Tablets - iPad vs Android vs Windows

WoBblyCaT

WoBblyCaT

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I'm looking to get a new 10" tablet. Which platform makes for a better tablet? Do you have any specific models you think are best? What's important to me are the display and battery life. I'll use it to surf, display photos, do some light photo editing, do social media, maybe do some reading (I know dedicated e-readers are better for this), watch movies, use it as a TV remote, etc. I'm not much into games.

BTW, if you have any tablet apps you couldn't live without, feel free to post up here.

Sincerely,
Soon-to-be-tablet-owner
 
since you have an android phone you might wanna go with an android tablet, that way apps only need to be purchased once (at least i'm assuming it works that way on android cause that's how it works on ios).

I have an iPad, love it, i no longer take my macbook pro around anywhere... i use it to watch movies in bed and read books. as for must have apps, viPlay and facebook. i can't really comment on photo editing but i know some people have done some neat stuff entirely on the phone/tablet.
 
I've got the iPad mini (first gen) and love it. It feels good in the hand, and the screen size is ideal to me. I've tried out the Nexus 7 tablet and Galaxy Pro tablet and honestly I didn't like it. Maybe I was just biased but I returned both within a few days to pick up the mini.

Also if you want the tablet to act like a remote, I think the offerings from Apple are off your list as I don't believe they come with a remote. Android does though. My Galaxy Tab 2 had it...didn't work all that great though.
 
If you're already on the Android platform, stay with it. Windows is like a canker sore that just refuses to go away. APPL has a usable product, but I'm not a big fan of their walled garden approach or their business practices, so I vote with my wallet.
 
We have an iPad (1st gen) and Nexus 7 (1st gen) both wifi only. Personally I like the smaller size tablet and it is used much more often.

iPad
Pros
Awesome battery life (can leave it on for months and it will still be ready to go), it is years old and still lasts for more than 8 hours of movies
Just works, stable
Huge library of useful apps (For instance my wife has stuff on there to calculate creatinine clearance that have no android equivalent)
Easy to backup tablet

Cons
Heavy (mostly fixed with iPad Air)
Big
To do everything android can, need to jailbreak (which can be a pain in the *** depending on ios updates)
Really hard to figure out how much data it has used (apple sucks at this on all of their devices and it is annoying)

Nexus 7
Pros
Small
Light
Lots of customizing available (if you care)
Good multitasking

Cons
Almost impossible to backup tablet (I found out too late that to backup you have to do something like root the tablet and replace the OS with a different version, this obviously erases everything in the process). For a portable device, this is a terrible oversight.
Battery life on standby (less than a week will kill it)
Stupid app layout (they have tiles that don't like to be removed on homepages and then a huge list of apps pre-installed (98% of which I never use)
Crappy pre-installed media (it came with ice age that requires an internet connection to view (this was really annoying) as well as an issue of chatelaine and some other magazine).
Google tracks your life, you have to be signed in to a gmail account to make the tablet work, when I go on a trip with the tablet, when I return, the laptop at home will have news on the area I visited come up. I don't particularly appreciate being personally tracked.
 
WoBblyCaT said:
Thanks for your detailed review -- it helps a lot
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Get the galaxy note 10.1 great tablet, display is very good, and android is by far the best OS. The S pen is good for photo editing, taking hand notes,ect. It multitasks very well. The 2014 edition is the one with the good display
 
WoBblyCaT said:
I have to say the iPad Air would be my first choice if not for:
1) Price
2) iTunes
3) Inability to play downloaded movies

I'll check out reviews on the Galaxy Note 10.1.
Click to expand...

I play downloaded movies on my iPad mini all the time. Most movies I download are MP4 already. They play perfectly with the apple app, no need for VLC or anything, streams HD to the Apple TV as well, with no lag or juttering, nice and smooth.

You can pretty much use an iPad without iTunes, I never sync mine, and only use iTunes with my retina mini to back it up. I am not sure what the big deal is with iTunes though, its a great app for organizing music and movies. I use it on both windows and mac, and they are both quick and snappy.

If you are an Android user, you might want to stick with Android as I am assuming it would be similar to the phones. So you get immediate knowledge on how the device works, with a gentle learning curve. Lots of good devices, it really comes down to what you want out of it and what works best for you. I like the Apple eco system, use airplay for wireless speakers, apple tv, etc. It works well, smooth and hassle free for me.
 
wonderings said:
I play downloaded movies on my iPad mini all the time. Most movies I download are MP4 already. They play perfectly with the apple app, no need for VLC or anything, streams HD to the Apple TV as well, with no lag or juttering, nice and smooth.

You can pretty much use an iPad without iTunes, I never sync mine, and only use iTunes with my retina mini to back it up. I am not sure what the big deal is with iTunes though, its a great app for organizing music and movies. I use it on both windows and mac, and they are both quick and snappy.

If you are an Android user, you might want to stick with Android as I am assuming it would be similar to the phones. So you get immediate knowledge on how the device works, with a gentle learning curve. Lots of good devices, it really comes down to what you want out of it and what works best for you. I like the Apple eco system, use airplay for wireless speakers, apple tv, etc. It works well, smooth and hassle free for me.
Click to expand...

I currently have a Samsung S4 as my phone, but prior to that I had an iPhone 4s (notice the "S4" and "4S" are opposite -- creepy!) for 2 years. I'm comfortable with both OS's.

Some of the movies I download are MKV format. I suppose I could convert to MP4 first. Which program are people using?

BTW, how to copy movies, photos, MP3's, etc. without iTunes?
 
I use VLC for my ipad mini. use itunes to load the movies onto the ipad.

I also use Bluefire reader (its free) to read my epub and mobi books.

Dropbox app synchs my ipad mini with my desktop and any other dropbox using computers. The cool part is that it doesnt automatically download the entire dropbox account. Only what you want opened.

DI Radio for streaming music.

Thats about it. Between a bit of reading, browsing the web and watching some videos thats all it gets used for.
 
I have an iPad Mini and use Copy Trans Manager to move music, etc with out iTunes. Haven't tried any other pads, but happy enough with the mini....but I hate Apple still. I use it to watch Global, and some TV shows, reading, a snapshot camera...don't think it's up to photo editing duty though...too small.
 
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I have an ipad2 and iPhone 4S. I take digi pics with the phone, iCloud sends them to my ipad and then I use mainly the free Snapseed processing app to jazz up the pics. Not quite as powerful as photoshop elements but very quick and easy.

85e18f963fb1d489ee45b4034064e9a5.jpg
 
WoBblyCaT said:
I have to say the iPad Air would be my first choice if not for:
1) Price
2) iTunes
3) Inability to play downloaded movies

I'll check out reviews on the Galaxy Note 10.1.
Click to expand...

I'll give you #2, iTunes sucks royally.

However, for #1, if you check out the 2014 version Galaxy Note 10.1, which is an outstanding tab btw, you will see that its priced higher than the iPad.


I wouldn't rule out the Sony Xperia Z tablet either. Its a contender as well.
 
I have a galaxy tab 3 and I like it. Dropbox works just like icloud if you're using an android phone. You can also text from your tablet if you want to. For that I use mighty text. Also I can add any micro sd I want to either my phone or tablet making either solution a lot cheaper than apple.

Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk
 
Roomie said:
I have a galaxy tab 3 and I like it. Dropbox works just like icloud if you're using an android phone. You can also text from your tablet if you want to. For that I use mighty text. Also I can add any micro sd I want to either my phone or tablet making either solution a lot cheaper than apple.

Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I really wish ipad had USB ports for memory sticks. Then it would be perfect.
 
I know for Samsung you can get a docking station that offers that and a hdmi port

Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk
 
If you are a bit tech handy then I suggest you get a Asus Transformer Prime from Craigs or Kijiji
Update it to Kit Kat and you have a cool tablet. Jellybean is very good.

I have an older tablet 10 inch Acer501 that has sim card/micro sd/hdmi/full size usb etc...
I like having the options to connect however I want to.

Keep in mind, you can add any bluetooth keyboard so if you need to type a lot then you have the option.

I am a fan of Android due to the more open and easy access to gain control of your device.
Also, you plug them in and they work like a USB key....no icrap tunes software needed to control your device.

checkout Airdroid
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