When you think “Tablet PC” you think one thing: Apple iPad. That’s it. It controls a large portion of the marketplace and is becoming synonymous with the product. But there are still a large number of other Tablet makers using the Android OS. We have one of those here to review in the Nextbook Next6 Tablet. Our review is coming after the jump.
If you’re expecting an iPad 2 with a 7” screen, your expectations are just too high. No Tablet out there whether it’s the Galaxy Tab or Motorola XOOM is the iPad. That’s just the state of the Tablet industry right now.
But this is Tablet comes into the 7” screen market which pretty much only has the BlackBerry Playbook, which is horribly overpriced, and a bunch of other niche Tablets. There are others like the NOOK Color in this area as well but most of them are pretty much the same. They run Android 2.1, function as eReaders and have all the basic Tablet features. They’re not iPad competitors but alternatives for those on a budget.
This one will run you $279.99 on the NextbookUSA website which is more than $200 less than the iPad and Playbook so it’s not a bad deal. But how does it stand up to them?
Not perfectly but that’s not what it’s for. It’s disguised as a Tablet but is more of an eReader. There’s a built-in Borders eReader app that comes preloaded with 25 public domain books so you don’t have to be tech savvy at all to be able to read (my grandma’s had a Kindle for a year and has exactly one book on it…that I put on. That’s not changing any time soon). It functions very well in that capacity as there are back and next buttons on the left and right of the Tablet respectively which, as in the case of the Kindle, function to turn pages. Just by those buttons alone you can see that its main purpose is to read books with.
You can also add Android Apps but unlike with iOS, you have to plug it into the computer to be able to get them so it requires a little extra maintenance. Those are the functions of the “Tablet” part of it. There are only the bare minimum of apps installed upon initial use. Nothing special there except the preloaded books.
If you’re going to try to use this as an iPad replacement, don’t bother. That’s not what it’s for. It doesn’t have nearly as much space (4GB) or screen size. It’s a more advanced version of the NOOK. That’s what it’s competing with.
This isn’t going to replace your PC or laptop as the iPad has the potential to; it’s here to replace books and it does a great job of that.
