Replacement tablet

[BrightCandle]

My Nexus 7 (2012 model) just died completely. The screen went crazy white dots and now its stuck on and I can't reset it or do anything with it. Its outside of the warranty period as well. I will be wanting to buy a replacement.

I was pretty disappointed with the performance of the Nexus 7. I had a lot of stalls, poor web browsing performance (I load multiple tabs to avoid waiting for the page load and it did not handle that well) and the screen was a little too small. I want something quite a bit faster.

I am not really sure if I want to stick with Android or end up getting a Windows tablet. Android is very convenient in a tablet form factor alongside the phone. But it doesn't tend to come with a decent performing CPU. But a surface would have a worse interface for what I spend the grand majority of the time doing (web, mail). Open to suggestions.

 

[Necrolezbeast]

I'll recommend both the Nexus 2013 and Dell Venue 8 Pro.. I personally use my Venue 8 Pro A LOT more than the Nexus... but the 2013 should solve most of the performance issues you had with the 2012.

 

[Ravynmagi]

I like the 8 inch size of the Dell Venue 8 Pro, but I like my apps on the Nexus 7 2013 a lot more.

People bash Windows 8 UI, but I think thats desktop users. On the tablet Windows 8 is probably my favorite tablet OS, I really love the use of swipe gestures everywhere and no need for navigation bars that waste screen space. And IE also makes great use of swipe gestures too. So I like web browsing on the Dell Venue 8 Pro.

So if you are just worried about web browsing and mail, a Windows tablet will be just fine. However you are likely giving up a high resolution screen for it (unless you spend $400 on the Thinkpad 8).

I like my Dell Venue 8 Pro, but I'm the opposite of Necrolezbeast, I use my Nexus 7 2013 a lot more because I'm more an app person. So if I wanted a larger Android tablet (I do, but not replacing my Nexus 7 at this point), I'd look at the LG G-Pad 8.3. But the Dell Venue 8 Pro is $100 cheaper and wouldn't be a bad choice either if you aren't an app person. The Lenovo Thinkpad 8 has better specs, but the $400 price tag is a bit high considering I don't think the app selection quite justifies such a price (8 inch tablet isn't something you'll probably use desktop apps on much).

 

[RossMAN]

If you're not in a hurry I'd wait for another deal like this.

Register for the forum and setup a deal alert?

 

[Ravynmagi]

If you're not in a hurry I'd wait for another deal like this.

Register for the forum and setup a deal alert?

He seemed to want to avoid a tablet with crappy performance though.

 

[s44]

I am not really sure if I want to stick with Android or end up getting a Windows tablet. Android is very convenient in a tablet form factor alongside the phone. But it doesn't tend to come with a decent performing CPU.

Neither "Android" nor "Windows" are magic as far as hardware performance. It comes down to the bottlenecks, which for that Nexus were the flash speed and memory bandwidth. Current gen has fixed these.

You can basically tell what you're going to get by looking at the specs. The new Nexus 7 should be fine, though you can always spend more money for the (GPE) G Pad or TabPro 8.4 if you want a bit more grunt and screen.

 

[TripleThreatTLT]

As for web browsing though, hands down my dell venue 8 pro was better then any of my android tablets.

 

[vi edit]

As for web browsing though, hands down my dell venue 8 pro was better then any of my android tablets.

My only real complaint with my Venue Pro is that IE is retarded when it comes to click recognition. Say you are viewing this forum and and a thread has three pages. You tap the number "2" to go to that page. It recognizes that you tapped it because it will change the link color from blue to red. But then it just stares at you stupidly and does nothing. It takes another 2 or 3 taps to make it go "Gee maybe he really did mean to touch me there!".

That was probably my single biggest complaint with IE mobile on WP8. IE is a TERRIBLE mobile browser. Which is double sucky because so few places actually support WP apps that you are forced to use the browser for everything.

Other than the niggles with touch response I can't really say enough good things about basic use of the Venue 8 Pro. I love the format size. It's light, it's comfortable, the screen looks great, and it actually can fit in the back pocket of many of my pants.

 

[Ravynmagi]

For me, I like Modern IE on my Dell Venue 8 Pro quite a bit. Tapping on links works quite well in my usage. And I love the swipe back and forward gestures, the full screen experience with the tabs hidden and brought up with swipe up. My 8 inch screen is 100% website and no buttons or bars. I love this. And Flash works pretty nice too. Probably my favorite mobile browser now.

 

[vi edit]

I don't disagree that's it a great browser. The swipe back and forth with just a flick is awesome. It's almost too sensitive, though I'm getting used to it. First couple days I found myself constantly going "back" when I was really just trying to adjust the page. Landscape mode looks great with forums, but I'm not a fan in portrait.

But portrait looks great on news sites. At least you have the option

 

[BrightCandle]

I looked into the Windows tablets and my one major reservation is that tapatalk doesn't seem to be supported on Windows at all. I use mail, web, video and tapatalk quite a bit. I don't find accessing a forum through the web interface particularly fast on a tablet. Is there another app that works like tapatalk that is on the Windows tablets?