Not too long ago, we got a tablet, an Asus Transformer Infinity. Initially it was loaded with Android 4.0, but there was an upgrade waiting from Asus to 4.1, so we didn't use 4.0 very long.
This isn't a review of the tablet itself, but rather some things I've discovered about 4.1 and how it works on tablets that I'm not exactly thrilled with.
Flash: Technically, as of 4.1, Android no longer supports Flash. However, since we downloaded and installed it before we upgraded to 4.1, it's still on the tablet. Chrome won't load any flash anymore, but the built-in Android Browser will...sorta. Honestly, I think the decision to drop support for flash was premature. I think flash is a crap program, and a security hole, and a resource hog, but there are simply too many websites that still rely on it for fundamental functions. Part of the reason I didn't want an iPad is the lack of support for flash that makes trying to use the web on a tablet a frustrating experience. We bought this tablet as a replacement for a dead laptop, and the lack of flash support means that we are still reliant on a PC for some websites. Saying, "well, websites shouldn't use flash, they should use HTML5" just doesn't solve the problem.
Chrome: In addition to the Chrome/flash thing, mobile Chrome has one major problem- it sends the same user agent string whether it is on a mobile phone or on a tablet. Therefore, some sites insist on redirecting you to the mobile optimized site, despite the fact that the tablet has higher resolution (1920x1080) than either my desktop PC or my laptop. Chrome has a menu item called "request desktop site" but it is site specific rather than a default option, and some sites ignore it and still send you to the mobile site, so I think perhaps they need two different user agent strings to differentiate, or the ability to change to a different user agent string like you can with Dolphin. It'd also be nice if Chrome supported the same plugins that it does on the desktop so that you truly has the same experience on both platforms.
Apps: I imagine this is a common problem with apps whether iOS or Android, but a lot of apps aren't properly optimized for the resolution and capabilities of a tablet. The Facebook app is almost useless because the layout is so mobile-optimized, but since you can get to the desktop version, that's not a huge loss.
Keyboard: The Jellybean keyboard on a tablet is a good bit different than on a phone. (I've been using the Ice Cream Sandwich keyboard on my phone for a while, so I'm not doing a direct comparison...) The keys don't pop out to register touch, and the keys are larger, more like a real keyboard, at least in landscape mode. It takes up about half of the screen in landscape, and touch-typing actually isn't impossible once you get used to the weird hovering hand position you have to use. Two main things that make touch-typing difficult: The first is that the space bar is a bit narrow. Specifically, android has a notification/menu area at the bottom of the screen, but it is blank in the area just below the space bar, and so you end up pressing the blank area instead of the space bar if you aren't careful with your thumb placement. The second is that it's not a full qwerty keyboard so you end up inadvertently pressing the enter or backspace key or shift key with your pinky. Additionally, there isn't a dedicated row of numbers nor do they retain the ability to long-press on the top row to get a number without switching to the number/symbol keyboard, which makes entering passwords sort of laborious. In portrait mode, the keyboard takes up about a third of the screen, layout is the same, just smaller keys better suited for thumb typing. It bothers me that they didn't include a split keyboard option for either orientation, because I think that'd be a nice option to have for quick typing in landscape. The auto correct and predictive text work well, but I've noticed that the keyboard is laggy at times, and I think it's due to the overhead of the prediction engine. If a Tegra quad-core can't handle it, it's not really ready for primetime.
For the most part, I like the UI, these are just the little nits I've noticed that I hope they fix in the next version.
