Choosing Apple or Android tablets

[northernladuk]

The family want to get our eldest and iPad of some sort for xmas but all four of us in the house have Android phones (4 samsungs, two aces, two S3's if that makes a difference)

Do Android tablets do anything fancy that would make it better to pick something compatible with the phones rather than an iPad? Do they offer the fancy connectivity that the Apples do when you have phone+tablet etc?

I am sure that there are apps helping with all this sharing like dropbox for files and all that but anything that might mean I would be better getting android tablet when we have android phones? Will getting an iPad mean we lose out on something fancy we could all use between devices?

[Pondlife]

Mrs PL has Samsung tablet, I have an ipad. we also have both types of phone.

One plus of commonality is that you can often share paid apps (no idea of the legality of this but it works)

Apart from that both platforms seem to have the same apps (hotmail/facebook/dropbopx etc) that we would both use.

Another advantage of commonality is sharing chargers.

[The Spartan]

IIRC if you pay for an app from Google Play you can use it on both your tablet and phone and you only pay once for it.

[SimonMac]

Depends what they want to do with the tablet?

[eek]

IIRC if you pay for an app from Google Play you can use it on both your tablet and phone and you only pay once for it.

likewise apple. Nowadays we are an apple house (two iphones, two ipads) so chances are the girls will eventually get ipad minis.

If everything you've got is android an Nexus 7 saves £50 which buys a lot of content.

[captainham]

The Google Nexus 10, coming out on 13th November, will be the first Android sporting version 4.2, which means you can have multiple user account logins, if that makes any difference.

Decent spec and very decent price too (higher res screen than even iPad), although I am an Android Fanboi and confirmed Apple Hater so I'm hardly unbiased...

But to be honest, attempting to be unbiased, it's all much of a muchness IMO. iPad looks a bit sexier but you pay for it, functionality-wise I don't think you lose anything either way.

I just don't like Apple because of years of being forced to buy protected MP3s on iTunes, only installing what they allow you to install, not so easy to just drag movie files onto the iPad without using iTunes (a problem if you're travelling and only have crappy locked-down client laptop).

[The Spartan]

And with the JellyBean 4.2 upgrade you can have multiple profiles on the one tablet if that's any use to you, I have a Nexus 7 and I am very happy with it. I was also given an iPad 3 a few weeks back which was good but I'm more of a person who likes customisation so I sold it. Pricewise Android tablets are a lot cheaper and now with the release of the Nexus 10 this month you have a decent 10 inch android tablet.

God I sound like I've been brainwashed lol!!

[northernladuk]

IIRC if you pay for an app from Google Play you can use it on both your tablet and phone and you only pay once for it.

Great point, particularly for the kids. Thanks

What about all the apple icloud stuff with photos appearing from phone on to other apple devices like you see on the tv add. Android do something similar? Not bothered if you have to click a few buttons.

Just to add another depth to this. Is it worth sticking to Samsung for stuff like Allshare Play or is it just not good enough to tie me to a single manufacturer. Would like to look at the Asus Transformer thing so they have a keyboard as well for school work but can just buy an keyboard attachement if I stay Samsung I guess

[captainham]

What about all the apple icloud stuff with photos appearing from phone on to other apple devices like you see on the tv add. Android do something similar? Not bothered if you have to click a few buttons.

Would need to hunt around to find it but there's definitely some sort of app for this. I set it up on my sister-in-law's phone so that when she connects to her home wi-fi, the app syncs her photos beween phone and laptop. Can dig out the name if you need it, just let me know.

[The Spartan]

I'm not expert on iCloud so I'm not sure what it's capable of, all the content from my tablet is automatically backed up to Google's server and can be restored very easily. For pictures you have picasa and instant upload that again will be synced with your account as well as calendar, tasks etc