Small laptop/Android tablet/W7 tablet suggestions?

[cookie_365]

I need - that is, want - something teeny and light for light websurfing and watching movies when I'm stuck in hotels in the middle of nowhere.

Some of the movies will be HD .mkv as well as DVD rips and the odd divx.

An Android tablet would be the perfect size and price, but I'm not sure if Android can cope with mkv.

Obviously W7 can but I'm not convinced it'll work on a tablet while we're waiting for W8.

And obviously a W7 laptop will do all that but will be significantly heavier and bulkier.

Any suggestions? I'm looking at:

• Asus EeePad Transformer TF101 as an option for the Android tablet
• Acer Aspire ICONIA TAB W500 as an option for the Win7 tablet
• Lenovo ThinkPad X121e as an option for the laptop

Anyone used a combination of those? Or have any other suggestions? Don't want to pay more than about £480.

Thanks

[Hom3r]

What about a Netbook?

Mine will play 720HD but not 1080HD, but thats no real issue on it.

Battery life is huge.

It doesn't have a optical drive, but I use my laptop to rip DVDs to a folder the put them on a USB HDD.

Pardon me if sounds a little too conventional but the iPad isn't just a marketing gimmick - it is actually rather good and if you are ripping/converting the movies you want to watch, it's simple to put them into a format the iPad will play.

I opted for the iPad over a basic netbook before the summer and I've never looked back. For content consumption a tablet is a far superior option to any kind of laptop and is very easy to carry around (although Mrs T. bought me a Joey-style manbag for it as she was fed up of always having to have it in her handbag ).

[cookie_365]

Originally Posted by Hom3r

What about a Netbook?

Mine will play 720HD but not 1080HD, but thats no real issue on it.

Battery life is huge.

It doesn't have a optical drive, but I use my laptop to rip DVDs to a folder the put them on a USB HDD.

Really want something a bit more responsive than a netbook.

Originally Posted by Chris

Pardon me if sounds a little too conventional but the iPad isn't just a marketing gimmick - it is actually rather good and if you are ripping/converting the movies you want to watch, it's simple to put them into a format the iPad will play.

I opted for the iPad over a basic netbook before the summer and I've never looked back. For content consumption a tablet is a far superior option to any kind of laptop and is very easy to carry around (although Mrs T. bought me a Joey-style manbag for it as she was fed up of always having to have it in her handbag ).

I really don't want to be spending time converting the movies, I just want to copy them over and play.

[Stephen]

There are some avi player apps for iPad, such as AVplayer HD which happily plays divx and MKV 720p files downloaded off the web with no conversion required.

I also vouch for the iPad, am using it right now to reply. It's the best tablet out there and really does well for using while travelling and what not.

[danielf]

I own a netbook, and while I thought it was great at first, it just isn't suited to run a full OS like Windows. It's just too slow and tedious.

Personally, I'd be tempted to at least look at a tablet as well.

Third vote for the iPad.

In a hotel at the moment, using it to web surf, watch converted films, read ePub books, check email, etc etc.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Third vote for the iPad.

In a hotel at the moment, using it to web surf, watch converted films, read ePub books, check email, etc etc.

Not checking the Scotland football score??

Pshaw!

tbf, I don't follow footie.....

[Tezcatlipoca]

Another iPad vote here...

Light, portable, instant-on, high battery life (10 hours) device for general browsing, playing games, watching videos, etc. A lot of the time there's no point in me firing up the desktop, I can just use the iPad. It's just... convenient.

My wife was very sceptical when I bought mine six months ago... Now she has her own! Again, similar uses. She lugs her laptop and netbook around a lot less now that she has an iPad.

More convenient for travelling too. We went to London on my birthday a couple of weeks ago, and both took our iPads with us. Two player Scrabble on the train there, videos on the way back. Much better than trying to watch videos or play games on a smartphone while travelling, and a lot lighter and portable than a laptop. I took mine to Blackpool a few months back (as did a few others here ). Five hour train journey from Cambridge. Perfect for videos, games, and web browsing while travelling.

iTunes format (.mp4) videos will obviously play natively. For anything else, e.g. xvid/divx within the .avi container, or H.264 within the .mkv container, I just use AVPlayerHD...well worth the £1.99 cost. I also stream from my PC to my iPad using AirPlayer, which will stream from UPnP/DLNA media servers.

---------- Post added at 20:50 ---------- Previous post was at 20:48 ----------

But if you do go for a tablet other than the iPad, go with Android, and avoid Win7.

The EeePad Transformer is meant to be good, and the Moto Xoom has had quite a price cut after failing to sell very well at all. Be aware though that there are fewer tablet-optimised apps available on Android.

[ZrByte]

Another vote for a tablet, just not necessarily an ipad, you can get the transformer for a fair bit cheaper than you have linked to even with the keyboard which you don't really need. And its as good or even better than the ipad. Only loosing out slightly for simplicity.
Do you need to buy it right now because the next wave of tegra based android tabs are supposed to be getting launched in the next month or so and if anything can handle a raw mkv it will be a 4 core tablet. And if you don't go for one of those it will almost certainly have a knock on effect on the price of the lower tegra 2 droids that are classed as high end now saving you a packet.

[Jimmy-J]

My vote goes to the Asus Transformer. Check out Youtube for some excellent reviews.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Originally Posted by cookie_365

Acer Aspire ICONIA TAB W500 as an option for the Win7 tablet

A couple of reviews:

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-...view?artc_pg=1

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/lapto...nia-tab-w500/2


Doesn't sound that great, really, especially compared to an iPad or a high-end Android tablet.

It also has two of the big drawbacks which I think are common to Win 7 tablets: Higher weight and a lower battery life.

The iPad 2 weighs around 600g, and the battery lasts for 10 hours. I think that Android tablets such as the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Eee Pad have similar figures.

The Iconia? Well, from those reviews it apparently weighs two and a half times as much, and the battery lasts ~half as long


Ditto for another Win 7 "tablet", the Dell Inspiron Duo:

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/35293862-post17.html

[Actually, you should check out that whole thread: http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/19...alaxy-tab.html ]


Until Windows 8 comes out, enabling Windows to run on ARM, I do not think you'll see any Windows tablets which have the battery life, weight, and dimensions of the iPad and the Android tablets. So as you say you want something "teeny and light" and not heavy and bulky like a laptop, I really think you should just scratch Win 7 off your list.

[qasdfdsaq]

I'd say get one of the Samsung Galaxy Tab varieties. They've got exceptional format support and will play 1080p MKV out of the box without any extra software. The streaming media support will also allow you to stream to, from, and through various DLNA devices and your network media centre(s)/TVs and you also get HDMI to hook straight up to a TV.

You'll also get the more open (if slightly harder to use) Android platform and more power for less money than an iPad. Not to mention the far superior AMOLED high-def screens on the latest models.

[Tezcatlipoca]

More power?

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 has the same CPU as the iPad 2 (dual-core ARM Cortex-A9), more RAM (1GB rather than 512MB), but an inferior GPU (GeForce ULP rather than a dual-core PowerVR SGX543MP2)[1 2 3]. Fairly balanced, I think... Although I'd rather have the superior GPU of the iPad 2 than the increased RAM of the Tab 10.1.


Less money?

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 costs exactly the same as the iPad 2... e.g. £479 for 32GB WiFi only, £100 extra for 3G. Looking at e.g. Currys, there appears to be a 64GB model on the way (with & without 3G), which, again, costs the same as the iPad 2.

[The Motorola Xoom and RIM PlayBook also initially cost exactly the same as the iPad 2... but had their prices slashed after rather poor sales...Will the Tab go the same way? The sales figures do suggest that the majority of tablet consumers simply aren't interested in non-Apple tablets priced the same as the iPad. Amazon may have more luck, due to the lower price, and due to it being the only company other than Apple to understand that it's about content and not specs, and the only company other than Apple to also control the whole ecosystem]



The only Galaxy Tab to have the (admittedly lovely) Super AMOLED Plus display is the Galaxy Tab 7.7, for which I can't find a release date or price. I think 7.7" is a little small for a tablet, but I suppose others may prefer it.


The iPad may not play .mkv out of the box, but it's hardly a hassle to download an app. Ditto for UPnP/DLNA streaming. No HDMI port, but you can buy an adaptor...which I believe is also necessary for the Tab 10.1, as I think that has no built-in HDMI port? No SD slot either, but again the Tab doesn't have one of those too. Both need an adaptor for that.

EDIT: Here we are, HDMI adaptor for the Tab 10.1, SD card adaptor for the Tab 10.1.