Handhelds Buying a tablet

Second Summer

Second Summer

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I'm thinking a tablet would be almost perfect for my parents. Currently, they have a laptop with a relatively big screen and Windows Vista ... It's noisy, slow, not at all very mobile, and user-unfriendly in the typical MS Windows ways. (Lots of frightening and sudden pop-ups from strange applications and drivers, Windows upgrading and restarting itself at random times, super-slow start-up time and so on.) It does have a big screen, which is helpful for declining eyesight.

I would have liked to instead give them Linux on the laptop, but the learning curve is going to be too steep, and I'm only here for another week to help out.

Do you have any experiences with tablets you'd like to share? Recommendations for particular models?
 
in my opinion the iPad is about as user friendly and easy to use as it gets.

Out of my (limited) experience with 2 iPads, a Windows 8 tablet (Samsung) and two smaller Android tablets (Kindle Fire and Asus Zenfone, the iPad wins hands down, especially for senior citizens.

just my 2 c...

Andy
 
I like my Android tablet (I have an Evga Tegra 4). I think it's pretty user-friendly, but then again, I've been using Android phones for 5 years now. Not too crazy about iPads.
 
My only experience with tablets is an android that my friend gave to me because she had purchased a new one. It was awful but I think it's because it was an older model...of course I can't remember which model it was but I think I still have it at home...I can check.
 
I have a Samsung Galaxy Note and Jeremy has an iPad. There are advantages to both I think. I think for ease of use the iPad wins.
 
OK, thanks for the feedback! Well, I'm partial to Androids in general, but I don't have a lot of experience with iPads and iOS-based devices. Looks like it needs to be not just any old Android in order to match the iPads ...
 
After using both, I'd say in terms of ease of use, being intuitive and straight forward Android tablets don't even come close to the iPad. It really doesn't get any easier than an iPad. I'd definitely avoid anything with vanilla Android (Nexus being the first to come to mind). Samsung tablets seem to be the most tweaked, certainly easier to use than the others.
 
I've had two Android Tablets. Both had a fairly small learning curve.

With an Ipad, you'll probably be paying through the nose. I did a 2quick check and saw a variety of Ipad models from $350 to $650.

You can get a a decent Android tablet for $200 or less.

Both of my Android tablets were Nooks. I currently have a Kindle Fire HD, but the learning curve was a little steeper.
 
Kindle Fire HD is also a good suggestion, I guess.

Amazon has made the Kindle experience also quite easy-to-use out of the box.

Regarding the price of the iPad ... I agree, some of them are expensive. But it does not need to be the latest and greatest, I would say. I am still using myself the first generation iPad at home and the second generation (iPad II) at work. Those do not have the latest high-resolution screen, and with some new and power-hungry games, you will certainly notice a lack of speed.

However, the screen IMO is still awesome and easy to read, and they both still do the job. If there was a way to get a good copy of the old iPad II, I would get that, it would maybe be quite cheap (possibly a slightly used one?). That is what my mother (she's 75) has been using for some years now, and she is very happy with it and prefers it to her Windows 7 PC for ease of use).

The newer ones basically have better cameras and a better screen, where you would however be hard pressed to notice the difference in the screen, unless you have them lying side by side. Battery is AWESOME on all iPads I have used so far. Hands down the longest battery duration of any mobile device I have ever handled. You come through a day without problems.

There are, of course, cheap Android versions out there, but setting them up and getting them to work well might be more a task for a young IT-interested person....

Just one more thing. With an iPad, there is NO LEARNING CURVE.
You take it out of the box, charge it, set it up, spend 10 minutes to familiarize yourself with how the system works, and then you USE IT.

That's it. Nothing more. (Which is more or less why I am suggesting it)

Best regards,
Andy
 
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Pretty much everything Andy said is accurate, except I would be a bit squeamish about settling on an older unit personally. I'd simply feel more at ease in regards to OS updates/upgrades on the newest piece of hardware available at the time of buying. Apple are very giving with OS upgrades, they happen semi-frequent and from what I understand they don't really take much consideration for older hardware.
 
I agree.

To be honest, I was surprised that the newest operating system, IOS 8, is still supported on the IPad II (not on the older iPad I, however).

That would have been a good argument for my boss why I need to upgrade my 4 year old unit to a new one, but well, it did not happen :)

Considering that, the current "iPad Air" should be good for a few more years, OS-wise.

Best regards,
Andy
 
Andy_T said:
You take it out of the box, charge it, set it up, spend 10 minutes to familiarize yourself with how the system works, and then you USE IT.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much the experience I've had with Android tablets as well. Apple has not cornered the market on simplicity.

Besides, you can always just download and print out the user manual for others to refer to if needed.

I just get this feeling that Apple devotees have blinders on with regard to any other product. But hey, if your the kind of person who would pay $400+ for a phone and then gladly pay $30 more for a proprietary cable, well what can I say....:p
 
beancounter said:
That's pretty much the experience I've had with Android tablets as well. Apple has not cornered the market on simplicity.

Besides, you can always just download and print out the user manual for others to refer to if needed.

I just get this feeling that Apple devotees have blinders on with regard to any other product. But hey, if your the kind of person who would pay $400+ for a phone and then gladly pay $30 more for a proprietary cable, well what can I say....:p
Click to expand...

On the contrary, I'm not a devotee of Apple at all nor do I have any delusions about their product. Just calling it as I see it, iOS is more straight forward to use. But the truth of the matter speaking for myself is; I actually would have happily purchased an Android for myself saving myself a couple hundred dollars had I not planned to build a music recording studio around my tablet. Hardware recording interfaces are generally designed for iOS, as is most of the good recording software. I'm usually the type of person that gets little value from something being "user friendly", it really doesn't matter to me, I can adapt to anything. And to be honest about it, being user friendly, external hardware compatibility, and a few exclusive specialty software titles are the only real advantages Apple has over Android. But the question here is what would you buy for your elderly parents, and having used both Android and iOS the answer was immediately on the tip of the tongue, because well... It's true.
 
Haha, it's funny, after having to use Apple computers to work with when I was doing Desktop Publishing during my study years, and "graduating" to Windows, I loathed Apple devices from the bottom of my soul, mainly for not being upgradeable or configurable for a technically experienced user.

I was quite surprised to see the company make a rebound with iPods, iPhones and similar after being very close to death.

Nevertheless, from the perspective of a "consumption device", that actually makes sense.

And my experience with Android devices (Kindle Fire and Asus Zenfone so far) is not one of simplicity. Loading software from various marketplaces (after having configured it), very heterogeneous devices with software working on device A, but not on device B, analyzing the permissions that a new application requests from the user, all these are more suited to technically experienced users.

I remember seeing a similar thread on another forum, with users suggesting to get an Android tablet that can be upgraded to Cyanogenmod (which is how I managed to "brick" my Kindle Fire, by trying to do that on a Windows 8 machine, where the Adobe Desktop Bridge can not be properly installed) ... well, all these are things you do not have to think about when buying an iPad.

But again, it is good that there are different devices for different tastes :)
 
Andy_T said:
Nevertheless, from the perspective of a "consumption device", that actually makes sense.

And my experience with Android devices (Kindle Fire and Asus Zenfone so far) is not one of simplicity. Loading software from various marketplaces (after having configured it), very heterogeneous devices with software working on device A, but not on device B, analyzing the permissions that a new application requests from the user, all these are more suited to technically experienced users.

I remember seeing a similar thread on another forum, with users suggesting to get an Android tablet that can be upgraded to Cyanogenmod (which is how I managed to "brick" my Kindle Fire, by trying to do that on a Windows 8 machine, where the Adobe Desktop Bridge can not be properly installed) ... well, all these are things you do not have to think about when buying an iPad.
Click to expand...

For those who want to play around with, configure to specific settings (beyond the default settings), or root their devices, those may be issues. But the typical consumer usually just wants to use the device as is out of the box.
 
Andy_T said:
I remember seeing a similar thread on another forum, with users suggesting to get an Android tablet that can be upgraded to Cyanogenmod (which is how I managed to "brick" my Kindle Fire, by trying to do that on a Windows 8 machine, where the Adobe Desktop Bridge can not be properly installed) ... well, all these are things you do not have to think about when buying an iPad.

But again, it is good that there are different devices for different tastes :)
Click to expand...

Ugh, the Kindle Fire is a... Nevermind just ugh in general lol... I'd take literally ANY other Android tablet over the Kindle Fire... But in that context I can understand having to be hacking on it :fp:
 
Jeremy said:
Ugh, the Kindle Fire is a... Nevermind just ugh in general lol... I'd take literally ANY other Android tablet over the Kindle Fire... But in that context I can understand having to be hacking on it :fp:
Click to expand...

Well, it's not that bad ... I got it mainly as a portable e-reader for reading in darker environments (think: Germany in winter, even during daytime) when it was launched (2011), because at that time there were no lighted Kindle e-readers available, and Apple was absolutely adamant that there would NEVER be a small iPad with a 7-inch-screen :-/ .

I mainly routed it because I wanted to have an additional device to play "Clash of Clans" on.

The problem of having put the Kindle into fastboot mode and not having any computer available with which to get it out of that mode again was basically solved by acquiring an Asus Zenfone tablet instead...
 
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