboard covers. The Envy X2 also has 1" bigger screen and is less radical transition for this person who has used a laptop their whole life. Reliability, Microsoft is usually good but then again look at long term reliability of XBOX360 when it first came out
. I don't think we have good data for long term reliability of any of these products.
In the end for me, I will probably end up test driving the HP for the 21-day return period. If I get one that has a keyboard dock that behaves properly (some mention repeating letters) and does not have any major stability problems, I think it will be best for the person destined. If it doesn't work up to par though, I will end up returning it for Surface RT likely as my second option.
In the future it may be a less radical decision, but I think NVIDIA ARM chips will likely always have stronger graphics while Intel Atom chips will always have stronger cpu functions. Bay Trail is Intel's next big step, but it will have a cut down version of the Intel HD4000 graphics. A lot better than Clover Trail, but not convinced it will beat Tegra4 in GPU functions as Bay Trail will not have the full HD4000 graphics but rather a reduced version. The difference is that Bay Trail may be "good enough" for light 3D gaming while Clover Trail is pretty much a fail in most 3d gaming. Clover Trail is still good for casual Win8 store 2D games, though.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram