Too many tablet choices this Xmas -- how to choose

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Tablets are reminding me of my very first visit to a California Supermarket years and years ago -- I just couldn't believe so many DIFFERENT varieties of Lettuce --and nearly every other fresh food item was available and I really said "What on earth do I buy". Not that I came from a poor background --I didn't - we didn't want for anything in the days of my youth but I'd never seen so much fresh food avaialble in one place.

Same with tablets today

Too Many Tablet Choices? How to Buy One This Holiday - US Business News - CNBC

How on EARTH do you make a sensible decision.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Coke Robot]

It starts by not buying an apple or android tablet!

 

[phailyoor]

There are only 3 main choices. I've created a simple algorithm to help choose.

if(need REAL Windows)
{
buy x86 tablet
}
else if(poor)
{
buy android
}
else
{
buy ipad
}

 

[mwhals]

Nothing wrong with an iPad. I just typed this on one.

 

[robinb9]

Go. Ini. Meeni mini moe?

I have an iPad Got the ipad2. Saved 100 bucks
And I like it a lot
Robin

 

[gazz9496]

well it depends on what you need it for really.

your not going to get one that can replace a gaming computer
you can't get one that is amazing at running adobe premier
you may struggle doing quality photo editing on any of them

good for small apps i guess.

then there is the surface pro, full version of windows 8 pro, crap battery but hey it can do most of the stuff a laptop can and there is the keyboard which is really rather nice if a little expensive.

want to read books? get a kindle or nexus

want to tell everyone you know your tablet was made by a 10 year old child labour and 70% of what you paid went straight to a companies bank account then get any apple product.

so what do you want to use it for?

i'd love to say get a microsoft surface for all your needs but sadly that just wouldn't be true, might be too big or just not be what your looking for in a tablet.

so looks like you have a lot of questions to ask yourself of how you would like to use it, then and only then can you make an informed decision on which one best suits your needs.

 

[Coke Robot]

want to tell everyone you know your tablet was made by a 10 year old child labour and 70% of what you paid went straight to a companies bank account then get any apple product.
QUOTE]

 

[Tepid]

Been playing with my wifes VivoTabRT, I like it a lot. I am not disappointed at all.
However, after discussing with her, what a Win8Pro tablet can do,, she is interested in one of those, so may be taking the RT back and waiting.

After a bit of research. Pound for Pound and dollar for Dollar, the Surface Pro (as long as it is a quality device) gives the best hardware options for the money. However, this can all change after release. We know what is announced to be available, we don't know what else might be available or how much some of these prices may fluctuate. If everything reported is true,,, then....

Many say the price is too high,,,,, no it's not,,,, you get a Laptop and a Tablet with Full Desktop App Support in one device.
A.) Top that with any android, ipad, Kindel, Nook whatever,

Oh yeah, and no Cheap ARM/Atom processors, but i5 and the i7's will probably follow.
What does that allow you to do? Oh I don't know,,, Play with Hyper-V on your Tablet without the need of offloading it to your network and relying on WIFI or 3G/4G to access it when you want to test and mess around with stuff? Sounds like a winner to me.

Would be really nice if V-Pro were supported.

With the amount of stuff you CAN do with just one Surface Pro Tablet, anyone looking to invest in a Tablet and a Laptop would be doing themselves a disservice by NOT taking a look at any of the Win8 Pro Tablets.

Sorry, but all you naysayers are wrong, once the word get's out, Win8 Pro Tablets are going to fly.

 

[Coke Robot]

Been playing with my wifes VivoTabRT, I like it a lot. I am not disappointed at all.
However, after discussing with her, what a Win8Pro tablet can do,, she is interested in one of those, so may be taking the RT back and waiting.

After a bit of research. Pound for Pound and dollar for Dollar, the Surface Pro (as long as it is a quality device) gives the best hardware options for the money. However, this can all change after release. We know what is announced to be available, we don't know what else might be available or how much some of these prices may fluctuate. If everything reported is true,,, then....

Many say the price is too high,,,,, no it's not,,,, you get a Laptop and a Tablet with Full Desktop App Support in one device.
A.) Top that with any android, ipad, Kindel, Nook whatever,

Oh yeah, and no Cheap ARM/Atom processors, but i5 and the i7's will probably follow.
What does that allow you to do? Oh I don't know,,, Play with Hyper-V on your Tablet without the need of offloading it to your network and relying on WIFI or 3G/4G to access it when you want to test and mess around with stuff? Sounds like a winner to me.

Would be really nice if V-Pro were supported.

With the amount of stuff you CAN do with just one Surface Pro Tablet, anyone looking to invest in a Tablet and a Laptop would be doing themselves a disservice by NOT taking a look at any of the Win8 Pro Tablets.

Sorry, but all you naysayers are wrong, once the word get's out, Win8 Pro Tablets are going to fly.

Fact of the decade.

 

[FSeal]

Conumers are not going to buy the Win 8 tabs.

IF it flies it'll be on the buisness front.

But frankly, iPad and Android will lead sales this year and next by about a 10:1 margin.

While the pro is somewhat interesting, it's high price, heavy weight and poor battery life compared to every other tablet out there will be a three strikes for any significant user sales.

Personally, the full size IPad or Nexus 10 are the best tabs atm for what tablets are generally used for. Or for book reading, the Kindle HD or Nexus 7, both depending on what "environment" you want to get hooked into.

 

[gazz9496]

Fseal, the problem with what you say is that people don't have a choice in how they can use a tablet now.

want to do something? you need an app for that....is the current model for tablets.

the surface pro brings a full on pc experience with the best touch o/s to ever come out on one device, you don't need a laptop to compliment it all you need is a proper desktop and that and your set.

granted other manufacturers will offer similar devices but they won't come with that keyboard.

 

[Tepid]

Conumers are not going to buy the Win 8 tabs.

IF it flies it'll be on the buisness front.

But frankly, iPad and Android will lead sales this year and next by about a 10:1 margin.

While the pro is somewhat interesting, it's high price, heavy weight and poor battery life compared to every other tablet out there will be a three strikes for any significant user sales.

Personally, the full size IPad or Nexus 10 are the best tabs atm for what tablets are generally used for. Or for book reading, the Kindle HD or Nexus 7, both depending on what "environment" you want to get hooked into.

Again, this is very narrow minded. If people get educated on the pros of Win8 Pro Tablet, they would say "Ipad android RT who? Oh, you mean those GameBoy tablets that can't do much more than simple things..."

Education is the key.

 

[FSeal]

Fseal, the problem with what you say is that people don't have a choice in how they can use a tablet now.

want to do something? you need an app for that....is the current model for tablets.

the surface pro brings a full on pc experience with the best touch o/s to ever come out on one device, you don't need a laptop to compliment it all you need is a proper desktop and that and your set.

granted other manufacturers will offer similar devices but they won't come with that keyboard.

I fully agree that the /idea/ behind the surface HD is awesome. I was looking forward to it myself.

But as pieces of the HD puzzle become clearer, it's looking less and less attractive. An ultralight looks like it'll best it on almost every front, price, battery life, versatility. I think a lot of people will look at it and also hesitate.

Really you don't NEED a full desktop on a tablet now do you? A tablet is great because it is so light and has great battery life and is used for casual internet use, reading, checking on stuff, even shopping on the go. But if you need to get some real work done and need a real KB.. an ultralight is going to be WAY better than the surface HD at this point :/ Cheaper, better battery life, better kb etc.

I think MS's attempt to meld universes is going to be a fail here as it has been on the desktop as well I'm afraid. And I am frankly ANGRY at MS for messing this up so badly. I was so looking forward to it and it's just... too many compromises...

(Which is ironic given their "no compromises" mantra for Windows 8. Everything about 8 has been a giant set of compromises and the Surface/Surface HD are both more compromises :/)

 

[Kebero]

There's a Surface HD in the works now, too? I knew about the Surface RT (I actually like the idea and have thought about getting a pair) and the Surface Pro. Do you have a link to information about the Surface HD? Or can I just use my snarkiness as an example of how important accurate information it?

On a side note, where I to get a tablet purely for consumption, it would be the Nook HD or Nook HD+. I already use a Nook Simple Touch for books, and as someone who tends to prefer staying within an ecosystem, I'd find the Nook HD great for magazine subscriptions and mobile Hulu/Netflix viewing. The Surface RT would be great for my wife, who currently has a hopped-up netbook (11.6" Acer with an SSD and 8GB of RAM). She uses it mostly for web browsing and basic use of MS Office - nothing that Windows RT can't handle.

 

[FSeal]

Ooops sorry, I meant "Surface Pro" (with the HD screen).

 

[pparks1]

Fseal,

Agree completely. I have no need for a tablet with this much power and performance. I want a tablet to cost less than 400 and supplement my computer, not attempt to replace it. But I am also not the type that wants one device to do everything. For example, I have a kindle ereader as I don't want to read a book on my tablet. Would rather use my kindle and get 4-8 weeks of use or of a single charge.

Having a tablet that can run real applications sounds good in theory and would likely be the most usable tablet for me personally...but not at its price point. Plus, as everybody here probably knows, I don't care for touchscreen devices anyway. I don't want a touchscreen desktop or laptop, and while I love my galaxy s3 phone, I sorely miss the physical keyboard from my old droid 2.

I think MS has missed the mark thus far with this new OS and the Surface tablet. The phone stands a chance, but I think it is a long shot. It's going to take some time and singe changes to get Windows 8 to be a desired product for myself. I will be sticking with 7 and keeping my money.

 

[dirtyvu]

this happens with every generation. people on the leading edge adopt nascent technology and wait for it to catch up to traditional models.

like when there were typewriters with primitive word processors. They far outperformed the early PC/Atari/Commodore/Apple word processors (remember the ugly dot-matrix?). My teachers chuckled a bit when I turned in a paper with the dot matrix crap. But eventually, word processors caught up and looked just as good as what a typewriter could produce.

And people are moving toward single devices that perform many functions. You look at a traditional GPS device like a Garmin. It's far better than using Google Maps on a cell phone. But people are content with dealing with the limitations of Google Maps on a phone because it's convenient not having 2 devices and not spending more money. And as GPS mapping technology gets better on the phone, that makes dedicated GPS devices more endangered. There is one advantage of GPS on the phone is that you have a much better search engine and because it's much easier to have live updates for things like POIs, traffic, etc. So this is a repeat of the typewriter/word processor transition.

same thing with e-ink ereaders. the text is far nicer to read than a bright LCD. especially if you're in the sun (no contest at all, it's like the e-ink was designed for the sun). but people are content with having a multipurpose tablet that can read as well as do other things.

same thing with tablets. they're very limited compared to what you can do with a computer. but people are content with getting tablets and waiting for the tech to catch up (if it ever does).

 

[gazz9496]

honestly the best thing to do when getting a tablet is really take a long hard look at what your own requirments are.

if you really want to do high end buisness work then basicly forget tablets even exist, get an ultrabook or one of the hybrids and enjoy a better balance of power/performance/functionality/battery.

if you plan on just playing angry birds or something or some other dull app then seriously consider why your even thinking about getting one.

but that said it all comes down to a low adoption in different markets as well from telecoms infrastructure and the software industry shovelling rubbish apps our way non stop.

if you don't plan on heavy buisness or work load use then most tablets are great for complimenting a decent desktop.


any buisness right now that used tablets should probably audit them, make sure they are actually using them for work and not facebook/drawsomething.

 

[caperjack]

If Windows 8 was truly a great Operating System, it wouldn't be necessary for MS fanbois to have to convince me of it's greatness. Nobody had to tell me that Windows 7 was great, it was that obvious.

it wasn't obvious until you used it,[win7] correct , for what i do with my computer i thought win7 was fantastic ,im now suing win8 and think it fantastic +
give it a go you'll love it

 

[R0bR]

After a bit of research. Pound for Pound and dollar for Dollar, the Surface Pro (as long as it is a quality device) gives the best hardware options for the money.

I have the Surface RT and I can tell you that it is definitely a high quality device, you will not be disappointed in that department.