Could you help me compare tablets?

I think that’s what I need. I read they can keep power up to eight hours whereas a laptop lasts for two or three.
I do need a keyboard for it, and I think (?) they have those.
Another reason I was thinking tablet over laptop is because they’re also e-readers. ?

I know nothing about electronics. Talk to me like I’m still in the womb.

:stuck_out_tongue:

In your consideration, I suggest you include the Surface Pro, because it’s kind of a laptop in tablet form. It runs on Windows 8 and has a USB port, (and for about $100 more it has a pretty good keyboard that integrates well.) You won’t be limited to tablet e-readers, because you can install the same software you install on any other PC. However, I don’t think it will run eight hours on one charge, if that’s what you’re mainly looking for.

I would like the longer running time and the option of carrying it around like a Kindle (I think.)

What kinds might be found for a cheaper price because they’re now “old hat” or used?

(I want to use the word processor and also print. Is stuff saved on a stick (?) and stuck in another source?)

  1. Buy name brand only. You can get really cheap off-brand tablets that run crappy and last an astonishingly short period of time before failing. Reviews at Amazon and Newegg type places are a big help.

  2. The Surface tablets are a terrible idea if you want to conserve money. If you don’t give a fig about where your money goes, you can throw $ at things like that. A lot of companies make Windows tablets for less.

  3. The opposite of Surface tablets are subsidized tablets. Barnes and Noble used to be recommendable (I have a 2 year old HD+ plus a low end e-reader). But nowadays Amazon’s Kindles are the only realistic market. You can get a decent tablet for cost or less. You don’t have to buy anything from Amazon. They are also more-or-less Android tablets (Amazon’s own version, rooting is difficult to impossible).

  4. The #1 rule of buying computer hardware is always: figure out what software you want to run and get a device that runs that. What OS? What apps?

Note that the software you want to run should also steer you towards screen size. You can read on a 7" tablet just fine. Do you want to watch video at a decent screen size? Edit text? Bigger is better. But too big and it’s an inconvenience to haul around.

  1. Keyboards. If it’s a popular line of tablets, there are keyboard/cover combos for it. Bluetooth connectivity. But what I miss most is a mouse. Just so much easier to do so many things using a mouse instead of a touch screen.

I have used an iPad since the day they came out (5 years ago now). They are very good, but are at the premium price point. On the other hand, they are extremely solid, and Apple typically provides OS upgrade compatibility for at least 3 years–that is not so typical for Android tablets, and the Microsoft Surface line is too new to know for sure how long they will be useful.

I used my original iPad for 3.5 years before I upgraded to the iPad Air, not because the original wasn’t working, but because it wouldn’t support the latest OS, which I wanted. I got about $100 for it from Gazelle. That tells you how well they hold their value. Gazelle also has a resale store, so you can get used, late-model iPads (and some Android devices) at a substantial discount from new.

iPads have a stated battery life around 10 hours (5 hours if you are constantly streaming video), and that has been my typical experience with them under heavy use. Since I don’t do that too often, I usually go days between charges for mine (and I am visually impaired and turn the screen brightness fairly high, which increases battery drain). Bluetooth keyboards work great, and many third-party companies make keyboard cases that put the iPad into a laptop-like configuration. (Note that many modern laptops also have 10 hour battery life–MacBook Airs and the equivalent Windows laptops using the latest Intel mobile chips and solid-state drives all have much longer battery life than even 3 or 4 years ago. They are just a lot more expensive than tablets.)

I don’t personally use MS Office, but I have heard that the iOS (the operating system of the iPad) versions are very good. Apple has its own office suite which is free, but perhaps not as full featured as MS Office, but will let you work with Office files (though not necessarily with 100% compatibility). Apps exist for all the major e-readers, and you can easily add pdfs and e-pub formatted books from 3rd parties to the iBooks app.

Apple recently announced the newest version of iOS (available in the Fall), which will make the iPad more of a productivity tool. Only the iPad Air 2 will support every new feature, but every iPad produced in the last 3 years or so will get the upgrade and at least some of the new stuff.

My mother had a Kindle Fire that only lasted a couple of years before crapping out. She got a new iPad Air (the 2014 version of the 10" form factor, so 1 year out-of-date) for about $100 below original list price. She loves it, and it only weighs about 1 pound, even at that form factor. For reading in bed, though, she prefers the even smaller and lighter Kindle Paperwhite.

The large size iPads start at about $500, the iPad minis start in the mid-$300 range.

I’ve used top end Android (Nexus, Samsung, Asus etc) and iPad tablets. I got rid of the iPad not because it was faulty but I just was used to the Android OS. The iPad will actually give you around 8+ hours of useful working uptime. ALL the Android tablets will be wheezing after 3-5 hours of real world use and need to go back to the charger.

If I were in your situation, I’d seriously consider the Microsoft Surface or Surface Pro. I was just playing with one at Best Buy today, and they are really sweet. Yes, they cost more than a plain vanilla tablet, but if you need actual productivity, they are much better. I think they start around $500.

All the answers are great but this one sounds more like me (going to check Gazette?) I’m poor as a church mouse and visually impaired too so not sure the mini would work.
ALL the acronysims are Greek to me. Fetuses don’t speak Geek. :smiley:

Gazelle, I’m sorry.
So if I wait until Fall I may be able to get the regular iPad even cheaper?

Here’s what I need it for: e-reader, do my own writing, and print.

Thanks all for suggestions. Going to go drool over Gazelle now.

I hope these questions makes sense:

iPad 2 is oldest/cheapest?

What’s the text size difference between a 7" and a 9.7"?

Should I choose 32GB or 64GB? 16GB just sounds…really less.

What’s the difference between 3G or 4G (and what does that even mean?)

WiFi-only or service provider wiser to have? AT&T U verse…would that have anything to do with this?

Saw no keyboards.

Get an e-reader and a tablet. E-readers (the kindle paperwhite is excellent and fairly inexepnsive) are much better at their specific job. They’re smaller and easy to carry, their battery life is measured in dozens of hours, the screen is not fatiguing for your eyes, and they generally have good reading functionality like easy ways to adjust fonts, text size, create bookmarks, etc. The paperwhite is nice because the built in front lighting is really handy, you don’t have to worry about using a lamp in your bedroom or anything, but if you’re looking to save money older kindles can be had cheap secondhand.

In comparison, tablets are bigger and heavier, battery drains much faster, the backlit screen creates eye fatigue and makes it hard to read outdoors. They’ll do in a pinch, and obviously tablets have way more uses, but for reading specifically an e-reader is much better. It’s good to have both.

Do not get an iPad 2. At the absolute minimum, you want the iPad 4 (or 4th generation). The iPad Air is even better, mostly because it is substantially lighter than than the 4 (my wife has one–it’s great, but feels like a brick compared to the Air). I believe that 3G and 4G on Gazelle refer to the 3rd and 4th generation devices, after which Apple tweaked the naming scheme to iPad Air (and now iPad Air 2) for the big ones. If you will be mainly using it at home or in a cafe or other place with a WiFi network, the WiFi-only models are probably sufficient. The ones with cell service are more expensive, but allow you to buy data services on a month-to-month basis (no cellular contracts). That’s good if you travel a lot and don’t have access to WiFi while traveling (for example if you want to use the iPad as a GPS system in the car). There are other ways of converting cellular data services to WiFi (with a smartphone in tethering mode, or with a MiFi device from one of the carriers). I’m too blind to drive, and my iPad is home most of the time, so I didn’t bother with cellular models.

What is the nature of your visual impairment? Apple products are built with extremely high-quality accessibility features out of the box. VoiceOver, which pretty much speaks everything you touch on screen (it works on Macs, too) was recently honored by the American Foundation for the Blind. In addition to VoiceOver, you can invert the colors on the screen (some low vision folks, like me, find it easier to read light-on-dark text), change system font sizes, and zoom all or part of the screen.

Because you can adjust text size in most e-reader apps, you could probably do ok with the mini (7"), but only the so-called “Retina” versions, which have much higher quality screens than the original mini (which was discontinued earlier this month). The mini is less expensive than the full-sized one, and is also significantly lighter and easier to hold for long periods.

Do you have an Apple store anywhere nearby? I’d suggest going in and putting your hands on one to see what you think. The staff people are usually pretty helpful, and they can demonstrate accessibility features to you to help you gauge whether the big or small one will do. You can always then buy from Gazelle or get one of the discontinued models new at a discount (like my mother did).

ETA: Gazelle is not a place for accessories like keyboards. You want to buy a Bluetooth keyboard new–they vary in price from a few 10s of dollars to a hundred or so for ones that are cases.

This is all true. However, depending on the nature of the OP’s visual impairment, the e-reader may not work well. I can’t read dark text on a light background without great difficulty. This is true for me on reflective and emissive screens, so I can only use tablets with dark-on-light text settings. For people with normal vision, your scheme is almost certainly the optimal one, though.

Omitted one thing and made an error in my previous response to the OP:

3G and 4G refer to the speed of the cellular data networks supported by the iPad models. 3G is an older and slower standard. 4G isn’t really a standard, per se, but a marketing term for speeds that were higher than 3G, but generally not as fast as LTE. In any case, the more recent the cellular model, the faster the data speeds it will support.

On the storage capacity question: This depends entirely on your usage. If you store a lot of photos, music, and/or video locally on the device, get the biggest you can afford. If you’re mostly going to use streaming or cloud services for photos, music and video, and typically only store text documents (including ebooks) locally, you can probably manage with the 16GB models. Except for games, most apps are fairly small, you can keep local data needs more modest.

On last thing: Apple sells refurbished iPads directly online at a pretty good price, and you get a 1-year warranty direct from them, which is a bonus.

You can get a Bluetooth keyboard to use with your tablet. I use a Logitech one that can snap onto my iPad, like a case. I think you should be able to add a blue tooth mouse if you’d like one as well.

I have used iPads for years. I use it 50-50 for reading and light computing.

Get as much memory as you can afford. You can’t upgrade the unit by adding memory later.

I do all my reading on my phone. But you can’t do it outside in a bright environment. My Wife has a Kindle that she loves, and I may buy one for vacations. It reads just as well in direct sunlight, as in pitch black. The Kindle is a wonderful device.

I think that the idea of a NetBook should be mentioned here. Basically this was the precursor to the tablet. The NetBook is a small laptop. It has an attached fully functional keyboard that you can actually type on. Great for traveling and just around the house.

I found it amusing when my friends and coworkers ignored the NetBook, but jumped on the iPad. And then immediately bought keyboards for them. Basically creating a NetBook.

I have a Toshiba NetBook and like it a great deal.

There are essentially three* choices of operating system for tablets; iOS, Android and Windows - I would suggest your first decision should be to decide which of those three you like using the best - they are all a bit different from one another.

Once you have made that decision, choose the size you want - does it need to fit in a coat pocket? (you want a 7 or 8 inch device) or a briefcase (maybe a 10 or 11 inch tablet).

After that, it makes sense to start comparing actual devices against each other for cost, battery life, etc.

*(I excluded Amazon FireOS because it’s an Android variant, and Blackberry OS because it’s dead in the water)

Also, any computer is an e-reader. All you have to do is go to Amazon.com and download their free Kindle reader. Works on phones, tablets, netbooks and desktops. It synchronizes well between devices too. I’ve not had problems sharing between them.

No kidding, my mind is reeling with all you all know, and I’m grateful. So…

  1. I am poor.

  2. I have right-field defect in both eyes from a stroke. Everything to the right of center just “isn’t there”. So I have to remember to look over there. But I can read black on white. Larger is better but not a necessity.

  3. I will mostly be in bed with my feet propped up so little travel or reading outside.

  4. I will be writing The Great American Novel and playing games. How would I print my day’s work? (I’ve got about half a book on a floppy disc that is now good for a bookmark. Hard copy in my hot little hands now, always.) That has something to do with some kind of stick, right?

  5. Word processing and reading, playing games, so…iOS, Android, or Windows?

So far here’s what it sounds to me like I need:

iPad4 or Air
WiFi only
either 3G or 4G…no biggie?
at least 32GB
new (?) Bluetooth keyboard. Logtech snaps on.
Bluetooth mouse.

Stupid question—can it be used for regular internet?