Ask HN: Do you use a tablet?

#1

Post by Raed667 » Sat, Sep 05, 2015, 1:27 PM UTC

Everyone around me seems to have a tablet these days. I have never used one and I don't see the need to.

I've been thinking about getting one lately, maybe for note taking or web navigation when I don't really need to code.

Do you use one? Why? Why not? And if so what model do you recommend?

Re: Ask HN: Do you use a tablet?

#2

Post by DougN7 » Sat, Sep 05, 2015, 2:16 PM UTC

I inherited my wife's old iPad but very rarely use it. Just hate on screen keyboards. Maybe I'll watch something on Netflix with it, but that's about it.

Re: Ask HN: Do you use a tablet?

#3

Post by r0ll3rb0t » Sat, Sep 05, 2015, 2:22 PM UTC

I was in the same boat, ended up then getting iPad mini. It's great, but I wouldn't buy it again. I think I would buy a Windows tablet next, just for OneNote and making sure it had stylus support.

Re: Ask HN: Do you use a tablet?

#4

Post by ant6n » Sat, Sep 05, 2015, 2:31 PM UTC

During my ugrad 2005-2008, I had a convertible tablet pc and took most of my class notes using it in tablet mode. But it had a Wacom pen and no distracting touch input. And when I needed a keyboard, I could just flip around and have a full laptop.

To me, modern tablets seem like toys, except maybe the Surface pro (expensive). I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and barely use it. The screen is uncomfortably small for taking notes, and the note taking software is exceedingly basic compared to the 13-year-old Windows Journal (which is itself quite basic, like a notepad for pen-input, but powerful enough to take decent notes and making drawings).

Re: Ask HN: Do you use a tablet?

#5

Post by trowawee » Sat, Sep 05, 2015, 2:32 PM UTC

Yeah, I use my iPad all the time. I play a bunch of games on it, read Feedly/Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr, read books, occasionally watch TV shows. It's my go-to device when I'm riding the El. I have the iPad Air 1st Gen, and it's great. My girlfriend has the Mini, which I like more for reading, although it's not great for watching videos. I think they're about to get even better with the iOS 9 ad-blocking capability; that's certainly the biggest issue with browsing on mobile now.

Re: Ask HN: Do you use a tablet?

#6

Post by lnalx » Sat, Sep 05, 2015, 2:37 PM UTC

I found it useless until I bought one, being a musician I can easily follow chords on it. I use it too for web development (checking responsive design), Android development and Reading (very important as HN user!). I hadn't spent a lot of money, it's a chinese tablet with same iPad specs.

Re: Ask HN: Do you use a tablet?

#7

Post by eswat » Sat, Sep 05, 2015, 2:38 PM UTC

I picked up a Nexus 7 years ago but found I wasn’t using it consistently enough compared to my laptop or kindle, so I gave it the boot.

But last year I bought an iPad to replace by broken Kindle. Between reading and deciding to put more consumption apps on it and stop using those on my laptop – Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, etc. – I started to get more use out of it.

In the end I have a tablet out of convenience of separating leisurely activities from work ones. Other than that it hasn’t provided significant value for me yet.

Re: Ask HN: Do you use a tablet?

#8

Post by anonyfox » Sat, Sep 05, 2015, 2:58 PM UTC

My iPad (air 2) works for me as the perfect "consumption" device wherever I are. Reading blogs, kindle app for books (prefer it to the old kindle device by far), twitter, facebook, mails, and so on. Also a few games like fallout shelter for the 5 minutes in between, or even stuff like deus ex, quite immersive gaming experience for a tablet.

For when I want to "produce" things, I grab my 13" mbp pro.

Actually I have always both, my ipad and my macbook, in a bag with me.

Bonuspoint for developers: the iPad can serve DashDoc remotely when coding on your mac! :D

Re: Ask HN: Do you use a tablet?

#9

Post by collyw » Sat, Sep 05, 2015, 2:58 PM UTC

no

Re: Ask HN: Do you use a tablet?

#10

Post by jonkiddy » Sat, Sep 05, 2015, 2:58 PM UTC

I bought an iPad mini with cellular and enjoy it. I commute on the train and mainly use it for reading HN, Kindle, email.