Recommend me a tablet... | GTAMotorcycle.com

Recommend me a tablet...

mimico_polak

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Been hanging on to the original iPad mini since Day 1 and it's really starting to get slow and bogged down...I mean basically unusable with some websites. Keeps reloading pages, slow as hell (even though download speeds are b/w 100-150MBPS) and just generally...useless.

With going away to FIFO site in a few months I want to have a tablet that'll be able to download and possibly save movies, good for SKYPE, and won't break the bank like a new iPad would. The Galaxy Notes interest me, but not even sure how they are. I assume security / privacy is out the window with all tech nowadays?

Any recommendations? I've no issues with leaving the Apple world for this, as my phone will probably need replacing soon enough as well.

Thanks!
 
so you took the job? congrats

hate to say it, but ditch the tablet
when traveling long term you're gonna need
the functionality and reliability of a computer

MacBooks are fine but expensive
there are some good Win10 based PC's at half that price

I'd recommend a ~ $200 android phone
and a ~ $900 PC
 
My wife has a Galaxy Tab A 8.0 since xmas. No complaints. It's cheap and it works. It's primary duty is media consumption (youtube, netflix, bsplayer).

My tablet is a Lenovo Yoga tab 3 8. It also works well. No complaints. Similar usage to hers. The upside is it has a built in stand (that also hooks onto the seatback coat hook on a plane which is a big plus). The downside is it's a strange shape with a tube along one side.

Neither tablet is the best and fastest, but they were purchased as a cost effective solution to a problem. Neither is used often for web browsing. If I was trying to use the tablet as a primary connectivity device, I would probably get something like an S3. For frequent web browsing, I think I would find our current tablets slow and annoying. I want to like the Note tablets, but I haven't found the price/performance ratio on them reasonable.

I would definitely go with an Android tablet as the SD card is the way to go if you want to bring tons of media with you (as well as Android is much happier with varied file types, for my wifes old ipad I had to transcode almost everything to make it work).

FWIW, for work I use a surface. It is great for a portable windows device, but for a media tablet it would be horrendous (expensive, terrible battery operational battery life, horrendous standby battery life).

EDIT:
Further to Javafan's comment. I typically travel with a Surface, T450s, phones, and a tablet. With the smallish screen and terrible battery life, I strongly dislike doing real work on the surface, it is primarily for note taking and equipment setup. Depending on the length of trip and expected requirements, sometimes either the surface, laptop or tablet get cut.

The upside to the cyclical nature (and great pay) of your job is you can start with cheap solutions and add more expensive items on future trips as you determine limitations.
 
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I have a Samsung tablet of some sort that Rogers was including when I got a new phone about 6 months ago, whether I wanted it or not. I told them I didn't want it. I told them I had no use for it. They gave it to me anyway. I haven't even turned it on, ever. It's still in the box. I don't know what to do with it.

If it's worth something to you, make me an offer.

I have NO clue of what's involved in unconnecting this tablet from my account and connecting it to yours. That's on you. I sit in front of computers and type at them. That's it.
 
so you took the job? congrats

hate to say it, but ditch the tablet
when traveling long term you're gonna need
the functionality and reliability of a computer

MacBooks are fine but expensive
there are some good Win10 based PC's at half that price

I'd recommend a ~ $200 android phone
and a ~ $900 PC

Was thinking of a Surface Pro but they ain't cheap....

im already taking the work laptop so don't want to add weight if not needed. I have an older Win10 hybrid so will see how that works out but it's also old and slowed down.

as for phone, no reception where I'm going so phones are not really needed until I hit civilization on a connecting flight.
 
Agreed with surface pro or surface book. It'll do everything and anything.

Was thinking of a Surface Pro but they ain't cheap....

im already taking the work laptop so don't want to add weight if not needed. I have an older Win10 hybrid so will see how that works out but it's also old and slowed down.

as for phone, no reception where I'm going so phones are not really needed until I hit civilization on a connecting flight.
 
yes to the surface pro....good hardware and a real OS

seriously, when you're away
there will be times when you want a real computer
 
Ditto on Surface Pro. Fast, stable and covers all bases. Make sure you give yourself enough RAM and CPU to do the job.
 
@mimico_polak if you're not interested in @BrianP's tablet, let me know as I will make an offer.

Sent from my purple G4 using Tapatalk
 
@mimico_polak if you're not interested in @BrianP's tablet, let me know as I will make an offer.

Sent from my purple G4 using Tapatalk

JB, the one they normally give away is a Tab lite which is much slower. On the upside, it's dirt cheap with an MSRP of ~$100.
 
JB, the one they normally give away is a Tab lite which is much slower. On the upside, it's dirt cheap with an MSRP of ~$100.
Thanks for the info. I think I'd be good with that. My wife is still using the tab2. Just for email, social media and a few games. Plus, like you said the price would be right. WalMart has had them as low as $89 iirc

Sent from my purple G4 using Tapatalk
 
@mimico_polak if you're not interested in @BrianP's tablet, let me know as I will make an offer.

Sent from my purple G4 using Tapatalk

Go ahead JB as I’m not sure what I want and not sure how to remove Rogers off it.

@BrianP thank you very much for the offer but I’m slow on deciding
 
I have a Samsung tablet of some sort that Rogers was including when I got a new phone about 6 months ago, whether I wanted it or not. I told them I didn't want it. I told them I had no use for it. They gave it to me anyway. I haven't even turned it on, ever. It's still in the box. I don't know what to do with it.

If it's worth something to you, make me an offer.

I have NO clue of what's involved in unconnecting this tablet from my account and connecting it to yours. That's on you. I sit in front of computers and type at them. That's it.

Depends if it has a data connection/SIM card (or if it's capable of it). If it does, remove the SIM card and you're done. If it doesn't, you're good to hand it off.
 
Not sure of your budget, I have a second gen ipad that got slow. Just got the large iPad pro with the pencil, quick, quick, quick! and the big display is a bonus... My dad uses it for client meetings at work too.
 
Not sure of your budget, I have a second gen ipad that got slow. Just got the large iPad pro with the pencil, quick, quick, quick! and the big display is a bonus... My dad uses it for client meetings at work too.

I was looking at that as a laptop replacement but it still runs a glorified cellphone OS and doesn’t multitask well. Snappier processor yes but it doesn’t offer more than a surface and costs quite a bit too.
 
Depends if it has a data connection/SIM card (or if it's capable of it). If it does, remove the SIM card and you're done. If it doesn't, you're good to hand it off.
Was just thinking about this...if they made him take the tablet, I would hope that they also did not tack on the $10-$15 tablet data plan.
As Brian said, it's still in the box, in which case if there is a SIM it's probably not even installed yet.

Sent from my purple G4 using Tapatalk
 
Oh, the only thing that I want to add is that getting anything that you will use more than a bit, I wouldn't go smaller than an 8" inch screen. Amazing what a difference from a 7" (yeah, I know, that's what she said!)

Sent from my purple G4 using Tapatalk
 
Who knew an inch would make such a difference <cough>...
 
Apple > Everything else.

I've had my MacBook Pro for like 6 years and never skipped a beat. Use it daily. Buy Apple. It's the best.
 
Apple > Everything else.

It depends what you plan on doing with it. Apple's insistence on preventing removable storage in tablets (along with their clamp on what apps you can install) puts android tablets miles ahead if the primary role is watching locally stored videos (that haven't been purchased through iTunes).

I used to love MBP, but recent experience has ended this. My old MBP (it was ~4 years old) had a complete hardware failure (likely logic board) and was BER. The replacement I purchased flickers the screen reasonably often (a known problem that was found after I bought it). Considering list price on it was full retard ($8000+ IIRC, all boxes were checked), any solution other than "here's your replacement computer sir" is unacceptable. Apple has gone way too far down the design rabbit hole and every "improvement" makes them worse for me to use. I use to love spaces, Apple killed it. I used to use Aperture, Apple killed it. The touchpad on my Lenovo is every bit as good (and IMO better as it keeps real buttons). I own apple stock but I am over apple products.
 

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