I’ve got an ageing Samsung NC10 which is basically dying, and is no longer supported etc.

About 6 months ago Mrs FD bought an Ipad which is great, apart from the fact you cant use any USB device with it, so are cameras wont plug in to it, the printer wont plug in to it etc etc. We also need to use Excel and Powerpoint.

We like the idea of a tablet as 80-90% of the time it will just be sat on the sofa browsing etc, but there are times when both of us need to use Office, or want to upload pictures etc.

Ideally we would like some thing we can use as a tablet day to day, and when needed we can attach a keyboard and mouse.

Is it all a bit of a false economy and we just need to buy a laptop?

Ta

I’m sure someone will correct me but the only option for a tablet running full excel or powerpoint will be a Windows 8 (Pro, I think) one.

Do you really need excel and word or just spreadsheet and presentation apps/programs?

I need to be able to bring spreadsheets home with simple formula ie lookups/pivots etc and alter them /create them.

I actually have a Windows phone and love the interface, so I was leaning towards a Windows device anyhow…(doesnt have to be microsoft)

camera kit for ipad works well for downloading images. i bought a cheap knock-off for about £4 on ebay.

keynote is a good powerpoint alternative, pages and numbers are pretty rubbish.

office for iphone is a recent release and hopefully it’ll come to the ipad soon.

get an airprint compatible printer.

You could be the 2nd person in the world* to buy an MS Surface thingie.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/09/nvidia_ceo_says_second_generation_surface_rt_is_in_the_works/

* _slight_ exaggeration

If you buy a surface pro, which is the one with full excel/word on it, then it costs over 800 quid including the keyboard. Or more than the cost of a tablet plus a laptop.

There is a surface RT which has a version of office on it, but I don’t know how cut down it is, it isn’t a proper laptop, and you’re not guaranteed support for your printer either.

Also, you can connect cameras to the iPad using the camera connection kit. Lets you read the SD card, or USB connection to the camera if it supports it. So that would sort out your photo problems for £25.

You can print from iPad too, http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/apple/3456895/how-print-from-your-iphone-ipad/

Oh, and there are about a zillion keyboards that will work with it.

You can edit documents in various pieces of software for iPad or other tablets, but realistically if you want to edit anything serious in Excel/Word (things like if you need any complex formulas, or you need formatting to stay perfectly the same), you probably need a cheap laptop that runs office.

Ok should add the iPad is often out of the house at Mrs FD work when shes doing shifts so we do need something else.

Laptop may be the only option I guess but touchscreen is much more intuitive/easy for 80% of the stuff it will need to do.

There are laptops with lids that flip over so they become larger tablets as the screen is touch-sensitive. Sounds a bit heavy but may be close to what you want.

Why do you ‘need’ to bring spreadsheets home? Your work/life balance needs readjusting.

The surface RT is quite cheap now (£280 for the cheapest one), and a quick google suggests that office RT just doesn’t support add-ins and macros, but generally works the same so probably will do what you want. Presumably supports bluetooth keyboards, which are pretty cheap (or their super expensive keyboard covers), and is supposed to have quite good printer support. And if you actually like the Windows phone, then you might like it.

Although it is a bit of an unknown as to how long apps and things will still be made for Windows RT & Windows Phone, unless it has a serious up-turn in sales at some point soon. Don’t expect the latest versions of your favourite apps to be available.

If you can stretch, the RT tablet is definitely worth a look from what you say.

The version of Office seems to be fully featured, save for macros and add-ins in Excel (see this link to the MS site explaining the differences: http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/home-and-student/office-home-student-rt-FX103790095.aspx

It is also optimised for touch screen, so you may find it to be exactly what you need – it should certainly cope with vlookups which may well be beyond some of the Office apps on Ipad.

The RT is £279 at the moment without keyboard, £359 with a decent detachable case / keyboard. There’s a 2 year warranty at John Lewis too.

In any event, there’s a full size USB port if you want to plug in a normal pc keyboard or mouse.

There’s a rumour that they are due a re-design / re-launch imminently, so the price of the existing units may drop further still.

The critics were ambivalent / unimpressed with the Pro versions of the tablets, due to cost and battery life, and the initial views of the RT ones was not great either. However, as time has passed, there are many users very happy with their RT tablets.

Anyway, it’s horses for courses, and based on what you say I reckon you could do worse if the cash is currently burning a hole in your pocket…

looking for something similar, netbook on last legs, need something that will run Virtual DJ and have at least 3 usb ports for sound cards in my mixer, seems the world has moved on and i’m a bit lumbered!

There is an ASUS netbook bit its something daft like £800 !

Can buy a cheapy EEEPc or MSI from Argos but they seem a bit basic…

Someone must do a small 11″ or less netbook / laptop for under £300 nowadays or have we all gone tablet mad?

Steelsreal,

PCWorld have a £249 11″ Win 8 laptop from Acer with 3 USB ports:

Acer 11″ £249

or £20 more for 4gb ram…mmmm

thats lunchtime sorted then 🙂

Someone must do a small 11″ or less netbook / laptop for under £300 nowadays or have we all gone tablet mad?

2nd hand Thinkpad X series would fit the bill, and the build quality is excellent, so they tend to last well. An X60 will run nicely with Ubuntu on it, you’d need something a bit newer if you wanted to run Windows.

If you want to throw money at a set of biopace rings shifted by a pneumatic front mech all controlled by those flippy-flappy brake lever thingies, then buy a Microsoft tablet by all means, but beware: even we have decided they’re unshiftable and we love all things from Redmond (mainly because they’re flawed, which allows us to sell stuff that fills in the flaw). Otherwise I’d be looking at a USB dongle for an ipad or a cheap real laptop.

I must be the only person in the world that’s happy with a SurfacePro…

Don’t use a laptop now, and with the amount of travelling I do, the weight/size is fantastic for a fully functioning computer.

Had a bit of a play with a MS Surface thing in John Lewis at the weekend and was very impressed with it. Admittedly I only spent a short time swiping about with it and trying the cover/keyboard thing (an extra £90) but it seemed pretty well featured and like a solid device.

The whole tablet thing does seem like a minefield at the moment if you don’t want to go the iPad route. I am thinking of getting one, but there seem to be so many choices that I think it is difficult to choose the correct one for your needs. And it’s a pricey mistake if you decide 2 months later you should have bought Y instead of X….

For a similar price to the Surface RT you can pick up an Asus VivoTab Smart, difference is that it is similar size tablet (and battery life) but uses an x86 CPU so it has the full version of Windows8 rather than the restricted version on a RT tablet.

What does that all mean? Full version of Office will run on it along with normal Windows apps rather than just being restricted to the Windows store.

Windows 8 works quite well on a touch enabled tablet along with a Bluetooth keyboard, I use it on my travels with work as I don’t want to lug around the combined weight of my works laptop and personal laptop, so a tablet with a tiny matching slim keyboard is a huge weight and space saving.

Dell XPS 10. I replaced my iPad with it and its a shame more windows tablets aren’t out there.

The keyboard is as good as any small laptop and the bonus is it holds a battery that doubles the run time. It also has a microsd slot and mini USB/hdmi on the tablet and comes with the adapters to the full size USB/hdmi (are you listening apple) the keyboard has full size USB/hdmi ports as well.

I’ve since replaced it with a Surface Pro (cheap deal through TechED) and to be honest unless you need to run “full” windows for sofa-surfing its a lot heavier, has less battery life and the keyboard isn’t as good as the dell. It is bloody quick though. 🙂

Quidco discount on Dell to boot.

Johnny, the Dell looks good, can it run full Excel though ie Macro enabled sheets?

In fact just looked at the Dell Latitude 10 which gets hood reviews.

How about this?

Re: macros I can’t check now as I’ve moved the Dell on but this might help:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/home-and-student/office-home-student-rt-preview-FX103210361.aspx

Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet 2

Why not get one of the laptop / tablet hybrids that are now appearing – something like the Lenovo yogapad…

I have a Lenovo Helix on trial at the moment, and first impressions are very very favourable.

If I can swing replacing my laptop with this I will.. mind you it’s an i7 8Gb lap burner in tablet mode.