FM = Futuremark score Started off with a Nexxus 7(FM: 10554), very good value, found the screen a little small, gave to a family member. Then aquired the mighty Nvidia Shield(FM: 29991), great tablet, good value, bigger screen but still not big enough. It was re-called by manuf so took refund instead of replacement. Pity there isn't a Shield 10+ Contenders: Samsung Galaxy TAB S 10.5 WI-FI 16GB SM-T800 16 GB 3072 MB Android 10.5 -inch LCD FM: 13217 £229.94 Spec: http://www.futuremark.com/hardware/mobile/Samsung+Galaxy+Tab+S+10.5+(Exynos+5+Octa)/review Lots of good reviews, great screen, reported drawbacks are Samsung bloatware/front-end(Cyanogenmod?) & some people mention occasional sluggishness(Cyanogenmod?) Sony Xperia Z2 10.1 inch Tablet (Black) - (Qualcomm 2.3GHz, 3GB RAM, 16GB Memory, Google Android 4.4) FM: 18327 £335.83 Spec: http://www.futuremark.com/hardware/mobile/Sony+Xperia+Z2+(MSM8274AB+v3)/review Bit more power. Samsung Galaxy TAB S 10.5 WI-Fi+lte 16GB 16 GB 3072 MB Android 10.5 -inch LCD FM: 19850 £339.37 Spec: http://www.futuremark.com/hardware/mobile/Samsung+Galaxy+Tab+S+Broadband+LTE-A/review More powerful version of TAB S which includes 4G/Lte support. Looks good! Sony Xperia Z4 10.1 inch Tablet with Keyboard (Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, 3Gb RAM, 32Gb storage, WLAN, BT, Camera, Android 5.0) FM: 24145 £439.99 Spec: http://www.futuremark.com/hardware/mobile/Sony+Xperia+Z4+Tablet/review Looks nice, as you would expect at this price. However, trade slightly less power for £100 less and "better" screen on TAB S/Lte? Microsoft Surface Pro 3 (Core i3) FM: 33613 £575 Spec: http://www.futuremark.com/hardware/mobile/Microsoft+Surface+Pro+3+(Core+i3)/review A great annoyance is when you install the Android version of your favourite win desktop app only to find they've added adverts and changed the interface giving you less control, what is up with that? Would be great being able to install win desktop apps on a tablet, but how does this play out in practice? Will all win apps install? Will they be exactly how they are on a Win desktop? Another thing that annoys me about tablets is the lack of proper firewall and equivalent win desktop controls: msconfig, startup, services etc However £575 seems like silly money for a tablet and some say the tablet itself isn't that great. I hear MS are talking about introducing win 10 support for android tablets, but could be slow rolling out. ---------------------------------- Thoughts?
Surface 4 range is due out soon but my vote would be the surface, the only bad thing about the Microsoft system is lack of apps but having downloaded full desktop programs onto my linx 8 tablet they run absolutely fine and work well. Would be even better on a larger screen.
There's the Surface 3. It's cheaper, lighter, has a good battery life and still a quite capable performance.
Ask this very basic question. What do you need the tablet for? Work there is only 1 choice on the list you provided and that's the surface. If it's strictly for entertainment a nexus 10 is still cheaper and faster than most things. Any on this list will play all android games as no developer has pushed the envelope. Enough if it is for entertainment you will likely use it for a few months and then it will gather dust as everyone else's has done.
It would be a toss up between surface and z4 for me depending on whether I value windows compatibility or tablet OS convenience, I have an x86 tablet already and I don't feel Windows makes a good tablet when in comes to windows desktop applications, yes it has full compatibility but really needs to be treated as either a laptop using this or a web browsing tablet in Metro mode. We have a tab 10.5 S and have no real complaints, seems fast enough despite what FM says, its just the Samsung clutter that annoy and its Apple like insistence of using Samsung this and Samsung that for interoperability, the Sony's I have had in the past believe it or not were much more open and integrated/worked with third party stuff nicely.
Most of the time will be used for general surfing, but when away from home I need something that can pretty much do everything a desktop can. Nexus 10 only scores 8834 on FM. Tab S Wi-Fi scores 13217 for only a few quid more. Tab S2 should roll out over the next weeks that might effect the prices of the TAB S1 offerings. I'm not too worried about the Samsung clutter and the Applesque controls...if it's an issue I'll pave over with Cyanogenmod. Can you explain a bit more what you mean by this?
I would definitely choose the Surface if pricing isn't a problem and especially if you going to work on it, the full Windows on it and the hardware means pretty much anything would work on it. However, if you are just looking for something that would do entertainment tasks like your phone, but require a bigger screen, then out of the bunch I'd probably choose the Wi-Fi Tab S, not really worth paying more for something that's not going to do more than your phone.
A Surface, or another similar spec (from Asus, Dell, HP... etc) intel x86 with full fat Windows (not ARM cpu with Windows RT!) would be my only choice. Sure, Windows tablets are often more expensive than Android. But, I think Windows is more useful, as it is quite easy to make them like a low end desktop by adding a proper keyboard and mouse to it. No problem to use full Windows desktop software, or play any games with lower hardware requirement.
Basically if you want an windows based one because of windows compatibility, you have to consider that any non touch UI stuff (legacy windows software) really needs a Keyboard and mouse, the desktop apps are a chore to use with touch screen.
Where are you seeing the Xperia Z4 Tablet for £439.99? It seems to be bundled with the keyboard everywhere I've looked for >£500
I can get discounts on these tablets, except for SP3 atm ergo normal price. 499 is the cheapest I've seen for the Z4, although Tab S2 is due to drop over next few weeks so might see some revised pricing in this bracket.
Surface 3: full-fat Windows for £419,--. Keyboard comes extra at £110,-- so £529,-- for the lot. Active digitiser pen is another £50,-- which then clocks up to £579,--. Seems expensive but you basically get a lightweight tablet/laptop with full Windows and handwriting recognition. Neat.
