Relatively cheap tablet recomendations

Swampyseifer · 11 Feb 2020 at 20:13

Hi all,

I’m hoping you can help me find which tablet is good for me.

I’m a budding artist looking to get something to use for writing and drawing on the go, plus I travel by train a lot so potentially for watching things on Amazon Prime. It has to be able to connect to connect to one of those keyboard things and work with a stylus.

I am quite deeply entrenched in the world of Apple (Iphone, AirPods, Apple Watch) so it would make some sense to stay with that but I don’t really have an issue with jumping ship if it helps.

ideally as cheap as I can go but I guess I could go up to £600 if necessary.

I tried to have a look and for Apple it’s something like an iPad 2018 maybe? Is there a slightly older one I can still get hold of? My concern with that is I was bought the original iPad mini and because I can’t upgrade the iOS past a certain point (v9 I think), it’s now just painfully slow and unused.

for Android, I see lots of things about either the Galaxy S3 or the S5e (not really sure if the difference), but they seem similar in price to the iPad - so I can’t see a benefit to them over it.

don’t know much about the other brands like amazon fire for example.

Any advice would be welcome.

CapitalOne · 11 Feb 2020 at 20:22

Have you considered a refurbed ipad pro 10.5 (previous one not the round corner one)? Available in your price range on Amazon (sorry mods can i mention them for products you don’t stock?). Enough free budget to get a gen 1 pencil too if you like scribbling?

ETA i have one, latest IOS and still very snappy to use, even compared with my work pro 2.

HTH

Swampyseifer · 11 Feb 2020 at 20:42

CapitalOne said:
Have you considered a refurbed ipad pro 10.5 (previous one not the round corner one)? Available in your price range on Amazon (sorry mods can i mention them for products you don’t stock?). Enough free budget to get a gen 1 pencil too if you like scribbling?

ETA i have one, latest IOS and still very snappy to use, even compared with my work pro 2.

HTH

Thanks for the post.

so for the price I am seeing for a refurbished one of those, I could buy a new iPad 2018 or a galaxy tab s5e. Is there a benefit to the iOS pro really? I don’t need a bells and whistles top of the range tablet.

Also I’d need to consider the cost of a laptop case thingy in my budget.

CapitalOne · 11 Feb 2020 at 20:50

Fair point - the ones I saw were around £500. Here is an article explaining the differences so check if it suits.

https://www.cnet.com/news/ipad-pro-2018-vs-ipad-pro-2017-vs-ipad-2018-everything-that-changed/

I’ve got a Pixel 3 phone and love it (work is an iphone 8 and the battery is better but that’s it) and also have 3 or 4 android tablets (hauweis which are a massive upgrade from the slow Fire tablets) and for me, the ipad is the best tablet and IOS the best tablet OS there is, android just doesn’t work as well in that format (in my opinion).

Of course it’s fairly subjective - best of luck.

ETA - a decent ipad case can be had for £20, 30 with a keyboard.

Swampyseifer · 12 Feb 2020 at 06:43

Well although I could go to £600, it just feels like I don’t need to spend anywhere near that. It’s like buying a brand new gaming PC to just use it to run Office!

maybe I’ll try looking at some second hand or reconditioned older models

Orcvader · 13 Feb 2020 at 12:12

For Android at least, it'll be either the Tab S6 or Tab S5e, both have a keyboard dock add-on (sold separately), but I believe the S6 comes with a stylus and comes with the pressure sensitive screen. I haven't tried a stylus with my S5e so I can't really comment how well it works with it. There's also Dex mode which offers a more laptop like UI which can be handy. Bare in mind only the S6 comes with a HDR certified screen while the S5e doesn't, even though apparently both use the same panel. But overall for drawing especially it seems the S6 will suit you better over the S5e.

Echoing as above though, Apple tends to have better tablets and I believe the recent Pro models will have the pressure sensitive screen which will making drawing far more comfortable. Not to mention they have 120Hz screens which will make the experience a whole lot smoother.

Swampyseifer · 13 Feb 2020 at 12:36

Orcvader said:
For Android at least, it'll be either the Tab S6 or Tab S5e, both have a keyboard dock add-on (sold separately), but I believe the S6 comes with a stylus and comes with the pressure sensitive screen. I haven't tried a stylus with my S5e so I can't really comment how well it works with it. There's also Dex mode which offers a more laptop like UI which can be handy. Bare in mind only the S6 comes with a HDR certified screen while the S5e doesn't, even though apparently both use the same panel. But overall for drawing especially it seems the S6 will suit you better over the S5e.

Echoing as above though, Apple tends to have better tablets and I believe the recent Pro models will have the pressure sensitive screen which will making drawing far more comfortable. Not to mention they have 120Hz screens which will make the experience a whole lot smoother.

thanks. The iPad Pro is not only right outside my budget, but as mentioned previously it feels like overkill....also, I have a laptop I can carry about if I want a 12” in my bag (ooeer missus).

ive actually been seriously considering the iPad mini 5. It’s bigger than a phone but still small enough to be portable. It can connect to a Bluetooth keyboard and can use the Pencil v1. Also, if I stick with a 64fb WiFi mode then it’s well within budget.

Orcvader · 13 Feb 2020 at 13:49

That looks to be the best "cheap" option, had a look and seems the new Mini does indeed have full Pencil support with a pressure sensitive screen, so you'll have no problems with drawing. Screen size won't be as big as the other tablets but if portability is also your focus then it should fit your needs just fine. And I think the screen is actually small enough where you can use Microsoft Office for free, MS has an odd restriction where screens larger than 10" requires a 365 subscription to use them. So that could be handy for your writing requirement as well.

gizmoy2k · 13 Feb 2020 at 20:20

I've been looking over the same since before Xmas, picked up a fire HD 10 this week for £110 and got a toolkit on xda to deforest it.

Sideloaded play store in minutes. Got a Bluetooth keyboard case for £30

Great kit for the money, Microsoft office apps all work, custom launcher too. Saved £300 at least by not going premium Samsung kit.