Tablets Ipad air replacement?

[Bento.Box]

So my iPhone 12 died last friday and my ipad air 4 died today. Both out of warranty. I used to buy apple because their hardware usually lasted for many years, even decades. Now it seems to be cheap crap that lasts only a year or two. It‘s telling that my ipad 2 ultimately outlived my ipad air 4.

So I‘d like to get a replacement for my ipad with an attacheable keyboard and a stylus (the Apple Pencil was too heavy and lacked iPadOs integration so I didn’t use it much). What can you guys recommend? 8gb ram and 64gb storage would be nice

I usually like to have long software support, but now I think the focus should be on a hardware that lasts at least one year.

Since I‘ll probably need to replace it every year, it should not be expensive.

Thanks

 

[Heat_Fan89]

Your Android choices are limited. The only company currently selling tablets with your criteria is Samsung. They are seriously great tablets. You can add a keyboard and some come with a pen. The only two tablets I know that include a pen and allow for a keyboard are the S7 and S8 series. If you want a seriously premium build that rivals Apple then the S8+ and S8 Ultra are the way to go but they come at a cost.

The S7 FE is still a nice tablet and comes with a pen and in a 64GB of storage and 6GB of RAM. You can get those currently on sale at Amazon in the mid $300 and they are made from aluminum.

Samsung currently has XMAS deals starting either today or tomorrow and they have trade in specials so you might want to check the trade in price on your tablet.

 

[Technerd108]

Well if you don’t want another iPad then I would agree a Samsung Galaxy tab s8 would be a great choice.

I think an iPad Pro 2021/2022 would also probably be a tougher made device. The airs just feel a little delicate. I have a 5th gen air and an s8 11” tab. The s8 is way more solid feeling and Samsung uses Aluminum Armor which is supposed to be stronger and more scratch resistant than regular aluminum.

The tab s8 also has 120hz display, quad speakers, a spen included and double the base storage.

The tab s8 in my opinion has a better display as color saturation is better. It uses TFT vs. IPS. The only negative is that you don’t get any kind of anti reflective coating on the display which can make it very reflective in certain situations.

The speed of the s8 seems just as fast and fluid as the m1 in the air which is surprising. There are obviously some areas where the m1 is vastly superior but in day to day use it is hard to tell. I find battery life is better on the s8 as well.

The one thing I like about the iPad is it is very light and I can feel the difference between the two. The iPad also has slightly larger black bars when streaming.

The air and the s8 are pretty well matched with some advantages to both. Software updates will probably lean more towards Apple although Samsung will give 4 OS updates and 5 years security updates. One of the OS updates has already dropped with Android 13.

If you have a Samsung phone you can get messages on both devices and send them on both and you can pair the phone to your PC as well but you can’t do it with a Mac or iPhone. So if sending texts on your tablet is important and you have an iPhone it is not going to work on the tablet. Something to keep in mind.

If I were entrenched in Apple ecosystem then I would probably try my luck with a 2021 iPad Pro on sale, refurbished or used because the build quality is better than the air and everything will work together. Otherwise the S8 will be all on its own. I really like the tab s8 so I am not trying to convince you to stay with Apple but trying to let you know how everything will work.

You could probably sell you broken iPad for parts to recover some money and sell it for a couple hundred dollars on Swappa or eBay?

You could also find an air 4 at a deep discount and add Apple care and then if you have the same issue in a year you would be covered?

Good luck whatever you decide!

 

[ozaz]

Any views on screen ratios on Tab S8 vs iPad?

Am considering switching from iPad to Tab S8, and one of the things I'm a bit concerned about is screen ratio.

I know the 16:10 ratio on the Tab S8 is better for movies. But I've always liked iPad's 4:3 ratio for reading books, magazines, and web browsing in portrait orientation.

Do you get on ok with using the Tab S8 in portrait orientation?

 

[Heat_Fan89]

Any views on screen ratios on Tab S8 vs iPad?

Am considering switching from iPad to Tab S8, and one of the things I'm a bit concerned about is screen ratio.

I know the 16:10 ratio on the Tab S8 is better for movies. But I've always liked iPad's 4:3 ratio for reading books, magazines, and web browsing in portrait orientation.

Do you get on ok with using the Tab S8 in portrait orientation?

It depends what you value more? Do you watch more movies than use your tablet for the internet? I have a Galaxy Tab S7+ and a 6th and 9th gen iPad. For websites the iPad is the preferred choice at least for me because of the aspect ratio. However the Galaxy Tab will come real close to that if I hold the tablet in portrait mode, it will just be taller.

Now when it comes to a particular website I go to cbssports.com to get live boxscore updates, then the Galaxy Tab S7+ really shines in landscape mode and it allows me to get all the information I need on the game i'm following along with up to the minute Twitter feeds on the right side of the screen.

With the iPad I don't have that option so I have to toggle between play by play and Twitter feeds.

 

[ozaz]

It depends what you value more? Do you watch more movies than use your tablet for the internet?

About the same. But I have a suspicion the narrower aspect ratio of Tab S8 in portrait mode might irritate me more than the black bars when watching movies on the iPad (which has never really irritated me).

I guess I'll have to try to find out though.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

About the same. But I have a suspicion the narrower aspect ratio of Tab S8 in portrait mode might irritate me more than the black bars when watching movies on the iPad (which has never really irritated me).

I guess I'll have to try to find out though.

That would be my suggestion as well.

 

[Bento.Box]

Guys, thank you very much for all your feedback.

I didn't realize that 8GB RAM was such a dealbraker / price raiser in android ipads, thought it was already the norm.

The Samsung ones look nice, but they are a bit expensive. For the time being, I now bought a Lenovo Tab M10 Plus 3 and I ordered a keyboardcase and stylus from Aliexpress (hasn't arrived yet). It has double the amount of storage compared to the former ipad air 4, face id (although it doesn't work as good as apple, but it's a lot better than touch ID). It also comes with GPS and a micro SD card slot, which the ipad also didn't have. The GPS is nice to have for some flight apps, since - for some reason - you cannot share the location from the iphone to the ipad, I wonder why apple devices don't work together more closely.
And it also has software support until 2025, which is quite long for Android. If I don't like it in the long run, I'll look into Samsung again.

One thing I noticed: The 10"ish ipads/tablets keep getting bigger with every generation. I bought a tray for my bathtub to fit my ipad 2. the air 4 fit only slightly angled and for the lenovo I had to build a workaround with two rubber bands.

 

[edubfromktown]

I've tried Android tablets over the years and still like the "fluidity" of iPads better. The UI drives me a bit crazy nowadays since I am an Android phone and frequent (2-in-1) Chromebook user. I hardly ever use the touch screen on the CB and only flipped the screen all the way over to use as a far too chonkey "tablet" a few times.

My Air 2 is still going however, I decided to throw $125 at a used iPad Pro 1st gen which is the same compact form factor (and can be upgraded to IOS 16). So far I'm impressed with it.

 

[Ludatyk]

The Samsung ones look nice, but they are a bit expensive. For the time being, I now bought a Lenovo Tab M10 Plus 3 and I ordered a keyboardcase and stylus from Aliexpress (hasn't arrived yet). It has double the amount of storage compared to the former ipad air 4, face id (although it doesn't work as good as apple, but it's a lot better than touch ID). It also comes with GPS and a micro SD card slot, which the ipad also didn't have. The GPS is nice to have for some flight apps, since - for some reason - you cannot share the location from the iphone to the ipad, I wonder why apple devices don't work together more closely.
And it also has software support until 2025, which is quite long for Android. If I don't like it in the long run, I'll look into Samsung again.

I'm curious... Did you really need to replace the Air so soon? You do have a MBP 14"... correct?

I would have suggested what @Technerd108 and gotten another iPad to stay within the ecosystem. Especially with having both an iPhone and Mac.

 

[Bento.Box]

I'm curious... Did you really need to replace the Air so soon? You do have a MBP 14"... correct?

I would have suggested what @Technerd108 and gotten another iPad to stay within the ecosystem. Especially with having both an iPhone and Mac.

Yeah, I have the MBP14" (which technically belongs to my client).

The screen was broken of the ipad air 4, so I needed to replace it. A new screen would have probably cost as much as the whole lenovo tablet. And without any guarantee that nothing else will break.
I already threw that stuff in the dumpster after taking it apart out of curiousity. What really baffled me was how much electronics there actually was in the apple pen stylus. I get that the newer non-resistive touchscreens need some kind of active technology, but that abomination should never have been released.

Originally, I bought the air 4 because I experienced that the ipad 2 had a very long usable life. But if I have to replace apple hardware every year or every two years latest if I buy apple care (the iphone 12 already had it's second screen, but the first time it was my fault because it got scratched by sand), then the cost of operating it is significantly higher than with android (which traditionally came with short lifecycles), and the inconvenience of having to use android instead of iOS (which is better, but does have its faults as well) is not worth the hundreds of extra dollars annually in my view.

I usually don't do anything to be somehow tied to an ecosystem. For example, I moved from hosting my own owncloud to icloud (carddav/caldav) and google drive (files, as they don't work properly on icloud), and that usually works on all sorts of clients and devices. Here in Europe, we also don't use imessages.
The only app that is reliant on iOS that I might use is foreflight. But I couldn't use it well on the air 4 because it didn't have GPS and the 64GB were really not enough not not swap out data frequently.

I just discovered that the lenovo tablet supports my XInput compatible wired gamepad. Now downloading a game to test it out.

 

[Ludatyk]

the inconvenience of having to use android instead of iOS (which is better, but does have its faults as well) is not worth the hundreds of extra dollars annually in my view.

I personally don’t view Android or iOS better than each other… just different.

I usually don't do anything to be somehow tied to an ecosystem. For example, I moved from hosting my own owncloud to icloud (carddav/caldav) and google drive (files, as they don't work properly on icloud), and that usually works on all sorts of clients and devices. Here in Europe, we also don't use imessages.
The only app that is reliant on iOS that I might use is foreflight. But I couldn't use it well on the air 4 because it didn't have GPS and the 64GB were really not enough not not swap out data frequently.

I appreciate the detailed response about why you went for Android tablet over iPad, but since you mention the MBP belongs to someone else… which means they can potentially take it whenever and you’ll be left with nothing, I get it.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

Actually device and OS aside.

Keyboard …….

I prefer the Keyboard on Samsung Tab devices (My experience with the S7+ and S8U). I just like the fact that it’s a full keyboard, that includes esc and function keys w/shortcuts. The Globe key shortcuts on the Magic keyboard are subpar. I’ve tried some accessibility features to bring up the volume and some other onscreen shortcuts, but it’s janky at best.

The keys on the Tab keyboard are also more silent than the Magic keyboard. The Magic keyboard‘s trackpad is better at clicking, but I use touch tap 99% of the time. The trackpad of both keyboards are equally as good with multitouch and gestures.

The Pros of the Magic keyboard is that it has an extra USB-C charging port, which leaves space to plug my external drive into the main port. It’s comes in white, which looks damn good. And that it’s easy to carry around while open.

The Pros of the Tab Keyboard cover is that it has a cover for the S-Pen, and the kickstand flap gives you a lot more degrees of an angle to work with.

I’m hoping Apple eventually comes out with a larger iPad which hopefully means a full keyboard.




S-Pen vs Apple Pencil ……..

I prefer the S-Pen hands down over the Apple Pencil for using as an everyday input device. Also like the fact that it doesn’t need to hold a charge to work, whereas the Apple Pencil won’t work at all without a charge.

The S-Pen is lighter and smaller in hand. Which makes taking notes, editing PDFs, and working with photo editors a much better experience.

When drawing, I also prefer the S-Pen. But I’m far from being good at drawing (think stick figures), so my opinion on this holds little weight. But at least with the Apple Pencil, I don’t get worried about wearing out the tip.

 

[Ludatyk]

S-Pen vs Apple Pencil ……..

I prefer the S-Pen hands down over the Apple Pencil for using as an everyday input device. Also like the fact that it doesn’t need to hold a charge to work, whereas the Apple Pencil won’t work at all without a charge.

The S-Pen is lighter and smaller in hand. Which makes taking notes, editing PDFs, and working with photo editors a much better experience.

When drawing, I also prefer the S-Pen. But I’m far from being good at drawing (think stick figures), so my opinion on this holds little weight. But at least with the Apple Pencil, I don’t get worried about wearing out the tip.

i think a user gets more out of the S-Pen than a Apple Pencil.

I only use my Apple Pencil for when I’m editing things in apps.. PDFs, Luma Fusion, Affinity or some photo editing app. I don’t use it outside of editing apps, but with the S-Pen I use far more on the OS.

Apple once said… the Apple Pencil is not a stylus, maybe that’s why its limited compared to the S-Pen.

 

[edubfromktown]

iOS 16.2 update definitely has the 9.7" iPad Pro cruising along a little faster in my opinion.

 

[Bento.Box]

Got my keyboard, case and stylus from Aliexpress today. Cost me around 20 USD including shipping.

The stylus is superior to the Apple Pencil in every way. It's a passive device, not needing pairing. It's much more lightweight, smaller and comes with a clip, so it doesn't fall off all the time like the magnetic apple pencil did. Since it's passive, it fits much better into the applications as they don't need dedicated support for it.
Even simple things like changing applications work out of the box (which I could never get to work on my ipad).

The keyboard comes with the Function and Escape Keys that were painfully missing from my ipad keyboard (it was a logitech case with keyboard, I didn't get the magic one for twice the price). It's nice to type on it. But it needs bluetooth (the Logitech didn't) and it doesnt attach to the case it came with. It also has a battery that needs to be charged (the logitech one didn't, it attached directly to the ipad). The case only allows for one angle of the lenovo tablet - the logitech has two.

So in essence, the stylus is top, the keyboard has pros and cons and the case is inferior. Given the price, I can't complain - everything together was much cheaper than the apple pencil alone.

I've tried Android tablets over the years and still like the "fluidity" of iPads better.

Yeah, I totally understand what you mean. Android is based on Linux and it's not a RTOS out of the box. It can be one and I would have expected google to actually give the GUI a realtime priority to make it "fluid".
It was one of my pet peeves since I got my first android phone over a decade ago.
I will see how many apps go sideways, at a 90 degrees angle from the keyboard, which was also a big issue with android. Eventually, hardware manufacturers gave up on horizontal android devices (e.g. Sony Xperia Pro) and the prevalent ones with keyboard were all vertical (e.g. newer BlackBerry).
Personally, I still think iOS is superior. I liked QNX/BB10OS, EPOC/Symbian, Windows Mobile, Palm OS - and Android came always last to me.

What I notice is that the Lenovo is significantly slower than the iPad with the A14 chip. Especially in gaming. But that's not the main purpose, so I don't care much. In return, it seems to have a longer battery life during my usual usage. I'm also disappointed with the Face ID feature. It works equally crappy as the touch ID on the ipad. Half of the time I have to enter my password.
Which I find odd, because face id on the iphone works perfectly and touch id on my MBP also works very good (I actually use it).

All in all, I'm happy with the low cost solution. Fits all my ipad needs. Even apple tv works, although I have to use a separate browser (google chrome) for it.

 

[Rafterman]

I recently switched to a Fold 4 (we will see what iPhone 15 brings, because I am bored with iPhone currently), but iPads are still the best tablets around.

 

[Technerd108]

I recently switched to a Fold 4 (we will see what iPhone 15 brings, because I am bored with iPhone currently), but iPads are still the best tablets around.

Besides the Samsung tab s8 I would agree with you.