[Jim]

been looking for a cheapish tablet, just missed out on a refurbed archos 101 internet tablet for £100.
Have been researching around and nearly everywhere I keep reading that the market is about to be flooded by quality cheap tablets, but there doesn't seem to be much out there still. Obviously I wouldn't be seen dead with an ipad and the asus eee pad transformer prime is the best you can get at the moment but my budget is more like £200.
Any recomendation or thoughts on tablets and should I wait a while longer before getting one.

[pete b]

I got a Kindle Fire for Christmas. It came from the US and won't be available in the UK for another month or 2 I think. It's smaller than most tablets but still a good size and quite thin. It's based on Android so there are plenty of apps to run on it. Apparently it's so cheap that Amazon are making a loss on it, but they hope that owners will buy more from their site. I'd recommend it.

[slackline]

I'd wait myself (Asus Transformer Prime gets great reviews, but too expensive, when that drops I might consider one).

[Bubba]

  I'd wait.

[dave]

Buy some cheap reading glasses and just hold your phone much closer to your face.

[Oldmanmatt]

I love my iSad...
Laptop lives under my desk these days.
Only comes out long enough to email a missing file to the cloud.
Had to buy office again (to start working) after death of hard drive coincided with running out of "seats" on the office 2007.... £248.00!!!
Pages for iSad ,£6.00.. Enough for nearly everything I need.
Numbers, £5.00, runs all my Excels (inc equations).
Keynote, £5.00 runs all my PowerPoint stuff.
AutoCad (lite £1000.00+ for PC), FREE! Enough for viewing and limited editing/creation.
+books
+music
Etc
Etc
Costs the same as a decent laptop.
Not really found anything to moan about yet.
So, why wouldn't you be seen dead with one?
Just asking...

[Jim]

I don't like the hard wear, I don't like the software and I don't like the image

[Somebody's Fool]

You've already got a tablet computer that makes phone calls. Why do you need another one?

[chicane]

I got a HP Touchpad for £89 - now dual boots webOS & ICS it's great. Only really available now via eBay but a great buy if you can get it cheap enough < £150 maybe.

[tomtom]

I don't like the hard wear, I don't like the software and I don't like the image

I wish my iPad had worse hardware, worse software and a bad image... then I might be able to prise it back out of MrsTT's clutches

[OffshoreAndy]

I picked up a 32gb Playbook for £190, 16gb is about £150, Am well impressed with it and it's definitely worth considering. There's a big software update this month and the fact there are so many on the market now might get the missing apps ported to it -which as far as I can see is the only thing letting it down. Duel core, supports flash, drag and drop files, decent portable size.

[Jim]

I don't like the hard wear, I don't like the software and I don't like the image

I wish my iPad had worse hardware, worse software and a bad image... then I might be able to prise it back out of MrsTT's clutches

also forgot to mention I dont like the price either.
all of which is just my opinion of course, but it is me thats after buying one 

[slackline]

Pages for iSad ,£6.00.. Enough for nearly everything I need.
Numbers, £5.00, runs all my Excels (inc equations).
Keynote, £5.00 runs all my PowerPoint stuff.

LibreOffice £0.00 although I doubt its available for iOS or Android, but under the later....

Google Docs £0.00

(although theres others in the market place, although just discovered that Polaris Office which comes on Samsung & Asus devices isn't in the market place)

[slackline]

I picked up a 32gb Playbook for £190, 16gb is about £150, Am well impressed with it and it's definitely worth considering. There's a big software update this month and the fact there are so many on the market now might get the missing apps ported to it -which as far as I can see is the only thing letting it down. Duel core, supports flash, drag and drop files, decent portable size.

The nice thing about the Asus Transformer Prime is that its Quad Core, although actually it has a fifth core that is dedicated for running the OS, leaving the other four main cores to do all the crunching when running apps/games and such like.  Personally I also like the fact they've though about a keyboard, doing lots of typing on a touch-screen just doesn't appeal, I like the tactile feedback.

Glowing  review (note performance benchmarking score on page 3!!!)

The "big software update" is likely to be to Android 4.0

[Oldmanmatt]

Yeah, tried open office a couple years back...
On a PC.
Got fed up and went out and bought MS Office.

Strangely, had a Mac supplied with my last job. Very expensive, latest doodad, track pad etc, etc.
Tried it for 3 months (first time on a Mac), then put it under the desk and took out my old Vista laptop...

The iSad, on the other hand is a joy.
Pretty much does everything I wished a computer to do.
"let me look that up for you, Madam".
"Hold still while I sketch you, dear."
"Send me the PDF and I'll sketch my thoughts all over it, in different coloured pens and mail it back, while I sit on the karsi on the 14:32 to London."
And then Skype me Baby!
Or, more importantly (for me), "You remember that do-hicky, that looked odd and sounded funny and should be going spinny spinny and keeps going whizzy whizzy? Well, look and listen and by the way, ain't handheld Skype just swell!"

O'course, the missus is ready to shove it where the sun don't shine and it is now banned after 19:00 (I had to sneak off to write this).
Although...

I notice it was alright for her and her Mum to spend an hour and half reviewing Asparagus recipes and chatting to people on Farcebook this evening....

[slackline]

Personally I can't stand word-processors (very clunky to integrate with output from statistical software) and much prefer mark-up such as LaTeX, but then I'm a  and still have to work with people who do use word processors.

[Oldmanmatt]

Oh, yeah. You posted while I was typing Slackers.
The little Bluetooth keyboard, with the "origami" case, turns it into a pretty good laptop (great to turn the screen when doing Docs).
I don't play games much, so not speed conscious, I suppose.
I don't work for Apple by the way.
Yeah, last thing. It automatically mirrors everything on my iMoan (4s), so if it's just to big to carry, I have a mini-me in my pocket.

I might even send the damn thing a valentine....

[slackline]

But does it have a USB port? (iPads didn't which was fucking shocking, no idea if v2 rectified this, suspect not you've got a v2 if you've a keyboard with it).

[Oldmanmatt]

No.
But I know a cable that can..
There are card readers and camera connectors too now.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

But does it have a USB port? (iPads didn't which was fucking shocking, no idea if v2 rectified this, suspect not you've got a v2 if you've a keyboard with it).

Don't think so, you've got to buy an adaptor to stick a SD card anywhere near one. Mmm shiny shiny. 
My 60+ year old geeky neighbour got a Archos 80 G9 for about £150 from Currys or somewhere. Could have been in a sale before Xmas.

Comet have the larger one for £175 currently
http://www.comet.co.uk/p/Tablets/buy-ARCHOS-ARCHOS-101-8GB-Tablet/711292

Mixed reviews but I've had a play with it and seems ok. Did a major update on it which fixed a few glitches. Standard Android faire,

[EDIT] Hmm, that Comet one could be an older model, they list it as Droid 2.2, think G9 models are the current ones, check the model and spec carefully.

[Oldmanmatt]

Personally I can't stand word-processors (very clunky to integrate with output from statistical software) and much prefer mark-up such as LaTeX, but then I'm a  and still have to work with people who do use word processors.

I don't use the stats stuff. But most of our modelling stuff is done on Matlab and the finite element analysis is done on a variety of stuff (depending on who generates it). Equally hard(maybe) to integrate with processors. With the iSad, I found Notability, which lets me type over, draw over, highlight etc, just about any doc/pic/PDF and then let's me choose a format to export it. Actually, all the apps seem to offer this multi choice on export format, no separate PDF writer required (or reader, come to that).
Nah, for me the whole app/tablet thing is the way ahead, as a user interface it beats a PC hands down.
I now get really wound up, waiting for the damn laptop to start up and when the battery is dead after an hour and the size of the power supply.....

[Paul B]

thats been the case in open office for ages (before the PDF995 was my goto)? You can also get CAD viewers for free under Win too.

I can see justification for buying an iPad, just not in your arguments, everything you mention can be done on other OS's for cheaper or at worst the same price (so cheaper if you include the hardware). Currently, they don't have much tangible competition in my eyes and thats a good enough reason to buy.

Personally, I'd wait Jim, a lot of the cheaper tablets are running Android designed for phones, that can't be a good thing.

[Jim]

Comet have the larger one for £175 currently
http://www.comet.co.uk/p/Tablets/buy-ARCHOS-ARCHOS-101-8GB-Tablet/711292

think thats just the internet tablet which is available at ebuyer for £150, not the g9

[Oldmanmatt]

thats been the case in open office for ages (before the PDF995 was my goto)? You can also get CAD viewers for free under Win too.

I can see justification for buying an iPad, just not in your arguments, everything you mention can be done on other OS's for cheaper or at worst the same price (so cheaper if you include the hardware). Currently, they don't have much tangible competition in my eyes and thats a good enough reason to buy.

Personally, I'd wait Jim, a lot of the cheaper tablets are running Android designed for phones, that can't be a good thing.

I know we're straying off topic here and it's no help for Jim...
But,
I'm no dummie (no Einstein either), I use a "computer" of some description every day.
I spent a fair amount of time working on logic and control systems (designing and repairing).
But, half the time, when I read some of the related threads on here; I don't have the first clue what people are talking about...
The reason I've come to enjoy using this iStuff is.
Unless I'm making a very serious indepth survey, I don't need to carry a shite load of equipment anymore. The phone was great enough, with apps for Decibel meters, unit conversion, engineering formulas etc. It was like getting a library in my pocket and half my tool box. Most of the apps were free or very cheap (I mean in the 2cups of coffee in Costas range). It's easy to find apps.
Mainly, it's easier to use and you don't have to be a geek or spend hours doing research to use it. I don't know about Android because I've never tried it, I suppose it should be very similar?
Having just gone through the pain of resurrecting my windows laptop from scratch, at the same time as starting to use this thing, it is clearly an entirely different experience and far easier.
Hence my comment about tablets and apps being the way ahead for most users. It wasn't meant to be iStuff specific.

[slackline]

Mainly, it's easier to use and you don't have to be a geek or spend hours doing research to use it. I don't know about Android because I've never tried it, I suppose it should be very similar?

It is very, very similar, although hardware (unless opting for bleeding edge) is cheaper and the impression I have is that there are more free/cheaper apps (and you're not limited to those that Apple deem to be acceptable to be included in the market place).