Needing a Tablet

[wpeters]

I am wanting to switch from a laptop to a tablet. I am  wanting to get one to run my grade book at school.  It would take a lot less space on my desk than my laptop.

Any suggestions of what a good tablet is. Any recommendations on which ones

[save]

What are you going to use it for ?

Im in two minds myself.
Either its going to be a Nexus9 since i read magazines on the net, and the 7" screen is too small,
or the Asus T100 with the new processor Intel® Atom Z3775 (because of the keyboard, and I can use a DVD usb player for my daughters film viewing).

[Vulcan]

What do you want to do with it?

[wpeters]

What do you want to do with it?

Some YouTube. But mostly as a grade book and schedule planner

[Sol75]

Looking for a windows tablet?

[wpeters]

Looking for a windows tablet?

I don't know.  I was wondering what you guys recommend

[Gman]

Very tough to suggest something in this department IMO.  In our home we have an Ipad Air (mine), an Ipad Air mini, a Samsung Galaxy 2, an older BlackBerry Tablet (wasn't bad actually), various older kindles and such, and lastly, a Microsoft Surface 2.

All have their pros and cons - Apple has probably the most/best apps, but the Andriod system is very good as well.  The Retina screen on the Ipads is great, and so on.  All that said, for productivity, nothing IMO beats the Microsoft product.  It's all very familiar due to all of us being Windows bred, the keyboard is so so, but overall, if I had to only have one, this would be it.

With holidays coming, and the newer Ipads for sale, you can likely get a great deal on an Ipad Air, either size is great, very light, and both being a year old still have fantastic battery life.

Considering you've said you want to switch from a laptop though, I would say that looking seriously at the models which actually REPLACE a notebook, or do their best to, are your best options.  The Surface is right up there for this IMO.  See, typing is what is really going to screw with you IMO, going from a good notebook keyboard, to the silly glass screen type touch of most tablets.  Either getting a BlueTooth keyboard, or a model with a good included keyboard, is a critical factor, again, IMO.  The Surface comes with a reasonably decent one, and for 40$ I bought a solid metal Logitech KB that also becomes a sort of magnetized case for my Ipad Air.  Don't forget this feature with whatever you go with, because the first long email or document you go to type on a glass mini keyboard will have you saying some very bad words, and longing for your laptop back - that's my experience anyhow.

We got our Surface 2 for 400$ on sale, which was 100+ less than an Ipad Air at the time up here in Canada, and then some.  IMO the Surface blows the Ipad away for productivity stuff, while the Ipad is a bit better for lounging around type stuff, such as epub books, Netflix (looks great in 5200kbps Super HD with the Retina screen resolution), games, and the like.  In your shoes it would be the Surface for me, with an upgrade to a "type cover" with moving keys, over the usual "touch cover" with the usual touch keys.

[noman]

I would say also that depending on what kind of phone you use would help dictate what tablet you get. I know most people who have I-phones use I-pads. I myself use an android tablet and android phone. My wife uses an I-phone and an I-pad. I cannot use an I-pad I hate the fact that I simply cannot go back with a single button. I switched to android and probably can never go back to Apple merchandise.

[Sol75]

I agree totally with Gman.  If you are looking for a true laptop replacement, look no further than the Surface.  I have a Surface 3 i7 for work, and absolutely love it.  I have a docking station at work, which outputs to 2 monitors, plus my surface screen, and has a full size keyboard and mouse attached as well.  You can also get the "portable" laptop style keyboard (which I have, but rarely use). It is truly a laptop replacement, which I can pick up and carry to a meeting, or to go program a router, or spin up a new VM from my car if necessary, etc etc.  I would not recommend either an iPAD or android tablet as a laptop replacement.  Sure, there are tons of apps out there for both, but nothing beats being able to load up real MS Office, Google Chrome and/or Internet Explorer, and everything/anything else you can think of that runs on windows...Its not going to have the GPU guts to play high end games, but I can easily play some older titles on it.. (such as Half Life 3, etc etc)  Havent tried AH on it, but I imagine it probably would run it, though not at the highest detail of course...

Sol

[LePaul]

I've had a Nexus 7 and I really, really hate it.

The Android operating system insists...insists...on loading and running everything it can possibly find in the background.

Short of "rooting" it, something for experienced techies and re-loading the OS to your liking, that's the only fix.

I wish I had spent the extra money on an iPad, where you can simply flick off the programs running and keep them closed.

I have tried to like the Nexus for a while now.  It has been assigned Netflix, Facebook and some email duties...and kindle.  Netflix pauses a lot and when I check to see what else is running, pretty much everything the device can find is.  You can download apps that manage this....and I have tried, and bought, a few.  But they all ultimately fail.  This is why we no longer use the Garmin program on this device when we fly.  The iPad mini my friend has runs circles around it.

I used to hate Apple and all things Mac  But if you want something that's bulletproof in reliability, function and performance...spend the extra money.

[DREDIOCK]

Im still considering getting this one. But Im not planning on having a tablet tied to my phone service either.
Runs the full version of windows and has a 320GB 5400 RPM internal hard drive so it will run whatever software I want. without having ot go to an "app store"

http://www.skytex.com/tablets/windows/s970-1020

Actually Ive been considering it for a while. But its a purchase for me. And when its for me I agonize over it. If it were for my wife or kid I'd have picked one up two years ago LOL

[LePaul]

Im still considering getting this one. But Im not planning on having a tablet tied to my phone service either.
Runs the full version of windows and has a 320GB 5400 RPM internal hard drive so it will run whatever software I want. without having ot go to an "app store"

http://www.skytex.com/tablets/windows/s970-1020

Actually Ive been considering it for a while. But its a purchase for me. And when its for me I agonize over it. If it were for my wife or kid I'd have picked one up two years ago LOL

Two things that stuck on for me when reading the specs... Atom Processor and a slow, 5400 RPM hard drive.  I would've expected something beefier in CPU (Intel i3?) or a Solid State Disk (or mSATA) which is so much faster than a mechanical drive (and smaller).

Built around Windows is nice, tho..

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Im still considering getting this one. But Im not planning on having a tablet tied to my phone service either.
Runs the full version of windows and has a 320GB 5400 RPM internal hard drive so it will run whatever software I want. without having ot go to an "app store"

http://www.skytex.com/tablets/windows/s970-1020

Actually Ive been considering it for a while. But its a purchase for me. And when its for me I agonize over it. If it were for my wife or kid I'd have picked one up two years ago LOL

It'll get infected also faster than you can say hello and then you better hope it has no ability to make calls to toll numbers

[DREDIOCK]

No worse then my PC would and I still have one unused license for NOD32.

Mostly there a couple of windows based things for my business I want to be able to run on it. I pretty much only surf the web at home on my PC anyway.
I only rarely surf on my phone. And even then I am usually looking for someplace specific. Like the closest hardware store.
Thats why I dont need it tied to my cell phone service

[Vulcan]

I have (had) a Nexus 7, it's with the kids now. I love it, it is an awesome platform if you are using as a mobile content/media view, for lightweight work (much the same as ipads). I've used both ipads and android and I find android the more advanced platform. iOS just feels primitive for me.

Earlier this year I was given a Dell Venue Pro 8, Windows 8.1 8" tablet, initially I hated it as I felt Windows didn't suit the form factor. Then I saw the Surface being used with a stylus, so I went and got the Stylus for my Venue. Holy moses what a difference. If you want something for productivity (e.g. taking notes, full email, full office suite) you cannot be a Win 8.1 tablet - it leaves both iOS and Android for dead. Using OneNote on the Venue with the stylus replaced all my notebooks for meetings.