T-Mobile G-Slate Honeycomb tablet reviews go live, coming 20 April

At CES in January, T-Mobile and LG announced the G-Slate Honeycomb tablet device. The embargo was apparently lifted last night and G-Slate reviews are now online with a reported launch date of 20 April (1 day after the BlackBerry PlayBook) at a price of $529.99 after $100 mail-in rebate and two year contract.

I was unimpressed with the Motorola XOOM Honeycomb device, primarily due to the buggy early software and after reading several reviews it looks like the G-Slate may be a tad better. However, it also sounds like Honeycomb has a ways to go to compete with the industry leading Apple iPad. The 3D is just a gimmick, especially when you consider you have to wear those stupid blue and red glasses from back in the day when we were kids going to headache inducing 3D movies.

Check out these reviews of the T-Mobile G-Slate:

• Boy Genius Report
• Joshua Topolsky
• CNET
• SlashGear
• GigaOM Mobile
• Laptop Magazine
• Android Community
• Engadget

It seems to be getting ratings of about 6 to 8 out of 10, which is decent for an OS that has lots of work to go and matches what people were rating the BlackBerry PlayBook a couple of days ago.

The hardware does look and sound like it is quite nice though so if you really want an Android tablet then it might be one to consider. I have found way too many apps and services on my iPad to even think of an Android tablet for myself personally.

The G-Slate is actually a pretty expensive device at $529.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a 2-year contract at a minimum monthly cost of $30 to $50. The off contract price is $749.99 with no rebate. I really like the pricing scheme for my iPad 2 and won't be buying another 3G tablet with a contract again. This is one reason I am picking up a WiFi BlackBerry PlayBook to test out too.