Tablet Review ~ High Tech House Calls

Friday, November 11, 2011

Tablet Review

6:48 PM High Tech House Calls, Expert Computer Consulting

Why buy a tablet computer like an iPad?

Here is an exercise I used to evaluate tablets for my business needs. I hope it helps you to think about what features you have to have and what features that would be nice to have. At the end of the blog, I have included some links to articles that compare and contrast the various tablets that are on the market.

What would you do with a tablet?

Read eBooks.
Read Word Documents and PDFs.
Read/create emails.
Listen to music.
Show photos.
Stay connected to Social Media such as Facebook and Twitter.
Surf the web.
Watch NetFlix Movies.
Maintain your address book.
Maintain a calendar.
Maintain a to do list.

What features are you looking for in a tablet?

Can I buy and replace the battery myself?
Fast processor. High amount of built-in ram for operating system to use.
Connect an external keyboard via Blue Tooth or USB port.
Move data back and forth using a USB Drive or a SD Card.
Ability to download applications to extend functionality.
Print to a printer.
Sync data between tablet and laptop.
Connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi.
Large amount of user storage available.
Middle cost in price.

Notes on tablet use.
eBooks:
You will find that eBooks cost about the same as printed books. There are books that I could read over and over again. I would download those books to my tablet so that if I was stuck somewhere and did not want to do some work, I would re-read those pre-loaded books. Storing thousands of books on my tablet for summer beach reading is not a goal of mine.

There are many formats for eBooks. Are you locked into a particular format because that is the preferred format of your tablet? Many eBook readers will work on different platforms. For example, the Kindle reader which is the pre-loaded eReader on Amazon's tablet. It is also available as an application for other non-Amazon tablets, Windows PCs, Apple PCs, iPhones, Android Smartphones, Blackberrys, etc.

Make sure different eBook readers are available for your tablet.

Read Word Documents and PDF's:
Instead of carrying around a USB drive pre-loaded with reference documents, it would be nice to be able to store and display those reference documents on the tablet. More than likely, an application would need to be purchased to add this functionality to the tablet.

Make sure this application exists for your tablet.

Listen to Music:
There is iTunes and everything else for music formats. iTunes is restricted to Apple products. Non Apple tablets usually have a music player that will play .wav, .mp3 or another music file standard. Music from your iTunes library would need to be converted to the format your tablet supports. Music you paid for from iTunes may require an additional payment of .30 per song for you to be able to convert it to a playable format. There are other iTunes-like music sources that may be supported on your tablet. For example, Amazon's extensive media library of music and movies would be available for Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet.

If you have a large iTunes music library, is playing that music on your tablet very important? Then staying with a platform that supports iTunes may make the most sense. At present, only Apple's iPad supports iTunes.

NetFlix:

NetFlix plays on many tablets.

Check the NetFlix website for support for the tablets you are considering.

Browsing the Internet:

Make sure the browser speed is acceptable to you. The screen size needs to be big enough for you to see the web page.

If you cannot try the tablet first hand to test the browsing experience, look at reviews of the tablet for feedback.

Productivity Applications:

Go through your list of applications you must have to consider a particular tablet. If the application is not preloaded, can it be downloaded from an application library that supports your tablet?

Notes on tablet features:

Hardware Issues:

Cheaper tablets will have performance limitations. These limitations may make them useless to use. Reviews should point out performance issues.
Most tablets will not have a USB port.
Most tablets will not have a way of increasing the amount of storage capacity. Make sure you understand how much storage you need. If the tablet you are looking at does not hold that much, I would eliminate it from consideration.
Being able to plug in an SD Card to move files back and forth is very convenient.The SD Card can also back up your tablet.
Most tablets will not have Blue Tooth capability, meaning that an external keyboard will not be an option. If the touch pad on the tablet is hard to use or too small for your fingers, that tablet needs to be eliminated from consideration.
Most tablets will have an application that allows you to print to a printer. Usually that printer will need to be a wireless printer. The printer application for iPad's is very awkward to use and I would expect that all tablets will share this same limitation. Printer manufacturers recognize this niche need and are starting to address it. HP and Canon have some printers with something called AirPrint built in. An AirPrint enabled printer can be printed to easily from an iPad from the tap menu without loading anything on the iPad. There are alternatives to printing directly to a printer from a tablet. You can send the file as an attachment via email to a computer that can print or you can copy the file to an SD Card and read the SD Card on a computer that can print.