Anyone else dislikes tablets - all tablets?

[Rizla]

Probably the ipad is best if you don't mind its proprietary and limited software. Personally I do mind. I have a tablet. I use it mainly for browsing. I don't find it useful for work. I was using Firefox and was about ready to throw it through the wall, when I decided to try Chrome. This browser I found to be much better. So try different software before you give up on the hardware. Free and varoed software is Android's big advantage over the ipad.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Free and varoed software is Android's big advantage over the ipad.

I have a 2013 Google Nexus 7, and an iPad Retina Mini. I certainly don't find that Android has any particular advantage over iOS when it comes to software. What particular areas did you have in mind?

It's very much swings and roundabouts to my mind. Good apps with different strengths and weaknesses on each platform.

[jandrew]

I guess it depends on how you want to use it. I have an Asus 7” tablet that gets used a lot, just not for reading ebooks (for that I use my aura hd). But as a portable tool for email, web, and writing it is very useful.

[CWatkinsNash]

I only use my tablet for magazines when traveling. That's it. And I only do that because it saves me from buying magazines at Hudson News - I get them from the library via Zinio instead. I'm just not a tablet fan.

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I have a 2013 Google Nexus 7, and an iPad Retina Mini. I certainly don't find that Android has any particular advantage over iOS when it comes to software. What particular areas did you have in mind?

It's very much swings and roundabouts to my mind. Good apps with different strengths and weaknesses on each platform.

I had a mini-ipad forced on me for about seven days. It was hard work finding a free text editor. I found cheap / free software to be more available on Android.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Rizla

I had a mini-ipad forced on me for about seven days. It was hard work finding a free text editor. I found cheap / free software to be more available on Android.

Apple give away their iPad office suite: "Pages", "Numbers", and "Keynote", for free these days. "Pages" is a pretty good word processor.

[cromag]

I can read on my tablets when I need to (which is a darn sight better than not being able to read something when I need to!) but I would rarely "choose" to. The exceptions being PDFs, mostly of magazines. And in that case, I have an inexpensive 10 inch tablet that does a great job on magazines. But the smaller ones (all very inexpensive) have their uses as well.

To me, my ereaders and tablets have a small area of overlap, but I'd miss them if I had to give them up.

[crossi]

I just can't get used to the touch interface. It's so much less precise and flexible than a mouse with a choice of rollover, right click, left click and scroll. It might be easier if there was a dedicated area for scrolling where you couldn't select a link by accident. I get tired of all the backtracking. Reading a book isn't so bad but dealing with home and web pages is frustrating.

[Crowl]

I'm very happy with my current tablet, stuff like netflix or browsing being better than on a phone is a bonus, but the areas where it is most useful for me is comics and magazines which are no good on phones, e-ink or computers.

Out of the ones that I have owned, I found the restrictions of an ipad far too limiting to offset nice hardware, similarly with my kindle fire 8.9 things were just too annoying whenever you came across something amazon didn't choose to support and 7" tablets are a little bit too small for my main uses.

My current tablet is an LG G-Pad 8.3, the extra size over a 7" model makes the crucial difference for me with comics and mags, the weight is low enough to make it comfortable to use, the lack of restrictions mean that it does not annoy me like my old ipad or kindle fire and supporting micro-sd cards makes loading content even easier still.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by crossi

It's so much less precise and flexible than a mouse with a choice of rollover, right click, left click and scroll.

Apart from having a proper keyboard, this is the main thing that moved me over to the Chromebook from the tablet. Even on a 10" tablet there's a lot of zooming in and out, pinching and pushing wide, to select links (at least with my eyes!)

Couple that with being able to page down with a simple tap of the space bar, and the larger screen, and I decided that while tablets do some things brilliantly, they weren't actually the best device for interacting with the web, for me.

Chromebooks share many of the advantages of large tablets - they're not as light and have a little less battery life, but the ARM-based ones in particular are light enough, and last long enough, start quickly and are fanless. I also really appreciate the synergy between my Chromebook and my ChromeOS desktop - which goes beyond just file synchronisation to complete synchronisation of the apps and layout - it provides an experience switching from one to the other that can't be matched between my desktop and my tablet.

My eInk reader has held its own for reading fiction, but the 10" and 7" tablets have also found their niches (as noted above).

I don't dislike tablets at all, to answer the thread question, but they've settled into a more limited use for me now, shedding some of the activity that seemed so exciting when they first came on the market.

Graham

[Blossom]

I love my Nexus 7. I use it for everything but gaming and movies. I use my Kindle Fire HD for gaming and movies and occasionally reading if I am using my Nexus 7 to run Encraves at the moment.

I mainly use my Nexus 7 for reading because it has one of the best text rendering I have seen on a tablet. I also use it for surfing, email, posting here or using maps. The little tablet can do alot that a real PC can do. I even use it to do activities on Swagbucks which not many tablets support. It's small, thin and lightweight so I can hold it for hours without any problems. It also does things like Netflix and of course gaming.

Last Christmas I broke my little toe and was stuck on a sofa for awhile and my Nexus because my constant companion and it's still the first thing I grab next to my glasses and phone when I get out of bed to carry with me.

[pidgeon92]

Originally Posted by crossi

I just can't get used to the touch interface. It's so much less precise and flexible than a mouse with a choice of rollover, right click, left click and scroll.

Have you tried using a stylus?

[crossi]

I believe I tried a pencil once. It was a while back but I think it didn't register. And there would still be the 'wait, I only meant to scroll the page not select that link problem'.

[faithbw]

Get a stylus from a dollar store. A pencil wouldn't register but a stylus would. I think they're more precise than fingers and they help to keep tablets fingerprint free.

I miss my Nexus 7. Before someone stole it, I used it to read, visit this forum, check email, and so much more. The PPI made reading on it so nice. I have a Surface RT now. It's nice but I use it for totally different purposes. I recently finished a grant writing course and used the Surface in place of my laptop. It has much better battery life than my laptop and I can use all of the same MS Office software that I use on my laptop. Plus, it's lighter than my laptop. I slipped it in my purse and I was good to go. I can also use it for web browsing, checking my e-mail and a lot of other tasks I do on my laptop or smartphone. However, I do find that it is horrible for reading. It's too heavy and it has low PPI. So I bit the bullet and bought a used e-reader off of eBay this week. My hubby wonders why I don't use the Surface but I need something light and just the right size (6-8") to read on.

[bfisher]

I have very fat fingers that don't work very well on a touchscreen. I use a nice Bamboo stylus (also has built-in pen); you can get cheaper stylii at a dollar store that work about as well.