Apparently I’m on this epic quest for the perfect portable device. Something that is more than a phone but capable of being grabbed at a moment’s notice and taken on the road. This device should allow me to read books, watch video, check email, and write stuff.
While a phone can handle all of this, it’s not the best solution. Yes, there’s a Kindle app but the screen, even on my Samsung Galaxy S10+, seems small (I recognize how insane that sounds). Same thing with the other items on my list, other than email, for which my phone suffices 99% of the time.
And so I explore tablets. The obvious choice, and one that will probably suit the majority of people, is an Apple iPad. But before I dove into that pool, I tried cheap, and that meant an Amazon Fire HD 10 (2017). For $150, plus cost for case and a portable Bluetooth keyboard, this was a steal. It worked well..for a while. What happened was Amazon’s curated app store. Suddenly, Microsoft OneNote stopped working. Who was responsible, I have no idea, I was just stuck without my #1 productivity app. Ditto MS Outlook, my go-to email app on all things.
So, poof, the Fire was now reduced to precisely what Amazon intended it to be, a device dedicated to consuming Amazon content. For this, it is very good. For everything else, not so much. I did side load the Google Play Store onto it, bypassing the Amazon store and letting me get to the latest Outlook and OneNote, as well as other apps, but it never felt all that stable. The auto-update features would also often conflict. I also grew tired of toting two things, tablet and keyboard.
It’s doable, though, so if, like me, you want to do this on the cheap, a Fire, combined with the Amazon case (which can hold it upright), and a simple Bluetooth keyboard, can make a great little combination.
But not for me, so into my life drifted the Apple iPad Pro 10.5. Combined with the keyboard cover, this is not cheap. In return, it does just about everything. I despise the interface; always have, always will. The walled garden that Apple seeks to lock you into is also very, very, VERY annoying. I hate that because of their terms of service, Apple essentially forces companies such as Amazon and Vudu (Walmart) to provide apps that do not allow you to purchase content. For that you have to jump out to your browser. It’s tremendously annoying, and it’s all because Apple insists on 30% of the sale regardless of how narrow the margin may be.
I know Apple fans will have a different opinion on this. Fine. I think it sucks and I place most of the blame on Apple, which has always been extremely anti-competition and, as a result, anti-consumer. They wish to ensnare you in their ecosystem and reap the profits. Remember this: Everything you purchase through the Apple App Store could be up to 30% cheaper if the developer didn't have to pay Apple their toll. Alternately, those developers could be reaping better rewards for their efforts if they didn't first have to pay Apple its 30% "agency" fee.
If none of that bothers you, the iPad is a great portable device. The keyboard cover, while already pretty good, has been improved on the current models; if you type a lot, this alone justifies the added expense of the Pro over the regular iPads (the current iPad Air with keyboard cover saves around $220, so there's that option). Expensive, yes; worth it for some, sure. But not me.
So that led me to the Microsoft Surface Go with keyboard cover. This clocks in at roughly 60% of the cost of the comparable Apple iPad Pro setup, but but more than double the Fire HD setup. I wanted to love this thing, I really did, and in many ways I still do. Compared to the iPad, it suffers from reduced battery life (little over four hours of my use, versus ten plus on the iPad). And while the keyboard is better than the iPad’s, both in terms of feel and that it’s backlit, it’s a tad more cramped. There’s also a certain sponginess due to its design. If you lay it flat, cured; if you fold it so it sits at a more natural angle, a little bounce.
This, and that it’s somewhat slower, would all be easily overlooked because it’s other strengths are tremendous. It has a fantastic touchscreen. It runs full Windows 10, so I have all my key applications, including Scrivener (and may I just quickly remark how much I didn't like Scrivener on the iPad, another reason I gave up on it). It’s just great.
What it lacks completely is a decent Kindle app, which means I also need to pack my Oasis ereader. Amazon’s workaround is just plain awful. Combined with the low battery life and the Surface Go, for all its strengths, pretty much fails as a go-to device. No, that’s overstating it, because if I’m going to jump down to Starbucks or head out for a weekend trip, I still grab it because it’s a lot lighter than my Dell XPS 12 2-in-1, does 90% of what I want it to do, and since it’s a full PC I have no compromises on running the software I want to run.
Nevertheless, why be less than satisfied? Having gone through three of these things, I’ve a better idea of what I’m looking for. I really don’t care about graphic-intensive games, I just need light weight, good battery life, a decent display, and a decent keyboard.
This brings me to my latest toy, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e and its portfolio keyboard cover, which I’m using to write this. I’ve only had it a few days, but so far, so good. The keyboard takes some adaptation, but anything smaller than my Dell requires that. Battery life isn’t completely known yet but I think it will give me 10+ hours; it certainly lasts more than two days on a charge with the way I’ve been using it.
Like the iPad, it’s always on, so I pick it up, touch the fingerprint reader, and I’m right to work. The display is simply fantastic, bright and sharp, with vibrant color. The tablet is also very light. Since it already has full access to the Google Play Store, I don’t have the app issues I had with the Fire. It’s neither Apple nor Amazon, so I have less of a walled garden to deal with. It also works a lot like my Galaxy phone, so it’s instantly familiar.
It’s biggest drawback is Android's lack of tablet apps; most things seem like a scaled up phone app. This really isn’t too much of an issue, but other problems crop up in odd places. For example, OneNote on my phone has a sticky notes feature. This syncs with the sticky note app on my PCs. For the Tab, the OneNote app doesn’t have this. I have no idea why since both download from the Google store.
Sometimes the reduced performance also shows, if only in subtle ways. While typing this, occasionally the keyboard input just…stops. Apparently I type too fast. Any kind of pause prevents this, so it’s not all that horrible. Stranger is that gorgeous, high-res display. From time to time, when I’m scrolling, you can see the gentlest of “tearing” in the display, as one side scrolls just a pixel or two faster than the other. It lasts less than a blink and it’s more amusing than annoying.
Right now, though, overall I’m really liking it, especially since it was cheaper than the Surface Go. It gets its first workout this weekend as I head to Southern California. I’m only taking this with me (not even my Kindle Oasis) and we’ll see how it goes.
And so my adventure with tablets continues. I doubt this is the end of the line, that I’ve found the one end all, be all, but we’ll see. Hopefully both Microsoft and Samsung will continue to have success in the tablet market because Apple needs some serious competition, which is good for all of us.
Comments