For someone who wants to buy a tablet right now, especially in Australia, the choices in the market are far from clear. If you fancy an Apple Ipad 2, you are guaranteed a great user experience, a good selection of apps and nice applications such as GarageBand and iMovie. However, if you look at the hardware, even though the dual-core A5 is a little powerhouse under that screen, the hardware list is a little disappointing. The camera is a disappointment and the lack of slots for expansion as well as being tied down to an iTunes only transfer can make things complicated under certain usage scenarios. Furthermore, even if you have cash burning a hole in your wallet, there is hardly any stock anywhere.

In the Android camp, at the moment there is the new Samsung 10.1v being sold through Vodafone. The tablet runs Android 3.0 Honeycomb and it has good specs, such as a nice camera, 3G connectivity and being an Android tablet, it can be used as a USB storage device. However, the Samsung lacks any expansion slot whatsoever. This makes it a slight disadvantage if you are one of those movie and music hogs who like to take a lot of media on the go.

Recently, I started to see some Acer Iconia A500 tablets around the shops. Yesterday, I looked at a couple in a JB-HiFi store somewhere in Sydney. The unit definitely feels nice to hold and amazingly light. It has a brushed aluminium back and the camera seems to be quite good. However, so far there is no 3G version available in Australia.

Dilemma is sometimes a wonderful thing, as I think I will wait until there is a tablet in the market that will fit in as a daily use tablet without being tied down to any particular device ecosystem.