Despite being a die-hard techie, I still cannot see the real need for a tablet. But that doesn't stop me from wanting one. My daughter has had an iPad for a few years now, and at the same time, my son purchased his own Asus eee Pad Transformer tablet (the original one, updated to Ice Cream Sandwich). The first time I really saw a good use for a tablet was when following online recipes on my phone, but then trying it on my son's tablet and enjoying the larger screen. I imagine this will be even more useful in a few years when I need reading glasses.
Last spring, I fell in love with the retina display on the iPad 3, and it happened to come out just before my birthday. Having the awesome hubby that I do, he purchased one for me for my birthday. For a few months, I was in love with simply looking at pictures on the awesome screen, trying out the best Apple apps (this was actually my first personal Apple product, despite being in-home tech support for my kids' iPod Touches and our shared iTunes account), and just lounging on the couch browsing on it while my husband or the kids watched TV some evenings.
But, after a few months, the love affair died. I just stopped using my iPad, and it seemed silly to hold on to it for the rare occasions I did pull it out. I grew frustrated with the onscreen keyboard (I'm addicted to Swype-like keyboards on Android), found that there really aren't very many more useful apps on Apple now compared to Android, and just still didn't like the more closed-off Apple OS. This isn't the first time that I tried to be an Apple convert and failed. I'm really not an Apple hater, their products just don't seem to be for me.
But, I still want a tablet, and I'm honestly not all that crazy about Android offerings either. I have considered one of the Nexus tablets, and I like my son's tablet fine, but I find myself wanting to do most of what my laptop can on a tablet, and neither Apple nor Android really fits that bill for me. I have a small Kindle Fire right now (only because I got it on a great Cyber Monday deal), and I like the way it works so nicely with my Amazon Prime account. It also has the best speaker system of any tablet I've tried thus far. But, still, I can't quite seem to find that tablet that really feels like it's meant to be mine.
The funny thing is, I've behaved similarly with other electronics products, always wanting to upgrade to the latest and greatest until I finally find the ONE device that just totally seems to fit my wants.
I went through an almost-DSLR and an entry-level Nikon DSLR before I fell in love with the Nikon D90 (the first DSLR to have video recording as well, which I found was the feature I was missing with my other DSLR, while being disappointed in the picture quality from my "almost DSLR" before that). I still have my Nikon D90 four years later, the longest I have kept and consistently used ANY digital camera. And, amazingly, I don't have plans to replace it anytime soon.
Similarly, I was on a once a year upgrade streak with smartphones until my Galaxy S3. I bought a version of the original Galaxy S phone simply because I needed to upgrade from Windows Mobile and thought I would need a slide-out keyboard to live with a capacitive touch smartphone. Once I fell in love with Swype, I found I didn't need that and longed for a slimmer phone and a little larger screen. Enter the Galaxy S2. But, I had GPS signal issues with that phone and it just didn't have any features that "wowed" me. So, I upgraded as soon as I could to the Galaxy S3 and passed the S2 down to my husband. There are newer phones out now, but I still like my screen size better than the iPhone 5 (still too small, and despite what Apple claims, I CAN operate my Galaxy S3 with one hand, oh, yeah, and still no good keyboard customization options on Apple nor could I swap out a battery easily when needed if I had an iPhone), and better than the Note 2 (too big to fit my hand - I am a girl, after all). So, I am finally happy, which is good, because this time I really need to wait out my 2-year contract!
Back to my tablet dilemma. Which really isn't a huge dilemma of course, because I have yet to identify a real NEED in my life for a tablet. But, I want one, and another birthday is right around the corner. Plus, I've justified the expense by selling lots of stuff on eBay and recouping nearly all I've spent on said electronics products that I didn't keep. So, now I'm considering a Windows 8 tablet. I've only played with Windows 8 minimally. I decided not to upgrade my Windows 7 laptop. From my research, it really looks like Windows 8 is a great Tablet OS that has the added bonus of being able to run real desktop programs (so note that I am NOT considering Windows RT). I think that may be the puzzle piece that has been missing from my tablet experiences.
So, I've narrowed it down to two choices: the Microsoft Surface Pro and the Asus Vivatab Smart. I think the Microsoft Surface Pro could be an actual laptop replacement, but it is so expensive! The Asus Vivatab Smart seems like the perfect compromise on price versus performance, but I'm afraid I'm missing something and may be displeased.
So, any techies out there want to give me some advice? If so, thanks in advance!
