I am pleased to report my iPad is dying and I need to replace it. Hence I am here to ask for a little information from your knowledge bank.
What are your recomendations and why??
Cutting to the chase -
* I am not considering another iPad as I have never liked the one I have.
* We do not want to pay an arm and a leg for one.
Kind regards
Susan
Blues Man said
12:09 PM Feb 20, 2021
Hi Susan , if you continue to travel , it has definitely has to be a laptop or a tablet of some kind .
Cheers Pat.
Dougwe said
12:34 PM Feb 20, 2021
Being out in the playground full time I have a Laptop and Smartphone. Has worked well for me.
Radar said
01:02 PM Feb 20, 2021
Simply_Susan wrote:
Hi guy's,
I am pleased to report my iPad is dying and I need to replace it. Hence I am here to ask for a little information from your knowledge bank.
What are your recomendations and why??
Cutting to the chase -
* I am not considering another iPad as I have never liked the one I have.
* We do not want to pay an arm and a leg for one.
Kind regards
Susan
Hi Susan, we have the 3.
Now I really like the Android Tablet system for it's portable convenience, it's viewing size (10" Samsung), ease of reading maps when using it to find destinations. Hotspotted to our phone for data, awesome but it is an extra luxury to have. Cost around $300.
Now the laptop is peace of mind. We manage our finance, private going on, down load our photos to edit and store, must have for dealing with the government and financial security. We hotspot that to the phone data. We like to use it to talk on Skype to our family.
Smartphone will do it all but that small screen for us seniors can be had work. We are upgrading our second phone at the moment and it will be a modern but not a super dopper one as it going to do all we need, is going to cost around $400
If I was to give one up it would be the tablet but we own it and when this one wears out, will see.
I do not like having a i phone mixing with Android and Microsoft systems, when a chance comes about the iphone will go, we find it hard work with down loading photos and keeping records in date order.
There is my senior take on it.
-- Edited by Radar on Saturday 20th of February 2021 01:13:10 PM
Mike Harding said
01:09 PM Feb 20, 2021
I use both a laptop and a tablet extensively.
My laptop is a Lenovo 15" screen, high end thingie ($1100)and is used for things such as:
Video editing
Serious writing - with a wireless keyboard and mouse
Large data storage, audio, information and such
Serious mapping work
In short it's used as a computer.
My main tablet is a 10" Lenovo (coincidence, Lenovo is not special) with 128GB memory ($160)and is used for:
Wiki camps
Mapping software
Light astronomy stuff
Light web surfing
Backgammon and Cribbage
And similar "messing around" stuff
I find both of them to be very useful and would replace either immediately if they failed.
I also have a 10" old XP computer which I use for writing - it has great battery life, is small and light with a good keyboard, it sits easily on my lap and very convenient, 'twill be a sad day when that fails.
Edit: typo
-- Edited by Mike Harding on Saturday 20th of February 2021 01:10:52 PM
Simply_Susan said
01:12 PM Feb 20, 2021
-- Edited by Simply_Susan on Saturday 20th of February 2021 01:13:21 PM
Tony LEE said
01:42 PM Feb 20, 2021
Laptop sits at home with the tablet on top.
Everything I need to do can be done on my phone.
Garmin also sits home with the laptop
Possum3 said
02:02 PM Feb 20, 2021
Samsung tablet - useless non-user friendly.
Samsung Galaxy S20 phone (had to buy owing to NBN stuff-up) OK to use in majority of cases except home - no signal.
HP lap-top great easy to use.
Really only need the HP but then no phone.
All expensive technology, cost a fortune to keep on air.
Susan, only need phone - if you can read screen without glasses - (I don't normally need/use glasses).
PeterD said
03:09 PM Feb 20, 2021
I have an ASUS laptop with a detachable screen that doubles up as an Android tablet (11" screen.) I thought the tablet would be handy but I gave up using the tablet as it was much better using the keyboard and the Win8 system. I may have given it more of a try if I had my Samsung A31 way back then.
I now have an HP laptop with an SSD drive for the operating system and a 1 GHz hard drive. I can store much more data on that than I could with a tablet. I keep it synchronised with my home desktop so I have a good backup system. Laptop screens are more compact these days, the 14" of viewable screen is the same total area as the older 13" models so you can get a good size screen that is not much bigger than a tablet. The keyboard is much easier to use than the on-screen excuse for a keyboard.
Plain Truth said
04:26 PM Feb 20, 2021
We must be Luddites,no computer,no TV, no smart phone,no tablet.
All we have is a an old Nokia pre - paid flip-top phone.Hema road map of Australia,Camps Australia 9.
Traveling in the Victoria High Country we take Spatial Vision's,North East or South East map book.
We are never bored, and have met some friendly people who we still meet up with at least once a year for a great get together.The KISS principal.
If we were traveling full time we would have to make changes,that would be a new learning curve.
Greystone said
04:53 PM Feb 20, 2021
Before retirement I ran an IT business and was very much into the latest and greatest of PCs and laptops. Since then I haven't touched a PC, but I've been using a Samsung 8 inch tablet to do everything I used to do on a PC. Banking, mail, watching movies, shopping, editting photos, reading etc. It also serves as my GPS navigator. I keep a second tablet as a clone for backup. My phone is a simple one, as it's only used for its intended purpose; making or receiving calls.
Warren-Pat_01 said
10:30 PM Feb 20, 2021
x2 Radar
Whenarewethere said
11:46 PM Feb 20, 2021
What about an Asus PN40 & monitor. I set one up for a friend, plenty good enough other than for 3d rendering.
When traveling I just use the phone. For photo editing I wait till I get home. All my stuff is extremely long in the tooth now as I don't need it for work anymore.
2 x 30" + 24" monitors. Use a Mac for everything except 3d rendering & have a small render farm using PCs.
Never had a tablet. Did have a laptop once, but it just didn't have enough real estate for my liking.
Simply_Susan said
12:27 AM Feb 21, 2021
OK I must be doing something wrong as I can't find where I can respond to you people individually. Grrrrr
We are so appreciative of you taking the time to respond and help us make a better informed decission.
Bluesman - Yep we are going to need something I agree. Thank you
Dougwe.- For me I am not phone savvy, hence wanting a bigger screen area.
Radra - I so agree about screen size.
Mike Harding -That all makes perfect sense. However, the Lenovo tablets ATM are not getting good reviews but I love the price.
Tony LEE- we are really quite computer savvy but have never bothered about mobiles and even today only have them because we feel you are forced into having them. We would love nothing more than t hit the road and be difficult to discover by the madding world.
Possum3 - Now the glasses issue that is another problem.
PeterD - the only reason for the tablet is to use in car and for maps and wiki amps. We both have laptops which I hardly use when away as there are so much more things to do than be chained to a computer screen.
Plain Truth- Absolutely love the idea but then there is storage space.
Greystone - You find 8 inches is enough viewing space?
Mike Harding said
08:31 AM Feb 21, 2021
I suggest you ignore reviews of such items unless they highlight massive and recurring problems.
Lenovo produce millions of tablets and computers; such manufacturers cannot afford to have even a 1% failure rate - they know what they are doing and do it well.
I have owned the Lenovo tablet for about three months with no issues and my Lenovo computer for about three years, again, no issues.
Just avoid the cheap no brand Chinese stuff and all will be good. Ensure your tablet has 2GB+ of RAM and 16GB+ of storage flash memory *AND* ensure it has a SD card slot will will recognise a SD card of at least 128GB. Buy the SD card (a 10 speed rating) and a cover from e-bay. I suggest a 10"+ display (1280x800) unless you need a smaller unit.
TheHeaths said
09:47 AM Feb 21, 2021
Just to add to the confusion, use our laptop at home (Lenovo) and find it fine, but when away in the van, use my iPad with a Logitech K480 stand with keypad that it sits in. I find it really good, and fits better in the van environment.
Easy to store, easy to charge, allows me to use for photos if I wish, and saves having 2 or 3 items away.
Whenarewethere said
10:12 AM Feb 21, 2021
I have quite a few CF, SD & micro cards. Mostly bought from a camera shop in New York since about 2005. The price difference these days is not as great as buying locally.
The high speed cards do make a difference if you are moving a lot of data, like 100gb of photos. Have always bought SanDisk & have never had a problem.
Gundog said
12:13 PM Feb 21, 2021
I have a laptop, Tablet, and a mobile phone for my partner in Crime.
Starting with the phone just got a new Samsung Galaxy A11, at $10 a month device repayment for 24 month and a special deal $65pm for unlimited call, texts with 180gb.
The Tablet is a Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.5 its 2 years old and just off contract, may upgraded it to the new Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 @ $22pm.
My laptop is a Toshiba I will keep it untill it dies, it has a 19" screen, dual hard drives, Tv tuner, its 64bit but is limited a bit with max 8gb RAM.
I owned a Ipad and hated the bloody thing too many restrictions, had for about 3 months and gave to my grand son, returned to using my origional tabled a Toshiba Thrive.
Greystone said
04:49 PM Feb 21, 2021
Simply_Susan, yes, I find 8 inch adequate for reading, including navigation. It's size fits easily in my hand, which is important when I'm skyping. It's also light so my dashboard bracket is not strained and it has not yet fallen off even on rough tracks. Its smaller size also does not block the view across the car windscreen. I have fitted the tablet screen with non glare film, which eliminates reflections. It has a 128GB SD card memory which holds all my books, music, photos and offline maps.
msg said
07:11 PM Feb 21, 2021
I have a basic phone for making and receiving telephone calls only.
A Samsung tablet, main use is reading and storage of books, wiki Camps
Laptop used for banking purposes. Transferring photos from phone, tablet and camera
Hard disk with lots of movies that plugs into TV and also backup storage for photos.
Garman GPS
GME hands free radio.
Wifi wireless connection that I know nothing about how it works son installed. All devices can be connected to internet when required. The wifi aerial can also be used for the phone thus extending range of my basic phone.
Looking at that list, maybe its time to consolidate.
-- Edited by msg on Sunday 21st of February 2021 07:14:33 PM
Bicyclecamper said
11:37 PM Feb 21, 2021
Both my wife and I bought an Harvey Noman laptop each both under $600 each, we always do buy there for the cheapies. Mine is the second one That has now lasted 5 years, my wife's is 3 year old. good brands, good memory, except mine an ASUS the lettering has worn off the keys, so is a bit of a guessing game for 2 finger typing as to what the letters are, hence my editing on this forum all the time. I was going to get a tablet for touring with the camper, for movies, but I think I will stick to the laptop for this as well.
Nevd said
02:51 PM Feb 22, 2021
I have a phone as first preference for the obvious reasons of phone calls, mapping and apps I use regularly. Use a laptop because I still work when on the road, but when retired I will keep the laptop for the following reasons -
- With a keyboard it's a lot quicker for me to type - eg for responding to greynomads forums.
- It's easier to do transactional stuff like banking, paying bills, and writing correspondence,
- I find emails better easier to read & reply to with a laptop,
- I personally like to use a mouse - find it much quicker & more intuitive,
- I find the flows in Windows easier than on a phone - eg facebook is much easier to get around in,
- There's usually more storage on a laptop for photos, movies etc,
- The screen is bigger so I can watch the footy or other sports and see the detail (Really important!).
The preferences probably boil down to what you're comfortable with. My kids who were brought up using smartphone may be comfortable with just a phone or tablet.
StewG said
03:47 PM Feb 22, 2021
My choice is Laptop and phone. The laptop for the big screen, email, forums (fora) and ease of using the keyboard, and the phone for phone, GPS maps and camera. We have a 4G mobile broadband modem/router to get internet. It's a relief when we are out of range of phone/internet...ha ha.
Simply_Susan said
08:48 AM Mar 1, 2021
OK time to say a BIG thank you for all the help and guidence I received for my fellow Grey Nomads.
Issue has been solved. I picked up a Samsung A7 tablet for $250.00, problem solved.
One happy camper in this house.
Take care all and as Roy Rogers said "Happy trails "
Hi guy's,
I am pleased to report my iPad is dying and I need to replace it. Hence I am here to ask for a little information from your knowledge bank.
What are your recomendations and why??
Cutting to the chase -
* I am not considering another iPad as I have never liked the one I have.
* We do not want to pay an arm and a leg for one.
Kind regards
Susan
Hi Susan , if you continue to travel , it has definitely has to be a laptop or a tablet of some kind .
Cheers Pat.
Hi Susan, we have the 3.
Now I really like the Android Tablet system for it's portable convenience, it's viewing size (10" Samsung), ease of reading maps when using it to find destinations. Hotspotted to our phone for data, awesome but it is an extra luxury to have. Cost around $300.
Now the laptop is peace of mind. We manage our finance, private going on, down load our photos to edit and store, must have for dealing with the government and financial security. We hotspot that to the phone data. We like to use it to talk on Skype to our family.
Smartphone will do it all but that small screen for us seniors can be had work. We are upgrading our second phone at the moment and it will be a modern but not a super dopper one as it going to do all we need, is going to cost around $400
If I was to give one up it would be the tablet but we own it and when this one wears out, will see.
I do not like having a i phone mixing with Android and Microsoft systems, when a chance comes about the iphone will go, we find it hard work with down loading photos and keeping records in date order.
There is my senior take on it.
-- Edited by Radar on Saturday 20th of February 2021 01:13:10 PM
I use both a laptop and a tablet extensively.
My laptop is a Lenovo 15" screen, high end thingie ($1100)and is used for things such as:
Video editing
Serious writing - with a wireless keyboard and mouse
Large data storage, audio, information and such
Serious mapping work
In short it's used as a computer.
My main tablet is a 10" Lenovo (coincidence, Lenovo is not special) with 128GB memory ($160)and is used for:
Wiki camps
Mapping software
Light astronomy stuff
Light web surfing
Backgammon and Cribbage
And similar "messing around" stuff
I find both of them to be very useful and would replace either immediately if they failed.
I also have a 10" old XP computer which I use for writing - it has great battery life, is small and light with a good keyboard, it sits easily on my lap and very convenient, 'twill be a sad day when that fails.
Edit: typo
-- Edited by Mike Harding on Saturday 20th of February 2021 01:10:52 PM
-- Edited by Simply_Susan on Saturday 20th of February 2021 01:13:21 PM
Samsung Galaxy S20 phone (had to buy owing to NBN stuff-up) OK to use in majority of cases except home - no signal.
HP lap-top great easy to use.
Really only need the HP but then no phone.
All expensive technology, cost a fortune to keep on air.
Susan, only need phone - if you can read screen without glasses - (I don't normally need/use glasses).
I now have an HP laptop with an SSD drive for the operating system and a 1 GHz hard drive. I can store much more data on that than I could with a tablet. I keep it synchronised with my home desktop so I have a good backup system. Laptop screens are more compact these days, the 14" of viewable screen is the same total area as the older 13" models so you can get a good size screen that is not much bigger than a tablet. The keyboard is much easier to use than the on-screen excuse for a keyboard.
We must be Luddites,no computer,no TV, no smart phone,no tablet.
All we have is a an old Nokia pre - paid flip-top phone.Hema road map of Australia,Camps Australia 9.
Traveling in the Victoria High Country we take Spatial Vision's,North East or South East map book.
We are never bored, and have met some friendly people who we still meet up with at least once a year for a great get together.The KISS principal.
If we were traveling full time we would have to make changes,that would be a new learning curve.
What about an Asus PN40 & monitor. I set one up for a friend, plenty good enough other than for 3d rendering.
When traveling I just use the phone. For photo editing I wait till I get home. All my stuff is extremely long in the tooth now as I don't need it for work anymore.
2 x 30" + 24" monitors. Use a Mac for everything except 3d rendering & have a small render farm using PCs.
Never had a tablet. Did have a laptop once, but it just didn't have enough real estate for my liking.
OK I must be doing something wrong as I can't find where I can respond to you people individually. Grrrrr
We are so appreciative of you taking the time to respond and help us make a better informed decission.
Bluesman - Yep we are going to need something I agree. Thank you
Dougwe.- For me I am not phone savvy, hence wanting a bigger screen area.
Radra - I so agree about screen size.
Mike Harding -That all makes perfect sense. However, the Lenovo tablets ATM are not getting good reviews but I love the price.
Tony LEE- we are really quite computer savvy but have never bothered about mobiles and even today only have them because we feel you are forced into having them. We would love nothing more than t hit the road and be difficult to discover by the madding world.
Possum3 - Now the glasses issue that is another problem
.
PeterD - the only reason for the tablet is to use in car and for maps and wiki amps. We both have laptops which I hardly use when away as there are so much more things to do than be chained to a computer screen.
Plain Truth- Absolutely love the idea but then there is storage space.
Greystone - You find 8 inches is enough viewing space?
I suggest you ignore reviews of such items unless they highlight massive and recurring problems.
Lenovo produce millions of tablets and computers; such manufacturers cannot afford to have even a 1% failure rate - they know what they are doing and do it well.
I have owned the Lenovo tablet for about three months with no issues and my Lenovo computer for about three years, again, no issues.
Just avoid the cheap no brand Chinese stuff and all will be good. Ensure your tablet has 2GB+ of RAM and 16GB+ of storage flash memory *AND* ensure it has a SD card slot will will recognise a SD card of at least 128GB. Buy the SD card (a 10 speed rating) and a cover from e-bay. I suggest a 10"+ display (1280x800) unless you need a smaller unit.
Easy to store, easy to charge, allows me to use for photos if I wish, and saves having 2 or 3 items away.
I have quite a few CF, SD & micro cards. Mostly bought from a camera shop in New York since about 2005. The price difference these days is not as great as buying locally.
The high speed cards do make a difference if you are moving a lot of data, like 100gb of photos. Have always bought SanDisk & have never had a problem.
I have a laptop, Tablet, and a mobile phone for my partner in Crime.
Starting with the phone just got a new Samsung Galaxy A11, at $10 a month device repayment for 24 month and a special deal $65pm for unlimited call, texts with 180gb.
The Tablet is a Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.5 its 2 years old and just off contract, may upgraded it to the new Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 @ $22pm.
My laptop is a Toshiba I will keep it untill it dies, it has a 19" screen, dual hard drives, Tv tuner, its 64bit but is limited a bit with max 8gb RAM.
I owned a Ipad and hated the bloody thing too many restrictions, had for about 3 months and gave to my grand son, returned to using my origional tabled a Toshiba Thrive.
I have a basic phone for making and receiving telephone calls only.
A Samsung tablet, main use is reading and storage of books, wiki Camps
Laptop used for banking purposes. Transferring photos from phone, tablet and camera
Hard disk with lots of movies that plugs into TV and also backup storage for photos.
Garman GPS
GME hands free radio.
Wifi wireless connection that I know nothing about how it works son installed. All devices can be connected to internet when required. The wifi aerial can also be used for the phone thus extending range of my basic phone.
Looking at that list, maybe its time to consolidate.
-- Edited by msg on Sunday 21st of February 2021 07:14:33 PM
I have a phone as first preference for the obvious reasons of phone calls, mapping and apps I use regularly. Use a laptop because I still work when on the road, but when retired I will keep the laptop for the following reasons -
- With a keyboard it's a lot quicker for me to type - eg for responding to greynomads forums.
- It's easier to do transactional stuff like banking, paying bills, and writing correspondence,
- I find emails better easier to read & reply to with a laptop,
- I personally like to use a mouse - find it much quicker & more intuitive,
- I find the flows in Windows easier than on a phone - eg facebook is much easier to get around in,
- There's usually more storage on a laptop for photos, movies etc,
- The screen is bigger so I can watch the footy or other sports and see the detail (Really important!).
The preferences probably boil down to what you're comfortable with. My kids who were brought up using smartphone may be comfortable with just a phone or tablet.
Issue has been solved. I picked up a Samsung A7 tablet for $250.00, problem solved.
One happy camper in this house.
Take care all and as Roy Rogers said "Happy trails "
Susan