Best Value Tablet PC Recommendation?
 

The search function showed, quite improbably, that no matches existed for the search terms "ipad" and "tablet," hence this post.

The title is self-explanatory. We're not looking for the latest/greatest/fastest tablet, just something usable, with good memory and performance. Long battery life is also important. Any recommendations to buy or avoid would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

I believe for the last day or two no matter what you put in the search function, it would return no results. I think it may be broke.

It's always better to use google, put in your search terms followed by site:flyertalk.com. As long as you are looking for something in the public searchable areas, it will bring them up.

ipad tablet site:flyertalk.com

will bring you back many threads.

You need to better define what value means to you. Are you looking for the largest selection and broadest range of apps? That is one OS. Are you looking for the largest selection of cases and accessories? That is the same OS. Are you looking for the ability to tweak every single setting, but opening yourself to certain risks in having that ability? That is another OS. What kind of computer and phone do you use? That may have some bearing on what you would prefer. Do you have an upper dollar limit? Or can you afford to pay for whatever you decide is what you want, regardless of the initial cost?

Have you tried any tablets? If not, I suggest going to a store or borrowing a friends tablet and asking them about the device and their choices. Here you will find many on the Apple camp and many on the Android camp, and both are good choices for many people.

Thank you for the replies.

I've used a couple of iPads and liked them a lot. My wife is a Mac user. I have a PC. So brand is largely irrelevant. I know very little of apps. I do have an upper dollar limit and have been considering getting a refurbished or secondhand tablet.

All things being equal, since my wife's Mac is older than my PC, we'd probably go with an iPad and make it hers.

I'm asking friends and reading up online but given the wealth of knowledge on FT, it never hurts to ask here as well.:cool:

The iPad is probably your best bet. Maybe the iPad 2 price is now low enough for you. I'm very happy with mine. I'm no Apple fanboy either, but they hit a home run with this tablet..

For around $200, I don't think you can go wrong with a Blackberry Playbook. May not have all the apps of an iPad but a lot cheaper, multitasks, and very solidly built.

In the spectrum of tablet prices, would an Ipad be at the value end?

Again, you would need to define value first before you could answer that question. To me? The best overall value is the iPad, but to others that would not be true. So it is not a simple yes or no answer.

But I did define it in my question.

If you can still get one, the HP Touchpad. The prices have dropped at CL and you can put Android on it.

I picked up the 32GB for $149.

CL?

Craigslist

Forgot to mention the specs of the Touchpad were quite decent. It's running a Tegra 2 at 1.2MHz and it comes unlocked and rooted. You can bump up the MHz to 1.5, where it's normally supposed to be.

As for Android, you can run Cyanogenmod. It comes in a Gingerbread flavour (Alpha 3.5) or ICS (Alpha 2). Personally, I'm keeping it on GB Alpha 3.5 as that seems to have less issues than the current ICS build.

Hmmm...

Also, hmmm...

Not really, which is why I asked you to clarify the term. If you are solely asking about price then the iPad is at the higher end, but price and price alone is a bad way to define value. What good is a cheaper product that doesn't do what you want, or in a manner that you like? A cheap tablet that sits in a drawer is a bad value, while an expensive one that is used every day is a great value.

Which, if you had better defined value, would have been more clear to everyone.

Price a huge factor in value, and I don't think my definition is going to get any simpler or clearer. :)

It's clear now, you value price over all else. So tell me, what kind of beater car do your drive on an exclusive basis? Since value is all about cost.

You're funny. :)

Just extending your "logic" to the rest of your world. You mean you don't drive a beater? So price is not the only indicator of value?

LOL :D

Kind of a vaguely defined request although I understand that the parameters do not necessarily include the latest and greatest. Under those circumstances, I can certainly say that I've gotten great value out of the Nook Color (pre-Nook Tablet era) refurbished unit I got in November with a Cyanogen Mod 7 version installed on a 16GB microSD. Total monetary cost: $150, including microSD card; total time cost: about an hour to two hours to make sure I installed everything correctly.

Since then, another hour or two to refine the software environment (for instance, the browser--I'd go with the Dolphin Browser over the stock browser or Opera because it runs fast and allows easily tabbed browsing). Cyanogen allows modding of the clock speed so Netflix runs relatively well. At that point, it simply becomes a case of portability (7-inch screen will fit in a coat pocket) over the bigger screen of a Galaxy Tab or iPad.

From my perspective, before I got the Color, I'd seriously thought of buying an Asus Transformer. The Transformer still looks as if it's a great product, but now I can't imagine hauling a 10-inch screen around. If I wanted a 10-inch screen, however, I'd definitely look at the Transformer, Prime, or an iPad.

I think the hardware manufacturers are going to have a heck of a time figuring out whether the market will want the smaller unit or the bigger screen. There are pretty good arguments on both sides, but for the time being, I'm going with the smaller Nook Color supplemented with an 11.6-inch HP dm1 unit for heavier work, such as word processing, with a decent keypad. Extra points for software solutions that turn the Color into a secondary display screen for small computers like the dm1 so that I can block and copy from an extended desktop to the main HP screen. Not likely since that's asking an Android unit to work seamlessly within a Windows environment. Still. . .

I just don't know if there's ever going to be one unit that can fit all desires.

Oh, did I say that?

It looks like I did not.

Value means something different to different people.

You need to define what you want the tablet to do for you, what you will be using it for, and what you want to spend on it.

Once you know what you are looking for you can then determine if models that fit your needs are good values or not. What you are looking for may or may not be the same as what I'm looking for in a tablet, so something that is a good value for me may be totally useless for you, and may be a horrible value.

It looks like you like to play games. First you said this:

No mention of any other consideration. Then you said this:


Again, with no mention of any other value consideration.

I said in my first post that the concept of value needed to be clearly defined, but all you posted was about price. Other posters have asked you to clarify your concept of value as well. What conclusion were we supposed to draw?


Actually it looks like you did. It was the only thing you mentioned, despite repeated requests to clarify, and you even pointed us back to one of your own posts where you mention price.

I said price was a big factor in determining value.

That's a pretty simple statement. I'm not sure how I can clarify that for you if it's already confusing you.

Sorry.

By doing what everyone has asked you to do, clarify what other things factor into the concept of value. Since you refuse to do that we can only rely on what you are willing to talk about, which is price.

First generation 16gb wifi-only iPads and many refurbished 10" Android tablets can be found typically in the $250-$300 range. Even lower prices can be found Craigslist. On many of the deal sites (e.g., 1SaleADay, DailySteals, etc.), 7-inch tablets running older Android OS are frequently offered for less than $100. And today, 4/15/12, woot.com is offering a 32gb HP Touchpad for $249.

<moderator hat on> Friendly warning - knock it off. You know whether this applies to you. </moderator hat off>

Not sure if the original question got answered, but the iPad has been flawless for me, my wife, and daughter. Have had all versions and can't be happier with them. They are a bit more money, but the app coverage and support is just first rate. (IMHO).

Personally if networking is not of concern I would pick up one of the used iPad 2's as they are quite a bargin right now. I have the iPad 3 and prefer the 2 except for the fact that the 3 has LTE on board and it's just too darn useful for me.

Scott

After careful consideration, I've gone with a refurbished a 64 gb iPad 2 with wifi only.

Thank you for all the feedback.

Sorry for the slow response.

If there are two tablets, with the same specs, and both handle the "Tablets 101" kind of stuff pretty well (they both have the same browser/email/twitter/weather/stock market/newsreader/media player/social networking/skype/pandora/hopstop/hulu/office document viewing capabilities) and one costs about $250 less, then I would consider the latter to be the "value" tablet.

Your feedback is always welcome. :)

I'll cast another vote for the HP Touchpad. I have the 32gb with Android and WebOs. I'm posting this on it now. I have no idea how I traveled without one. I watch movies, type reports, book flights and send emails from it. Last night I did my taxes on it. I've used Ipads (1 and 2, not 3), and find the touchpad to have better graphics as well as the flash support that Ios lacks.

Nice choice with the iPad 2. I'm the last person you'd call an apple fanboy, but it is pretty nice. I have a 32GB iPad2 with 3G (although I haven't actually turned it on b/c I have a mifi) and I've found it quite useful. I am intrigued by the TouchPad and Playbook, though. Lately, it seems my kids are using the iPad more than me, so I almost feel like I need (ok - WANT) my own device ;)

Seriously dude... :td:

the first Motorola Xoom is the best value, in my opinion.

It gets all the first Android updates because it was Google's pilot into the tablet market. It has as good, if not better, hardware than the Ipad 2. Scrollable widgets give it a major advantage over the Ipad, you can have a calendar, inbox, facebook widget, etc w/o having to open up apps to see the info. You can run multiple e-reader interfaces, not confined to one program. Chrome Beta syncs to your desktop/laptop browser, allowing all bookmarks and even open pages to sync. Another underrated element, is that if you have a motorola smartphone, you can tether to your phone's data plan when you are out of reach of a wifi network...eliminates the need for a tablet with a data plan...nice little touch by Motorola.

Plus, because the Xoom wasn't very popular initially, you can get them, and their accessories cheap. The Xoom failed because of it's initial pricepoint, and nothing to do with its actual performance. It's still a great tablet even a year after release, and worth the discount you can get it at.

I have both the 32gb hp touch pad and the 16gb black berry playbook.

I haven't got around to cracking the touchpad so my impressions are that the display is nice and the flie transfers are easy, but the apps are lacking, the web browser does not work with some websites, and the video playback is limited without 3rd party software.

The playbook does have a smaller screen which is a positive and and a negative. The app store has an ok selection but is still somewhat lacking. On the positive side the web browser is more robust and the playbook will handle more media files natively.

I find that i like to use the touchpad around the house where i have my desktop computer to fall back to when I want. When i am travelling my playbook always comes with me. I find the smaller size less cumbersome and better suited to spots where a comuter is not always handy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...blet_computers

right now I am aiming at a used iPad 2 with 3g GSM so that it has GPS

I still have a new 32gb Touchpad that I have not opened yet as a back-up

But would like to find a cheap, decent 7 inch 3g GSM and GPS off brand but most seem to just be junk .

Hey I still have my Netbook :)

RB

In which way does the Xoom have better hardware than iPad 2?

Motorola also released Xoom 2 in some countries and released some other tablets, but without much fanfare.

Google has indicated they may sell their own branded tablet this year. Samsung and Asus are targeting tablets for the $250 price point soon, going after the Kindle Fire, which itself should get refreshed for the Holiday season.

But for software and peripheral support, nothing compares to the iPad right now. It wouldn't be surprising if there are already more "retina display" optimized iPad apps. than there are Android apps. designed specifically for tablets.

If you've decided that you truly need a tablet, I don't think you can really go wrong with a Playbook for US$200. The reason I say this is for many cases a powerful and light 12-14" notebook like a Thinkpad X220 (20hrs real-life battery endurance with Wi-Fi on and slice battery equipped... who needs to hunt for a power outlet at the airport?) can double as IFE and you don't give up computing power. But the Playbook is 7" so it's truly compact, has good build quality and it has good hardware specs for its price. The only problem is the relative lack of apps, but at least you can run some Android apps on them now.

Better front facing camera, more RAM, wide-screen dimensions, 4G equipped, microSD slot for expanded memory. Google now owns Motorola's tablet department, so Motorola products will be getting raw versions of Android and not bloatware-laced versions. The xoom is a solid value, and Android's OS is a much better experience for user that has a little bit of tech savviness. I like Apple laptops, but the iOS devices are designed for the average user to complete basic tasks with not a lot of options to personalize the user experience.

Also, don't discount the value of being able to bluetooth tether the xoom to a motorola smart phone, that's a huge cost savings if you are on the move a lot.

I remember the Xoom and Gingerbread had a lot of hype going into CES that year. They even ran Superbowl ads for it.

iPad 2 has better SOC so the UI is smooth and the GPU is more capable.

Widescreen dimensions is a subjective choice. People who want to surf and read prefer 4:3 aspect ratio for portrait mode.

They did retrofit LTE support on the Xoom but those first-gen LTE chips were power hungry. The whole thing didn't have the battery life of iPad 2 despite having inferior SOC -- Tegra 2 has gimped A9 cores and the GPU is way inferior to the SGX 543 MP in the iPad 2.

The expandable microSD is nice, you don't have to overpay for more storage. But the whole product is thicker and heavier so that's the tradeoff.

And Motorola tried to price it higher than the iPad initially. That along with very low software availability doomed the Xoom.

As the owner of several new iPads, I can confirm that this is not the case. I have a hard time finding any good apps that make the screen "pop".