is a tablet the answer?

[Gothch1ck]

So... after years of work, my PC will be going away, and so will I, at least location based.

I am going on a long journey and need to get mobile. But.. I don't want to miss out on Twitch, Anime streams and other stuff... so I've been looking for an affordable tablet that will suit my needs (or a laptop)

What it needs:
Battery life. As it may be a while before I can full charge, I want to at least make sure I can check map data I've downloaded.

A bit on the durable side. I am backpacking, not taking a car or plane ride, so things are bound to get jossled around in the pack.

Amazing WiFi cuz face it, some of these have potatoes inside.

Other than that the simple ability to plug in a full keyboard/mouse to use with it (most support that) and/or bluetooth capible, or if you can think of anything else... the big limiter is the budget. I can't really afford to spend more than I will get for my PC, so I am trying to aim for low $$ even if it means it will only last the next year or 2 with this trip basically killing it's life span.


Any ideas? Or should I got Laptop?

 

[Dauntae]

Well you can get a low end laptop for around $250-$300 but battery life won't be good, A tablet might be better for the fact of the size, if your back packing it might be better for fitting in the pack, Less space taken the more space for essentials.

 

[carnageX]

Either a low-end laptop with a decent sized battery, or a used Asus Transformer with dock.

The dock to the Transformer has a physical keyboard, touchpad (like a laptop), and has a battery in it, so it will extend the life of the tablet by a great deal. My wife has one and basically uses it as a small laptop. Works especially now as well, since Microsoft just released Word/Excel/PPT for Android tablets.

 

[Gothch1ck]

Do you know if it will have errors watching things from Twitch or Animefreak.tv ? those are the 2 main issues, I know my phone won't do them.

Also do you know of a way in case of emergency to use a Cellular Covered network as data? (a data plan for the tablet itself) Like an addon USB device for SIM card or anything?

 

[carnageX]

Do you know if it will have errors watching things from Twitch or Animefreak.tv ? those are the 2 main issues, I know my phone won't do them.

Depends if they have Flash-based players or HTML5-based players.

If going through the browser, HTML5 videos will play on anything.

If they're flash based videos...then you'll have to side-load the Flash APK, then use Dolphin HD browser and enable the Flash plugin in the settings. That's the only way to use Flash on Android.

 

[Gothch1ck]

what about the T200? Cuz a lot of reviews show the T100's keyboard is small and all that, plus a T200 can get 4GB RAM instead of the 2....

and I dont see anywhere that says the dock has a battery

 

[carnageX]

The dock does have a battery:
Amazon.com: Asus Transformer Prime TF201 Mobile Docking - Amethyst Gray (TF201-DOCK-GR): Computers & Accessories

My wife has the TF300 that I bought for her off of Swappa for ~$200. Looking on there now, looks like the only one on there can be had for $160: Asus Transformer Pad TF300 (Wi-Fi) For Sale - UYV470 - $160 > Swappa

 

[1etherer]

Just buy an Ipad 2, battery life is better than a laptop I find, and you can get cases for protection against drops, water, dust etc

You can also jailbreak it which makes it more flexible (software side)

 

[Gothch1ck]

ipads are pretty expensive for less normally... I mean the cheapest 2 I can find is around the same price as the Tf300 but doesn't have the handy dock (which apparently has a battery taht can add like 6 hours of battery life to the unit) nor a recharge cable and is more damaged....

 

[Gothch1ck]

Ok so I think I am going to go with
ASUS Transformer Pad TF701T
newer model, 17 hour life with it's dock. 2560x1600 display.

Anyone think this isn't a good pick? (and why?)