To me a tablet has a place and it sits right in between the phone and the laptop/desktop. I won't ever not have a phone with me so it doesn't have to replicate that experience and I do too much heavy lifting on my laptop to ever replace it with a tablet. It's for those times I want a bigger screen for media consumption and general browsing / goofing around.
The sweet spot for me is about 7"-8" size. My old BlackBerry Playbook is just about perfect if it weren't so slow and the browser so useless in 2020. The battery life is good, the speakers awesome and the display is pretty decent too. Plenty of games and great for playing downloaded videos.
I found an HP Pro Tablet 608 G1 on eBay for about $90. Given the excellent condition, there is really hardly much to complain about. The build is nice, just a hair too large but acceptable tradeoff for the slightly bigger screen.
The display is nice but overkill I think. Side-by-side with a 1024x600 device, the difference is noticeable. But the smaller resolution screen looks perfectly fine by my eyes if the HP weren't standing next to it. The HP could have easily done with "just" a regular 1080p screen.
The audio is barely passable. Sure it gets loud enough but it lacks a lot of depth. I'd be embarrassed to play this out loud in public.
I chose to operate Windows 10 in Tablet mode. It is not bad I think. It feels just a touch laggy compared to any of my "real" tablets but I can put up with it given that I get access to the "full" Windows experience. The on-screen keyboard is somehow … not that good. One of the worse ones I've used but sort of acceptable.
Battery life is so-so. Initially it was horrible but I tracked it down to some misbehaving software for my NAS. In very light usage, it can go for days between charges so it is borderline acceptable. It is clearly no match for any iPad (even the original) or my Playbook.
Other than battery life, my only real complaint is when I'm not using it as a tablet. I mean when it's just lying around, it takes a good 30 s to start up so it's not really that conducive to my tablet usage mode. The battery life is also a weakness, I always have to wonder if I should charge it up just so it is ready the next time I pick it up.
On the other hand, it's small enough to pack on a trip and guaranteed I can do whatever I need to do using this device as long as I'm never too far from a charger.
I think I'm still looking for that "perfect" tablet.
The sweet spot for me is about 7"-8" size. My old BlackBerry Playbook is just about perfect if it weren't so slow and the browser so useless in 2020. The battery life is good, the speakers awesome and the display is pretty decent too. Plenty of games and great for playing downloaded videos.
I found an HP Pro Tablet 608 G1 on eBay for about $90. Given the excellent condition, there is really hardly much to complain about. The build is nice, just a hair too large but acceptable tradeoff for the slightly bigger screen.
The display is nice but overkill I think. Side-by-side with a 1024x600 device, the difference is noticeable. But the smaller resolution screen looks perfectly fine by my eyes if the HP weren't standing next to it. The HP could have easily done with "just" a regular 1080p screen.
The audio is barely passable. Sure it gets loud enough but it lacks a lot of depth. I'd be embarrassed to play this out loud in public.
I chose to operate Windows 10 in Tablet mode. It is not bad I think. It feels just a touch laggy compared to any of my "real" tablets but I can put up with it given that I get access to the "full" Windows experience. The on-screen keyboard is somehow … not that good. One of the worse ones I've used but sort of acceptable.
Battery life is so-so. Initially it was horrible but I tracked it down to some misbehaving software for my NAS. In very light usage, it can go for days between charges so it is borderline acceptable. It is clearly no match for any iPad (even the original) or my Playbook.
Other than battery life, my only real complaint is when I'm not using it as a tablet. I mean when it's just lying around, it takes a good 30 s to start up so it's not really that conducive to my tablet usage mode. The battery life is also a weakness, I always have to wonder if I should charge it up just so it is ready the next time I pick it up.
On the other hand, it's small enough to pack on a trip and guaranteed I can do whatever I need to do using this device as long as I'm never too far from a charger.
I think I'm still looking for that "perfect" tablet.
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