Decent tablet for under $500?

[04Stefan07 (Stefan)]

Originally Posted by AG Hybrid

That's because its a Microsoft Surface.

I purchased one. It's actually a pretty decent tablet for what I use it for. Plus I can access my home storage hard drive on the network and runs perfectly.

For this price it's a steal!

[04Stefan07 (Stefan)]

Originally Posted by MortonH

Ended up buying a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1" as my money was running low. Got it for $290 at Bing Lee and added a 32GB card for extra capacity.

It's a bit underpowered (only dual core) but fine for what I need. Works well for e-mags and books so I'll taking it on my forthcoming work trip to India. Stellarium looks very nice on it too.

Nice! Not bad tablets at all, I have had a play around with it and it's decent.

[AG Hybrid (Adrian)]

Originally Posted by MortonH

Ended up buying a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1" as my money was running low. Got it for $290 at Bing Lee and added a 32GB card for extra capacity.

It's a bit underpowered (only dual core) but fine for what I need. Works well for e-mags and books so I'll taking it on my forthcoming work trip to India. Stellarium looks very nice on it too.

Got my mother one of those. Only it was version 2 not 3. She loves it. Its a lot of tablet for an inexpensive price.

[MortonH]

After spending two weeks overseas for work, I can't imagine life without a tablet now! I took it almost everywhere. I love reading magazines on it - definitely glad I went for a 10" screen. And it's great to be able to buy mags online whenever you feel like it.

Not so sure about reading books on it. For long reading sessions I still prefer the dead tree version at the moment.

Haven't used it for astro in the field yet, but playing with Stellarium seems promising.

[mbaddah (Mo)]

Another great tablet for under $500 is the Toshiba Encore. It's an 8" tablet which runs FULL version of Windows 8.1

[Glenhuon (Bill)]

Had a look at a few tablets, mostly ones that are brought to me by owners who want it repaired. That's what makes me avoid them, if they play up/die, they are uneconomic to repair most times. Much rather stick to me little laptop, at least I can take it apart and fix it if required. Chucking a $400 purchase in the bin goes against me little Scots heart.
I use an Acer Aspire One for astronomy, has Win7 installed, runs anything I want to throw at it, gives me 4 hours+ running on battery, and is no bigger than a 10" tablet, with the added advantage of a real keyboard.
Might end up with a tablet eventually, but, "Not today"

[MrB (Simon)]

Originally Posted by Glenhuon

I use an Acer Aspire One for astronomy, has Win7 installed, runs anything I want to throw at it, gives me 4 hours+ running on battery, and is no bigger than a 10" tablet, with the added advantage of a real keyboard.
Might end up with a tablet eventually, but, "Not today"

Like you I have a netbook for field-astro use, the 10" HP Pavilion dm-1.
It's a couple of years old now but still kicking strong. Has Win7 Home Premium, three USB ports, 8Gig of Ram and a half decent CPU(AMD E-450, not an Atom!).
It's almost a real laptop in mini-form, without the pricetag and short battery life of an ultrabook.
I can run Cartes du Ciel, ASCOM platform, PHD guiding and APT(Astrophotography Tool) all at the same time, and also surf the net while its all running.
I get about 8 hours from the battery with management.
All that for about $400, one of the best purchases I've ever made.

BUT... I still really like the idea of having a 'pocket sized'(ha!) tablet for flicking thru the backlog of astro mags I have, and for the multitude of android apps available.
Been looking at the new Nexus 7 for quite a while but just haven't been able to commit due to the screen size. If it was 8" I'd be sold.

[Glenhuon (Bill)]

Mine cost me less than $100. Got it from a lady here after the screen went Psycadelic while still under warranty, the shop wouldn't fix it and gave her a voucher for another instead. I swapped her for a couple of bags of rock crystals I had lying about. $70 for a screen, 10 min replacement job. Works great

[MrB (Simon)]

Typing this post on my new Nexus7 that I got today.
Just charged it up and got the Google account info sorted.
Must say I'm pretty happy with it so far, tho I do have to get rid of the `tick` sound when typing!

Edit: By the way, got it for $284 at Good Guys, about $50 cheaper than the other stockists I checked.
Sale ends on the 27th apparently.

[04Stefan07 (Stefan)]

First gen Surface Pro 128GB are cheap now!

Use one for work and is fantastic. Full Windows 8 and is bloody fast.

http://www.jbhifi.com.au/computers/t...-8-sku-355585/

Need to stretch the budget another $200 but well worth it.