I know nothing about tablets so help........

[Rasta Pickles]

I assume a tablet is a glorified touchscreen phone minus the call capability?

i.e I don't need a sim card, I can simply hook it upto my wireless network at home and enjoy the same web functionality as I do on my HTC mobile phone, albeit on a 7" screen instead of a 4.3" screen.

Am I close?

Genuine question, the whole tablet technology thing has passed me by.......if truth be known, it's for my wife, she is IT illiterate but has recently got into "surfing" via her HTC and my wireless network.

Anything I am missing? There's a CPW deal for a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7" 8GB for £118 which is tempting me.

 

[Faevilangel]

Yup, basically it's a touchscreen computer which (depending on the device specs) hooks up to your wireless connection without a sim card.

Some do have simcard slots for 3G internet connections, but these are generally more expensive than the wifi only model.

 

[smo]

You got it in your opening post - its a touchscreen phone without calling capability.

I have a Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 and its brilliant - but other than playing a few games on it i'm at a loss as to what to do with it!!!

I prefer my laptop for surfing and certainly wouldnt try emailing or doing any work on the tablet - its no where as near as convenient.

Its a great gimmick but practically of little use to be honest in my experience!!

 

[Deleted member 27344]

If you're going to get a tablet, don't get it from Carphone Warehouse, phones 4u etc as they'll try and hook you into a contract (which you don't need).

If you can get along to an Apple store or John Lewis or even Argos. The staff there will give you what you want - a WiFi only model - rather than what's best for them.

 

[Gillie]

I have had an android phone for a lot of years now back to when they were first introduced - and have loved them since.

My screens have got bigger and until my wonderful last new phone I had the first samsung galaxy that did everything and yes would watch tv on it and if you were close enough - it did!

I now have the Samsung note phone - with a rather larger screen so I can do more things on it when out and about and yet still make calls on it.

I have several pc's and a lappie and phone already and thought about getting a tablet - but couldnt for the life of me see how it would fit in and how I could justify the cost of it etc - so I went for what I thought was the best of both worlds - a large screen phone with a pen that lets me do what tablets do and what phones do - I know I am a woman and we are supposed to carry a lot of carp around in our handbags - but I couldnt justify it.

I am delighted now though!

 

[Billmccallum]

I have had an android phone for a lot of years now back to when they were first introduced - and have loved them since.

My screens have got bigger and until my wonderful last new phone I had the first samsung galaxy that did everything and yes would watch tv on it and if you were close enough - it did!

I now have the Samsung note phone - with a rather larger screen so I can do more things on it when out and about and yet still make calls on it.

I have several pc's and a lappie and phone already and thought about getting a tablet - but couldnt for the life of me see how it would fit in and how I could justify the cost of it etc - so I went for what I thought was the best of both worlds - a large screen phone with a pen that lets me do what tablets do and what phones do - I know I am a woman and we are supposed to carry a lot of carp around in our handbags - but I couldnt justify it.

I am delighted now though!

Is that a large,smelly, handbag

 

[benwilkie]

Something like the Asus Transformer I've found is a great compromise. My old tablet I hardly used as emailing/browsing was tricky. But the Transformer has a clip on-keyboard and now I find when I travel it's far better than taking the laptop just to send a few emails. It's now basically as good as a netbook was a few years ago, perfect for light browsing/emails but the battery lasts >10 hours!

(Plus the Transformer for instance has a 2nd battery in the keyboard so uses this to recharge the tablet's battery on the go, even better!)

 

[darren atkinson]

For me the great thing about tablets is the fact that they make surfing the web instantly accessible, no getting a laptop out and waiting for it to boot up, no setting at a desk with a computer, you can be sat on the couch and be surfing the web within literally 5 seconds of picking up a tablet.

Email is also there, similar to how it comes through on a phone.

Apps are also good, you can game on them if you want to a pretty high standard now a days and there are plenty of other useful apps.

I rely on the dropbox app a lot, it basically means any of my data files from my PC are pretty much instantly available on my iPad, this includes our full family photo collection, all my business files (word, excel, powerpoint, pdfs) which I can fully fully view and edit and anything else I have in there.

I also read a lot of blogs and news sites in my industry and area of interests and keeping up to date with them is really quick and easy.

I find the longer you have a tablet around the home the more you rely on it.

 

[carter2]

Dude you can't operate it without sim
Go with Samsung tabs! They are pretty good

 

[astutiumRob]

I assume a tablet is a glorified touchscreen phone minus the call capability?

Sometimes missing the call capability, not always, but essentially, yes.

There's a CPW deal for a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7" 8GB for £118 which is tempting me.

Get a 10inch - you will regret getting the smaller screen after a while

 

[Websitehandyman]

Posted about tablet I ordered from China, 10in 1.5mgz £124.

Sanei N10 10.1" Android 4.0 Allwinner A10 1.5GHz

Seems to do the job well as it has more power then better known brand that cost 3 times that money. It does wireless and Bluetooth too. Can't comment much more as I've wrapped it for a birthday present for next week but in the new year I think I'll get myself one too.

 

[carter2]

Agree with Rob

 

[zcarter682]

Spent ages trying justify getting a tablet as I have a fully functional working laptop. In the end I played with one in PC world and loved it and bought it on the spot - never put the thing down anymore. It is so convenient to just be able to get it out and be able to surf the web in 10 seconds flat instead of 10 minutes after my laptop decides to boot up and properly load everything up. The only way I would get my laptop out now is if I had to work from home as you cant beat a laptop for work purposes.

 

[TomJamesJohnson3]

Tablets are basically big touch screen phones with bette functionality and better visuals. There is more room to work with and things generally look better as they fill the space up nicely.

Do not be confused with it being as good as a computer. It doesn't come close to the functionality of a computer. I once had my laptop scrapped and had to use my ipad as an alternative, it was way off the mark!

P.S I love tablets!

Hope this helps!

 

[sirbrandy]

Agree with the points mentioned above. Tablets are nowhere near the computer. But, it does what an average computer user would do - browse, email, chat, etc.

I use an iPad with a handy Bluetooth keyboard. Works well for all my needs.

 

[carter2]

Hey agree with all...Laptops can't be compare with tablets as tabs are very easily carried out even in pockets but you can't carry laptops so...!

 

[Rasta Pickles]

Thanks all.

In the end I went for a 10.2" MegaPad AllWinner 8 with 32GB of storage, 1GB RAM, a 1.2Ghz cpu and an 8000mAh battery, comes with a shedload of cables and GPS, WiFi......plus a major selling point appears to be a pre-installed version of "Ninja Fruit Slice" (I have no idea what's going on......)

£119 all in, should keep the wife happy now she's discovered the internet

And if it doesn't, she'll soon discover that I'll make damned sure that a 10.2" tablet WILL fit very comfortably into her nether regions.

 

[Websitehandyman]

Thanks all.

In the end I went for a 10.2" MegaPad AllWinner 8 with 32GB of storage, 1GB RAM, a 1.2Ghz cpu and an 8000mAh battery, comes with a shedload of cables and GPS, WiFi......plus a major selling point appears to be a pre-installed version of "Ninja Fruit Slice" (I have no idea what's going on......)

£119 all in, should keep the wife happy now she's discovered the internet

And if it doesn't, she'll soon discover that I'll make damned sure that a 10.2" tablet WILL fit very comfortably into her nether regions.

I got the N10 as posted above, Ninja Fruit Slice you swipe all the fruit to score points by wiping your hand on the screen. Seen that in a review on youtube. Take a look on their the are loads of video showing you how to use it and even update the firmware.

 

[Rasta Pickles]

I got the N10 as posted above, Ninja Fruit Slice you swipe all the fruit to score points by wiping your hand on the screen. Seen that in a review on youtube. Take a look on their the are loads of video showing you how to use it and even update the firmware.

I did look at that one, but the site selling them

http://www.dinodirect.com

seems to have a reputation as being a scamming site?

Which, having gone through to checkout and then bailed out only to awake the next morning to find three emails from a "Victor Wang" telling me I had an unpaid order from them, I can kind of relate to.

In fairness, he did give me a 16% discount code and told me not to reveal it to others.

 

[Websitehandyman]

I did look at that one, but the site selling them

http://www.dinodirect.com

seems to have a reputation as being a scamming site?

Which, having gone through to checkout and then bailed out only to awake the next morning to find three emails from a "Victor Wang" telling me I had an unpaid order from them, I can kind of relate to.

In fairness, he did give me a 16% discount code and told me not to reveal it to others.

Dropped on one of the TV auction sites tonight and they were selling similar, but their price was £185 !!

 

[Trust Malcolm]

Lots of us have Ipads at Trust Malcolm and because we use them for everything we have invested in keyboards which in effect transforms your Ipad into a laptop. It's a lovely bit of kit and gets rid of the "typing" on screen problem. Apple have really got it right this time...and that's coming from a dyed in the wool PC man!

 

[mobious]

Sometimes missing the call capability, not always, but essentially, yes.

download Skype?

 

[BelindaChong]

I sell jewellery, both via my website and also at sales, parties etc. Sometimes when at sales it would be convenient to take credit cards. I take cards on my site but don't want to have the added expense of a card reader prvided by the bank.

I am wondering whether I should get a tablet computer to take to sales etc, in order to take cards via my website. Anyone got any thoughts?

 

[benwilkie]

If you have a smartphone already, there are some apps that let you do this on those. e.g. Merchant Plus for windows mobile 7

 

[BelindaChong]

Thanks. I have seen those, plus we can log onto our site and take payment. I was really thinking about the size of the tablet compared to using my phone Galaxy S2