I picked up a Dell Venue 8 with 32GB storage for $150 today, and its soooooo nice being able to run more than 2 tabs without any crashing or refreshing every 3 seconds. No need to run uneccesary memory refresher apps to monitor your ram. I find it comical that you have to do that on a $500 device.
At $150, its helluva steal and no way is the ipad mini retina worth 3.5 times the price at $370 difference! Ridiuclous fleecing. Mini retina is going back, no need to break the bank for an 8" slate. I posted a review in the alternatives OS section if anyone wants more insight.
$150 device and it just works. Ill take a slower CPU that works, over one that will never hit its potential with 1GB of ram and crashes 5x a day. Until Apple smartens up and puts some focus and acknowledgement on their customers (and not just thinking about profit margins out of their *****), and putting in 2GB ram would be nice, they can go fleece the next customer in line. By the time Apple puts in 2GB ram, it will be 2018, the competition will have 4GB ram.
Good on ya! Found something ya like....that's awesome.
FWIW, I've had an Air since launch, use it all day, everyday and it's never crashed on me. I'm at a loss for words when I read all these complaints....blaming RAM is clueless, I've got a Note3, 3GB of RAM...and ver EASY to get it to 'stutter', lag....even 'crash' an app once in a while. Nexus 7.2, in comparison to the Air or rMini, there IS NO comparison. While the Nex7 display is nice...it's
definitely 'laggier' than either new iPad, and it's tablet 'app' availability is really REALL sad! I've owned both Nexus 7s, giving the second a shot for a month and retuned it. After the Air, the new rMBP, and the 5s/Note 3 (for business) is the absolute perfect combo for me....so I know what you mean when you find something that 'works'. Or iPads have paid themselves back dozens and dozens of times over with the money made back in our business and the absolute revolution it WAS for us to get into iOS for our music production. We use them onstage, real time effects on guitars and synths, playback in DJay1, now 2 for wedding ceremonies (no more CD decks, amps, mixers and entire consoles! Fender Passport 500 and an iPad with Alesis dock, you can handle up to 8 mics, instruments, vocals....two stereo channels and USB in/out for recording or playback!....and only 44 pounds. With the iPad and the Fender, we've trimmed 250 pounds on load in for ceremonies and this year, we did 112 weddings, tonight I'm actually cheating while doing a corporate Christmas party! They're having dinner and I was just laughing at these threads. It had been a while since I'd been here....just enjoying the damn thing TOO much
....and I'm glad YOU were able to find something that works for you. That said, you had a faulty iPad if it was crashing on you....even ONCE a day, I'd be pissed! But we use em live...events with up to 2,500, 3,000 people. And for one reason....their reliability. Period
Screen shot of my RAM usage right now. Early Edition 2, my daily RSS reader and newspaper. SMS. Chrome. Three tabs in Safari (including this one). Calendar, mail, and the Activity monitor as well. No crashes. ARS, and two MacRumor tabs. Lightning quick LTE radios on these little suckers too, if it DOES have to repopulate, it's almost immediate!
Congrats on your decision, the Venue is a good value at $150. I also returned my rMini in favor of a Nexus7.2 at $179 for a road warrior. Kitkat is a great UI, Apple better take notice, it makes iOS look clunky in comparison.
I'm returning my Air too, and looking for a cheap iPad2 for reading mags and newsprint. Just can't keep the Air when my N7.2 has twice as much RAM and the browser doesn't crash!
Had a totally different experience with the N7.2. BUT, that's irrelevant to YOUR experience! We all use em differently. LOTS of choices in the market right now. Three years ago, you were relegated to the iPad to 'enjoy' the tablet experience. Today, not necessary. Prices, uses, sizes and weights, cases and accessories as well as WHAT you're ultimately gonna use it for. I like both Android and iOS. But I certainly don't believe 'Apple better take notice'....they can't keep these in stock. They're selling. A few tech dorks are bringing them back because of some old wives tale about RAM ....or rather lack there of, but millions and millions and millions are selling constantly and with that comes an extremely lively community of app and software development studs. THAT to me is the BIGGEST seller ultimately....as it was a long time with Windows. Had to run it because of programs necessary. The OS is a launch pad. I'm spending my time within the apps and software and I don't think I've EVER used Safari as my iOS browser. On the iPad, I use iCab. On the iPhone, Chrome or Mercury...my Note3, Chrome or Dolphin. I'm not a fan of most stock browsers....though Safari on OSx is and has become phenomenal IMHO. Ymmv as always.
Simple, the Air is the "Ultimate Crashing Machine".
I take it you don't own one? Again, I won't repeat. Already tltr...but, it's anything BUT a crashing machine. It's an absolute home run. And those that disagree, cool....find something else as the tens of millions of Air and rMini owners enjoy theirs, apparently because we just LOVE owning "The Ultimate Crashing Machine!" Not sure how many airlines would want to deploy the iPad 2 with a tenth the processing power, quarter the resolution, half the RAM....if they were as some folks here, behaving the way they seem to 'think' they do....as we find out, one of the biggest Anti Air/rMini folks arguing in this thread DOESN'T OWN IT! Ya gotta buy one first!
Again, snapshot of Safari, three tabs...Chrome with three tabs. Activity monitor. Mail. Active RSS updater running In the background and mail. 225MB inactive RAM. 186MB free. 381 active (which can be reassigned anytime to apps calling for it) and ONLY 185MB Wired, locked in for the system. Some bozo in another thread is trying to convince folks there is only 100MB usable on a COLD START! This BS has gone to far. Next year, maybe Apple will put two GB in for ya....while Samsung is putting 6 in their Note to try to 'reign in' TouchWiz! (& I LOVE my Note3---after almost two years owning the original, it's a night n day improvement. It's got 3GB of RAM though, and even with Samsung's benchmark cheating...this new A7. Regardless of RAM....is absolutely laying WASTE to the Sanpdragon Quad cores at half the clock speeds and a third the RAM. Objective testing. Not what Joe 'Forum KnowItAll'' Smith has to say. Check Anand's measurements. Wait as the OS is a baby. A tiny infant and it needs to be fine tuned just as iOS 1-6 were (remember clamoring for cut n paste?)
