I'm officially in NC. I'll be living in a hotel for the next month. I don't really want a laptop since I dontneed to do any real work on one. My phone is a bit small. I was thinking the ipadmini 2 or the Microsoft surface 2

The latter cab open window docs, flash, etc

It will only be used for email, surfing the net, books, netflix. More of an entertainment device

 

kindle fire hdx. pocket the extra $150-200 dollars or buy two.

 

Nexus 7 FHD

 

Nexus 7

They just came out with an updated version. Prior to this it was still THE 7" tablet to buy, now it's just a landslide.

 

Ok, so kindle fire hdx, or new nexus 7? I've heard the hdx is quite powerful.

 

Same screen specs, Fire HDX has slightly faster proc, Nexus 7 has way, way, way better OS situation (and much better future-proofing) unless you really want to bother rooting and roming the Fire.

 

Review suggests that hdx sounds better when playing music. That will be another large user Iheartradio app

 

...do you often play music on a small device without connecting speakers?

I'm buying a new Dell Venue 8 Pro but only because I DO need to get work done.

Otherwise, the new Nexus 7 is awesome, and the Kindles are great. The iPad is pretty and shiny and slick, but way too $$$ IMO.

Do you plan to play games or use other apps? If so, get the Nexus.

 

I would never buy a Kindle Fire. All the disadvantages of android (over iOS) combined with the disadvantages of an iOS-like walled garden.

 

No games, now I'm liking at the hdx 8.9"

I listen to music through my phone speaker quite often. It's not ideal, but gets the job done.

 

Nexus 7 of the Thrive I'm selling

 

I have a previous gen Nexus 7, I plan to buy the new one when I eventually kill this one.

Do not, under any circumstances, buy a Lenovo Helix. We bought one to play with here at the office and it arrived with a screwed up HDD. Lenovo took 2 weeks to fix it and return it. It worked for another 3 weeks and the battery in the tablet portion died for no apparent reason. Its been 4 weeks and they still haven't returned it. Worst $1,800 tablet EVER.

 

I don't really "get" the Surface series. The WinRT versions are priced right, but application support just isn't there and probably never will be. The Pro versions would be great for "serious" tablet computing, though "tablet" apps are going to be scare for it and the price is hard to justify as compared to comparably-sized offerings in the iThing or Android families.

 

If you like the Surface, look into the Asus EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepad Transformers.

 

I have seriously watched my VP walk into an OPS meeting and slap his E-***** device on the table to make everyone Ooo & Ahh, but even he admits they are not optimized for a legit workspace. We bought tablets for our Marketing and Sales departments and they sit in desks and never use them for anything anymore, because a purely tablet format has no utility in the workplace over a laptop.

I think these "Surface" type machines are trying to bridge that gap between tablet and laptop and move into that market segment. Its content development vs content consumption.

 

A friend of mine has one of these, and it is quite nice.

 

AHhh yes.

The one that sits in the drawer while the wife uses her iPad.

 

surface pro 2 is intended to be a one-thing-for-all-purposes device that will replace your tablet, laptop, and desktop. It is spec'd as if it were a mid-high range ultrabook.

Docking Station for Surface Pro

for most consumers, there's no need to buy a faster desktop machine.

 

Loved my Transformer, but now that I've gotten what I really wanted (a touch screen laptop) it will probably be reserved to my poopin-mt.net-reader.

 

Sell it to me for cheaps!