Tablet?

[AndyThomas]

It's that time of year, and I'm casting around for a tablet to replace my aging iPad. I'm going over to Android, simply because my phone is, and my iPad dates from an era when Android tablets didn't really exist. My current thinking is the Asus z500m - the PC World spec seems a little off what I've seen quoted for it elsewhere, but it's a damn sight more reasonable than the equivalent Samsungs and Apples. Any thoughts? I'm really aiming for longevity, rather than ninja games playing capacity or similar... I'm also after a ten inch screen as Netflix is proving a useful way to watch the older series at the moment... if only it could get some Cyber Monday love, it actually got more expensive before Black Friday!

Oh, and to my amusement, it's a Zenpad. Tenuous Blake's 7 link!

[Crash]

I have a lot of ASUS stuff. A lot of parts of my desktop are from them and I've never had anything from them that either didn't work or broke.

Why don't you look into the ASUS Transformer? You can get an Android version but also Windows ones and they separate from their keyboard/docking station a bit like the Surface ones do.

Infact, I saw a Windows transformer in PC World the other week and it was £200.
It was very responsive as well. I don't suppose it had much graphics and processing grunt but it had an SSD and it was very quick.

At least that way, you have a full PC that breaks down to a tablet rather than ... well, just a tablet.

Maybe that's an idea.


Samsung for my money has gone the way of Apple; charging over the odds for a well-marketed and expensively-styled product which is otherwise the same as everyone else's.
At least with Apple, they had something unique to offer in terms of iOS. With Samsung, it's just another Android gizmo the same as HTC and Motorola and Huawei and a bundle of others.

[AndyThomas]

I did think about the Transformer option, but I've already got an Asus laptop (!) so if I needed to move around the house and be productive I could take that with me - just seems like duplication somehow. The Transformers I'd seen seemed quite expensive, I did think about a Windows tablet but the Surface is pricey and the only reason I'd go that far is to be able to play Eve on a mobile system. Can't justify that.

Ironically I now have the laptop plugged into "my wife's" screen with wireless keyboard and mouse, so I might as well have a tower system! This should be a pretty decent tablet into the mid term and it just gives me the mobility I'm after - I suspect I can actually plug my wireless keyboard into it at a push so it should be win-win really. My iPad is definitely starting to struggle but in fairness to Apple it's had no major issues, the screen's fine, it can still just about handle Minecraft - the latter my son will soon be playing on his own machine rather than hogging mine!

Wonder how long it'll be until we all have HUDs built into our eyeballs!

[Crash]

I have my Clevo P150EM, which is a 15" but nearly 4 kilos and it has terrible battery life and is not very portable.
Its fans can be a bit loud as well but it runs Crysis 3 on full settings and has the most amazing screen and a beautiful keyboard that lights up in different colours.
It's 3 years old now and I have no interest in replacing it.

Then I have a Lenovo Flex 10, which is similar to the ASUS transformer but the keyboard doesn't detach, it just folds under and acts as a stand.
It's a very weak PC and the display is washy but it has decent battery, decent sound and provided that you don't want games, it's fine.
It has any desktop browser and mail client (which is better than Android) and I have Photoshop and MS Office and File Explorer.

Then I have my desktop which is about 4-5 years old that I built that saves all our films and TV shows.