Hardware
Tablet Displays Leave One User Disappointed at Best Buy
Hector Gomez is a great “man on the street” kind of guy when it comes to all things mobile. He tests out a lot of gadgets and thankfully keeps me updated on a number of things he’s checking out. I’m always grateful.
Recently, Hector checked out his local Best Buy to see what Tablet/Slates were there. Specifically he wanted to check out the Huawei Ideos Tablet. Best Buy, if you remember, said it would be stocking quite a few Tablet/Slate devices this holiday season. Well, Hector a bit disappointed.
The Tablet was there on the shelf. But it had just gone out for display. It wasn’t charged (or apparently plugged in) and according to Hector’s report, the employees didn’t know how to charge it.
Too bad it was still not charged or working, as they had just put it up in the display and they didn’t know how to charge it. The quality felt well done, was pretty light and you could hold it very nicely. It is a tad bigger than the Galaxy Tab Tablet as they also had the cases for it; so I compared it with the Huawei. Other than just been able to feel it and see the device; oh and it did have the small stylus which means one thing, not a very good touch experience, but then again it might be ok.
I’ll cut Best Buy a bit of slack, knowing how products get shipped and displayed, but we all know from years of experience that the experience with any big box store on a device that begs to be touched and fondled is not a good one for a variety of reasons. Contrast that with an Apple Store. Apple’s superior retail experience is one reason I think they will always maintain their lead in the touch game, regardless of how exciting a new device may or may not be from another manufacturer.
We’ve finally got a local Best Buy opening up here this Friday and I’m anxious to see what they have on display and how these devices are displayed. But in the interim, I’ll keep my eyes open for Hector’s ace reporting.
Jeff
11/10/2010 at 7:29 pm
I’ve always hated the way Best Buy displays notebooks and netbooks sans battery. You pick it up and think, “oh wow, this is nice and light” then realize the battery is missing so there’s no way to compare the weight or even the shape of them. I suspect it’s done to mislead the consumer.
Eochaid
11/10/2010 at 8:19 pm
Well if people wouldn’t steal the batteries they wouldn’t have to…apple can show their whole displays because they have internal batteries…as for the huawei…we have it powered up at our local best buy so I don’t know what their problem was…by the way its a resistive touchpanel for lose
Chris Davies
11/11/2010 at 11:15 am
Not wanting to cut Best Buy too much slack, but it could be a port issue. The S7 has a microUSB port right next to its charging port, but I found the pre-production unit I tested wouldn’t charge from the USB (unlike most gadgets these days). In Hector’s photo you can see there’s a USB cable plugged in (the AC port is just underneath it) so Best Buy may think they’re powering the tablet but actually they’re not.