Tablet advice

abdn_girl

My mum (soon to be 63) would like a tablet for her birthday and I have no idea where to start. She is reasonably tech-savvy (she has a smartphone) but doesn't really use many of the features. I asked her what she wants to be able to do on her tablet - she said use facebook, read her emails, use microsoft word, and print from it. Any ideas of something that fits the bill and isn't too complicated to operate?? Thank you in advance!

~Beanie~

What kind of smart phone does she have, if an android then buy her an android tablet. If she already has an iPhone, then she would probably find an iPad easier to use. I've got an android smartphone and android tablet and they both operate in exactly the same way.

The Hudl from Tesco is not a bad price and quite a decent tablet.

Not sure she will get Microsoft Word on one although there are other wordprocessing apps available to download.

abdn_girl

I'm not sure what kind of phone she has but it's not an iPhone, so I guess it must be android...? Can you get wordprocessing apps on any kind of tablet? Thanks for the help!

curlywurly82

You can certainly get Microsoft one note on andriod. It allows you to insert images, and bullet points, bold and underline but it is sey out like a notebook. I'll check the play store and find out about others, I would expect to find an opensource version

curlywurly82

A quick check shows I can get ms word on my android phone

abdn_girl

That's great, thanks so much!

curlywurly82

Also my mum had a windows phone and is definitely a technology phobe however I got her a Samsung tab 7" and she gets on with it okay

wymondham

look at the linx 10 - windows tablet at a good price...

curlywurly82

Should have said the Samsung is an android

Cisco001

I will get 2 in 1 Windows laptop in that case, unless she want iPad or android tablet.

Like these
http://www.ebuyer.com/696586-asus-transformer-t100taf-32gb-tablet-black-t100taf-bing-dk034b.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/toshiba-satellite-click-mini-8-9-2-in-1-white-10119717-pdt.html

http://www.ebuyer.com/721602-linx-1010-32gb-tablet-pc-with-keyboard-black-linx1010b-bun

PenguinJim

The MSE in me says you should recommend to her to make it a "combined Christmas / Birthday present" (is that a thing?), which gives you a couple of months of breathing space to find an absolute bargain.

Define the size you want, first. I wouldn't consider a 7" tablet at all - the screen size is too small to be practical. My parents were given a free 7" tablet and my mother despises using it for emails.

Part of that is the screen size, but it's also partly the resolution. I would stay away from the current cheap crop of 1280 x 800 tablets - there aren't enough pixels to make everything look nice and crisp, and you'll have a limited area to work with. (The aforementioned Linx 10 is one of these - actually, it's really not bad for the price, but having a gorgeous screen really does make such a difference, so I'd aim for a better screen if at all possible.)

Next, you'll want to choose between Android and Windows. I have loved my Android devices, and still think that there are some bargains to be had... but compared to Windows, it's a very limited system, and hardware is now fast enough to provide a decent Windows experience on a tablet. I cannot see myself recommending Android tablets for more than another few weeks (!). Then again, there are Android tablet bargains on a near-weekly basis, while you have to dig a little deeper or wait a little longer to find a Windows tablet bargain.

Finally, you'll need to define your price (wait, shouldn't this have been first? Oh, never mind). For "tablets", they can vary in price from the really-quite-decent £60-70 Nook HD+ (9", 1920x1280 (good!), Android) to the ~£500 Surface 3 (10.8", 1920 x 1280 (good!), Windows 10). So a ball-park figure would be useful.

With specs and price in mind, you can then (hopefully) spend 8-12 weeks keeping an eye on bargain sites to get the absolute most for your money.