The Sundarban
Revealed Mar 1, 2026, 3:30 PM EST
Bertel is a lifelong tech fanatic with over a decade of experience writing thousands of articles about Android devices, Linux, and extra.
Prior to joining the How-To Geek team, Bertel wrote for the likes of MakeUseOf, MakeTechEasier, and Android Police—at the latter he wrote over 3,500 articles. He delights in helping others resolve which tech to elevate into their lives… and which tech to total with out.
Bertel graduated from the College of William and Mary in 2012 with degrees in History and Authorities. He has spent his total career since as a tech journalist preserving Android, Linux, Wearables, Web Apps, and extra.
I am writing these phrases on a foldable tablet that suits in my pocket, but my dream of an amazing touchscreen goes attend to a mighty older skills of Android capsules. The total come attend to the origin, if truth be told, when Google unveiled the predominant model of Android made for better screens.
Android 3.0 used to be a tablet-perfect model of Android
Codename: Honeycomb
Android first launched in 2008 on the HTC Dream, a instrument acknowledged within the US because the T-Mobile G1. This initial 1.0 liberate didn’t have a title, but model 1.5 could presumably be acknowledged as “Cupcake.” By the level 2.0 came over, the alphabetical dessert-essentially based naming scheme had reached “Eclair.” Model 2.3 launched in 2011 with the title “Gingerbread,” and at the the same time, it came to telephones; Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” used to be exhibiting exclusively on capsules. No topic the model quantity, this used to be in actuality the eighth model of Android launched in four years.
Honeycomb used to be a considerable departure from prior versions of Android. It presented parts that would stick with the platform for a decade, such because the three virtual navigation icons within the underside left for “attend,” “dwelling,” and “most recent apps.” Pressing that closing one brought up thumbnails of your most now not too long ago old fashioned apps, arranged vertically.
Within the underside-honest appropriate, there used to be a notification house, clock, and gadget indicators. The accomplish made Android resemble a worn PC, though there used to be no taskbar, and to initiate apps, you tapped a button within the head-honest appropriate. Widgets could presumably also be arranged any place on the house video visual show unit.
This used to be an skills of wildly experimental hardware
We weren’t but particular what a tablet could presumably also be
Honeycomb used to be a response to the industrial success of Apple’s iPad, which hit retailer cupboards virtually a yr prior in April of 2010. The iPad had modified of us’s understanding of a tablet from a Dwelling windows machine with a stylus to one thing extra corresponding to an additional-tremendous telephone, and other consumer tech companies wanted in on the movement.
Many original Android capsules came out within the midst of this time. The predominant used to be the Motorola Xoom, a largely worn tablet by nowadays’s requirements. As a initiate product, it gave a factual stare at the instrument that virtually all Android capsules launched in 2012 would portion. This deep dive by MobileTechReview offers a factual stare.
One in all essentially the most striking capsules to be conscious the Motorola Xoom used to be the Asus Transformer, whose keyboard attachment effectively turned this slate into a laptop. This used to be a steady keyboard and touchpad, mind you, now not a keyboard case as is classic nowadays. Here is a review Marques Brownlee posted attend within the tablet’s top (watch what I did there?).
I got my first model of Honeycomb with the Toshiba Thrive, a 10-wander tablet launched over the summer season with a removable attend duvet, an SD card slot, an HDMI port, and a USB 3.0 port. All of these ports were corpulent-sized, factual like on a laptop. This made it easy to attend up recordsdata, copy photos over from my level-and-shoot digital camera, and print papers from campus printers. I want I quiet had a photo of the tablet, but alas, for this one, I’m going to level you towards a PhoneArena review as a substitute.
Samsung had essentially the most success, for it had already started releasing capsules in step with the phone model of Android in 2010. The dominance it used to be with out notice establishing amongst Android telephones continued on into capsules. As mighty as I like Samsung hardware now, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Honeycomb tablet did nothing for me. It used to be thinner than the iPad, but it surely sacrificed the ports I was taking a gaze within the strategy.
The Tron-like interface labored surprisingly effectively
But the attach were the apps?
Android Honeycomb looked the the same all the procedure in which thru all of these capsules. The virtual buttons, the settings menu, and various parts of the interface were blue and sunless. It’s striking now to stare attend and watch how darkish Android once used to be.
Android Honeycomb used to be surely usable. I spent mighty of my junior yr of faculty the remark of my Toshiba Thrive as a laptop substitute (despite all the pieces, it had the ports!). The interface used to be hardly ever ever a direct for me, as any person that finds particular restrictions on multitasking in actuality back me attach on task. It’s good to well presumably presumably also now not switch Android apps like PC app dwelling windows in presently. There wasn’t even damage up-video visual show unit multitasking. But the capsules were highly efficient and quiet ample to to find work done. The direct used to be the apps.
Honeycomb presented apps tailored to better screens, like a Gmail app that had a sidebar on the left and electronic mail threads on essentially the most moving. Sadly, there factual weren’t many apps that took advantage of the better video visual show unit. Many of the apps were telephone apps stretched to beget the better house. I retain in mind downloading a classic office suite and a PDF reader that I old fashioned for my classes, but there wasn’t mighty extra on hand. Android capsules can have to quiet quiet lack apps relative to the iPad, but they’ve come a protracted come.
Android 4.0 used to be the origin of the quit
Merging telephones and capsules attend collectively did now not bode effectively for capsules
For Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich,” Google merged the phone and tablet versions collectively.
