Recommend me a tab 10 alternative
Discussion
I rely on my Lenovo tab 10 FHD plus for when I don't want a computer with me.
Web browsing 99% of the time and perfectly adequate.
Holiday - I need to reply to my business emails and sometimes update my mail order website where the lack of mouse is a compromise. I have. Lot of holidays. Full stop after "I have " is a classic problem with all tabs I've used. They mis register the space bar. Either assuming a . Or and n
Drives me nuts h long emails? I'm using it to post this. Within it correcting the errors. (Without, lol).
Always the bloody space bar.
What I love about it is
Battery life
Always on
Weight and size, though I could go more on weight but not MUCH more on size. It fits in my man bag.
What I don't like is the keyboard (virtual), nor the Bluetooth keyboard which misses the odd keystroke, so adds little. I rarely use it.
Lack o fmouse. Drop down boxes on my web site back end are a massive pain.
Are there Chrome tabs with keyboards that might fit the bill?
Or perhaps a surface? Go the whole windows hog. It's what my desktop is after all.
I just don't want to lose the battery life, protability, or, overall touch screen experience / on lap browsing experience.
Web browsing 99% of the time and perfectly adequate.
Holiday - I need to reply to my business emails and sometimes update my mail order website where the lack of mouse is a compromise. I have. Lot of holidays. Full stop after "I have " is a classic problem with all tabs I've used. They mis register the space bar. Either assuming a . Or and n
Drives me nuts h long emails? I'm using it to post this. Within it correcting the errors. (Without, lol).
Always the bloody space bar.
What I love about it is
Battery life
Always on
Weight and size, though I could go more on weight but not MUCH more on size. It fits in my man bag.
What I don't like is the keyboard (virtual), nor the Bluetooth keyboard which misses the odd keystroke, so adds little. I rarely use it.
Lack o fmouse. Drop down boxes on my web site back end are a massive pain.
Are there Chrome tabs with keyboards that might fit the bill?
Or perhaps a surface? Go the whole windows hog. It's what my desktop is after all.
I just don't want to lose the battery life, protability, or, overall touch screen experience / on lap browsing experience.
Are you after more of a laptop that turns into a tablet but runs full fat windows etc. or a tablet that runs android etc.?
I have a Surface Pro 7, which I really like, it's a full laptop essentially but when you take the keyboard off it becomes a tablet. However I don't think they've particularly nailed it as a tablet so 95% of the time I use it as a laptop, or just a screen. The battery life isn't amazing though and it's quite expensive, especially when you factor in the Keyboard etc.
I also have a Samsung Galaxy Tab ('Plus' I think? The middle one whatever that's called). This is also great and, I think, a really good compromise due to the Samsung Dex mode which effectively turns it into a proper laptop when required. Along with the keyboard which physically attaches rather than by bluetooth, this could probably do the vast majority of stuff you would use a laptop for, if you didn't need Windows. If you are already into Android with your phone, and especially Samsung, this works seamlessly with it. If you're Apple then I guess iPad would be better.
I would happily recommend either of these machines though.
Edit to add: You can use a mouse with either of these, and the keyboard cover in both cases has a mouse pad built in.
I have a Surface Pro 7, which I really like, it's a full laptop essentially but when you take the keyboard off it becomes a tablet. However I don't think they've particularly nailed it as a tablet so 95% of the time I use it as a laptop, or just a screen. The battery life isn't amazing though and it's quite expensive, especially when you factor in the Keyboard etc.
I also have a Samsung Galaxy Tab ('Plus' I think? The middle one whatever that's called). This is also great and, I think, a really good compromise due to the Samsung Dex mode which effectively turns it into a proper laptop when required. Along with the keyboard which physically attaches rather than by bluetooth, this could probably do the vast majority of stuff you would use a laptop for, if you didn't need Windows. If you are already into Android with your phone, and especially Samsung, this works seamlessly with it. If you're Apple then I guess iPad would be better.
I would happily recommend either of these machines though.
Edit to add: You can use a mouse with either of these, and the keyboard cover in both cases has a mouse pad built in.
The Samsung keyboard is fine to use, it's pretty well full size and the keys feel good. I've never really given it a second thought to be honest, which is probably a good thing as I guess you only think about that sort of thing if it is annoying you. Only thing I think would benefit would be a backlit keyboard, like the Surface does, though I expect this would be quite detrimental to the battery.
Don't get me wrong, the Surface battery is not 'bad' it's just that since it's powering what is effectively a full laptop spec (mine is the Intel i7 one) with a tablet form, it's never going to compete with a tablet.
Don't get me wrong, the Surface battery is not 'bad' it's just that since it's powering what is effectively a full laptop spec (mine is the Intel i7 one) with a tablet form, it's never going to compete with a tablet.
Just dropped into Currys and had a play with a few. My feelings so far.
Tab 7FE - lovely. Loved the keyboard and cover. Also still Android so no changes to get used to. Fell apart when I found the keyboard cover was another £140, takign it from £519 up to £659. Waaay too much for an android tab,
Lenovo Chromebook Duet+ - really rather liked this. The most "tablety" of them all with the keyboard detached, reversed. Then I read the review and LOT of uses break the screen on small drops. Glass runs to the edge of the whole unit.... and I drop my tab here and there. So that's that ruled out :-( £549 - at least it comes with the keyboard case it's demoed with.
Acer Chromebook Spin 513 - nice bit of kit, will seemingly do all I want. I'm left in a bit of a conundrum. I can get the Snapdragon 4GB 64GB version with the SC7180 processor and 1080p from Argos for £299. However, they do a QHD version MediaTek 1380, 8GB, 128GB eMMC, 13.5 inch QHD - I cna get online for £482. Seems to get great reviews online.
is the Mediatek (Arm) chip THAT much better? and would I notice the QHD display on a 13" screen? (I appreciate it's got twice the ram too)
Tab 7FE - lovely. Loved the keyboard and cover. Also still Android so no changes to get used to. Fell apart when I found the keyboard cover was another £140, takign it from £519 up to £659. Waaay too much for an android tab,
Lenovo Chromebook Duet+ - really rather liked this. The most "tablety" of them all with the keyboard detached, reversed. Then I read the review and LOT of uses break the screen on small drops. Glass runs to the edge of the whole unit.... and I drop my tab here and there. So that's that ruled out :-( £549 - at least it comes with the keyboard case it's demoed with.
Acer Chromebook Spin 513 - nice bit of kit, will seemingly do all I want. I'm left in a bit of a conundrum. I can get the Snapdragon 4GB 64GB version with the SC7180 processor and 1080p from Argos for £299. However, they do a QHD version MediaTek 1380, 8GB, 128GB eMMC, 13.5 inch QHD - I cna get online for £482. Seems to get great reviews online.
is the Mediatek (Arm) chip THAT much better? and would I notice the QHD display on a 13" screen? (I appreciate it's got twice the ram too)
I pondered over the Acer, got obsessed with spec, then checked more reviews for the Lenovo Duet 5, and no one mentions it's fragility like Amazon reviews do, so I thought.... I do NOT need another laptop, I have a perfectly good touchscreen i5 HP 15" one - (it's too big to lug around day to day). What I DO need is a better tab, that will be mostly used as a tab, but, must have a factory keyboard with trackpad for occasional office use. So I bought the Lenovo Duet for £444.
I can send it back if I don't like it! :-)
I can send it back if I don't like it! :-)
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