Amazon Kindle Fire HD vs Nexus 7 vs iPad 2/3

gino_76ph

Hi there!

I am (still) in the hunt for a really good tablet. I am aware i have threads about tablets but i would like this to be a different one.

We all know about the issue on the Kindle Fire HD. Specs, features & capability is excellent. But with no Google products (Google Mail, Google Maps, Google Play, etc.) and apparently some well-known apps not "compatible" to work is it worth the gamble?

Now about the Nexus 7 we all heard about the screen being loose (or peeling off) on one side, some backlit & multitouch issues and a not-so-great stereo speakers is it worth the gamble with such a cheap tab?

I haven't heard any real negative points about the previous-gen iPad 2 apart from the price, the odd aspect ratio, the big size and Siri not being amongst the iOS6 update features is it still the grand daddy of them all?

What you think guys?

My budget is around £200 and i'll be mainly using it for the usual stuff: internet, news, weather, wikipedia, Youtube clips, email, tweeting, basic editing of photos, attaching photos, watching videos, note-taking, basic Office stuff and of course games.

fishybusiness

Depends what you want to use it for.........

Kindle Fire is for reading, with a few add ons. It does a fantastic job, but it is no tablet.

Ipad, much more of a general use tablet. Does all a Kindle Fire can do plus much more. Downside is that it is much larger, and specifically for reading, it doesn't come close to a Kindle.

Nexus - don't know, never had one.

gino_76ph

i'll be mainly using it for the usual stuff: internet, news, weather, wikipedia, Youtube clips, email, tweeting, basic editing of photos, attaching photos, watching videos, note-taking, basic Office stuff and of course games. (see my first line)

Problem is Amazon has heavily skinned the ICS 4.0 OS to their own. I still prefer Google services.

The iPad is slowly veering itself away from Google. Could be good or bad for some. But some services are still there. isn't it?

Dan_Thunder

If you're going to be doing work on it then I'd imagine a 7" tablet is a non-starter due to screen size and how well you can type on it.

The Nexus is apparently a great tablet and the glass issues were only with the first run and have apparently been sorted now but, as mentioned above, is a 7" tablet going to be of any use for any kind of word processing tasks?

The Kindle Fire is a very well specced machine but it's pretty much just a way for Amazon to sell their services to you rather than a machine you could do any real content creation with.

Apple are moving away from Google but only in the sense of google apps being the default ones. For example with iOS 6 the built in Youtube and Google Maps apps will be replaced by Vimeo (apparently) and Apple's own maps app. However, google can still put apps for their products on the App Store so consumers can still get to them.

You're basically left with either the iPad or another tablet i.e. the ASUS Transformer series or Samsung's Galaxy Tab. I'd look into them and see which fits the closest to what you require.

Figment

If I were you, I'd hold out for the iPad 5

gino_76ph

The iPad Mini if (again rumour suggests) would be an ideal 7.9"-ish screen for me.

You see i'd like to do a bit of both. I can use it at home from basic note-taking to basic word processing to printing documents from my tablet to my Airprint-enabled printer. Or i could just play Marvel vs Capcom 2 or Infinity Blade whilst out & about in London/going to & from work. Or i could watch three 2-hour movies in the plane (whenever i'm on holiday) which makes a bigger screen ideal; the TV screens on the plane have a small low-res screen and is not good for viewing IMO.

From the looks of it i'm gonna have to remove the Kindle Fire HD on my list. I'm now stuck with the iPad 2 (or 3) or an iPad Mini because it actually makes my life/work easier with the number of rich apps and the overall smoothness of the OS. Unless an 8-inch Nexus tablet comes.

debitcardmayhem

Why did you get rid of your ipad before? https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3949067

gino_76ph

I had to get rid of it because of financial reasons. Nothing else. But i miss it. And i'm starting to want one again. But with this iPad Mini rumour mill on hyperspeed i probably would hang on as a smaller iPad would be the perfect size for me and would give the Nexus 7 Android gang a run for their money.