New Tablet time
Author
Discussion

V40TC

Original Poster:

2,399 posts

214 months

Thursday 7th January 2021
quotequote all
It appears my old laptop is no longer worth investing in
I have an IPAD3 that is useless now as It will not allow online banking apps
So a new tablet is in order
I have been browsing
samsung/ Lenovo Amazon Fire HD
ideally with a decent size screen 10" etc
it will only ever be used for browsing/banking and email.

Can anyone offer advice or real world impressions of their own units?

Edited by V40TC on Thursday 7th January 17:16

BlueJazz

906 posts

202 months

Thursday 7th January 2021
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Samsung galaxy tab s7+ is very good. Very fast, top notch OLED screen and with DEX mode, makes a good computer. Comes with a stylus too.

monkeychild

584 posts

100 months

Thursday 7th January 2021
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I bought a Samsung S6 Lite off eBay for <£300 and i am happy with it. The SPen is brilliant and I have ditched pen and paper for note taking. I find the screen and sound acceptable for YouTube, Netflix etc and it's great to read from.

colin79666

2,224 posts

143 months

Thursday 7th January 2021
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The latest gen iPad. You already know how to use it and it will almost certainly last longer than anything Android powered. Don’t go Amazon if you want to use banking apps.

bristolbaron

5,383 posts

242 months

Thursday 7th January 2021
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This morning I bought a Lenovo M10 and keyboard for the kids homeschooling. Frustrating as they have their own Amazon Fire Kids tablets but you can’t add Google classroom to them.

sjg

7,682 posts

295 months

Thursday 7th January 2021
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colin79666 said:
The latest gen iPad. You already know how to use it and it will almost certainly last longer than anything Android powered. Don’t go Amazon if you want to use banking apps.
This.

A typical 5-6 years of new OS updates (so then another couple of years of apps continuing to be supported) is definitely not the case in the Android world. If you'd bought a Nexus 10, released around the same time as the iPad 3rd gen, your last OS update would have been in April 2015.

Latest basic iPad is £329, blazing fast, great screen / camera, can use the Apple Pencil and keyboard if you want them, has the best app support and has been endlessly refined over many years.

You basically buy a Fire or Android tablet if you're really really into that ecosystem, or want something cheap to give to your kids.

ZesPak

26,150 posts

226 months

Thursday 7th January 2021
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sjg said:
You basically buy an iPad if you're really really into that ecosystem, or want something expensive to give to your kids.
Agreed wink


Tbh I can't be arsed with tablets anymore. Bought a chromebook a number of years ago and basically it get's fought over for sofa browsing.
The 6 yo loves his as well.

So as long as you're not dead set on an app, but for sofa browsing, I'd deffo give it a go.

LunarOne

7,338 posts

167 months

Thursday 7th January 2021
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Recently I needed to replace my poor old Nexus 9 which I've been struggling with for years. I love the form factor but it's become progressively slower over time despite multiple resets. It became so laggy that it was nigh on unusable. So I began hunting for a new android tablet with the requirement that I didn't want a 16:9 screen. I wanted something squarer as I do lots of web and not so much media watching. In the end it seemed that only the Galaxy S6/7 really fitted the bill, but I really wanted vanilla android as I wasn't ever keen on Samsung's take on it. But it seems that Google no longer sell a Nexus or Pixel line, so I was stumped. In the end I gave up and bought the new iPad Air 4.

I've had it since they were released, and I'm still swearing at it daily due to it's super clunky multitasking. I had settled on the ipad since you could now get Widgets on the iphone and I use those a lot. Imagine my annoyance to discover that ipadOS doesn't support widgets or the app drawer. I'm thinking of selling it, but only when I'm sure I can put AOSP on a Samsung S7+.

IpadOS is so frustrating after a lifetime of Android flexibility!

ZesPak

26,150 posts

226 months

Thursday 7th January 2021
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LunarOne said:
IpadOS is so frustrating after a lifetime of Android flexibility!
Same can definitely be said the other way around though. It's whatever you're used to.

Pilotguy

436 posts

289 months

Thursday 7th January 2021
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I’m balanced on the iOS vs Android. Love stock Android on my OnePlus7T, never interested in iPhone but will only have and iPad for tablet, sofa websurfing stuff. Pretty slick Windows HP laptop slab for word processing, playing with photos and such. I should really decide on one!

mike9009

10,978 posts

273 months

Thursday 7th January 2021
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We have a Lenovo Yoga Smart Tab and a couple of Lenovo M10 tablets for the kids.

All are great for the purpose you describe. I like the form factor of the Smart Tab and the in-built kick stand. It was bought to replace a laptop.

We've had all of them over a year now and seem just as good as when new. But obviously time will tell....

Skyedriver

23,556 posts

312 months

Thursday 7th January 2021
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I'm no Apple fan, in fact I wouldn't have one myself, preferring Windows, Android and drag and drop files etc
BUT
I bought my wife the iPad Air 4th Gen 2020 model for Christmas and after a couple of Nexus she's chuffed to bits with it.
Little things like it worked straight out of the box and she placed it next to her iPhone and all the photos transferred over automatically.

Expensive but seems like a good piece of kit, sound quality and picture quality are perfectly good to her ears and eyes.



Jamescrs

6,471 posts

95 months

Friday 8th January 2021
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The whole Apple vs Android thing has been going on for a decade or more I would guess, I have been on both sides of the argument over that time, started off Android, went to Apple for a couple of years got frustrated and went back to Android.

All I would say the initial post is avoid Amazon tablets, I have bought them for my kids in the past twice trying them and I have found them pretty awful compared to Android or Apple, very limited Apps compared to the other two and the ongoing refusal from Android to link in properly with YouTube apps (Google) is a constant frustration to me.


Skyedriver

23,556 posts

312 months

Friday 8th January 2021
quotequote all
Agree about the Amazon stuff, we bought our lad a something or other HD8? years ago. Was a total disaster. Wonder where that is now?
I prefer the operation of windows stuff as it's all logical, wife and son prefer Apple.

RizzoTheRat

29,023 posts

222 months

Friday 8th January 2021
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My wife has a Fire tablet and it's great for reading kindle books, and watching stuff on Prime, she got the smaller one as she was flying a lot at the time and it does what she wanted from it very well. But the app store is very limited and there's loads of stuff it can't do simply as apps aren't available for it. I believe it's possible to install standard android on them but it seems like a hassle. I wouldn't recommend one for a general use tablet.

She then got an Asus tablet and uses it all the time.

re the apple vs android debate, it makes sense to me to stick to one ecosystem. If you like your current iPad changing to a newer iPad will be less hassle than switching to android, but if you have an android phone all your accounts will sync up easily with an android tablet.

cobra kid

5,600 posts

270 months

Friday 8th January 2021
quotequote all
RizzoTheRat said:
My wife has a Fire tablet and it's great for reading kindle books, and watching stuff on Prime, she got the smaller one as she was flying a lot at the time and it does what she wanted from it very well. But the app store is very limited and there's loads of stuff it can't do simply as apps aren't available for it. I believe it's possible to install standard android on them but it seems like a hassle. I wouldn't recommend one for a general use tablet.

She then got an Asus tablet and uses it all the time.

re the apple vs android debate, it makes sense to me to stick to one ecosystem. If you like your current iPad changing to a newer iPad will be less hassle than switching to android, but if you have an android phone all your accounts will sync up easily with an android tablet.
Have a look at side loading Google Play on it. I did and you get all the Android apps

gus607

997 posts

166 months

Friday 8th January 2021
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S7+, can't fault it.

V40TC

Original Poster:

2,399 posts

214 months

Friday 8th January 2021
quotequote all
Thank you all
I have a Samsung phone/TV
The Ipad annoyed me when banking apps stopped being supported on my version
So like others I can't recall straight off where it even is at the moment.

I will avoid the Amazon products, I need the tablet really for accessing banking/emails etc
as we are emigrating and the PCs etc will be on the high seas soon.

I never play any games so not interested in the need for running those.
I will look at the Samsungs and Lenovos today.
Ideally £200ish as a budget as my pc does all I want when I get it in the new place this will be interim awaiting flights/shippers etc.

Wombat3

15,091 posts

236 months

Friday 8th January 2021
quotequote all
V40TC said:
Thank you all
I have a Samsung phone/TV
The Ipad annoyed me when banking apps stopped being supported on my version
So like others I can't recall straight off where it even is at the moment.

I will avoid the Amazon products, I need the tablet really for accessing banking/emails etc
as we are emigrating and the PCs etc will be on the high seas soon.

I never play any games so not interested in the need for running those.
I will look at the Samsungs and Lenovos today.
Ideally £200ish as a budget as my pc does all I want when I get it in the new place this will be interim awaiting flights/shippers etc.
I have a Galaxy A10, its ok but just a bit slow, I wish I'd bought the next one up, but there is quite a hike in price. Lenovo is Chinese obvs. (If that matters to you)

BlueJazz

906 posts

202 months

Friday 8th January 2021
quotequote all
gus607 said:
S7+, can't fault it.
Agreed. Works really well with Bluetooth keyboard and mouse in DEX mode.