Tablet advice please

Strat_a_tat_tat

Never had one... don't know what to look out for!  Apple or Android? Any must-have features?

I'm guessing I may end up with an Apple and an Android... for different uses. There seem to be a lot things that don't work with Androids (Eventide h9 editing software for example).

Would be useful to be able to have some kind of DJ app. (not pro DJ... just for own parties etc. ie something that would allow segueing from one track to another, without the long gaps I get on my iPod. Would streaming tunes be possible... and can something like Spotify allow permanent downloads onto the device?)

Many thanks for your help.

holnrew

I have a windows one, I like it because you can do most PC things. I don't like it because there aren't many proper tablet apps

Sporky

Specifically what do you want to do with it?

strumjoughlamps

Apple always win for me due to the music and photo production/editing apps.. anything else I don't care what OS the tablet is.

Strat_a_tat_tat

@Sporky jolly good question.  Bit of everything... general work use... display song chords and arrangements (as a memory jogger at gigs if I have to cover a request to play a song I haven't for a while)... DJ app for parties (and store music)... control H9... surf Web (either on WiFi or maybe on a phone contract - but that sounds expensive).

Sporky

Either Android (I have had good experiences with the Google Nexus stuff as it seems to be the purest Android install and the least guff) or Apple will do what you want. There are more apps than you need for each. See if you can have a play with a few, but remember that picking one and getting on with it will result in greater satisfaction than spending ages agonising over the decision.

eSully

androids are cheaper and handier. You have a lot more control over an android but iPads I beleive are better if you wanted to use DJ/recording software as there's less of a audio lag. Plus GarageBand was free last time I checked and you can pick up something like iRig quiet cheap. Apart from that it doesn't make much difference. Both app stores are good. Browsers are good on both  

You can download songs for offline play with Spotify but only within the app. You don't get the MP3 to transfer somewhere else

EricTheWeary

Got ipad at work and a Sony tablet at home. Very hard to beat the ipad for ease of use. Yes,  various music streaming services you can get an app for. Bear in mind that you are limited by the on board storage though so if you want to download a lot of music or video or even big documents or lots of apps it will fill up. Mine is the smallest memory ipad Air which,  I think,  is 16gb and it constantly gets memory full. Obviously there are ones with more memory but they cost more. 
My ipod can segue tracks with no problems -  just invite me to all your parties. 

Strat_a_tat_tat

EricTheWeary said:

 just invite me to all your parties. 

The obvious answer!

hywelg

Windows on a touch device is appalling (I have a Surface Pro 2). Need a mouse and a keyboard. And dont try and do any serious work on one.

Android tablet for emails (with huge caveats) and browsing and buying things. Laptop if you must for Windows stuff on the go, Proper desktop for real work, ideally with two monitors.

quarky

I prefer my windows 10 one too. I can use it with a Bluetooth keyboard and a mouse and run proper applications. As @holnrew says, there are not as many "apps" but being able to run all the Win32 stuff goes a long way to mitigating that, as does being able to chuck in a massive SD card, or even connect an external HDD if required. 

Danny1969

Quality wise the only semi decent built stuff I've repaired that isn't Apple is the Lenova Yoga Tabs, I mean they are still plastic and all but a step up in general build quality than most 

Avoid anything that charges using a micro USB socket ....... that socket was never designed for charging but many manufactures use it for charging and data transfer.  It breaks easy and it's not easy to repair, I've done 2 today and get tablets in constantly with broken micro USB sockets. Shit batteries is a common problem too leading to the chips refusing to charge em at times

The iPad is very well built, it's cheap and easy to repair if you do break the digitizier (and  \ or) LCD. The charging port is a separate part that's quite robust but if you do break it then it  requires no soldering (unless it's the Pro) to replace it. 

Music wise the Ipad is hard to beat and it's the industry standard for remote mixing 

grungebob

I've had both a nexus tablet and an iPad Air.  
I wouldn't go back to android now. I'm sick of all the adds and pop up redirects I used to get. The apple although more expensive does everything and more and never freezes or slows. It's easier to use and now I have a Mac and iPhone all three work very well together with minimal setup. 
Using GarageBand on the iPad is fun plus I can also use it as a logic remote for mixing or use it to add keyboard or vst instrument parts to logic right from the iPad. 

Ro_S

I thought this thread was gonna be about medication.

crunchman

Android is a lot cheaper - especially if you want to get an iPad with a good amount of storage.  The 16GB on the basic version of the iPad just isn't enough unless you want to be tied in to storing all your data in the cloud and having to be connected all the time.  Apple shouldn't really be selling something with so little storage but they are trying to get everyone to pay a monthly fee for their cloud service.

You can get the 64GB one but that's a lot more money.  It seems to be £80 more for the 64GB version of the iPad Mini over the 16Gb version, and as far as I know the only difference is an extra 48GB of storage.  Given that you can buy a 64GB micro SD card for around £15 that seems like a total rip off.

A lot of Android tablets have micro-SD slots so you can get a lot of storage very cheaply.  You can get a cheap one with 16GB but buy a 64GB SD card for £15.

There is a big range of Android Tablets.  We've got a higher end Samsung one that we've had for 4 or 5 years that has been very good, but there are cheaper no-name ones that can be had for peanuts these days.  At the bottom end of the market you can get a 7" for £40 or a 10" for £60 if you want.  It won't be nearly as good as a Samsung, but it's cheap and if anything breaks on it you can bin it and replace it for less money than it will cost to get @Danny1969 to have a look at fixing it.

If it's for general use then I'd go Android any day, but if you do want to use it for some music apps, then as has been said above the iPad is a lot better supported.  It does depend what you want though.  For recording the iPad is better, but I'd rather use a proper computer for that.  For live stuff Allen & Heath digital mixers need an iPad to control the main mix but support Android for personal monitor mixes.  AFAIK Behringer mixers support both, Yamaha is iPad only at the moment.

xtedmanzie

iPads are great, and the pro range is brilliant as there are some really amazing music making apps, but the MASSIVE drawback is the iOS file management system. So getting samples into the apps, or saving samples/tracks out of the apps can be an enormous faff on, meaning you have to use dropbox, or 3rd party file sending apps, or go via iTunes to get things in and out of the iPad. In other words there is no 'desktop' you can save files onto, no folders you can store samples in, you can't plug in a hard disk and upload files from there etc. Of course loads of  users are ok with this and have got used to it, but I found it very annoying. 

If you're not planning on getting your tablet to integrate with other desktop based stuff then you're probably fine. 

I think Apple makes the best kit by a long way, but it's more expensive and you do kind of get locked into it. I agree with the previous comment that you should get the biggest storage you can afford. 16gb is hopeless, i'd say min 64gb.

BigMonka

My iPad Air2 arrived a couple of hours ago - it's a stonking bit of kit, very thin and light but still feels solidly built. Expensive though.

To help with costs I went with an Apple refurbished deal. They all have the standard Apple 1 year warranty, all manuals and accessories, brand new battery and outer shell, new box. It's a good way of getting more for your money: http://www.apple.com/uk/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/ipad

You can also get an education discount for any students (or teachers) in the family but I think its only ~10%.

Strat_a_tat_tat

Thanks for all the info. I guess I'm leaning towards an iPad. Do they offer some level of integration with PCs?  Would I be able to type some docs on the iPad (assuming I also get a keyboard) and then import the docs into Word on a PC?

Thanks again.

bobblehat

Has any tried the Lynx Windows Tablet?

I'm getting surface pro from work in a couple of months but was thinking of getting one of these as cheap stop gap.
Only need it for email, excel and showing a few powerpoint slide shows so performance shouldn't be an issue.

blacknblack

Strat_a_tat_tat said:

Thanks for all the info. I guess I'm leaning towards an iPad. Do they offer some level of integration with PCs?  Would I be able to type some docs on the iPad (assuming I also get a keyboard) and then import the docs into Word on a PC?

Thanks again.

Yes you can.  Works well with some cloud storage e.g dropbox.  Use the MS Office App on the ipad, save your docs to the cloud and pick em up on the PC.  

There a few ipads in the house - all excellent.  Have had android tablets as well - not as good if i'm honest but there are plenty of android peops out there.

BigMonka

blacknblack said:

Strat_a_tat_tat said:

Thanks for all the info. I guess I'm leaning towards an iPad. Do they offer some level of integration with PCs?  Would I be able to type some docs on the iPad (assuming I also get a keyboard) and then import the docs into Word on a PC?

Thanks again.

Yes you can.  Works well with some cloud storage e.g dropbox.  Use the MS Office App on the ipad, save your docs to the cloud and pick em up on the PC.  

Or you can use the suite of free google apps such as google docs, with your files stored in google drive.
And IMO that's where it gets difficult in that you really need to plan how you're going to work with cloud storage as other wise you end up like me with loads of different apps (google drive, icould, dropbox, box.net etc) and your files scattered around all over the place!