Android Tablets ???

Emp_Fab

Mrs Fab needs to get an Android tablet so she can connect it to one of these 'izettle' card reader machines so she can take card payments at the fairs she visits.  I know bugger all about tablets apart from the ones I munch every morning and night for my ticker.

Given that she's going to be out and about with it, and may not be in the vicinity of a WiFi hotspot, do most tablets come with a SIM card slot so you can get a 3G data Sim-only contract and get on the web that way ?  Failing that, she's got an old USB mobile broadband dongle - I'm presuming that would work on an Android tablet ?

octatonic

... are hard to swallow.

strumjoughlamps

Can your missus not use her phone as a wifi hotspot?

Just look for 3g versions of the tab, my galaxy note 10.1 comes in a 3g version but it bumps the cost plus you have to have a sim contract, much cheaper if you can run existing phone contract as a wifi hotspot.

strumjoughlamps

In fact why not just use phone?

TTony

Comparative review of compact tablets in PCPro this month.

Not sure if you can get at the current month's content online.

 

[edit]

But as I now have it in front of me ...

Winner - Asus Fonepad @£179inc VAT.  13hrs battery.  Incl 3G/phone.

monquixote

The Nexus 7 is the best Android tablet by some margin and it's sold at cost price.. 

A new one is about to come out.

littlegreenman

Does the Nexus 7 support Flash? If not, are there any tablets that do?

monquixote

I think hardly any do out of the box, but with a bit of fiddling you can get it working:

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/google-android/3417930/flash-on-android/

TTony

monquixote said:

The Nexus 7 is the best Android tablet by some margin

Came 3rd in PCPro's review.  Loses out to the Asus due to being more expensive (like-for-like spec) and having 50% less battery life (in their tests).

I've no experience of either of them though - just reading from the review.

littlegreenman

Good to know. I have a few browser games I play that are flash-based so it's a bit of a deal-breaker if a portable device won't support it. Might be easier if I get a small netbook. Decisions, decisions...

monquixote

TTony said:

monquixote said:

The Nexus 7 is the best Android tablet by some margin

Came 3rd in PCPro's review.  Loses out to the Asus due to being more expensive (like-for-like spec) and having 50% less battery life (in their tests).

I've no experience of either of them though - just reading from the review.

Those spec on spec reviews don't tell the whole story. The Nexus is designed by Google to be the fully integrated experience and is sold at cost price as an exercise in moving the tablet market forward. 

If you compare specs iPads for example seem very overpriced and underpowered (iPad mini has 512MB vs 2GB and is a chunk more cash), but it's the slickness in use that makes it not the number of gigawidgets. 

There are plenty of Chinese tablets with amazing specs for beans, but you will spend the whole time swearing at it until you send it back or bin it.

TTony

^^ 'tis true.

holnrew

I love the Samsung Note 8's form factor, but the software isn't well optimised.

digitalscream

Gotta say, I was going to go with a tablet...but I'm loving my Samsung Chromebook at the mo. It's not the fastest machine out there, but it's quick enough, HAS A KEYBOARD and the battery lasts forever (well, compared to most laptops which are at least double the price).

When I'm out and about, I just use my phone's wireless hotspot capability; takes seconds to set up. By far the best way of doing it, because you don't need to get an extra contract, or to worry about topping it up etc.

chrispy108

chrispy108

Emp_Fab said:

Failing that, she's got an old USB mobile broadband dongle - I'm presuming that would work on an Android tablet ?

Nope, won't work I'm afraid, nowhere to plug it in, and no drivers for it if you could.

You're best off using your phone as a hotspot (I use my iPhone, works fine, some networks charge, 3 don't (at least not on my contract).

digitalscream

If she's got Android 4.0 or above on her phone, then the phone will support wifi hotspot natively and the network doesn't really get a say in it.

tonyrath

I have a Kindle fire and an Ipad. Ipad eats anything in its range 

BadBoyKane

chrispy108 said:

Emp_Fab said:

Failing that, she's got an old USB mobile broadband dongle - I'm presuming that would work on an Android tablet ?

Nope, won't work I'm afraid, nowhere to plug it in, and no drivers for it if you could.

You're best off using your phone as a hotspot (I use my iPhone, works fine, some networks charge, 3 don't (at least not on my contract).

Not true, I used to use a Vodafone Huawei USB 3G dongle on my old Asus Transformer and it worked no problems. Plug it in, wait a minute or so and in the settings menu (I forget where abouts, around the network area) it will now show 3G and you can set it up that way (wifi on the tab will need to be off for it to register the 3G signal for some reason, I could never get it to work when my wifi was turned on)

Some of the older tablets had full size USB ports in them, even ones now such as the Galaxy Tab with its Samsung designed port or other tabs using micro USB (even Android phones) you can simply buy an adapter to plug a full size USB device into it (OTG adapter).

I use one occasionally with my HTC One to connect my ext hard drive to.

I am not sure if the latest (Jelly Bean) OS still supports using a USB 3G dongle but shouldn't be no reason why not. I has Android 3.2 when I had my Asus Transformer.

Failing that, no pint paying upto £100+ extra for a tab just to have the 3G functionality.

Just get something like one of the Mifi adapters, just a 3G dongle which has built in Wifi, or what has been mentioned above if the Mrs has a phone compatible with Wifi tethering then use that.

Emp_Fab

She's got a Nokia N8 running the Symbian Belle OS.  It doesn't support tethering natively, but there's an app called 'Joikuspot' that will provide that functionality.  She gets 500MB /month and uses almost none of it, so the tethering option is ideal.

Now.... which android tablet to get.  I'm not interested in anything fancy - it probably won't get used for anything else, so cost is the main factor here.  Any suggestions ?

stickyfiddle

We have an ipad here, but if you really want Android the the Nexus is the only one I'd consider. Lots of friends have them and love them- it's a really good device.