It occurred to me yesterday that (a) my birthday is in November, (b) I want a tablet, and (c) it’d be a good idea to get one “for my birthday” before the PASS Summit.
So last night I asked the Twitter hive mind, and today I ask you: What tablet should I get, and why?
Here are a few things that will be important to me in a tablet:
- Readability – I want to read books on this thing, so I don’t want anything eyestrain-y.
- Wifi
- Price
- External connectivity (say, USB for example)
What’s not important to me? Ability to run Windows apps (necessarily), brand, etc.
Aaaaand…..GO!
I’m toying with getting a Sony Tablet S, but it’s not on the cheap side. For reading to be honest, if you don’t want eye strain, a dedicated e-reader is the way to go since they use eInk for the most part. I probably won’t get it, though. I like my regular Sony Reader too much 🙂
I have both HP Slate 500 (7″/x86t/W7Pro x86/64gb SSD/2gb ram/$800) and the Asus EP121 (12″/W7HomePr x64/64gb SSD/4gb ram/$1100) Windows 7 tablet. I like them both, but each has their issues.
Both have usb slot(s) (Asus has 2 and HP has two additional in dock) and sd cards.
HP Slate under 2lbs and Asus Slate under 3lbs
Battery Life: HP 5+ hrs / Asus 4 hrs | I have an external battery pack so it isn’t so much of an issue for me.
Both have built in Wireless, but neither have Ethernet port
Asus has mini HDMI connection and HP has HDMI port in dock
Screen resolution on the slate isn’t the best for full page viewing of PDF’s. The Kindle app works great on the HP Slate.
Don’t like N-trig on the HP Slate (Stylus-inking), Asus has Wacom, which I absolutely love. I am a OneNote junkie so the stylus-inking is a huge factor, which is a huge win for Asus.
I am still waiting for the perfect Windows Tablet, around the 10″ screen size, around 1.5 lbs, x64, 4gb+, 80gb+ SSD, and has to have Wacom digitizer.
Overall I like the Asus EP121 tablet.
Let me know what you end of getting.
Just a few of my thoughts.
I have an iPad2 and a Kindle. If all you want to do is read eBooks, the Kindle (wi-fi) is brilliant. Get Calibre for your PC to convert any document to Kindle format. If you want a psuedo-mobile office, I like the iPad. **disclaimer** I am definitely not an Apple fan. I have the iPad because it was provided by work. I also have a 10″ netbook and use the iPad more than the netbook.
iPad2 64Gb with wi-fi and 3G
My initial reaction to the iPad was ‘meh’. I found the very limited apps on the device disappointing. My objective for the iPad was to have a mobile office – ie Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDFs, eBook reader, web browser, email, calendar etc.
I spent several days researching the best apps to use for my requirements. I found Pages, Numbers and Keynote to be the best Office equivalents. You need to pay for them but they’re ok and they sync with dropbox. Email was another big issue. Work uses MS Exchange server so it was essential to sync to that. I downloaded Outlook Mail and was disappointed and reverted back to the generic in built Mail, Contacts and Calendar apps. I could go into other apps but there are a lot to choose from.
My opinion of the iPad changed when, for some reason, my desktop PC locked my user account at around 10am one morning. Normally this would be a welcome relief from my schedule but on that particular day, I had back to back project meetings and exec meetings so I was panicking. The iPad saved my bacon by allowing me to access my calendar schedule, documents and network. I dont go anywhere without it now. I have downloaded CamCard Pro and now use that app to save all the business cards from colleagues and clients. The camera is usable but dont expect high quality images.
Cost: around $900 AUS
Connectivity: iPad USB cable, wi-fi, 3G
Pros: convenient, lightweight, easy to use, screen is very readable
Cons: no HDMI output (need to purchase adapters to connect to external monitors), its an Apple product so you need to download and install iTunes to sync it to your PC (my XP 64 wont run the latest iTunes), iTunes randomly uninstalls some of my apps, screen gets very dirty (I recommend a screen protector), its an Apple product.
I havent used an android or windows based tablet so I cant compare devices but even though Im anti-Apple, I like the iPad.
Hope that helps.
Grant Fritchey turned me on to the ASUS EEEPad Transformer and I absolutely love it. 9 hours by itself, but I think 16 with the keyboard dock. Totally worth buying the dock to get the battery life and full keyboard. You basically get a tablet and a netbook in one. I couldn’t decided between a tablet, netbook, or laptop, so getting two of those plus the price was a no-brainer for me.
I’ve got an Asus Transformer and really like it. I’ve read an entire ebook on it and was happy with that experience. The wifi works great. The Transformer doesn’t come with a USB port standard but the keyboard that transforms it into a netbook has two USB ports and there is an accessory to convert the docking port into a USB port. The price is reasonable for boththe 16GB and 32GB versions. Overall, I’m getting a lot more use out of it than I expected and recommend it.