Looking for Tablet Recommendations

[Bob Schroeck]

Some of you might recall that for many years we had a really nice ASUS Android tablet with a detachable keyboard that cost us surprisingly little (something like US$100 for the tablet itself and another $50 or so for the keyboard, which also had a second battery in it).  What I don't think I ever mentioned was that it started spazzing out on us a year or two back, and we ended up buying a similarly-priced and slightly smaller RCA tablet which also has a detachable keyboard (IIRC because the ASUS wasn't available any more?  I'll have to check now).

Anyway, the RCA gave us considerably less for our money than the ASUS.  I've been coping for a year or so now with what turned out to be not just a smaller screen but a lower-resolution one.  But last night Peggy used it for Skype for the first time, and we learned that the screen is even worse for video calls, and the camera in it is just as bad.

So we're in the market for a new tablet -- or maybe a new laptop.  Laptops I've already got a handle on, but can anyone offer any recommendations on tablets?  Largish display, high res and equally high res camera, detachable keyboard either standard or as an option?

Thanks!

[Bluemage]

I've got a Galaxy Tab S4, and it's been a good Android in the 'slightly bigger than an iPad' size range. 2560x1600 10.5" screen, and there's a keyboard attachment offered.

Not so sure about the camera (8MP front, 13MP back), but the current version is the S6 and it has a different/newer camera scheme.

[robkelk]

My nephew swears by his current-model iPad - possibly because it's the best-supported tablet for professional pilots.

Don't know whether it has a keyboard option, though.

[Rajvik]

there is actually a seperate lap desk keyboard setup for Ipads that i saw in B&K that i got for a buddy one year as a present and he enjoyed it, i'm not an Apple person myself, i like having expansion options for my HD space, but right now i'm fixing to have to go with a new laptop or large tablet like a Surface Pro to replace the HP tablet/notebook i am using. not that anything is wrong per se with the HP but the win8.1 is getting old and eating all but about 6gb of the 22gb hard drive. it is so problematic that i'm moving all of my programs save the OS itself to an SD card

[Black Aeronaut]

Pretty much what Raj said. Apple has keyboard-folio and keyboard cases for their iPads. And there are other 3rd party manufacturer options, like this little gem of a cross-platform keyboard here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BNB6R7G

iPads are nice machines - few tablets out there can rival Apple's displays without hitting the same price point as an iPad. The display alone was enough to pique my Dad's interest, but he still shies away because you can't expand the storage.

I can see Apple's point about the storage, though. Apple's solid state storage is primo shit, and I've had a lot of problems in the past with Android phones not recognizing the SD cards I put into them or having SD cards get fried from overheating. And it's fewer complications, too. I could never get any of my Android phones to fully transfer even half of my apps to the SD card storage I'd add in. Final nail in the coffin? If you ever have an iPad with storage that goes bad, your local Apple Store will be all kinds of "OH NOOOO!" and fix you up as quickly as possible - and for free at that. (Defective products only - accidental damage doesn't count.)

Also, if you are REALLY concerned about privacy, Apple is the platform to go with. The only way to achieve Apple's level of privacy protection on an Android phone is to jailbreak it and install a specially modded version of Android OS.

There is a caveat to privacy protection on Apple devices, but it's a no-brainer when you think about it. That being that you have to be careful about what apps you install. Despite Apple's own feelings about privacy, that doesn't automatically extend to third-party apps. A good example is most "free" weather apps. There've been class-action lawsuits against AccuWeather because of how they harvest and handle users data - such as tracking their activities (with GPS logging data, too!) with a fine tooth comb and then selling that info to the advertisers on their app.

Make sure you only use apps that have a guarantee to not use your personal data as a revenue source. Granted, this means that a lot of the "free" options are right out, but that's no big loss anyways since some of them can throw more pop-ups at you than a sketchy porn site.

That said, check with your cellular provider to see what your options are.

[Rajvik]

i had a bit of an issue with certain android phones not recognizing certain SD cards and i asked the store about it, turns out it's not the Android side of thing, it the phone manufacturer, (in my case LG) limiting the size of the SD card you use with it in the bios,