When tablets came out, I didn't really get why people liked them. Never even entered my mind to get one... Then I started seeing some benefits. They appear to be pretty damn handy for travel, a quick internet search that does not involve squinting at the smart phone or using the office computer. Still not enough to push me over the edge and buy one though.

Then these new things started appearing. You can use them like a tablet, but if you prefer to use them like a lap top with a key board, you can do that too. They even have USB ports... OK, now I'm getting interested.

My trusty lap top is about five years old. It's time to retire it. Poor thing has been dropped a few times, smells like motor oil, and it always has been cumbersome for vehicle tuning.

I started looking at these combo laptop/tablet things, and don't know where to start.

I really don't want to give up screen size. My laptop has a 15" screen. It's too hard to see the tables and charts when tuning as is. A key board and a mouse is also mandatory, but touch screen capabilities would be super cool. Being thin and light would be way cool. Good battery life is very important. When I flash a new calibration to a vehicle, I then take it for a drive to log data. Sometimes that can take an hour.

The scanning software I use is a memory hog.

I also use my laptop for video calibration. That's another memory hog...

Are there any manufactures that are better than others? Some to avoid?

I'm just looking for some general buying advise at this point.

I wish I had some advice, but my experience has been pretty limited so far. I'm just hoping to hear from someone who has some hands-on with the Surface Pro 3. It looks pretty slick, but it would be hard for me to justify the price, since I still do most of my real work (okay, calling it "real work" is a bit of a stretch) on my desktop, which I'm usually not far away from when I'm not at work.

You should probably look at an MS surface pro.

Advantages:
1. serious processor (i5, i7)
2. 12" screen, that's about as big as you get on a tablet thingy
3. dual use with removable keyboard.

In general, I don't think tablets have enough horsepower to do much beyond browsing and watching youtube. My experience to date is with an older HP atom based tablet and it was an absolute dog.

I recently went to a 14" laptop for work and it really is not enough screen real estate for every day use, but its great when I need to take it out to the floor or up into the ceiling for trouble shooting.

Fortunately, despite my boss' grumbling, I put a second display on my desk. I would do the same for a Surface pro.

I think in two processor generations, tablets are really going to kick ass.

Mike, I suggest you look at some reviews for the Asus Transformer lineup. I don't have hands on experience, but the Transformer pads consistently get very positive reviews (from what I've seen).

Hummmm.... I did not realize there was such a size restriction. The Surface Pro 3's are pretty expensive when you start looking at the I5 processors and above. Like a grand and up apparently. And I only see one USB port, which is a deal breaker. I need two, at least three.

Well it looks as if I've wasted your time, again. These hybrid tablets just can't do what I need from a mobile computer. Looks like I need to just get a new laptop.

Those Asus tablets look pretty cool, for a tablet.. Maybe Santa will bring me one of them.

I did an exhaustive study of tablets for a university I worked for. This was to determine the best device and if they are ready to replace laptops for daily use.

What I found after months of requirements gathering, testing in a lab and real world field testing was:
- tablets are great for information consumption but poor/limited for information creation
- all platforms (iPad, Android, Surface, Blackberry) had strengths and weaknesses
- the cost of fully outfitted tablet equals a solid ultrabook for Total Cost of Ownership

At this point all platforms have a good compliment of software, mobile device management (key for business use) and peripheral devices (attachable keyboards, etc.)

One false promise is the cost being lower. In a business setting, outfitting with dongles for connecting to projectors, monitors, etc., software to provide functionality with enterprise apps, and licensing costs outside of enterprise agreements tips the scale to ultrabooks.

The one advantage was the size/weight of a tablet.

All said an done, I have a great i7 ultrabook and no tablet.

YMMV

$1,000 is a reasonable price given the processing power and form factor. That's why I wrote that we are about 2 processor generations away from really powerful, useful tablets.

The current shiznitz of processors are built using a 22 nm process. 14 nm has been commercialized and will hit the streets soon. I remember reading somewhere that 12 nm manufacturing is being commercialized now.

When these processes trickle down to broader ic manufacturing, I think we will hit the power use/performance sweet spot for mobile devices

I don't know why nobody has put multiple micro usb ports on a device. Maybe because USB draws power from the primary device and that would reduce battery time below some perceived critical threshold?

Actually, the Nexus tablets have usable USB ports. The MS Surface have them as well.

I agree with Mike on most everything except maybe " the cost of fully outfitted tablet equals a solid ultrabook for Total Cost of Ownership". I'd be curious to see the math there. Probably because my personal idea of a "solid ultrabook" starts at over 2.5 grand.

In any case, I think it's not an Apples to Apples comparison in any case. Tablets were not created to compete with any type of powerful laptop. The Surface Pro mmmmaybe, but to me it's still inarguably a hybrid with it's own pros and cons.

There is a place for all device types depending on your needs. My personal breakdown would be this.

Social media, web browsing, media consumption, free apps & games....
= Tablets.

Social Media, Web browsing, media consumption, free apps and games but also the occasional light office work on the road.
= a hybrid (Asus Transformer models up to the Surface Pro 3 depending on your needs and budget)

Primary workhorse or you travel regularly for work purposes
= laptop or ultrabook

Other considerations.
I have nozero tolerance for laggy netbooks and I think thier day is done anyways, so I didn't include them.

It doesn't take much horsepower at all these days for typical office work. So even a reasonably priced laptop can jump in there in just about any category (except for the free apps.)

Gaming... Tons of free games are developed every day for Android and iPads and that can be a big draw to tablets for some. If you want to 3-d game in the MS world, prepare to triple or quadruple your laptop budget.

I put most tablets into this category, but have no recent experience with them. Has this changed?

My view on a $1,000 surface pro 4 is that you should compare it to purchasing a laptop for serious use plus a tablet for its portability.

I have low tolerance for device proliferation. I don't need dozens of devices all to do slightly different things.

I may be forced into a decision soon as well. My only surviving computer at home is a 6 year old celeron e1200 running xp.

Sigh, this is turning out to be an expensive year for electronics.

Michael, what about a usb hub to get you more usb ports? I've never used one, so I don't know what the downsides are though.

Edit: Hmm, still gotta add the keyboard and a docking station for an additional $350 to turn the surface pro into a hybrid, so $1,350 all in. Still a little steep.

I recently upgraded my tablet from an old faithful (but yes, definately laggy) Asus T700. It was indeed laggy but OK for it's day. The worst problem that it had was true to all older tablets and even some new. Older versions of Android lacked a trim feature for the SSD and so it grew annoyingly slow over time. Eventually, I got so mad with it that I chanced rooting it and upgraded to Jellybean. It had built in trim and after that all was good (but still some lag.)

My new is the Samsung Galaxy Tab S (the "S" being the important part.) It's has an 1.9GHz "octo-core" with 3 Mb of RAM. I'm only 2 weeks in but so far it has been very snappy with everything I have asked it to do. Zero lag so far. I have lots more to say about it, but I'll cut it short here unless you are interested. My bullet point was, No Lag.

Regarding the Surface Pro.
I've only toyed with my co-workers. He is satisfied with it as his travel device. His laptop is obviously faster but the surface is not exactly "laggy" either if not overtaxed. It does everything he wants it to do for short stints.

What he tells me is that if he has extensive keyboarding to do, he takes his laptop instead as he finds the cover/keyboard to be tiring to use over time and a bit harder on the fingers. His job does not require much multi-tasking. I'm not sure I could do my job on it. I never have less than 10 apps open and one of them, "Netformyx," is a HUGE resource hog.

If you do serious computing, I agree with those who say above that there is still no substitute for a good laptop. My tablet is strictly a recreational device. I'd never do my job on it but I'd sure miss it's convenience if I didn't have it.

I'm trapped on a super boring call so I'm spending way too much thought time on this, but hopefully it's useful.

Once you get yourself a new device, you should try loading Linux on the old PC. Even with just a Celeron CPU, there are versions of Linux that would turn that PC into a zippy speedster again. Plus all the apps are free!

My work laptop actually dual boots to Linux now. When I travel or use it at home, I boot into Linux for nearly every time, except for when I need to use "Netformyx". "Libre Office" is fully featured and has yet to spit out anything incompatible with MS-Office for me.

Just a thought instead of junking it.

My BB Playbook's battery finally won't take a charge after 3 years, although it still works on the charger. So time to retire it I guess.

After reading the above & exhaustive net research I went to our local Future Shop (we have a great one here) & bought a Titanium Bronze (what a classy colour) Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5" tablet during the last day of their sale. I didn't really want to spend that much on a throw away device, but WTH, everything seems to be that way now!

After playing with it for half an hour or so, I was sold - absolutely stunning display. So, got 1 for my wife (ha!) for Christmas. Interestingly I checked out Best Buy USA & they don't even seem to carry the 'S' models in their online store unless I was looking in the wrong place. Also, many Samsung tablets were actually a better deal up here. Weird....

TAM

Funny stuff. I went to futureshop today as well and picked up the Tab S 10.5 but in white. I won't get to play with it though because it is a gift.

I liked the white as well but I thought that it would look a bit dirty after a while...

TAM

The bronze Galaxy Tab S 10.5 is exactly the tablet I have as well. As mentioned previously, I can't say enough good things about it. It's very fast, super light, super thin and the display is definitely, absolutely stunning!

My wife has the regular Samsung Galaxy Tab 4, 10.5 and while she is also very happy with it. However, the extra dollars for the upgrade to the "S" model was worth every penny for me.

My only pet peeve was solved with a button press. I turned off the auto-multi-window option, whatever it's called, but for those who are used to a small screen on thier phones, it may be useful. I can still do a split screen in certain apps when required but I just didn't like the device deciding when it should happen. Luckily, it was optional.

I can't see tablets taking over for full productivity. There's only so small one can go before a human needs to have a larger interface. I mean, it's not like humans are getting smaller to keep up with the technology.
There's a reason why the old super small cell phones have disappeared and the mainstream larger screen smart phones are becoming more popular...screen size!

But doing even Excel tables on a tablet without a mouse or a larger expansive screen and a much quicker typing full size keyboard?
Doesn't make sense.

All that aside, i really haven't been thrilled at all with my Google Nexus. Compared to the iPad, it has far less stability. It occasionally random reboots reminding me of a young, unpolished OS like Win95. I've recently had wifi issues, hanging my router after a tablet reboot, with no apparent fix in sight. I had no recent upgrades to the OS (even though Android 5.0 is now out, i'm still on Kitkat 4.4 and have been for months) yet this problem started up last week. Some Google apps had major updates, but none of that should have affected the OS and wifi.
In doing some research, it seems quite a number of people are having random wifi issues with no single fix to solve it and no indication that it is related to failing hardware.
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=62934

Thanks for all the input guys. I know what I need to do now, and that's just get a new lap top.

But now I'm thinking I need to get the ol' lady a tablet for Christmas. She has an Iphone, and it's become a body part. Should I stick with the Ipad, or do you think an Apple user could figure out a Galaxy?

The nice thing about sticking with one ecosystem is that the apps she has for the iPhone will also work on (and in some cases include a version specifically for) the iPad.

Since we have a desktop & laptop for home use, I use a tablet for travelling only - wifi for checking weather, road conditions, email & for checking into the Axiom Forums because I don't want to miss anything, ha! Also, minimal apps if any - some word games for my wife. We have no data plan on our free, elcheapo Telus supplied Android cell phone so there is no texting & no outrageous roaming fees when we head south to the desert every year.

My previous BB Playbook was a 7 incher & I found that it was too small to use easily. I waffled between 8 vs 10 inchers for the longest time, but the 10 incher finally won out as I don't go out walking with it - basically it is used in a hotel room. You won't see me using a cel phone/tablet at a restaurant or taking selfies in front of Caesar's Palace - a rarity these days it seems...

TAM

Good point... I probably better just get her an Ipad. Does anyone have a suggestion for which model? Seams kinda pointless to get a little one, seeing how she had her phone. She is not by any means a techno-geek.

Unless there's a particular reason to get a mini (portability, fits in something or other), I'd go with an Air 2 with 64GB. The 16GB model is just too small. Certainly there's no reason to get a Mini 3 over a Mini 2 if you were to go that route; it's $100 premium for one thing: touch ID. Not a big deal on a tablet.

Getting an free NIB mini right away.
Kids are going to love it.

Thanks Ken, I'll start my search for the air2/64.

I'm not real familiar with Apple stuff. Do you have to, or should I buy from Apple? I have heard that you can run into problems buying Apple stuff from any other vendor but Apple. Not sure if there is any truth to that, but figured it would be worth asking.

The prices are going to be the same from pretty much anywhere, but you're fine buying at Target or Walmart or whatever. I'd stay away from Amazon, because there's a TON of scammers on there with counterfeit Apple products, or previous versions, or whatever.

Thank bud!

I'm an Android guy but I agree with Ken. If she has an iPhone now, definitely stick with the iStuff.

One comment though re. storage size... with so much free cloud storage these days, I went with just the 16 Gb tablet. Depends though, if she likes to throw a bunch of music and movies on there, more is always better.

Of course, my decision was also effected by the fact that the Samsungs' can take a mini SD card up to 128 GB and I already own a bunch of 32Gb cards. Also, my Dropbox account got bumped up to 50GB as a Samsung freebie. I didn't feel the need to pay for extra up front.

I have a Yoga Pro 2 and our family loves it. It's fast, battery is decent and of course its extremely versatile (convertible).

Because it's 13 inches I wouldn't say it's great as tablet but sometimes it's very handy to have a giant tablet. I also have a Nexus 7.

I bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 on Saturday 12/20/14. This is my first android device. I've had iPhone 4s and an iPad 2 before.

My first impression of it is poor. So far, the worst is the cpu speed. The games I play, I've never had a problem with either the Apple devices, but these run in jerky motions a lot of the time on the Tab 4. I've installed a cleaner, and an anti-virus.

Perhaps you should have purchased the Tab S - more expensive I know. Ours is still wrapped under the tree so I haven't tried it yet.

Everything that I've read is that it games pretty well...

TAM

I picked up a gold Air2/64 gig with cellular. Need to get it wrapped today. I'm putting it in box that's 24" X 16".

Add a box of dry, uncooked pasta.

Confuses those who like to shake presents, like my wife, ha!!

TAM

I remember a gift exchange where someone added a brick for confusion.

Yup. That works too, especially with a small piece of expensive jewelry...

TAM

Our Samsung Galaxy Tab 'S' 10.5 incher is on the charger & the turkey is in the oven.

Both should be ready at about the same time..

TAM

Typing this on our new Galaxy Tab S - way easier than on a 7" tablet.

I got one email account set up easily but adding a second one is problematic - not successful yet.

The AmOled display is absolutely stunning - probably the best out there right now...

TAM