Looking for tablet for my wife

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iroc409

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jun 17, 2006
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We've been kind of looking at tablets for my wife. She uses her phone probably 90% of the time for browsing the internet, email, Facebook, etc. She only really uses her PC anymore when she needs to do something she can't on the phone.

We recently upgraded our phones to Note 4's, which are great, but still kind of small-screened for her. We want something decent enough, that isn't a terrible disappointment going from the Notes, but also don't want to spend very much.

We've been looking a little at some of the Samsung offerings (8 & 10.5, probably older models at $180/250), the iPad mini 2, and I've looked briefly at the Nexus 7. She also found earlier that you can get an Amazon Fire HD 7 for just over $100. I haven't really looked at those, as we had issues with an older Nook Color, but as I understand these are built as tablets first. I've also seen some Dell and Asus offerings that are pretty decent.

So, what is the best bang for the buck? I'd like to be as cheap as I can, but still get a good unit. I'd consider up to $300, but I think that's going to be the limit. I would consider iPad or Android, although I don't know if she'd do Windows I'd at least consider it. My dad picked up a Lenovo tablet a while back under $200 and thought it was interesting.
 
I use the Kindle Fire 7 HD, a good unit for what it does. Browser is silk. ebay has a cover with pen for $6
I also use the Dell Venue 8 Pro, better size for computer aps. This is windows 8 version, there is also an android version. I bought mine refurbished $160 (without word). Like it for what it does. Cheap cover with blue tooth keyboard, cover, and pen $40-70
 
So the Kindle should be good to go. I'll see what I can find for refurbished Dells. I see they are having a sale on the Venue 8 now as well.

The Nextbook looks interesting, and the price is nice. I kind of like the idea of having an Intel processor. I'll see if they have one locally we can look at. I'm quite open to a Windows tablet, but I talked to my wife about it. She probably needs to see it.
 
iroc409 said:
The Nextbook looks interesting, and the price is nice. I kind of like the idea of having an Intel processor. I'll see if they have one locally we can look at. I'm quite open to a Windows tablet, but I talked to my wife about it. She probably needs to see it.
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My local Walmart has a display model, unfortunately it's locked down so that you can't actually play with the keyboard docking part, but the tablet section is usable but not connected to the internet. You could tether it to a phone and get an idea of how the web browsing works and such.
 
i use a Dell Venue 8 Pro. Just bought the wife a mother in law HP Stream 7 for $75 each at the Microsoft Store. Buy a cheap case from Amazon and a Micro SD card and you are set.
 
heatlesssun said:
You might want to take a look at this: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Nextbook-10.1-Tablet-32GB-Windows-8.1-Case-Keyboard/39092206. For $180 I'm completely impressed, my sister saw it and wanted one for Christmas. She already has a 7" Galaxy Tab but likes the bigger screen and the keyboard for doing stuff in Office as she uses that for her job.
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1gb ram, not enough, I bought winbook 7inch from microcenter it also had 1gb ram, today I got it exchanged for 8 inch with 2gb ram, much much better.
 
The iPad mini 2 strikes a nice balance if you're going for a mobile OS -- it's still fast, and iPads have a superior selection of tablet-native apps. See if Best Buy or similar is still selling the Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4, though, since you might get a nice deal. Not the Tab S, since the iPad mini 2 is both faster and cheaper.
 
nekrosoft13 said:
1gb ram, not enough, I bought winbook 7inch from microcenter it also had 1gb ram, today I got it exchanged for 8 inch with 2gb ram, much much better.
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I have both 1 and 2 GB Windows Bay Trail devices. The consensus on the 1 GB devices appears to be that it is enough for basic desktop and tablet use. Sure 2 GB is better but I've not had a problem with 1 GB devices surfing the web, using Office that sort of thing but lots of running tasks will slow it down.

At $180 I'd have no problem buying the Nextbook 10.1 again, my sister saw mine over Thanksgiving and played with it and that's what she wants me to get her for Christmas.
 
I picked up a 8 inch 2GB and 32gb for $110, and 10 inch with same specs can be had for $150, so 10 inch with 1gb memory for $180 its a ripoff in my opinion.
 
The Nextbook 10.1 is a hybrid with a pretty great keyboard dock. $180 for a hybrid with this good of a keyboard dock is great deal IMHO.
 
Since she's used to Note 4 and already has an investment in Android apps I'd say look at the Tab Pro 8.4 ($199 at Best Buy for 16GB) or Tab S 8.4 for the better display. Android is a more polished experience for consumption than Windows and avoid 1GB DRAM like all iPads except for Air 2 which is overpriced for what little you get. Speaking from experience using all three ecosystems.
 
Don't believe the 1GB myth -- it's about how well an OS makes use of the RAM, not necessarily how much there is. Most iPads are fine with 1GB, especially for the tasks your wife is handling; Android needs more RAM as a rule. Speaking from experience using all three ecosystems on modern hardware.

Seriously: the Tab Pro 8.4 may provide a relatively familiar environment, but consistency for its own sake isn't enough. Android is different on a tablet than it is on a phone.
 
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mi7chy said:
Considering the OP mentioned it'll be used for browsing about 90% of the time so it makes 1GB DRAM devices useless.
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This is an issue with Safari on the iPad and how browser handles caching. IE 11 modern is very good about this sort of thing as it doesn't just refresh pages, it seems to persist local copies even across machine restarts. For instance if you shut down a Windows 8.1 device while IE 11 modern is running and then start up IE 11 modern, text in textboxes will still be there. Even on a 1 GB Windows 8.1 machine.

Old habits die hard and I guess Windows has for so long been known for being "bloated" and needing tons of memory to run well and that's just simply not true anymore. I'm not going to be playing any desktop PC games or lots of multitasking but 10 browser tabs running, a copy of OneNote, Word and Excel, that works well on the Nextbook 10.1. Some lag here and there sometimes when switching apps but nothing that people wouldn't see on a XP machine with a physical hard drive.

It's just the price of these things. $180 for something that can run full desktop Office and tons of desktop apps with a good keyboard and fair track pad for a Windows machine and then undock instantly to be a tablet with 10.1 1280x800 IPS screen. And a year of Office 365. It's just a great value in a nice machine that can do a lot even with its resource constraints.
 
Mi7chy, please -- just drop it. You know that these devices are not "useless" and that you're only trying to scare the OP away from Apple gear at all costs, logic and reality be damned. If his wife is really such an intensive web user that page caching in Safari is a problem, she can use something like Chrome.
 
Aurelius said:
Mi7chy, please -- just drop it. You know that these devices are not "useless" and that you're only trying to scare the OP away from Apple gear at all costs, logic and reality be damned. If his wife is really such an intensive web user that page caching in Safari is a problem, she can use something like Chrome.
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In fairness I think he might have also been referring to 1 GB Windows devices.
 
heatlesssun said:
In fairness I think he might have also been referring to 1 GB Windows devices.
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Nah, he links exclusively to iPad clips, and this is a recurring obsession. The "issue" here is that Apple exists. It'd be great if we could have a tablet suggestion thread which accepts that Android, Windows and iOS are all valid choices depending on a person's preferences.
 
Heatlesssun is correct. I'm referring to 1GB DRAM in general so something like the first gen 2012 Nexus 7 would belong in the obsolete bin along with currently selling iPad Air, Mini 3, Mini 2 and even worse 512MB Mini.

The links were in response to the obsession with hiding the truth and saying it's a myth. Raising awareness helps people from falling for the PC replacement hype and wasting their money. If you read the comments in the YouTube videos a lot of people were disappointed and ended up having to shell out more money for an alternative device that can handle basic and common two tab browsing without reloading and losing work, place in page, comment, etc. iOS Chrome wouldn't help since it uses the same Javascript engine as Safari.
 
Aurelius said:
Nah, he links exclusively to iPad clips, and this is a recurring obsession. The "issue" here is that Apple exists. It'd be great if we could have a tablet suggestion thread which accepts that Android, Windows and iOS are all valid choices depending on a person's preferences.
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Good luck with that lol.

I'm siding with heatless on this one. I played with the 10" Walmart Nextbook and it was impressive. The screen and keyboard were very nice and the trackpad wasn't bad at all. My wife ended up liking the 7" HP stream because of the size and lower cost. I talked her into the 8" though. In playing with it last night it's a damn impressive device. I'm curious how an extra gig of ram will do but so far the 1 gig isn't hindering performance one bit.

The HP Encore 2 is an 8" device with a 64 GB SSD on board and a slightly quicker processor with 2GB of ram. It's on sale at MS for $199. It lacks 4G connectivity though. Part of me wants to try it but the other part is so happy with the HP I wouldn't want to mess with a good thing.
 
Blown 89 said:
Good luck with that lol.

I'm siding with heatless on this one. I played with the 10" Walmart Nextbook and it was impressive. The screen and keyboard were very nice and the trackpad wasn't bad at all. My wife ended up liking the 7" HP stream because of the size and lower cost. I talked her into the 8" though. In playing with it last night it's a damn impressive device. I'm curious how an extra gig of ram will do but so far the 1 gig isn't hindering performance one bit.

The HP Encore 2 is an 8" device with a 64 GB SSD on board and a slightly quicker processor with 2GB of ram. It's on sale at MS for $199. It lacks 4G connectivity though. Part of me wants to try it but the other part is so happy with the HP I wouldn't want to mess with a good thing.
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The difference between 1 and 2 GB will be a lot less memory swapping. I don't think in typical use scenarios for these kinds of devices it would make a big difference for most unless they wanted to do more heavy multitasking and run larger desktop apps than say Office.

I have the HP Stream 7 as well but I've been using the Nextbook 10.1 a lot more since I got it. A lot heavier but I like the bigger screen and just find it easier on the eyes. For $180 it's just hard not to be happy with it as it's done what I expected and I love the docking mechanism which is pretty amazing for such a cheap hybrid.
 
heatlesssun said:
In fairness I think he might have also been referring to 1 GB Windows devices.
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mi7chy said:
Heatlesssun is correct. I'm referring to 1GB DRAM in general so something like the first gen 2012 Nexus 7 would belong in the obsolete bin along with currently selling iPad Air, Mini 3, Mini 2 and even worse 512MB Mini.

The links were in response to the obsession with hiding the truth and saying it's a myth. Raising awareness helps people from falling for the PC replacement hype and wasting their money. If you read the comments in the YouTube videos a lot of people were disappointed and ended up having to shell out more money for an alternative device that can handle basic and common two tab browsing without reloading and losing work, place in page, comment, etc. iOS Chrome wouldn't help since it uses the same Javascript engine as Safari.
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Good -- with that said, I think you're still overstating your case. You make it sound like no one can ever browse on an iPad, or that you have to make gigantic compromises to do so versus an Android device. I'm pretty sure the OP's wife wouldn't sit there bemoaning her choice of machine; unless she regularly keeps several tabs open, she's probably fine. I tend to keep 2-3 tabs open, and I haven't had a spontaneous page reload in a long while.
 
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I would get Samsung Tab 4 due to you already have another Samsung. So it would make use of all your android program and other samsung features. Eventhough FireHD is great tablet but it is bulky compare to Samsung Devices.
 
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