Tablets.
I don’t recommend tablets for office work. However, I have enough Charleston clients asking me for tablet advice because they want a hybrid solution to allow them to get at least “some” office work done on their tablet PC.
My opinion is you can’t get allot of real office work done on a tablet without making certain sacrifices. I recommend serious business users purchase remote control software on their tablet so they can remote into their business PC to get important tasks done – e.g. updating Quickbooks, updating patient notes in medical software, etc.
Regarding specific tablets, the only Droid product I would consider against the Asus TF700 is the Samsung Galaxy Note which has really good market share and is well rated in both Consumer Reports and other Tech magazines. The two are similar except the Asus has a better display, slightly longer battery life, and a $150 keyboard that turns it into a “laptop”. The Galaxy is is better in terms of it’s pen, overall quality, bundled software and user-interface customizations. I favor the Galaxy for it’s quality, but I like the Asus for it’s
keyboard. RE: a recommendation, I can’t recommend either Droid until there are more actual buyer reviews on the internet regarding the Asus. If I we’re pressed and had to choose between all three, I’d choose the Apple iPAD provided you also consider a docking station and external keyboard for the iPAD since I personally consider the Apple’s touchscreen keypad unusable except for finger typing which slows most folks down. While I acknowledge the Apple is not as portable as the Asus/keyboard combo, I really believe most folks will be happier with the iPAD due to its quality, choice of apps explained below, etc.
RE: Office Software: There’s no analog to Microsoft Office for the Droid nor the Apple; on either Apple or Droid you can try Google Docs but most folks prefer spending extra on apps. In terms of office productivity apps, it’s my opinion that the iPAD is better than the
Droid. Apple’s “Pages” app, a nice streamlined word processor ($10) blows away the Droid’s mediocre to bad word-processing apps – ThinkFree, AndroidOffice, Polaris.
RE: Remote Control Software, both iPAD and Droids have apps to remote into Windows PCs but the Apple has considerably better quality offerings – consider LogMeIn Ignition for Apple or Droid or GotoMyPC for Ipad either for around $100/yr or several other less expensive apps on the Apple.
RE: Email, both iPAD and Droid offer email but contacts/calendar is stored in separate apps; If you have Outlook both Droids/IPads can be a pain in the butt if you want to synch Outlook contacts, etc. If this is important to you, it’s important to locate a solution prior to
buying something regardless of whether it’s Droid/iPAD.
In summary. Buy an Apple iPAD. You’ll be happier.
