Advice for a tablet?

[NES_Rules]

For Christmas I got an Amazon Kindle Fire HD, which was a surprise to me since I not only didn't ask for one, I hadn't wanted one at all. But now that I have it, I've been thinking it could be a handy little device to have around. But, I'm afraid its too closed for my taste. My mom got one as well and I was playing around with it and I couldn't figure out how to put my own music or movies on it. And since I don't believe in paying for digital downloads, I won't be buying any from Amazon. So all I'd be left with is the few free games on the marketplace, and another device to browse the Internet.
So I was thinking of returning the Kindle and getting another Android tablet in the same price range instead. My research so far shows the Google Nexus 7 as my best bet. But, other than playing with my mom's Kindle for a few minutes, I know nothing about tablets, so as far as I know, the Nexus is the same deal as the Kindle except by Google instead of Amazon. And I have no real idea of what else is out there.
I guess what I really want is to be able to load my music and videos from my laptop to a tablet and be able to play them, as well as downloading some of the (free) games on the marketplace.

So for the more tablet experienced RFGenners out there, what would you suggest for a tablet in the $200 price range?

[InvadErGII]

You're right about the differences between the two. The Kindle OS is really just a very, very customized version of Android that makes you do everything through Amazon instead of Google Play. Most non-Kindle apps will work on the Kindle if side-loaded on via another device, but some things (including anything requiring a Google account) will fail miserably.

The Nexus 7 is probably your best bet, though the Samsungs in that range are pretty solid as well. No matter what you go with, look into the Google Play Music service, which lets you store a ton of stuff in the cloud for free, no matter where you got it from. This is pretty handy if you want to have the same music everywhere and it leaves more room for cool things like the RFG app.

[Seno]

A nexus 7 would be my recommendation as it comes with a vanilla installation of android and is about as open as its gets,  you can use any app store you want (including amazon's). Its also easy to root and install a custom ROMs and there's a lot of development work going on for it.

The kindle HD has nice hardware, but has a locked down bootloader and custom ROMs for it seem to be thin on the ground, so your stuck with standard launcher for now. Rooting is more straight forward (but still a bit of a faff) so installing gapps isn't to much of a hassle and once rooted you can remove the ads without paying the pisstake $15 to amazon.

[nupoile]

We have a nexus 7 and really like it. I really don't have much tablet experience outside of the nexus and we probably don't use it to its full extent. That being said, my wife can hardly put it down and it works out great for us.

[NES_Rules]

You're right about the differences between the two. The Kindle OS is really just a very, very customized version of Android that makes you do everything through Amazon instead of Google Play. Most non-Kindle apps will work on the Kindle if side-loaded on via another device, but some things (including anything requiring a Google account) will fail miserably.

The Nexus 7 is probably your best bet, though the Samsungs in that range are pretty solid as well. No matter what you go with, look into the Google Play Music service, which lets you store a ton of stuff in the cloud for free, no matter where you got it from. This is pretty handy if you want to have the same music everywhere and it leaves more room for cool things like the RFG app.

I've actually had the Google Music service for a while now, I think I got it back when it was still in Beta, I just never had a device to actually use it.

The kindle HD has nice hardware, but has a locked down bootloader and custom ROMs for it seem to be thin on the ground, so your stuck with standard launcher for now. Rooting is more straight forward (but still a bit of a faff) so installing gapps isn't to much of a hassle and once rooted you can remove the ads without paying the pisstake $15 to amazon.

When I read about the ad every time its turned on, I realized this probably wasn't the device for me. Its bad enough to be bombarded with ads when using a free service, but when you pay $200 for a device and then everything you use the device for, its absurd to have pay yet another fee for the "privilege" of not having ads. Could you imagine buying a new car that you have to listen to an ad every time you start it...

We have a nexus 7 and really like it. I really don't have much tablet experience outside of the nexus and we probably don't use it to its full extent. That being said, my wife can hardly put it down and it works out great for us.

Do you have the 16GB or 32GB model? I think that's my only decision left now. 16 seems like it would suffice, but I'm betting what they advertise as 16 is probably more like 12 once everything is setup. I wish these things would come with SD card slots for expandable memory, but I haven't seen many models that do. It sucks spending an extra $50 for 16GB when memory cards are so much cheaper.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

Break tablet, acquire laptop.

[NES_Rules]

I already have a laptop, and I'm not replacing it with the tablet. Tablet will be more for quick stuff and where portability really counts (like on the toilet).

[monkees19]

Best best is to stick with a smart phone. It does the same stuff as a tablet that also makes phone calls as a trade off for the smaller screen. I just don't see the appeal at all. I've used my father in law's iPad and thought, why?

[nupoile]

We have a nexus 7 and really like it. I really don't have much tablet experience outside of the nexus and we probably don't use it to its full extent. That being said, my wife can hardly put it down and it works out great for us.

Do you have the 16GB or 32GB model? I think that's my only decision left now. 16 seems like it would suffice, but I'm betting what they advertise as 16 is probably more like 12 once everything is setup. I wish these things would come with SD card slots for expandable memory, but I haven't seen many models that do. It sucks spending an extra $50 for 16GB when memory cards are so much cheaper.

We have the 16 GB version but only because I bought it when it first came out and that was the biggest available. I would definitely buy the 32GB version now.

And yes, the lack of SD slot is a downside. I think this is the best available for the price and the best value. It is not the best available at any cost.

[NES_Rules]

Best best is to stick with a smart phone. It does the same stuff as a tablet that also makes phone calls as a trade off for the smaller screen. I just don't see the appeal at all. I've used my father in law's iPad and thought, why?

Smart phones require a monthly fee. Right now, my dumb phone costs $10/month. If I were to get a smartphone, its $50/month, even if I only use wi-fi to get online.

We have a nexus 7 and really like it. I really don't have much tablet experience outside of the nexus and we probably don't use it to its full extent. That being said, my wife can hardly put it down and it works out great for us.

Do you have the 16GB or 32GB model? I think that's my only decision left now. 16 seems like it would suffice, but I'm betting what they advertise as 16 is probably more like 12 once everything is setup. I wish these things would come with SD card slots for expandable memory, but I haven't seen many models that do. It sucks spending an extra $50 for 16GB when memory cards are so much cheaper.

We have the 16 GB version but only because I bought it when it first came out and that was the biggest available. I would definitely buy the 32GB version now.

And yes, the lack of SD slot is a downside. I think this is the best available for the price and the best value. It is not the best available at any cost.

It looks like the 16GB is sold out everywhere, including directly from Google, so I guess I'll have to get the 32GB, which is nice I don't have to make that decision now.

[NES_Rules]

Posting this from my new Nexus. I love it so far, signed into Google and instantly had all my music right there.

[nupoile]

Posting this from my new Nexus. I love it so far, signed into Google and instantly had all my music right there.

Reading this from my Nexus. Glad you got one and like it.

[NES_Rules]

After playing around with my 32GB model, I noticed its actually a 16GB. When I plugged it into my laptop I noticed it said there was total space of 13.3GB, which I thought was weird, so I checked the settings on the tablet, and it said the same thing. After some looking, it seems to be a problem that has occurred at least once before, but its hard to search for since all I get are old rumors of the "upcoming" 32GB model.

[Cobra]

Haven't got an iPad or tablet yet. But I do hope to get an iPad one day, even if only to also get one of these for it.
[img width=500 height=408]http://i.imgur.com/Z0KpO.jpg[/img]

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

After playing around with my 32GB model, I noticed its actually a 16GB. When I plugged it into my laptop I noticed it said there was total space of 13.3GB, which I thought was weird, so I checked the settings on the tablet, and it said the same thing. After some looking, it seems to be a problem that has occurred at least once before, but its hard to search for since all I get are old rumors of the "upcoming" 32GB model.

Wait what? So you paid for a 32 gig and its not? Or is it a bug?