Which tablet c. £100?

djspecialist

Following this thread.

I'd like to get a tablet for reading song sheets at rehearsals.  I have all mine in a Google Drive folder and work in the tech industry ... and yet for some reason I keep hauling a great big ring binder to every music session! 

I need something with a big (10-12 inch) screen, but cheap (so I don't cry if it falls off the music stand).

randella

dchwhite said:

Thanks everybody for all the advice.

He ended up going for the Lenovo 10" for £120 at Argos - happy enough with it so far

Tablets are the sort of thing I dreamt of when I was a kid, like some space age trinket George Lucas might have tricked up on a film set. 

Now they're selling them in Argos for 120 quid. That looks like unbelievable value. 

scrumhalf

I've had a Lenovo S8 for a while now, and for bog standard stuff when I've been on my travels and haven't brought a laptop with me it's fine. I'm using it now as an emergency ebook reader until I buy a dedicated device.

As is the case with so many things, pop along to hotukdeals and set up an alert to get notifications of potential bargains.

Grumpyrocker

revsorg said:

I had exactly this problem.  I soldiered on with my Hudl2 replacing the battery twice and a broken screen once.  But it eventually just slowed to a crawl and the battery life was terrible.

So in July this year I bought a Kindle Fire HD 8 tablet on special offer for just £49.99.

I've found it very interesting what I won and lost on the move from the Hudl2:

- You have to buy all your apps again on the Amazon store because the Google Play store isn't on there.  I imagine it's possible to overcome this somehow but I can't be bothered.

- Google Play doesn't work on the Fire so any purchases you've made of TV, films or music don't work.

- Weirdly my UE Boom Bluetooth speakers won't work with the Fire because it uses some other kind of Bluetooth.  Other Bluetooth speakers might not be a problem but if you own any you'd want to check.

- The sound quality is sufficient to watch a TV program or film - you get stereo sound that isn't great but is better than the Hudl2.

- The best thing about the Fire HD 8 is the battery life.  I can now go a couple of days between charges and I use it every day.

My one warning about Amazon devices is to consider what you lose if you currently rely on things you've purchased through Google Play.

It takes just five minutes to install Google onto an Amazon Fire HD8. I did it with mine. You don't need to buy your stuff again from Amazon. Once you have Google Services and Store on the HD8 it's like using any normal Android device, albeit still having to use the Amazon front end (you can install another launcher, but it's a bit of a faff using it).

My kids have Hudl2 and if they got pop I'll get them a HD8.  And just put the Google stuff on it.

Here's how to Google up an Amazon tablet - http://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2017/06/09/how-to-install-google-play-on-2017-fire-tablets-in-5-minutes/

crunchman

djspecialist said:

Following this thread.

I'd like to get a tablet for reading song sheets at rehearsals.  I have all mine in a Google Drive folder and work in the tech industry ... and yet for some reason I keep hauling a great big ring binder to every music session! 

I need something with a big (10-12 inch) screen, but cheap (so I don't cry if it falls off the music stand).

We bought some cheap £60 tablets from Amazon for my church for this.  Battery life isn't great, but they work fine for that.  Don't need mega screen resolution, and don't need lots of processing power.

When we bought those, the cheapest 10" tablets on Amazon were around £45, but the reviews on them were awful.  Once you get to around £60 or £70 they seem to be ok.  If you want to use it for anything other than this, it's probably worth spending £50 more to get something a bit better though.

Grumpyrocker

By the way the Fire HD8 has enough oomph to run Minecraft smoothly. Which is the bar I set for a tablet for kids.

underdog

Grumpyrocker said:

revsorg said:

I had exactly this problem.  I soldiered on with my Hudl2 replacing the battery twice and a broken screen once.  But it eventually just slowed to a crawl and the battery life was terrible.

So in July this year I bought a Kindle Fire HD 8 tablet on special offer for just £49.99.

I've found it very interesting what I won and lost on the move from the Hudl2:

- You have to buy all your apps again on the Amazon store because the Google Play store isn't on there.  I imagine it's possible to overcome this somehow but I can't be bothered.

- Google Play doesn't work on the Fire so any purchases you've made of TV, films or music don't work.

- Weirdly my UE Boom Bluetooth speakers won't work with the Fire because it uses some other kind of Bluetooth.  Other Bluetooth speakers might not be a problem but if you own any you'd want to check.

- The sound quality is sufficient to watch a TV program or film - you get stereo sound that isn't great but is better than the Hudl2.

- The best thing about the Fire HD 8 is the battery life.  I can now go a couple of days between charges and I use it every day.

My one warning about Amazon devices is to consider what you lose if you currently rely on things you've purchased through Google Play.

It takes just five minutes to install Google onto an Amazon Fire HD8. I did it with mine. You don't need to buy your stuff again from Amazon. Once you have Google Services and Store on the HD8 it's like using any normal Android device, albeit still having to use the Amazon front end (you can install another launcher, but it's a bit of a faff using it).

My kids have Hudl2 and if they got pop I'll get them a HD8.  And just put the Google stuff on it.

Here's how to Google up an Amazon tablet - http://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2017/06/09/how-to-install-google-play-on-2017-fire-tablets-in-5-minutes/

Thanks for that post, my sons hudl 2 is needing replacing (USB port dodgy, screen dead in some places) and the only thing putting me off one of the Amazon offerings was no google play (and so no access to all the games he owns). Big thank you @Grumpyrocker ;

Flink_Poyd

I've just gone through the death of a Hudl2, *sobs*. I'm looking at the Fire HD 8 from Currys which is £50 at the mo. 

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/tablets-and-ereaders/tablets/amazon-fire-hd-8-tablet-with-alexa-2017-16-gb-black-10164189-pdt.html

Kiddo used his Hudl2 for YouTube etc but it's games which I'm not sure of its capabilities 

ThePrettyDamned

My hudl 2 is on it's way out, and will soon be at the recycling centre.

I don't want a kindle fire because I have several paid apps on the android system. I wonder if it's worth waiting till Jan sales... 

Funkfingers

dchwhite said:

the Lenovo 10" for £120 at Argos - happy enough with it so far

That is what my mother uses. I vaguely recall that the first one had to be sent straight back but not what the problem with it was. The replacement has been fine. 

Flink_Poyd

ThePrettyDamned said:

My hudl 2 is on it's way out, and will soon be at the recycling centre.

I don't want a kindle fire because I have several paid apps on the android system. I wonder if it's worth waiting till Jan sales... 

You can load Google Play Store on it AFAIK so you wouldn't lose anything 

thomasw88

Flink_Poyd said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

My hudl 2 is on it's way out, and will soon be at the recycling centre.

I don't want a kindle fire because I have several paid apps on the android system. I wonder if it's worth waiting till Jan sales... 

You can load Google Play Store on it AFAIK so you wouldn't lose anything 

Bought a 8inch 32gb one. Sideload play store is a doddle. Great for the money

FX_Munkee

thomasw88 said:

Flink_Poyd said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

My hudl 2 is on it's way out, and will soon be at the recycling centre.

I don't want a kindle fire because I have several paid apps on the android system. I wonder if it's worth waiting till Jan sales... 

You can load Google Play Store on it AFAIK so you wouldn't lose anything 

Bought a 8inch 32gb one. Sideload play store is a doddle. Great for the money

Yup just manually loaded Google Play onto a 7" Fire (£29 black friday special) and recovered my paid content.
It's a bit of a pain, took me 45 mins but works perfectly.