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Which Tablet to get?

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I'm attracted to getting a cute little Tablet. But when I see laptops for very near the same money, I can't pull the trigger. A decent keyboard is very important to me. So a light weight laptop makes more sense.
YMMV
 
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Taosman said:
I'm attracted to getting a cute little Tablet. But when I see laptops for very near the same money, I can't pull the trigger. A decent keyboard is very important to me. So a light weight laptop makes more sense.
YMMV
Click to expand...

I've thought about that as well; however, the amount of time I travel leads me to wanting something that I can utilize during the entire flight. Can't do that with laptops right now.
 
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Taosman said:
I'm attracted to getting a cute little Tablet. But when I see laptops for very near the same money, I can't pull the trigger. A decent keyboard is very important to me. So a light weight laptop makes more sense.
YMMV
Click to expand...
There are chromebooks for the same price (or laptops with similarly weak specs). Those are great devices for basic web use, just clarifying the price point.

I hate that all of the laptops are becoming tablets (and that they've convinced consumers that it's okay to have super wide, super short screens under the guise of "HD" (when the reality is they save a bunch on each device by making smaller screens versus a 4:3 ratio screen of the same size). If you need a laptop, buy one. Don't sacrifice it's form factor and specs to lampoon a tablet into it, especially not when there are google tablets for $100-200 (that are far better for couches, planes or other tight spaces).
muffler dragon said:
Are the Nexus 7 2nd Gen still as good as they were rated before, or are there better options out there nowadays? I misplaced my Nook on a Flight, and now I'm in need of a new tablet and e-reader.
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There are now more competent competitors, but it's still one of the best because of its cheap price point and stock android OS (no bloatware and it gets the quickest updates).
 
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I love my Acer Chromebook. Got mine for $99 at the Best Buy XP trade in last year and just got my wife a refurb for like $135 on Newegg for Christmas. Even though it's the lowest end Chromebook I've had no issues with it. I have a 10" Galaxy tab from work and another 8" Android that I barely use, but I spend at least a few hours on the Chromebook every night.

Noted there are limitations compared to Windows, but I can RDP into my desktop downstairs if I need something in Windows. They are working on getting Android apps to work on ChromeOS, which will only make it better. Evernote was one of the 4 demo Android apps and it works much better than the web version.
 
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I have been thinking of buying a Mac Book to go with the iPad/Phone - but really leaning towards replacing the iPad with a Surface 3. The idea of having one device that I can bring everywhere is really appealing. The only thing I wish they had in there would be a cell phone antenna so I could use data on my AT&T account and not have to tether my phone at all times.
 
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Bleed S & G said:
I have been thinking of buying a Mac Book to go with the iPad/Phone - but really leaning towards replacing the iPad with a Surface 3. The idea of having one device that I can bring everywhere is really appealing. The only thing I wish they had in there would be a cell phone antenna so I could use data on my AT&T account and not have to tether my phone at all times.
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I just switched to Mac a couple weeks ago and I'm loving it. I have a MBP 15", and iPhone 6 and an iPad 2. The MBP and iPhone 6 have pretty much taken over anything I'd use a tablet for. The iPad has been sitting in a bag untouched since the beginning of the year. Even the largest MBP, though heave, is slim enough to go just about anywhere that I would take a tablet, it's more functional and the battery lasts all day.

I haven't used a Surface, but part of the reason I switched to a Mac was to get away from the new iterations of Windows.
 
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jlb1705 said:
I just switched to Mac a couple weeks ago and I'm loving it. I have a MBP 15", and iPhone 6 and an iPad 2. The MBP and iPhone 6 have pretty much taken over anything I'd use a tablet for. The iPad has been sitting in a bag untouched since the beginning of the year. Even the largest MBP, though heave, is slim enough to go just about anywhere that I would take a tablet, it's more functional and the battery lasts all day.

I haven't used a Surface, but part of the reason I switched to a Mac was to get away from the new iterations of Windows.
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I am looking to 'replace' the tablet, too - I've been Windows since, well, since always. I listen to a podcast (Back to Work) that features Apple Fan Boy Merlin Mann and over the last 5 months, have really come *very* close to pulling the trigger. I'm really into shortcuts/text expanders/and macros (apple script) but they recently have been dogging the new OS and it has made me re-consider.

The pull for me is having everything in the same ecosystem - and I'm not ditching the iPhone for a Windows phone - I know (because I have been doing it) I can google pro's and con's - if you find a minute - would you mind expanding on what you like about it?

Still on the fence, apparently.
 
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Bleed S & G said:
I am looking to 'replace' the tablet, too - I've been Windows since, well, since always. I listen to a podcast (Back to Work) that features Apple Fan Boy Merlin Mann and over the last 5 months, have really come *very* close to pulling the trigger. I'm really into shortcuts/text expanders/and macros (apple script) but they recently have been dogging the new OS and it has made me re-consider.

The pull for me is having everything in the same ecosystem - and I'm not ditching the iPhone for a Windows phone - I know (because I have been doing it) I can google pro's and con's - if you find a minute - would you mind expanding on what you like about it?

Still on the fence, apparently.
Click to expand...

For me the main pull has always been the hardware. My wife got her MacBook Pro shortly after we met, nine years ago. In that same span I've replace my plastic Windows laptops twice. I've always had big problems with heat on my Windows machines. My last one I couldn't even really use on my lap because it blocked the fan. My new MacBook barely heats up at all, the aluminum body dissipates the heat that is generated pretty well, and the vents are built discreetly into the raised edge of the underside, so I don't block them with normal use. I take pretty good care of my machines, but still have never been able to avoid keys popping off the keyboard, power supplies failing, seams and joints wearing out or separating, etc. By comparison, my wife doesn't take all that good of care of her machine and it's still in pretty good shape nine years later. The only reason she's considering replacing it is because she was finally spec'd out of upgrading the OS.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I love the battery life. I never got anything like this on a Windows machine. I unplugged it yesterday morning when I left for work, and with light-to-medium usage since then I still have 68% of my charge remaining on default energy settings.

I'm not big on shortcuts or scripts really so I can't speak to that very much. My wife made fun of me because I was getting frustrated by apps not quitting when I closed the window and having to Command + Q to quit. I've been pleased though with the combinations of apps and tweaks that I've been able to find that shape it into something that works the way I want it to.

I'm a big Mac trackpad fan. I was always jealous of the trackpad on my wife's Mac. I always used a wireless mouse on my windows machines and I've now ditched it completely. I just wish it were a little bit more customizable. I'd like to be able to close or minimize a window using a 4-finger pinch gesture in the same way you can do it on an iPad, but stock settings only allow for that to be used to invoke launchpad. Maybe there's a solution out there that I just haven't found yet.

Free OS upgrades were a huge selling point for me, although I saw that Windows is now heading in that direction, but with restrictions.

The biggest thing from a software standpoint though was the promise of tight integration with my other devices. I use Tweetbot to read Twitter on my iPhone and iPad. It's the only client that allows me to use Twitter the way I want to. Tweetbot's desktop version is Mac-only. Now my timeline stays in sync across all of my devices. I get unread counts in my dock. I don't have to switch between my laptop and phone to read Twitter the way I want while I do other things. My notes, to-dos, mail and calendars are all in-sync and look and feel pretty much the same across all devices now. There were workarounds to do that in my old configuration, but why should I settle for workarounds when I can have this? My ultimate plan is to add another flatscreen and an Apple TV and be able to throw anything on to it from any of my devices.

Part of my original plan was to also use Windows 7 via either BootCamp or virtual machine so I could switch back and forth and lessen the learning curve. So far though I haven't installed it and am beginning to doubt I ever will. The fact of the matter is, there isn't a single third-party application I used on Windows that isn't available on Mac.

I bought a refurbished model and I'm very happy with it. It comes with the full manufacturer's warranty, but I got $200 off. Got another $100 off since I work at a university. I've bought other refurbished Apple products (iPods, etc.) and have never had a problem with them. I think that route is worth looking into.
 
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I forgot to add the things I don't like so far...

The MagSafe power adapter disconnects too easily. I know that's a feature and not a defect, but there my cord often catches on things where if the connection were stronger the cord would uncatch from the object rather than come unplugged. Just a bit of an inconvenience.

Uninstalling apps is not very intuitive. If you simply click and drag the app to the trash like Apple wants you to, there is other junk that gets left behind. Plus, not all software uninstalls in that manner. I tried installing Adobe Acrobat the other day and then tried to uninstall once I realized how bloated the damn thing was. Problem was, Adobe utilized an atypical uninstall procedure, which I only figured out after I had tried using a 3rd party app to uninstall like I had done with other software. I was stuck with a partial uninstall, a lot of junk files left behind, and was unable to repair the installation. I had to wipe my machine and restore it from backup.

On the bright side, the backup/restore experience was much quicker and relatively pain-free compared to what I had experienced on Windows machines in the past.
 
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It’s been long overdue to replace my big old Lenovo boat anchor of a laptop. I decided to go with a new 2 in 1 last week to get the best of both worlds. I bought a Dell Inspiron 13 I5.

I have to be honest that so far I am less than impressed. It feels slow and bloated. I have removed as much crap as I know to and finally got it to where my desktop is showing as opposed to the Windows 10 start crap.

Most of my use is light Excel and Word and web surfing. Everything takes forever to open. Logging on is so slooooooow...... I am about ready to send it back and keep using my sold Lenovo.
 
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Can I ask the pricetag of said laptop, so we know what ballpark you're looking at for a replacement?

That said, 2 in 1s don't make sense (short of the ultra expensive surface units). Buy tablets to tablet. It's like seeking out a boat anchor laptop for on the go laptoping.
 
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