so we are looking to join the current century and get a family tablet at Christmas – will be used for general surfing, movies etc, keeping the kids entertained on hols. The ipad is at the very top of our price range, and there seems to be a lot of chat about the new Nexus 7.

Knowing nowt about such things, what does the collective STW reckon is a good buy. If we could keep price closer to £200 than £300 plus that would be good.

If we could keep price closer to £200 than £300 plus that would be good.

Nexus then.

Nexus 10 would be a better comparison to the iPad, maybe worth seeing what that’s like when it comes out?

Firstly go have a play with some and see what you think.

For surfing and movies then they will all do that. Apps iPad currently winning but prob not for long.

Do you want your kids playing with something at the top of price range?

thanks – will be going to have a look at weekend, but keen to educate myself a bit first !

mike – no, would rather have something at a sensible price that does the needed

There’s a recent thread on the merits of the Blackberry Playbook that’s probably worth searching for

Having a bit of a play with some will help you decided which screen size you want, which is probably the first key choice to make. I’ve just bought a Nexus 7 but we do have a 10 inch tablet in the household too. As an only tablet I’d probably go for 10 inch, but depends on personal preference an intended use.

Just buy a Nexus 10 and enjoy it – i’ve got the 7″ version and rate that well for the price, the larger one will be betterer for general use.
The operating system isn’t quite as polished as Apple’s but it is otherwise very good.

Apple has 70% of the market and is the undoubted all round leader ( in my views of course). I’ve had an iPad1 since just after they came out, device works brilliantly and changes the way you will use “a computer”. My usage is very similar to your intended use, web browsing, email, content viewing especially on flights, document reading/creation (small doc, long emails), some apps but they are secondary

The downside is you have to pay a relative premium price for it, as they sell out almost immediately new stock comes in you cannot say apple have got the pricing wrong. 100 million sold since launched.

Everyone else is playing catch up

As budget is a factor and given your requirements then as above a Nexus running Anrdoid is a very compelling alternative. A small memory sized apple might be insufficient if you want to keep a few movies on it for a family holiday for example

Either a Nexus 10 or an iPad 4 as your choices really, I wouldn’t bother with less than a 10″ if it’s going to be your main computer and portability isn’t a critical issue. Amount of memory depends on what you’ll be storing on it but basically get as much as you can afford within budget (even if Apple’s memory pricing is a complete rip-off).

I’m writing this on a Samsung galaxy tab 10.1 2, retail around £300 (although I managed to get it for £225). Comes with 16Gb memory with SD slot for another 32Gb. Does everything I want well enough. Still be a wrench to lose it but not £600 worth of loss. Don’t bother with a 3G one unless you’re sure you’ll use it, many places I use this (mainly home) has WiFi, the 3G whacks the cost up and means ongoing costs to use it. If you want apple fine, if not save a chunk. Also think what you’re going to us it for, surfing, watching doesn’t need a top spec processor etc. so don’t get sucked into that debate. Personally I’d stick to Android if you’re not going Apple.

thanks for all the feedback. We have a desktop that we use for home stuff, incl the kids homework so this won’t be main computer. It does sound though that we are better going for 10 inch rather than 7 for movies and browsing.

Funnily enough i’m debating this all today too after selling some CR-V wheels.

My debate is between 3 choices, depending on whether i buy it for the wife for Xmas or myself for now.
older Ipad from classifieds
Nexus 7
Playbook.

Only the playbook would be for me…. as i don’t think the wife would rate it.

Updating my previous thread about the Playbook – I popped into PC World yesterday to have a play on one, and I was quite impressed. The OS seemed pretty slick and the screen is nice. It also feels nicely put together, possibly slightly more sturdy than a Nexus. Hard to really tell with no access to the interclick though.

Bear in mind the 32gb Nexus has just come out, and will probably drop in price at some point.

Playbook is the best choice. 🙂

Sounds like a curry last night but – Ainol Fire/Flame, accepts micro SD cards and my 32GB one is running fine.

Question on the Playbook lads,

Assuming i have a jack which i use in my car for ipod currently, standard 3.5 jack, i assume i can use the playbook as a device for my AUX socket in the car ?

2nd part of Qn i guess… all the albums (ish) are on itunes, how would i get them onto the playbook in a playable format ?

Most of mine i could do from CD i guess… but again, how would i do all that ?

Looking at getting a tablet for my Mum for Christmas (cost split between me and my sister). Just posting on here so I can keep track of this thread!

Nexus seems to be winning out so far, mostly cos it’s got a micro USB so it’s easy for her to transfer pictures across. An HDMI Out port would be nice as well so she could show the pictures on a TV but the only tablet that seems to come with one of those is the Asus Transformer Prime (unless anyone knows differently?)

Main use for her would be to have all her photos in one place, she’s quite into her photography so it would be good if the tablet had an SD card slot, USB/micro USB and ability to run some decent photo apps. IME though (using an Android phone) the photo apps are a bit crap, I know that the Apple/iPhone apps are much better. Hmmm… Thoughts?

I’m liking the idea that the Nexus has various “profiles” – one for each user. Does any other tablet support this concept?

Assuming i have a jack which i use in my car for ipod currently, standard 3.5 jack, i assume i can use the playbook as a device for my AUX socket in the car ?

Std 3.5mm Jack means whatever is coming out of the headphones goes to the car speakers – there be no magic there 🙂

Blackberry Playbook has HDMI which is one of the things that’s currently attracting me to it – if I get the job I’m going for at the moment I’m going to be spending a fair bit of time in hotels, and a 64gb tablet that I can plug into a tellybox is quite appealing. It also has MicroUSB.

Dunno about photo apps though, and not many tablets seem to have card readers built in – can you get an external one for the iPad?

What’s the limitations on a 1st Gen iPad please guys ? What will it not do that Mrs Weeksy may want from it compared to a later iPad ?

You can get an external card reader for an iPad.

I’m liking the idea that the Nexus has various “profiles” – one for each user. Does any other tablet support this concept?

I believe the new Android OS 4.2 Jelly Bean, lets you do this.

@weeksy

I have an iPad1 – to date I see no limitations vs later devices. Side by side with a retina display you can see the difference, ie the new screen is fabulous. However that’s just what I thought about the 1 when I got it and unless they are side by side I don’t think you’d notice. The question mark is over the new OS6, this is the first upgrade that the iPad1 doesn’t support, so far everything is running fine for me. The new iPad has a much faster chip, I don’t use many apps and certainly not processor hungry so it’s not a major issue for me.

With regard to the car audio, I think a tablet is a bit big to be have sat in the car connected to the sterio. I’d stick with the iPod for that.

even a 7″ Blackberry or Nexus too big ?

Do you mean you’ve upgraded your 1st Gen to iOS 6 and it works ? I think Mrs Weeksy would like iOS6.

I guess the big Qn for me is, am i buying this for her or for me lol. I can get a 1st Gen from here for £155 or a Nexus new for £189 or a BBPlaybook for £130.

the Playbook i’d keep for me…. the other 2 i doubt i’d ever get to see… but would make Mrs Weeksy happy lol

Interesting article about the Playbook here:

http://arstechnica.com/features/2012/10/playback-rims-blackberry-playbook-18-months-later/

Ainol Fire has a mini HDMI, micro SD card slot and Micro USB.

I reckon that anyone trying to market a tablet at premium prices is headed for disaster, Apple have that market totally tied up. Hence the cheap, HPs, Playbooks etc.
For everyone else, the only other viable option is to market a cheap Android tablet.

Of course, all the [now] cheap ‘failures’ are very welcome to us 🙂

an interesting read, thanks 🙂

What about the Kindle fire, is that a tablet that can do all this stuff? I have not read much about them yet but a guy at work bought one last week when they came out.

Carphone warehouse have loads of tablets on display to play with if you can cope with the harassing sales staff bugging you 🙂

following this with interest! I’ve been looking at some cheaper tablets, but find they can’t access the Google Play store, and as its going to be for the kids, I can’t be doing with rooting it.

Does the Ainol connect to the Play store?

What’s the limitations on a 1st Gen iPad please guys ? What will it not do that Mrs Weeksy may want from it compared to a later iPad ?

Nothing really, apart from take photos and video calling (no camera).
It is very slow though, in comparison to more modern devices.

Re: connectivity above: iPad has an SD card read / USB connector for £25 – I use it to transfer over all my camera photos, the ones from my iPhone sync automatically via the iCloud over WiFi. Then flickr app to “publish”. Obviously you can do this with the other tablets (aside from the iCloud thing perhaps but maybe Android has a similar feature)

Samsung Galaxy 2 10.1 has £50 cashback off £299, today is the last day I think:

http://www.samsung-direct.co.uk/en/products/tablets/tablets/tablets/samsung/galaxy-tab-2-10-1-wi-fi-16gb-silver

I am swaying towards the Nexus 7 I think 😀

Is it worth paying an extra £30 for the 32g one ? As per my OP will be used mainly for surfing, movies etc, and not as ‘main computer’ PC World seems to be the cheapest at £170 as far as I can see…I wonder if the 16g ones will get cheaper now the 32 is out ?

I am swaying towards the Nexus 7 I think

Is it worth paying an extra £30 for the 32g one ? As per my OP will be used mainly for surfing, movies etc, and not as ‘main computer’ PC World seems to be the cheapest at £170 as far as I can see…I wonder if the 16g ones will get cheaper now the 32 is out ?

I’ve just bought one…. 5 mins ago lol.

I went for the 16Gb. The wife has every form of ipod on the planet for playing music an iphone etc etc… So thought the extra storage wasn’t required for this.

My only debates now are.
1. Do i keep it or give to her
2. Do i give it to her at Xmas
3. Do i just give it to her today lol

PC World are giving a years free Norton along with it at the moment.

weeksy – I may be off to pc world this evening now 😀

How long before the new Microsoft tablets start to come out?

From using a Microsft phone I’d say as an interface its much nicer than Android

I asked on a different thread – but Google Play store have the 16GB N-7 for £159, but it doesn’t tell you what shipping is until you place the order. Anyone know what the shipping cost is?

Expect a bit of standing round…

“yes sir, i’ll see if we have one in stock”
…..

….

“yes we do….”

“OK, i’ll have it….”

“i’ll have to go get the keys…..”

I’m thinking FFS why didn’t you bring the sodding keys over with you…

“you get free Norton…..”
“great”.

….

“I’ll have to go and get it “

Jesus why didn’t he pick it up when he went for the tablet….. or the bloody keys….

“do you want a cover”

“no mate i think i may top myself if you have to sod off again”