New tablet, iPad vs N10 vs Note vs TPT2

ng93

ng93

ng93

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Hi,

After selling my Xoom i'm looking for a new tablet. Budget wise I could stretch to £450 but would rather something around £350. Will be used mainly for web browsing, note taking (evernote and onenote), a bit of gaming, and just general casual twitter/facebook/etc. Does anything beat the iPad at this? Currently looking at

  • iPad 3, suppose it's the obvious choice, does everything well but nothing stands out about it, but is there anything better, and is the 4 worth the extra £70?
  • Nexus 10, hardware is very nice, but is the software good enough compared to iOS (lack of tablet apps, performance concerns)
  • Note 10.1, has micro sd card and i've a spare 32GB so effectively has 3x the storage of the others, plus the S-Pen looks useful, but does this make up for the screen quality, touch-wiz, lack of updates and fugly design?
  • Oddball choice: ThinkPad Tablet 2 (supposedly being released this month), spec sheet wise this looks very nice (active digitiser, x86, full size USB, micro sd), but will Windows 8 on CloverTrail be annoyingly slow with not enough apps? It's also by far the most expensive at £450

Or anything else worth considering, Surface RT, Vivo Tab RT, W510, etc? BTW not interested in keyboard docks, will be using this exclusively in slate form.

Thanks for advice,
ng93
 
ng93 said:
Hi,

After selling my Xoom i'm looking for a new tablet. Budget wise I could stretch to £450 but would rather something around £350. Will be used mainly for web browsing, note taking (evernote and onenote), a bit of gaming, and just general casual twitter/facebook/etc. Does anything beat the iPad at this? Currently looking at

  • iPad 3, suppose it's the obvious choice, does everything well but nothing stands out about it, but is there anything better, and is the 4 worth the extra £70?
  • Nexus 10, hardware is very nice, but is the software good enough compared to iOS (lack of tablet apps, performance concerns)
  • Note 10.1, has micro sd card and i've a spare 32GB so effectively has 3x the storage of the others, plus the S-Pen looks useful, but does this make up for the screen quality, touch-wiz, lack of updates and fugly design?
  • Oddball choice: ThinkPad Tablet 2 (supposedly being released this month), spec sheet wise this looks very nice (active digitiser, x86, full size USB, micro sd), but will Windows 8 on CloverTrail be annoyingly slow with not enough apps? It's also by far the most expensive at £450

Or anything else worth considering, Surface RT, Vivo Tab RT, W510, etc? BTW not interested in keyboard docks, will be using this exclusively in slate form.

Thanks for advice,
ng93
Click to expand...

I've only got (and used) the Note 10.1, so I won't talk about the others. The S-Pen is very useful if you're taking a lot of notes, it's a lot easier to just write them down rather than having to type them up, especially as I find tablets hard to type on! Update wise it's on 4.1 now, and gets updates in pretty good speed, obviously not as fast as the Nexus, but better than a lot of tablets. Touchwiz isn't that bad anymore, and brings a lot of nice features to the party, but personally I use a different launcher (such as Apex or Nova) as I prefer them, and I can still use the extra features of a Samsung ROM. The screen is very high quality, the colours are good and the viewing angles are great, it's just the resolution that lets it down, but it's not the end of the world really with the way android works.

Design wise, it is what it is really. I've got mine in a flip case though, so it looks the same as any 10" tablet.
 
Nexus 10 - Impressive screen, a nice design, stock android. I would go for this one first.

Then probably the Ipad next - due to the screen. More expensive however.

The note would be my last choice - as you say, a very fugly design, low res screen and touchwiz with the only benefit being slightly cheaper.
 
Any specific reason for the iPad, or is it just the best all rounder? Just read your Surface review, sounds like it has potential but just isn't there yet?
 
You're looking at this about a week too late, the Note 10.1 was down to 318 (398 rrp) and there was a 50 cashback too, made them silly cheap.

Wife bought me a 10.1, after a week she sold her ipad3 and bought herself one too.

Not heard of any screen problems and the software is bang up to date.
 
The iPad is the clear choice here, 3rd or 4th gen are both fine.

If I couldn't get the iPad I'd probably get a Nexus 10, but it's a very distant second choice.

For your uses, nothing beats the iPad.
 
Personally the Nexus 10 and the Ipad 3/4 are near as damnit identical for your needs. They both will perform admirably for the functions you want and the only really difference will be the availability of apps.
 
I owned an ipad 4, had an ipad 3 before that and now have a nexus 10 32gb.

I'd say that if you have no interest in rooting and all that entails the ipad 4 is the best of the bunch. I found the ipad 4 to be a bit snappier than the previous version though in fairness that was no slouch either.

I love the screen on the nexus 10 and have no bleed on mine. I prefer the 16:10 aspect ratio on the nexus over the 4:3 the ipad uses, watching media is definitely nicer on the nexus due to the aspect ratio affording you much more screen space. Even though the resolution is higher I can't really tell any difference between the two devices in image quality though, the retina resolution is OTT for a 10" display as it is.

Where it doesn't quite live up to the ipad is in the apps department although the gap is steadily narrowing (I've used android phones for years and the market is MUCH better than it used to be). So many apps on there don't cater for tablets in general, let alone take advantage of the resolution the nexus offers. Also apps I used on the ipad occasionally either don't exist for android or just don't work at all. Another issue is the battery which isn't as large as that of the ipad 4 and is powering an even higher resolution screen so I definitely notice it draining significantly faster than the ipad 4. I'm in the process of trying out different governors so might be able to bridge that gap somewhat.

I use the device as I love tweaking it, trying new roms, kernels etc. If it wasn't for that I'd still be using the ipad 4 for sure.
 
ng93 said:
Any specific reason for the iPad, or is it just the best all rounder? Just read your Surface review, sounds like it has potential but just isn't there yet?
Click to expand...

The Surface is great but it's nowhere near the £350 budget target.

I'm all about using the best tool for the job and I think the retina iPad lends itself better to the browsing and casual tasks.

If you do plan to get some work done on it then yeah definitely consider the Surface or the ThinkPad tablet but your costs will increase accordingly as I would strongly recommend a keyboard as well.
 
depends what its used for.

Films or video - Nexus 10 ( Screen Ratio best for this, its not a square like the iPad )
Writing word documents - Nexus 10 (with keyboard stand case)
Doing some C++ work - Nexus 10
Simply viewing photo's - iPad with retina display (OTT vibrant colours, nice to look at photos on)
Battery life - iPad 4( 11000* battery vs Nexus 9000 Battery...)


People say that there is a lack of app's, But considering its ANDROID there are thousands upon thousands of apps out there.

It all depends if you want a limited OS or an os you can tweak and make it your own...
 
Diagro said:
People say that there is a lack of app's, But considering its ANDROID there are thousands upon thousands of apps out there.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you're getting at here...

iOS has a lot more apps that are optimised for tablets than Android. A lot more. Yes, the phone ones all run fine but they aren't nearly as good as they should be on a larger screen.

The tablet difference is absolutely night and day. It's huge. If you only want a handful of apps and they are optimised for Android tablets then it's not much of an issue, but if you value apps, there's only one option.

If you look at what the OP has listed for his uses, the iPad would be near perfect, and the iPad should always be the tablet to get unless you don't want one for a specific reason.
 
SB118 said:
You're sounding slightly fanboy there. Why do you think they are better than everything else?
Click to expand...

Well, for me, my main use is apps and you can't get most of them on Android (or they are the phone version). Quite simple. I also like iOS and the way it operates, unlike some people, I don't necessarily think it's better, but just as good in an alternative fashion.

If I just wanted to watch mkv files on it then I'd probably go for an Android tablet (though it's easy to get them onto the iPad as well).

I just don't think the Nexus 10 can offer enough at the moment for me to consider it better.

If apps don't matter, then it becomes a far more level playing field, but they do matter to the vast majority of people. From what the OP said it sounds like an iPad would be more than ideal, so why get a Nexus instead? So you can have widgets and customisation at the expense of a comparatively crippled app store... I don't think it's worth the trade off at present.
 
Robbo said:
Well, for me, my main use is apps and you can't get most of them on Android (or they are the phone version). Quite simple. I also like iOS and the way it operates, unlike some people, I don't necessarily think it's better, but just as good in an alternative fashion.

If I just wanted to watch mkv files on it then I'd probably go for an Android tablet (though it's easy to get them onto the iPad as well).

I just don't think the Nexus 10 can offer enough at the moment for me to consider it better.

If apps don't matter, then it becomes a far more level playing field, but they do matter to the vast majority of people. From what the OP said it sounds like an iPad would be more than ideal, so why get a Nexus instead? So you can have widgets and customisation at the expense of a comparatively crippled app store... I don't think it's worth the trade off at present.
Click to expand...

The app argument is purely subjective - for *some* people with *some* app requirements then you have a point but for the majority the app store argument belongs strictly in 2011.
 
Rimsy said:
The app argument is purely subjective - for *some* people with *some* app requirements then you have a point but for the majority the app store argument belongs strictly in 2011.
Click to expand...

On phones, that's mostly true. On tablets, no. There's still a clear difference.

Obviously this is all entirely subjective based on your needs, and looking at the OP's needs I can't see why an iPad wouldn't be the best choice for him.
 
Robbo said:
Well, for me, my main use is apps and you can't get most of them on Android (or they are the phone version). Quite simple. I also like iOS and the way it operates, unlike some people, I don't necessarily think it's better, but just as good in an alternative fashion.

If I just wanted to watch mkv files on it then I'd probably go for an Android tablet (though it's easy to get them onto the iPad as well).

I just don't think the Nexus 10 can offer enough at the moment for me to consider it better.

If apps don't matter, then it becomes a far more level playing field, but they do matter to the vast majority of people. From what the OP said it sounds like an iPad would be more than ideal, so why get a Nexus instead? So you can have widgets and customisation at the expense of a comparatively crippled app store... I don't think it's worth the trade off at present.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, personally I'm the other way around, the hardware in apple is kit marvelous but it's crippled with locked down software.

So I went android.
Push a video through the xbox, no problem.
Connect to another device via bluetooth or wifi, no problem.
Watch a video in the corner of the screen, while reading ocuk and making handwritten notes, no problem.

I've shown my note 10.1 to ipad owning friends and most of them have either bought one already or are waiting for contracts to run out (ipad 3g) so they can sell up and then buy one.

IOS has a lot of catching up to do in my eyes.
 
SB118 said:
Fair enough, personally I'm the other way around, the hardware in apple is kit marvelous but it's crippled with locked down software.

So I went android.
Push a video through the xbox, no problem.
Connect to another device via bluetooth or wifi, no problem.
Watch a video in the corner of the screen, while reading ocuk and making handwritten notes, no problem.

I've shown my note 10.1 to ipad owning friends and most of them have either bought one already or are waiting for contracts to run out (ipad 3g) so they can sell up and then buy one.

IOS has a lot of catching up to do in my eyes.
Click to expand...

Yep, and as we've identified it comes down entirely to what you're going to be using it for.

As what I'd call a 'sofa surfing' device, similar to what the OP has described, you can't go wrong with the iPad, which is why I recommended it.

If you want more advanced stuff then you are probably better off going Android, but he said:

Will be used mainly for web browsing, note taking (evernote and onenote), a bit of gaming, and just general casual twitter/facebook/etc. Does anything beat the iPad at this?
Click to expand...

In my view, the answer to this question is a resounding no.
 
Robbo said:
Yep, and as we've identified it comes down entirely to what you're going to be using it for.

As what I'd call a 'sofa surfing' device, similar to what the OP has described, you can't go wrong with the iPad, which is why I recommended it.

If you want more advanced stuff then you are probably better off going Android, but he said:



In my view, the answer to this question is a resounding no.
Click to expand...

thats the view you have, and in my own view, the view you have is the wrong view :rolleyes:
 
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