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New Tablet for the Holidays - iOS, Win 8.1, Android?

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I bought a Samsung 700t Pro last year (Core i5 Win 8 Tablet) I've played a lot of games on it, I would say its definitely worth it, there are a couple caveats:

- Don't expect to play a game with touch unless it was designed for it
- Get a 64gig SSD because space is at a premium on Windows 8 machines
- Also on the space issue, don't even think about playing a game from MicroSD, though they are great for your other storage needs

Other than that, go at it, I've had a tonne of fun on mine playing FTL, Civ, Godus, the top down Halo they released this year, etc, etc



You mentioned the weakness of the Windows Store, honestly I haven't even noticed because everything I could want is available as a desktop app (mostly for free).
 
So I tried out the iPad mini retina (I think)/Air, and Note 10.1 2014 as well as a Surface 2/Pro at an Apple store and Best Buy today. The ios devices are off my list. I opened 6 tabs in the browsers of each and then switched to google maps or both google maps and a video in the case of the Note or Xbox gaming on the surface and then returned to the browser. The ios devices had to reload all of their tabs.
The Note and Surface did'nt. Now to check out the actual Omni 10 or t100 Win 8.1 tablets when they're available.
 
I just tried that on my air and it didn't have to reload the tabs. Edit: I can get it to reload with a few other things though.

The mini retina isn't out yet. Do they put Google Maps on the demo units? Or did you mean the stock maps. Apple's Maps may hit the ram differently perhaps.
 
I just tried that on my air and it didn't have to reload the tabs. Edit: I can get it to reload with a few other things though.

The mini retina isn't out yet. Do they put Google Maps on the demo units? Or did you mean the stock maps. Apple's Maps may hit the ram differently perhaps.
It may have been apple maps. I was with a friend who knows ios better than I do.
What pages did you open?
I used, aljazeera.com, engadget.com, news.bbc.co.uk, reuters.com, news.com, anandtech.com, among others
 
We also did it with the garage band or whatever app and that alone killed the tabs. I'm sure it uses tons of ram, though.
 
Air is the only answer. I love my nexus 4 to death, but androids ecosystem is nowhere near iOS on tablet, and Windows apps store is just laughable. Not to mention the build quality shits on what Sammy puts out...
 
Air is the only answer. I love my nexus 4 to death, but androids ecosystem is nowhere near iOS on tablet, and Windows apps store is just laughable. Not to mention the build quality shits on what Sammy puts out...
It can't handle the tabs with the 1GB of ram.
 
We also did it with the garage band or whatever app and that alone killed the tabs. I'm sure it uses tons of ram, though.

Yeah, once mixing a couple apps like that in it will easily cause the refresh.

Too bad they won't work for you, but you definitely have a specific browsing style that takes it off the table. I'd probably look hard at the Surface. That would prob be my first choice after the ipad.
 
I am still for the moment using an iPad 2 with 0.5GB RAM.
Honestly Apple are Software wizards with things like Battery and Ram.
I have never so far felt like I didn't have enough RAM on my iPad 2,
and I got it on launch day. Still I can't wait to get my iPad Air.
 
The Asus T100 runs full windows 8.1 which alone absolutely destroys iOS and Android, plus has the plug-in keyboard option.
 
You can just open the Anthonio Banderas gif thread and use it as the test.

I think only Windows can run it properly right now.
 
The Asus T100 runs full windows 8.1 which alone absolutely destroys iOS and Android, plus has the plug-in keyboard option.

The Dell Venue Pro 11 is probably the winner here. The Bay Trail version is $499 before any discounts [there are discounts out there to drop it to the sub-$400 range].

I really considered the Bay Trail version but embedded memory and cap of 64 GBs is just too little for me. I'm planning to get the i5 model with keyboard with and 256 GB ssd.
 
Asus wins only on price, but HP and Dell have really stepped up their game this year:

HP Omni 10 - $399 (32GB) - 224ppi Intel z3770
Dell Venue 11 Pro - $499 (64GB) - 204ppi Intel z3770
Asus Transformer T100 - $399 w/KB (64GB) - 155ppi Intel z3740

If HP would release a bunch of accessories (docks/keyboards) for the Omni it would be my choice. The Venue 11 Pro has awesome accessories and docking options plus you can go up to Core i3 or i5 options.
 
Asus wins only on price, but HP and Dell have really stepped up their game this year:

HP Omni 10 - $399 (32GB) - 224ppi Intel z3770
Dell Venue 11 Pro - $499 (64GB) - 204ppi Intel z3770
Asus Transformer T100 - $399 w/KB (64GB) - 155ppi Intel z3740

If HP would release a bunch of accessories (docks/keyboards) for the Omni it would be my choice. The Venue 11 Pro has awesome accessories and docking options plus you can go up to Core i3 or i5 options.

The T100 comes with an detachable keyboard. I think that's another step over the Dell.
 
I just tried that on my air and it didn't have to reload the tabs. Edit: I can get it to reload with a few other things though.

The mini retina isn't out yet. Do they put Google Maps on the demo units? Or did you mean the stock maps. Apple's Maps may hit the ram differently perhaps.

So I think it was a Mini Retina.
Now it's between the T100AT, Omni 10, and Note 10.1 2014.
 
So I think it was a Mini Retina.
Now it's between the T100AT, Omni 10, and Note 10.1 2014.

Why not the Surface 2 again? Obviously x86 compatibility isn't important if you're considering a note 10.1 that has no good keyboard cover/dock.
 
The Dell Venue Pro 11 is probably the winner here. The Bay Trail version is $499 before any discounts [there are discounts out there to drop it to the sub-$400 range].

I really considered the Bay Trail version but embedded memory and cap of 64 GBs is just too little for me. I'm planning to get the i5 model with keyboard with and 256 GB ssd.

Where are these dell discounts...
 
I work at Google and I love my Android phone, but I don't see how any gamer can justify getting a tablet that isn't running Win 8.1 Pro. Are you serious, guys? Emulators and Steam/GOG/Origin running natively on a tablet. What the hell, do you really think touchscreen games from the Android/iOS stores can replace that? Because they fucking can't. Particularly if you just toss a USB XBOX controller in your bag with it.
 
I work at Google and I love my Android phone, but I don't see how any gamer can justify getting a tablet that isn't running Win 8.1 Pro. Are you serious, guys? Emulators and Steam/GOG/Origin running natively on a tablet. What the hell, do you really think touchscreen games from the Android/iOS stores can replace that? Because they fucking can't. Particularly if you just toss a USB XBOX controller in your bag with it.

3t3nrt.jpg
 
Why not the Surface 2 again? Obviously x86 compatibility isn't important if you're considering a note 10.1 that has no good keyboard cover/dock.

The Surface 2 looks nice, but the battery life is a bit poor, and I don't really want a Windows RT device.
The T100AT and Omni 10 look like better choices, to me.
Everything is a trade-off, of course.
The Note 10.1 feels familiar like my Note 2, and that goes a long way for me.
 
I work at Google and I love my Android phone, but I don't see how any gamer can justify getting a tablet that isn't running Win 8.1 Pro. Are you serious, guys? Emulators and Steam/GOG/Origin running natively on a tablet. What the hell, do you really think touchscreen games from the Android/iOS stores can replace that? Because they fucking can't. Particularly if you just toss a USB XBOX controller in your bag with it.

Yep, I've not been impressed by gaming on either ios or android. ios is slightly better off.
 
I work at Google and I love my Android phone, but I don't see how any gamer can justify getting a tablet that isn't running Win 8.1 Pro. Are you serious, guys? Emulators and Steam/GOG/Origin running natively on a tablet. What the hell, do you really think touchscreen games from the Android/iOS stores can replace that? Because they fucking can't. Particularly if you just toss a USB XBOX controller in your bag with it.

Who said a tablet would ever be good for that? You're trying to jam a square peg in a round hole. Get yourself a 3DS.
 
Who said a tablet would ever be good for that? You're trying to jam a square peg in a round hole. Get yourself a 3DS.
Nah, no thanks to the 3DS. I would get a Vita before that.

I'm pretty sure gaming has been making a pretty big push into tablets and phones for a while now. I would much rather play all of my old favorite PC games.
 
It's also more expensive than the T100 and Venue 8.
Goes without saying they are two different classes of device. And what is this of the Surface 2 having bad battery life? Since when is 8~ hours considered bad? Especially for a just released device without a few update cycles lol


The T100 is a cheap budget device, plastic and relatively bad screen. Not the greatest attachable keyboard either.
Omni 10 is good if you can get over no good integrated keyboard cover. Just fyi keep in mind the stylus on the venue pro 8/11 are atmel, and therefore crap :(
 
Nah, no thanks to the 3DS. I would get a Vita before that.

I'm pretty sure gaming has been making a pretty big push into tablets and phones for a while now. I would much rather play all of my old favorite PC games.

It tried but it still hasn't gotten very far. Candy Crush makes a bazillion dollars but it's not really important for most gamers. There's of course reasons for this that if changed directly impact the primary usability of the device. I mean a Win8 tablet wouldn't even stack up to an nVidia shield because it would be bloated, expensive and require lots of accessories. I'd say if that's what you were going for then get an ultrabook instead. A tablet is not the right device.
 
It tried but it still hasn't gotten very far. Candy Crush makes a bazillion dollars but it's not really important for most gamers. There's of course reasons for this that if changed directly impact the primary usability of the device. I mean a Win8 tablet wouldn't even stack up to an nVidia shield because it would be bloated, expensive and require lots of accessories. I'd say if that's what you were going for then get an ultrabook instead. A tablet is not the right device.

Except I have a gaming laptop. I also want a tablet for a myriad of uses including occasional gaming (maybe)

Each of these things you keep suggesting is good at the one thing it does. I'm looking for the interim device. One I can read on, game a bit, browse the web, watch videos, etc.
You know, a tablet.
 
That fake leather though :/ I wish the next nexus 10 had a stylus like the note 2014.

it looks ridiculous, especially the fake stitching, but it feels great.



I work at Google and I love my Android phone, but I don't see how any gamer can justify getting a tablet that isn't running Win 8.1 Pro. Are you serious, guys? Emulators and Steam/GOG/Origin running natively on a tablet. What the hell, do you really think touchscreen games from the Android/iOS stores can replace that? Because they fucking can't. Particularly if you just toss a USB XBOX controller in your bag with it.

RetroArch is also pretty awesome on Android. how is BT controller support nowadays in Windows 8?
 
Except I have a gaming laptop. I also want a tablet for a myriad of uses including occasional gaming (maybe)

Each of these things you keep suggesting is good at the one thing it does. I'm looking for the interim device. One I can read on, game a bit, browse the web, watch videos, etc.
You know, a tablet.

You won't find it, whatever you get won't excel at something things and the more you try to find a do-all the worse it'll be at everything. For tablets you want screen, battery, weight, hardware in that order. Small and lightweight over capable, a glorified web-browser, that's what they are best at.
 
You won't find it, whatever you get won't excel at something things and the more you try to find a do-all the worse it'll be at everything. For tablets you want screen, battery, weight, hardware in that order. Small and lightweight over capable, a glorified web-browser, that's what they are best at.

Except the tablets i suggest in my op are all pretty good with regards to all of those and the windows version is a really good all-around.

None of your posts are helpful to the discussion at hand, though.
 
How are the Asus tablets right now? I'm extremely impressed by the build quality of the Nexus 7. Are their Windows tablets anything like it?

On the windows side they have nothing on the level of the 2013 Nexus 7. Remember the T100 is for all intents and purposes a netbook.
 
I work at Google and I love my Android phone, but I don't see how any gamer can justify getting a tablet that isn't running Win 8.1 Pro. Are you serious, guys? Emulators and Steam/GOG/Origin running natively on a tablet. What the hell, do you really think touchscreen games from the Android/iOS stores can replace that? Because they fucking can't. Particularly if you just toss a USB XBOX controller in your bag with it.
Just to back him up, can an iOS or Android play Crysis, though?

But seriously, go to this guy's YouTube account or this one here to see a whole bunch of games from the past 10-15 years running on the Asus Transformer Book T100. If it runs on here it should run on any BayTrail device. So while real core gaming is not optimal, it is certainly possible.
 
Just to back him up, can an iOS or Android play Crysis, though?

But seriously, go to this guy's YouTube account or this one here to see a whole bunch of games from the past 10-15 years running on the Asus Transformer Book T100. If it runs on here it should run on any BayTrail device. So while real core gaming is not optimal, it is certainly possible.

That's a major selling point for Windows bay trail tablets, the Omni 10 would make a killer emulation device with that program for touch overlays for gaming (name escapes me atm). I guess that would be true for the Venue 8 Pro, but the Omni has the top end bay trail soc so it seems like the best choice for what OP wants. If only it had a damn keyboard attachment, it's 32 GB too, but you can add a 64 gb card for 50~ bucks, which I would do immediately.
 
That's a major selling point for Windows bay trail tablets, the Omni 10 would make a killer emulation device with that program for touch overlays for gaming (name escapes me atm). I guess that would be true for the Venue 8 Pro, but the Omni has the top end bay trail soc so it seems like the best choice for what OP wants. If only it had a damn keyboard attachment, it's 32 GB too, but you can add a 64 gb card for 50~ bucks, which I would do immediately.

Yeah, I would probably move my 64GB card from my Note 2.
It's looking more and more like the Omni, although full screen 3d gaming wouldn't be pretty with the higher res. That's why I'm thinking about the T100.
 
Just ordered a 64GB T100 from Amazon for $379.99. The keyboard dock and HDMI output is what sold me on it over the Dell Venue 8. Can't believe the Dell models don't offer video out.

This will be replacing my old HP DM1Z "notbook." That was powerful enough to do some light gaming and I could even get titles like Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition to run at 60 FPS on low details/res. Would these Baytrail tablets be able to match this?
 
Yeah, I would probably move my 64GB card from my Note 2.
It's looking more and more like the Omni, although full screen 3d gaming wouldn't be pretty with the higher res. That's why I'm thinking about the T100.

Nothing modern 3D will be pretty running on Bay Trail lol So don't kid yourself, hey even upscaled it doesn't look horrible for what it is (experience doing this on Surface Pro 1). It's probably going to be best for old games and 2D stuff, emulation with gesture works would be awesome too.The T100 is alot worse in all areas also, way worse screen/build, worse performance. They aren't the same class of device.
 
Except the tablets i suggest in my op are all pretty good with regards to all of those and the windows version is a really good all-around.

None of your posts are helpful to the discussion at hand, though.

I'm trying to explain how to pick a tablet, I feel you actually know what you want and are at that stage where you are arguing yourself to it which is cool and I'll likely not influence you past this point but the tablet market it tricky and full of marketing and I'd like to be as informative as I can not just for you but anyone else in this thread.

Mainly my earlier posts were counter-pointing ideas about Win8 tablets. I understand the allure of Win8 tablets but at this point they just aren't very good unless you very specifically want something that only it can do. In most cases this turns out to be "run Steam" or "run Office" which I'd argue is less interesting than it sounds because it compromises the most important point of a tablet which is high portability. When you start needing a stand/gamepad/keyboard/mouse or whatever this not only adds to the cost but it's no longer portable because you're hauling too much around and at that point an ultrabook is just a better option.

But in terms of hardware they generally pale in terms of the competition and the thing about the tablet market it hardware and OS are inseparably linked and most tablets of a specific OS will share a number of features. I'm not a fan of Win8 offerings in the current market.

It's not okay to have a sub 1080p screen or really even a 1080p screen at 10". You can't bow out of the resolution race until you're hitting somewhere around 250 PPI. Most of these won't even mention viewing angles or color accuracy because even though they are post PPI measures of how good a screen is they know it's an area they can cheap out on.

It's not okay to weight 50% more than your competition or have giant bezels. Many of these weigh somewhere around 1.5lbs. The competition is mostly under 1lb. And while build quality in tablets is skyrocketing most of these look to be cheaping out here too hoping people don't notice that they are pretty hefty in comparison and certainly most don't have good build quality track records in the PC market either.

It's not okay to be getting 2 hours less battery than the competition in your preferential lab tested spec-sheet that certainly wasn't accounting for background tasks like Chrome and Steam. Tablets are optimized to go all day, even multiple days with sleeping. 8 hours is nothing when the competition is topping out around 12.

I do think it's great they universally seem to start at 32GB and have SD card support but that's also because Win8 can't fit in 16GB. Though for raw storage of media this could very well be a big plus.

Much of this is why WinRT is a thing. Intel chips are still fairly power hungry, Bay Trial has crappy graphics performance (its great if you're encoding video on your tablet though), Win8 can't intelligently manage desktop apps and services and those apps certainly were not designed to respect battery life. It's this reason why within Windows I'd recommend the Surface 2 or Lumina 2520 over them, they are much better at being tablets. Perhaps the sole outlier is the Surface Pro which is less a tablet and more a category all to itself.

So when we talk about tablet gaming I'd argue the correct thing to do is think about what mobile games you like because if you're thinking Steam to use that much extra equipment you likely won't do it in the long run and just for novelty. It's the same thing to ask if you have a gaming laptop do you take it with you everywhere? I'm guessing no because it's a behemoth. But that's what a tablet is designed to do, you keep in in your bag all the time. If you're going to make it more annoying for yourself you won't take it or you'll take less of the accessory stuff at which point you should have gotten the better tablet.
 
Nothing modern 3D will be pretty running on Bay Trail lol So don't kid yourself, hey even upscaled it doesn't look horrible for what it is (experience doing this on Surface Pro 1). It's probably going to be best for old games and 2D stuff, emulation with gesture works would be awesome too.The T100 is alot worse in all areas also, way worse screen/build, worse performance. They aren't the same class of device.
Oh yeah, I don't expect modern gaming at all. That's why I said my favorite old pc games.
I figure the Omni is better at everything, I just forgot the convenience of upscaling in real windows gaming!
 
I'm trying to explain how to pick a tablet, I feel you actually know what you want and are at that stage where you are arguing yourself to it which is cool and I'll likely not influence you past this point but the tablet market it tricky and full of marketing and I'd like to be as informative as I can not just for you but anyone else in this thread.

Mainly my earlier posts were counter-pointing ideas about Win8 tablets. I understand the allure of Win8 tablets but at this point they just aren't very good unless you very specifically want something that only it can do. In most cases this turns out to be "run Steam" or "run Office" which I'd argue is less interesting than it sounds because it compromises the most important point of a tablet which is high portability. When you start needing a stand/gamepad/keyboard/mouse or whatever this not only adds to the cost but it's no longer portable because you're hauling too much around and at that point an ultrabook is just a better option.

But in terms of hardware they generally pale in terms of the competition and the thing about the tablet market it hardware and OS are inseparably linked and most tablets of a specific OS will share a number of features. I'm not a fan of Win8 offerings in the current market.

It's not okay to have a sub 1080p screen or really even a 1080p screen at 10". You can't bow out of the resolution race until you're hitting somewhere around 250 PPI. Most of these won't even mention viewing angles or color accuracy because even though they are post PPI measures of how good a screen is they know it's an area they can cheap out on.

It's not okay to weight 50% more than your competition or have giant bezels. Many of these weigh somewhere around 1.5lbs. The competition is mostly under 1lb. And while build quality in tablets is skyrocketing most of these look to be cheaping out here too hoping people don't notice that they are pretty hefty in comparison and certainly most don't have good build quality track records in the PC market either.

It's not okay to be getting 2 hours less battery than the competition in your preferential lab tested spec-sheet that certainly wasn't accounting for background tasks like Chrome and Steam. Tablets are optimized to go all day, even multiple days with sleeping. 8 hours is nothing when the competition is topping out around 12.

I do think it's great they universally seem to start at 32GB and have SD card support but that's also because Win8 can't fit in 16GB. Though for raw storage of media this could very well be a big plus.

Much of this is why WinRT is a thing. Intel chips are still fairly power hungry, Bay Trial has crappy graphics performance (its great if you're encoding video on your tablet though), Win8 can't intelligently manage desktop apps and services and those apps certainly were not designed to respect battery life. It's this reason why within Windows I'd recommend the Surface 2 or Lumina 2520 over them, they are much better at being tablets. Perhaps the sole outlier is the Surface Pro which is less a tablet and more a category all to itself.

So when we talk about tablet gaming I'd argue the correct thing to do is think about what mobile games you like because if you're thinking Steam to use that much extra equipment you likely won't do it in the long run and just for novelty. It's the same thing to ask if you have a gaming laptop do you take it with you everywhere? I'm guessing no because it's a behemoth. But that's what a tablet is designed to do, you keep in in your bag all the time. If you're going to make it more annoying for yourself you won't take it or you'll take less of the accessory stuff at which point you should have gotten the better tablet.

There's alot that I feel is misguided in this post, you don't need extra equipment for gaming, GestureWorks is a thing, and is a wired controller inconvenient?
Bay Trail is not power hungry and 4 EU for graphics isn't poor performance, it's above average but not at the top for its class, that's fine for their first use of Intel's graphics on atom.
If 1080p on a 10 inch screen isn't making the cut for you that's fine, but that's pretty damn good and natively fitting 1080p content is a nice thing. PPI at that point is great, I don't hold my 10 inch tablet up to my nose.
Weight is again debatable, yeah 1.5 pounds is too heavy for 1 handed use, but not everyone craves iPad air dimensions, more ports and arguably durability are worth it.

If you're looking for a shiny and polished experience that cuts out anything that could be ambiguous in terms of form and coherency of use then Apple is what you want. But I'll sacrifice polish to be able to have versatility and much more usefulness, and that's what great about Windows on Bay Trail and future atom variants.

Though in the end I agree for a pure conventional tablet experience (IE enlarged smartphone+) that Apple defined with the iPad, Surface 2/Lumia 2520 are the best options. Can't deny how much better their UI and touch experience is compared to an iPad, IE11 metro>mobile safari anyday, is mobile safari even touch optimized? I don't get that feel when I use iPads.
 
So when we talk about tablet gaming I'd argue the correct thing to do is think about what mobile games you like because if you're thinking Steam to use that much extra equipment you likely won't do it in the long run and just for novelty.

The other issue is that $300-$400 W8 Tablets are coming in fairly cheaper than comparable gaming capable Notebooks/Ultrabooks. Maybe their pricing just hasn't caught up yet.
 
I'm trying to explain how to pick a tablet, I feel you actually know what you want and are at that stage where you are arguing yourself to it which is cool and I'll likely not influence you past this point but the tablet market it tricky and full of marketing and I'd like to be as informative as I can not just for you but anyone else in this thread.

Mainly my earlier posts were counter-pointing ideas about Win8 tablets. I understand the allure of Win8 tablets but at this point they just aren't very good unless you very specifically want something that only it can do. In most cases this turns out to be "run Steam" or "run Office" which I'd argue is less interesting than it sounds because it compromises the most important point of a tablet which is high portability. When you start needing a stand/gamepad/keyboard/mouse or whatever this not only adds to the cost but it's no longer portable because you're hauling too much around and at that point an ultrabook is just a better option.

But in terms of hardware they generally pale in terms of the competition and the thing about the tablet market it hardware and OS are inseparably linked and most tablets of a specific OS will share a number of features. I'm not a fan of Win8 offerings in the current market.

It's not okay to have a sub 1080p screen or really even a 1080p screen at 10". You can't bow out of the resolution race until you're hitting somewhere around 250 PPI. Most of these won't even mention viewing angles or color accuracy because even though they are post PPI measures of how good a screen is they know it's an area they can cheap out on.

It's not okay to weight 50% more than your competition or have giant bezels. Many of these weigh somewhere around 1.5lbs. The competition is mostly under 1lb. And while build quality in tablets is skyrocketing most of these look to be cheaping out here too hoping people don't notice that they are pretty hefty in comparison and certainly most don't have good build quality track records in the PC market either.

It's not okay to be getting 2 hours less battery than the competition in your preferential lab tested spec-sheet that certainly wasn't accounting for background tasks like Chrome and Steam. Tablets are optimized to go all day, even multiple days with sleeping. 8 hours is nothing when the competition is topping out around 12.

I do think it's great they universally seem to start at 32GB and have SD card support but that's also because Win8 can't fit in 16GB. Though for raw storage of media this could very well be a big plus.

Much of this is why WinRT is a thing. Intel chips are still fairly power hungry, Bay Trial has crappy graphics performance (its great if you're encoding video on your tablet though), Win8 can't intelligently manage desktop apps and services and those apps certainly were not designed to respect battery life. It's this reason why within Windows I'd recommend the Surface 2 or Lumina 2520 over them, they are much better at being tablets. Perhaps the sole outlier is the Surface Pro which is less a tablet and more a category all to itself.

So when we talk about tablet gaming I'd argue the correct thing to do is think about what mobile games you like because if you're thinking Steam to use that much extra equipment you likely won't do it in the long run and just for novelty. It's the same thing to ask if you have a gaming laptop do you take it with you everywhere? I'm guessing no because it's a behemoth. But that's what a tablet is designed to do, you keep in in your bag all the time. If you're going to make it more annoying for yourself you won't take it or you'll take less of the accessory stuff at which point you should have gotten the better tablet.
I agree with a lot of what you say, and even echoed your same thoughts in my thread. Especially about the need to contort the device in ways it wasn't necessarily intended for, to play Steam games and the like. The capability is awesome for those who want to do it and have the patience to plug in peripherals or configure GestureWorks, but if gaming is what's most important to you on a tablet, the iPad is obviously the way to go. I think Windows 8.1 tablets easily beat Android tablets in gaming though.


Parts of your post fall apart though. For example, I'm not sure what tablets you're referring to when discussing size and weight. All of the Windows 8.1 8" tablets come extremely close to the iPad Mini in dimensions and weight. It's like a .1lb difference, and that's mostly just because they're 16:9/16:10 instead of 4:3, so they're a tiny bit taller (yet still perfectly comfortable to hold long-term with one hand).

Not a "behemoth" at all, I really don't know which tablets you're directly comparing here. Are you sure you're not comparing the Nexus 7 to a 10.6" Surface? Other than the iPad Air, 10/11" Windows 8.1 tablets running either ARM or Bay Trail are almost the exact same size and weight of most Android tablets and the iPad 4.

Battery life is also not an issue like you claim. Yes, Desktop apps can run unhindered, but only when the device is actually actively being used. All Desktop apps are immediately suspended when you turn off the screen and the device goes into Connected Standby - only metro apps that utilize background tasks like phones/iPads/etc. do are allowed to run. The Dell Venue 8 Pro gets 7-10 days of standby life while still continuing to get email, IMs, Skype calls, etc. without issue. I know that's not nearly as good as an iPad, but it's a far cry from what you're describing too.



So while I completely agree with some of your sentiment, most of your post seems to be clouded by complete misunderstandings of the actual products available to buy now, how they compare to the competition, and especially when it comes to sizes and weight.
 
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