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Which Tablet PC


DerekJ

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Hi All

I know there is an IPad thread on the go at the moment but has anyone got any experience of non-Apple tablet PCs?

Are they better/worse or just different than the Apple offering?

Cheers

DerekJ

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The blackberry playbook is a bargain in PC world. 64 GB and £129

I'm also tempted by the Google Nexus 7 for £169

For what I would use it for - wifi in house and occasionally out and about I can't justify apple money

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We use a lot of Samsung Galaxy's and I have a 7" Samsung GTP 1000. They're different but have most of the functionality of an iPad. If I'm honest I suspect there are more apps for the Apple but what are you using it for? If it's surfing / emails / photo viewing and e-reading, I doubt you could tell one from the other save for screen size. But for me, even the screen on an iPad is too small... or maybe my eyes are too old. Either way, I'd never buy a tablet. The one I have was free and it spends most of it's time on the kitchen table unless I'm flying somehwere and the plane has no TV. Then I download a movie or two, and mabye a book or magazine.

I prefer 13" laptops / ultrabooks. *Much* more versatile, and much better when the wireless is iffy which I have plenty of experience with. The new MS Surface thingy looks interesting and a colleague has the Asus Transformer which was quite impressive.

So the question to ask is "What does the Apple give me that I can't get from an alternative tablet?" This asumes that the obvious badge issues can be ignored and that your eyes are good enough to tell one Samsug screen from another...

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Samsung Galaxy here too. I hear that there is now an iPad mini that is a faor bit cheaper than a full size ipad

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I quite like the iPad mini (we've ordered and installed about 10 of 'em the last few days), but given that the regular iPad is too small for me, I'll not be beating a path to an Apple shop any time soon.

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I've had a Samsung Galaxy 10.1 for a few months now (I bought it used but like new off a mate with the cash I was given for my birthday) and it's great for web browsing when I don't want or need my 15.6" Toshiba laptop like when away on trips... the screen's plenty big enough for me Blatman :p:laugh:

I also have a Samsung Galaxy S2 phone and tether the tablet using that as a wifi hotspot when there is no wifi available - can you tell I'm anti-Apple? :d

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Microsoft surface gets great reviews. I've not got my hands on one but have got a tablet pc and windows 8 and itis fantastic. advatages of microsoft surface:

1) handwriting recognition built in

2) Full office integration

It might be worth waiting for the pro edition to come out in January as that is going to compete with an ultra laptop.

It all depends on what you want the tablet for. If its for browsing internet, bit of shopping etc. then any cheap tablet will do the job. However if you want to use it for "work" then it depends what your office has. I have found that ipads have limited work advantages, but we are very much M$ based so an incompatible device has limited use. So if I was getting one the M$ surface, certainly worth a thought.

Hope that helps

Paul

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As said, it all depends what you want it for. I didn't buy my iPad, I got it as a long service gift from my works. I use it to surf, a few simple games, photos and as an eReader. However, the main thing I use it for is music apps. I have all my chord sheets and lots of chord books in PDF format. It has been brilliant for that. Had I not used it or this, I wouldn't have paid the money for an iPad, nice as I think it is.

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I'm reading this on a nexus 7 and I think it's great. Not as easy to use as an iPad but it's half the price. I haven't found anything that I want to do on it that I can't yet although the screen is a bit small sometimes but that does mean it fits in a pocket.

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Another vote for Samsung Galaxy Tab - you're not locked in the same way as you are with an ipad which can be very restrictive - good travel device, with mico cable connection and 32gb micro card is far more useful than an ipad -

I also have a small Toshiba Notebook running full windows 7 and rarely use a desktop machine - with a 1TB usb small portable storage drive to back up and use there's no need for bulky lap-tops or even desktops - simply wire it up to a big screen if you need to

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I don't want or need my 15.6" Toshiba laptop like when away on trips... the screen's plenty big enough for me Blatman :p:laugh:

No one *needs* a 15.6" laptop. They're too big, especially for a man of your... er... stature :oops:

I have a couple of 13.1 inch laptops and I think they're perfect. The work one is a late model Toshiba Tecra and it's very good indeed.

I find tablets a bind when you need to type something 'cos I just think the keyboard gets in the bl**dy way... :o

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Asus transformers tf300 it has a clip on keyboard that also give you more battery power. I can remember if it was £300 or 400 i like it :-)

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Seen a lot of anti-apple people buying tablets, phones, MP3 players... Everything really. They always compare them to the apple product. So apple the benchmark, for a reason! Most of them turn apple in the end. I live with 800+ military personnel and know people outside the military.

I've found most military (high disposable income) go apple and the main reason for anything else is price, or ability to change/upgrade bits.

If you just want it to work and stay fast... Apple

If you want to change RAM, HDD, etc... Non-apple

If you've a budget, non-apple

I think it's more "Which tablets should I avoid and why?"

Watch me get shot down in flames! It's a bias view as we've iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, Apple TV (two of them), MacAir, MacBook Pro, iPod nano and an iPod shuffle... Think that's it.

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Hi All,

Thanks for the comments.

DerekJ

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I've just bought 2 of these for the kids and have been setting them up for the past week or so. If I was getting one myself I'd go for a dual core but the cheap ones seem pretty good especially for £50 each. And if the kids break them it wont break the bank :)

http://www.didobuy.c...droid-tablet-pc

Only negative I've found is that it only lasts a couple of hours on battery if used constantly.

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