Tablet PC

unsure

Firstly,please forgive my ignorance!

My daughter wants a very portable computer, basically for university work, downloading texts and ebooks, word processing and possibly some internet browsing. She's not fussed about multi-media, gaming ,watching movies or even music playing on the machine.

It struck me that a lower end tablet computer (archos 7- £100 at CPW???) might do the job. Am I right? With Christmas coming up we could probably spring for one of those!

From specs and reviews I can't tell whether these sort of machines are basically for browsing, emails, playing media and gaming (which is what most of the reviews concentrate on) or whether they'd be fine for more mundane office-type applications as well. Also I can't tell from reviews if they come with independent power supply which would let ther plug in and work for hours or if they need charging in advance(most reviews talk about USB chargers but don't mention power supply).
Any help and advice would be gratefully received. Thanks.

Robin_T_Cox

A laptop or netbook might be a better choice. See:

http://goo.gl/39tW1

unsure

Thanks, she has a laptop and I suggested the netbook option. She really just wants something for text downloading (ebooks, sources) and then word processing...with as little weight and size as possible. She was taken with the portability and readibility of my Kindle and was disappointed at it's limitations beyond reading, so I'm looking for the closest equivalent...which may possibly be a tablet-- but I'm having dififculty finding out about their capabilities and limitations since nearly all reviews concentrate on media playing and gaming, neither of which she needs or cares about.

zzzLazyDaisy

In my view a tablet is unlikely to meet her needs.

They are good for e-mail and internet access on the go, but doing any amount of word processing is a pain because using an on screen keyboard is fiddly. You can get cases that contain a keyboard, but they can be expensive and add to the bulk and weight.

I have both a tablet and a netbook. If I know I am going to need to edit documents away from home I always take the net book. If it is just a case of writing an occasional e-mail and researching the web I'll take the tablet. If I could only have one, the netbook would win every time.

Just my pov

DCFC79

I also have a tablet(hp touchpad) and a laptop and i would much rather prefer to do any typing on the laptop (portability issues) as your whole screen is for word processing/email/web browsing whereas with a tablet if you want to type an essay for example half your screen is half filled up with the on screen keyboard. As daisy says the tablet is fine for emails, web browsing, reading ebooks but anything more its a bit pointless.

If its a tablet she wants then maybe 1 of these with the keyboard, its the asus transformer and you can choose to get it with the keyboard so it can be used as a laptop or a tablet minus the keyboard.

Just another pov.

Humphrey10

For word processing I'd always want a full size keyboard, full sized mouse, and at least one 17" screen.

For reading books and long documents e-ink screen like on the Kindle are much better.

For everything else (internet, short documents, email, games, films, music) an iPad would be fine (and I assume other tablets would also be OK, but I've only personally used an iPad).

Battery life will vary depending on which tablet you choose. I've seen reviews of very cheap tablets with 2hr battery life, but it's up to 10hrs on an iPad. They will all charge from a mains socket.