酷兔英语


This month marks the third anniversary of Apple's iPad. Since it hit the market, it has sold over 120 million units, and tablets in general have taken off. But large-screen tablets like the 9.7-inch iPad have remained dear for many budgets. The latest iPad and Microsoft's new Surface RT start at $499. Even lower-priced, full-size tablets from name-brand companies typically cost $300 to $400. To pay significantly less, you've had to opt for a much smaller unit, in the 7-inch range.


上个月,苹果(Apple)iPad满三岁。自上市以来,iPad销量已经突破了1.2亿部,带动了平板电脑的普遍崛起。但对很多勤俭消费的人来说,像9.7英寸iPad这样的大屏平板电脑仍然价格过高。最新版iPad和微软(Microsoft)新发布的Surface RT都是499美元起售。即便是知名厂商价格较低的全尺寸平板,通常也售价300-400美元。想要多省钱,那你只能选择尺寸较小的7英寸平板。



Now, major manufacturers are lowering prices for some larger-screen tablets to at least slightly below $300. This week I've been testing two of these sub-$300 models. One is the largest Kindle Fire HD, with an 8.9-inch screen and a price that was just cut to $269 from $299. The other is a new 10.1-inch tablet from Asus, the MeMo Pad Smart 10.1, which sells for $299. The Kindle's display is smaller than the roughly 10-inch tablets, but I consider it close enough to include in the category.


而现在,一些大牌厂商正把一些大屏平板降价到至少300美元以下的水平。这周我一直在评测两款不到300美元的平板电脑。一款是亚马逊(Amazon)最大的Kindle Fire HD,配备8.9英寸屏幕,价格刚从299美元降到269美元。另一款则是华硕(Asus)10.1英寸新品平板MeMo Pad Smart 10.1,售价299美元。虽然这款Kindle的屏幕比那些10英寸左右的平板小,但我觉得其尺寸接近,也可以算在大屏平板范围内。



What kind of large tablet do you get for under $300? Pretty good ones. While neither of the two I tested is as good as the iPad, each delivers decent value for the price.


不到300美元你能买到怎样的大屏平板?这两款真的都很不错。虽然在我的测试中两款都不如iPad,但也都是物有所值。



These two tablets are quite different from each other. The new Asus is a standard Android tablet, replete with built-in apps from Google, which makes Android, and a few from Asus. It has front and rear cameras, and the standard 16 gigabytes of internal memory. And it has access to the Google Play store, which features over 700,000 apps, only a fraction of which are designed to take advantage of a large tablet screen.


这两款平板彼此差别很大。华硕这款新机器是标准的安卓(Android)平板,其中内置了大量的谷歌(Google)应用以及不少华硕研发的应用。这款平板还有前后摄像头,内置存储空间则是标准的16GB。这款平板可以接入谷歌的Play商店,下载超过70万款应用,但其中只有一部分是基于大屏幕平板进行优化设计的。



The Kindle Fire HD 8.9, like its popular $199, 7-inch sibling, is technically an Android tablet. But it buries Android under Amazon's user interface, doesn't feature Google's apps and uses its own tablet-oriented, highly curated app store, which currently has 50,000 choices. It is capable of managing email, browsing and social networking, and running popular third-party apps and games. However, the Kindle Fire HD is mainly a hardware front end to Amazon's vast collection of digital books, music and video. It also comes with 16 gigabytes of internal memory.


和此前热销的199美元的七英寸Kindle Fire HD一样,Kindle Fire HD 8.9从技术上来说是一款安卓平板。但亚马逊把安卓操作系统隐藏在自己的用户界面下,并没有主打谷歌应用,而用的是自己为平板定制的高度优化的应用商店,目前拥有五万款应用。这款平板可以管理电子邮件、浏览网页以及社交网站,运行热门的第三方应用与游戏。不过,Kindle Fire HD 8.9主要是一款硬件前端,用于接入亚马逊海量的电子书、数字音乐与视频内容。它也配备了16GB存储空间。



The Asus, available at various online stores, runs the current major release of Android, called Jelly Bean, albeit a slightly older version of that software. However, the Kindle, consistent with its general demotion of Android to mere plumbing, is running a version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, that's a whole generation behind. It's available at Amazon.com.


华硕MeMo Pad Smart 10.1目前已经在诸多网络商店销售,其运行的是目前主流的"果冻豆"(Jelly Bean)版本安卓操作系统,只不过是稍老的版本。而Kindle Fire HD 8.9则遵循了亚马逊的一贯风格,运行的是安卓的冰淇淋三明治(Ice Cream Sandwich)版本,比主流安卓系统要老了整整一代。Kindle Fire HD 8.9在亚马逊网站(amazon.com)有售。



Perhaps the biggest difference between the two was in battery life. I ran my usual rigorous tabletbattery test on each, turning the screenbrightness to 75%, keeping Wi-Fi on to collect email in the background, and then playing videos until the units shut down for lack of power.


或许两款平板最大的区别是电池续航时间。我对这两款平板都使用了一贯以来的严格的平板电池测试手段,将屏幕亮度调到75%,保持Wi-Fi连接以在后台接受邮件,然后持续播放视频直至电池完全耗尽关机。



The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 scored 8 hours and 16 minutes, nearly two hours less than the iPad, yet better than many tablets I've tested. But the Asus MeMo did quite poorly, lasting only 5 hours and 27 minutes, almost 3 hours less than Amazon's tablet.


Kindle Fire HD 8.9的电池续航时间是8小时16分钟,比iPad少了近两个小时,不过这表现也优于我评测过的很多平板。但华硕MeMo 10.1表现相当乏力,电池只坚持了5小时27分钟,比Kindle Fire HD 8.9少了几乎三个小时。



To get the Kindle for $269, you have to put up with ads, some on the lock screen and some in the form of recommendations for buying other content on the home screen. You can turn off the latter in settings-- a new feature. But to get a model without the full-screen ads, which Amazon calls 'Special Offers,' you have to pay $15 more, either when purchasing the device or by going to an obscure page on Amazon.com.


为了以269美元的价格买到Kindle Fire HD 8.9,你必须得接受广告,其中有的是锁屏广告,有的则是在主屏上推荐购买其他内容。你可以在设定中关闭后一种广告,这是新功能。但如果要买没有亚马逊所谓"Special Offers"全屏广告的版本,你得多支付15美元,要么是在购买这款设备的当时支付,要么去亚马逊网站一个不太起眼的页面支付。



Other downsides of the Kindle HD 8.9 are that it lacks a rear camera and its browser, called Silk, remains in my tests a bit slower at loading Web pages than either the iPad or standard Android browsers.


Kindle Fire HD 8.9另一个不足之处是没有后摄像头,而且在我的评测中,其内置的Silk浏览器加载网页速度仍然比iPad或是标准安卓浏览器都要慢一些。



On the other hand, the bigger Kindle offers a crisp, sharp screen, and can also be purchased for just $30 more with twice the memory, and for $399 with a cellular data option in addition to Wi-Fi. It's lighter and slightly thinner than the full-size iPad, and slightly thinner and lighter than the MeMo 10.1, though the latter is also lighter than the iPad. It has much higher screenresolution than the MeMo's, but less than the iPad's.


另一方面,这款大尺寸Kindle拥有锐利清晰的屏幕,只需再花30美元就可以将存储空间提升一倍,Wi-Fi + 3G版本的售价为399美元。这部平板比全尺寸iPad轻,也略薄;同样比华硕的MeMo 10.1略微轻薄,不过MeMo 10.1也比iPad轻薄。Kindle Fire HD 8.9的屏幕分辨率高于MeMo 10.1,但比iPad低。



The Asus lacks a higher-memory or cellular model, though it has a memory-card slot for adding storage. It also has a nice feature that permits continuous burst shooting of up to 100 continuous photos. This photo feature worked, but some of the shots were out of focus.


华硕MeMo 10.1没有大存储空间可供选择,也没有3G版本,但带有扩展存储卡槽。这款平板还有个不错的功能,可以连续抓拍至多100张照片。这项拍照功能可用,但其中一些照片失焦模糊了。



With the Kindle, I never had a crash or a glitch. On the Asus, I ran into a couple of minor, but annoying, problems. An Asus app called BuddyBuzz, one of many attempts by device makers to meld social networks in one place, crashed frequently. However, I doubt many users will rely on it. And while playing movies rented from Google, I got several messages saying the movie couldn't be authenticated. One tap fixed this, but no one wants to be interrupted like that while watching 'Inception.' Asus said it couldn't replicate either glitch but would investigate.


使用Kindle Fire HD 8.9的过程中,我从未遇到崩溃或者故障情况。而在华硕MeMo 10.1上,我遇到了一些虽小但却烦人的问题。一款华硕研发的名为BuddyBuzz的应用经常会崩溃。设备厂商们总是想将社交网络整合到一处,这款应用就是一个范例。而我怀疑是否会有很多用户会使用此应用。此外,虽然我播放的是从谷歌商店内租借的电影,但却收到了数条提醒信息,称影片可能不是正版。尽管点击一下就可以消除信息,但谁也不愿意在看《盗梦空间》(Inception)电影时被这样的信息打扰。华硕表示,他们无法复现这两个问题,但会就此进行调查。



Many people may prefer smaller tablets for around $200 or even less. But for those who want a full-size slate at a lower price, these two models are good choices.


很多人可能青睐售价200美元左右或价格更低的小尺寸平板。但对那些希望以较低价格买到全尺寸平板的用户来说,这两部平板都是不错的选择。



Walter S. Mossberg