I Pad or Note Book ?

vindiboy

vindiboy

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I have an HP Lap top running Windows XP and it does all I want or need on the Internet, but it is heavy and the battery is not at it's best, so I have been looking at the new I Pad , listened to the blurb from Salesmen etc, it looks like a great bit of kit but I am also looking at a Net Book and can't make up my mind which way to go, I am not very Computer savy but can get by, all I really want to do whilst travelling is a bit of browsing ,a few E Mails , and down loading photos from the Camera to keep the SD card free, so without getting too tecky what is the best way to go please. PS I would only use WI FI spots.
 
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I have an iPad 2 which is ideal for doing all of that.Battery is excellent and you can get a gadget that plugs in to download photos from cards etc.My Sister in law went to buy the new iPad,and the salesman said the're not much different from the 2, apart from brighter screen.They were selling the iPad 2's cheaper to clear them out.

:cheers: Stephen.
 
You could also consider a tablet using the Google Android operating system.

For example, the Samsung Galaxy Tab. This is a good bit of kit and is a competitor to the iPad.
 
ellisboy said:
I have an iPad 2 which is ideal for doing all of that.Battery is excellent and you can get a gadget that plugs in to download photos from cards etc.My Sister in law went to buy the new iPad,and the salesman said the're not much different from the 2, apart from brighter screen.They were selling the iPad 2's cheaper to clear them out.

:cheers: Stephen.
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Yes that is what I was told in Currys, but the Camera is supposed to be better on the new one but I cant see me lugging an I Pad around to take pictures, my Digi Camera fits in my pocket or I wear it on my belt, or am I missing something here ? I was also shown the SD card attachment /reader and also the in car charger at £9. 99 currently on offer,
 
Yes ! That's wat the salesman said,only really better if you do a lot of photography, but who wants to lug round an iPad :lol-053: I use my phone.If you have an iPhone then you can tether it to a wifi only iPad and use your phone data contract whilst in the uk.
 
The iPad is superb, my daughter has one but I wouldn't buy one for myself. If you want it as part of your motorhoming life there is a huge drawback to an iPod or an Android tablet, in that you can't plug in a USB wi-fi booster, which will allow you to pick up wi-fi from McDonald's, Tesco and all the other places that are offering it.

We were in Calais a few weeks ago and, whilst my wife went into a large supermarket (I forget the name), I noticed a McDonald's not far away. I took out my laptop and plugged in the booster but found that the McDonald's signal wasn't strong enough (it was distance away) but the supermarket had a very strong signal and like Tesco in the U.K. is obviously offering free wi-fi for its customers.

I had this same decision to make before we went on our last trip to Slovenia and Croatia. My four-year-old Samsung G10 netbook was playing up (a well known cable problem on this model) so I had to decide which route to take. In the end I decided that, as I wasn't going to be carrying it around like my smartphone, and that it would only be used in the 'van or at home, what was the point of a fiddly netbook with a small screen? So I bought an HP laptop with a large screen and it has been brilliant.

Mine was about £450, but if you don't want to spend so much, there are plenty of lower-priced laptops if the idea takes your fancy. If, like me, you're never going to be wandering the streets with your computer, you could ask yourself why you want to bother with something that's quite small and consider getting a new laptop. It goes without saying that, if you are going to be carrying it around then I can see the point of a netbook.
 
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There are lots of pros and cons for the different options.

I have an iPad because it's features and build are far superior to anything else on the market. No other mobile devices has a screen with such a high resolution and output from it can be breath taking. The battery life is amazing too, 10 hours is more than enough for one day. The camera on the back is ok and does take 1080p video, but it is more of a just in case you need it thing. The apps are very well tested by Apple before publishers can realise them, this is not the same for Android. There are many apps like my sat nav "skobbler" that are not available on android. There are far more accessories on the market for Apple devices.

I use my iPad every day, in fact I am using it now.
 
I have been using a netbook for a while now and I much prefer it to my old laptop.

A couple of points to note. many of the cheaper ones only have 1 USB port and 1 meg of memory. For a few pounds extra you can have 3 USB ports, 2 meg memory and an SD card reader built in to it. The extra USB ports are useful if you want to connect an external CD drive etc.

Mine was not so expensive but my laptop crashed at the time there were some good offers on. I bought an ex display model as it was the only one in the shop that had what I wanted built in.
 
Many thanks for all your replies, I still don't know which to go for though, I will see what I can get the best deal on somewhere, thanks again.
 
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Northerner said:
The iPad is superb, my daughter has one but I wouldn't buy one for myself. If you want it as part of your motorhoming life there is a huge drawback to an iPod or an Android tablet, in that you can't plug in a USB wi-fi booster, which will allow you to pick up wi-fi from McDonald's, Tesco and all the other places that are offering it.

We were in Calais a few weeks ago and, whilst my wife went into a large supermarket (I forget the name), I noticed a McDonald's not far away. I took out my laptop and plugged in the booster but found that the McDonald's signal wasn't strong enough (it was distance away) but the supermarket had a very strong signal and like Tesco in the U.K. is obviously offering free wi-fi for its customers.

I had this same decision to make before we went on our last trip to Slovenia and Croatia. My four-year-old Samsung G10 netbook was playing up (a well known cable problem on this model) so I had to decide which route to take. In the end I decided that, as I wasn't going to be carrying it around like my smartphone, and that it would only be used in the 'van or at home, what was the point of a fiddly netbook with a small screen? So I bought an HP laptop with a large screen and it has been brilliant.

Mine was about £450, but if you don't want to spend so much, there are plenty of lower-priced laptops if the idea takes your fancy. If, like me, you're never going to be wandering the streets with your computer, you could ask yourself why you want to bother with something that's quite small and consider getting a new laptop. It goes without saying that, if you are going to be carrying it around then I can see the point of a netbook.
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I have a ipad 2 and you can buy usb and hdmi attachments, as for buying an ipad i think i should really have thought harder about this purchase because i always end up on my laptop it just feels better,
I already had an iPhone as well and really ipads are just like a large iPhone without the calls so should have listened to my hubby before this very expensive never really used toy:)
 
Need to get new computer for MH too. Pretty much go along with Northerner's views. Whatever I buy, I won't be carrying it around, so may as well get a decent size laptop. Trouble is, after getting used to a imac, everything else is a disappointment. Still, certainly won't be paying Apple laptop prices, so back to Windows it is.
 
Northerner said:
The iPad is superb, my daughter has one but I wouldn't buy one for myself. If you want it as part of your motorhoming life there is a huge drawback to an iPod or an Android tablet, in that you can't plug in a USB wi-fi booster, which will allow you to pick up wi-fi from McDonald's, Tesco and all the other places that are offering it.

We were in Calais a few weeks ago and, whilst my wife went into a large supermarket (I forget the name), I noticed a McDonald's not far away. I took out my laptop and plugged in the booster but found that the McDonald's signal wasn't strong enough (it was distance away) but the supermarket had a very strong signal and like Tesco in the U.K. is obviously offering free wi-fi for its customers.

I had this same decision to make before we went on our last trip to Slovenia and Croatia. My four-year-old Samsung G10 netbook was playing up (a well known cable problem on this model) so I had to decide which route to take. In the end I decided that, as I wasn't going to be carrying it around like my smartphone, and that it would only be used in the 'van or at home, what was the point of a fiddly netbook with a small screen? So I bought an HP laptop with a large screen and it has been brilliant.

Mine was about £450, but if you don't want to spend so much, there are plenty of lower-priced laptops if the idea takes your fancy. If, like me, you're never going to be wandering the streets with your computer, you could ask yourself why you want to bother with something that's quite small and consider getting a new laptop. It goes without saying that, if you are going to be carrying it around then I can see the point of a netbook.
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Northerner is correct that you cannot plug in usb boosters to an Ipad, but there is an alternative.
If you take a look at Motorhome WiFi | Improving Wireless Range for Caravans and Campervans they have a booster called "I Boost" which is specially for Ipads & tablets as well as pc's. It picks up external wifi signals then creates your own secure wifi network within the motorhome which can be used by more than one device at a time and it does not need a usb connection. It has also been tested all over Europe and proved to work well. The only drawback is the price £150. Nice product shame about the price.
:pc:
 
If you're going to be reliant on battery for any length of time it has to be the iPad. In terms of everything else, having hated Apple for years for being overpriced and fiercely protecting their brand, I am now a firm convert.

My iPad is used every day, as is my laptop, but for portability, battery length, screen resolution, apps, build quality - in fact I think every aspect I can think of short of the need to get adaptors for USB ports, the iPad comes out on top by a significant distance every time.

The only real downside I've found, but which is easily overcome, is the lack of ability to store documents directly onto the iPad as you can a notebook's hard drive. However, cloud storage gets round this, so again the iPad scores.
 
iPad still out in front ! I use mine all the time,on the odd time I get the laptop out,the battery's flat.You don't have to wait for an iPad to boot up as just click the button on the top and it goes to sleep,tilting screen,second to none choice of apps,doesn't get hot ( well the 3 does apparently ), wouldn't swap mine for any notepad. :banana:
 
I use an ASUS eee pc. It's a clam shell mini PC with 10" screen. I would have bought an ASUS docking tablet or an Android tablet if I didn't have this. But I really wanted a good keyboard for forums and Facebook etc so prefered a good keyboard than a bigger screen.

This PC goes everywhere with me, it's small enough to carry and to hold/operate while walking too. I didn't consider the ipad a value option for me. It would have been £250 more for less features and no expandability.
 
Just a general question about iPads: I take it that they don't have a built in CD/DVD drive? So how do you load programmes to them? Is it only by downloading or connecting to anothe Apple computer?

An improvement that I would want before I even considered an iPad would be a built in GPS

We use our laptop to play back DVDs when we're travelling; so that would be out for a start.

I note that the storage size is at maximum 64Gb; that's not a lot by today's standards. Has anyone found that little storage to be inhibiting?
 
I dropped our camera while in France last month :(
Used my iPad camera from then on :))
I'm not saying I would use it all the time but it was very handy.
Take my iPad everywhere use a mifi to connect to wifi in the uk
Leave my laptop at home as it has everything on it would cry a lot if it got stolen and to be fair it's not quite as go everywhere friendly as iPad.
But everyone has there own choice but you'll never know how good a iPad is without owning one.
 
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