****tablet pc best value/deals****

HIM_POPPY

Hi all,

I haven't ventured into buying a PC/Laptop for 5 or so years but would like to invest in a new tablet PC with the functionality of a removable keyboard.

I want the flexibility to be able to use as a standard tablet internet/app browser, but also to replace my laptop as my main PC for home working.

I am not a heavy user but generally use my laptop (I5 processor, 4gb ram) for internet browsing, dowloading a couple of films a week, football manager game and microsoft office for work, with a dropbox folder of 10gb which is constantly chaning with work files and I run 100% of the time on my PC.

I have a decent budget and would spend a lot if needed but if it is not necessary then I wont.

I was looking at the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 as this seems like the best one out at the moment, can anybody advise of any decent deals or alternatives?

I like the Idea of having 8gb ram memory for multi tasking and at least an I5 processor so it can be used as my main computer however a lot of memory is not an issue 64gb would probably be plenty I do not store a lot on there (films/music are all on portable hard drive).

Are there any decent brands I should go for that Samsung, Microsoft, Sony etc or any I should avoid like Lenovo which are very cheap? Is it worth having an I7 in comparison to an I5, will I notice the difference? Is there anything I havent considered like the use of a cd drive on the device etc? Any experience anyone has with these bits of kit will be appreciated.

HIM_POPPY

Doing my own research looks like microsoft best but Samsung PC Pros are cheaper, how much willl I notice the difference between 8GB Ram and 4GB ram on a tablet? What are the differences betwwen intel generations on the processors?

almillar

I would dearly love a Surface Pro 3. Best I know of is £100 cashback at PC World or Currys for any of them. It's certainly the best of the bunch, but there are cheaper alternatives.
Would you notice 4/8GB on a tablet - well of course you would - these are full blown Windows computers, they're not running iOS or Android. I don't think we're millions of miles away from wanting that kind of RAM in those devices anyway!
4GB is fine for the moment for most stuff.
Certainly for the Surface Pro 1/2/3, they haven't really got much faster, but more efficient. So it's been more about heat, noise and battery life than performance, which has always been excellent.
If this is all too much money, I've got a Toshiba Encore 8, which again, PCWorld now have for £180. It certainly doesn't compare for build, performance, well, anything to the Surface Pro, but it IS a little tiny full blown computer!

HIM_POPPY

Excellent thanks for that info. So the only diference between a surface pro 1 and 3 is the heat and battery life ok doesnt seem worth spending the extra then, I might try to get a srface pro one with i5 processor, 8gb ram and 128gb harddrive. Are there differences in size between each version?

What are the best alternatives, I found a nice samsung here will this be close to a microsoft surface pro in terms of performance? What about the budget options like Lenovo, with the same bits in? worth considering?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Samsung-ATIV-Tablet-PC-Pro-XE700T1C-A06UK-11-6TFT-128GB-Win-8-Inc-Keyb-Dock-/301144377433?pt=UK_iPad_Tablets_eReaders&hash=item461d9a8859

HIM_POPPY

Im now looking at a dell xps 12 that folds into a table anyone had experience with these?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-XPS-12-Ultrabook-Intel-Core-i7-4500u-2-4-ghz-8gb-DDR3-Ram-256gb-SSD-/281440843575?_trksid=p2054897.l5661

almillar

So the only diference between a surface pro 1 and 3 is the heat and battery life ok doesnt seem worth spending the extra then,

Wow slow down there champ before you go spending your cash! There are other differences! The 1st 2 surfaces are roughly the same size and weight, with the same 10ish inch screen. The third went to 12 inch but thinner and the same weight or lighter. The kickstand has been improved every time to include more usable angles. I'm pretty sure the RAM increased across some models too, and of course there are lots of options for storage space (hint - add a micoSD card). Also the 3 comes with a pen but they all do pen input.

HIM_POPPY

I think I have my heart set on a dell XPS, they look much smarter and I love the slide away keyboard function, also a lot cheaper for the same power and functionality. I have heard som ebad eports about screen ghosting though and am reluctant to buy a refurb version from ebay now!

HIM_POPPY

Also noticed that the XPS 12 dell laptop doesnt come with an hdmi or mini hdmi port! I like to connect up my laptop to my tv for sports streaming, will a converter do the job or will this not be true HDMI quality?

jaydeeuk1

I'd be looking at a surface pro 3, or see if there is a deal on a pro 2.

I have a pro 1 which I bought last december from MS for under £300, so current prices aren't really a bargain. Its a fantastic machine, very quick. Battery life is about 5-6 hours if doing light browsing, something that taxes the cpu and gpu you're looking at about 1-1.5hours. In average user, I get around 4.

The only things against pros with their keyboard is you have to have a steady surface to type. They also get very hot whilst in use and charging, and in the pro 1 case, hard to get a decent viewing angle - pro 2 corrects this.

However, everything you list can be done well on an atom CPU even with 2gb ram - I use my works asus t100 as a demo tablet with SQL Server 2008, IIS, dreamweaver and as a portable football manager tablet, and for games like xcom and civ 5, and even then I'll easily get 3-4 hours out of it under load, 8-9 in lighter use.

The new larger asus t200 with much improved keyboard that you can use like a laptop is around £350, I'd say that is at least worth a look at. What work stuff do you do? The pro's have the benefit of a much better screen, probably the best I've used on a portable device, but the keyboard addon isn't cheap - and bizarely the power keyboard isn't backlit whereas the standard type 2 cover is.

HIM_POPPY

Nothing too advanced just loads and loads of excel files running a few macros on them etc which pulls in data from net and uploading, downlaoding from dropbox that is about all, the screen on the dell xps looks amazing to be fair and good enough for watching the odd dvd or sports stream, I like the idea of the backlit keyboard and I can imaguine it is a pain having to reattach the keyboard all the time and it looks very flimsy. I will have a look at the other alternative you suggest thanks for the info.

I am also concerned about using windows 8, Ive heard it is very user unfriendly and a pain to manage.

almillar

Is the XPS a metal or plastic body. You might want to get your hands on one - the surface is metal which I think is important but boild quality doesn't really come up in the spec sheets.
Do you need a converter for the Dell? What are you converting from? HDMI would be best really and you shouldn't have to bother with converters, but if it has DisplayPort or miniDisplayPort, these are actually better than HDMI and will be perfect.
Windows 8 is great (now) and complained about by people who can't stand change, or take 5 mins to learn new things, but let's not start that debate!