Tablets are not just for irritating Dad with Angry Birds . . .

[MJP]

I use a Samsung gaming laptop. I don’t have any games, but at the time of purchase around two years ago it was the best specified of any laptop under £2500 (it was £1299), near mobile workstation performance for half the price.

The screen is 17.1 inch with 1920 x 1280 resolution which is approx. 128 ppi (pixels per inch). This has been adequate so far to view my terrible pictures and worse still . . . yours.

I have looked into these things called Reference Monitors. They’re very expensive and really beyond any sensible budget, but in my search I stumbled across the idea of these cheap tablet things. My eldest has one, a 10.1 inch Samsung Tab 3 thing. I thought these things were kids toys sent to irritate me, just a bit of glass with finger prints and bits of Beng Beng all over them.

Anyway, last night I confiscated the tablet before bedtime, as usual, so little people go to sleep rather than staying up all night, suitably rested ready for school in the morning.

I decided to load a bunch of high resolution jpegs (10-15 mb each) on to the tablets SD card and having managed to find the ‘Play’ store and an ‘App’ called QuickPic to view them I was thinking this thing would be utterly awful.

I was wrong! Very, very wrong. So I did a bit more research. It’s a whole different world. At a PPI of 149 this Samsung 10.1 Tab 3 doesn’t even have that high a resolution compared with the competition. The Google Nexus 10 runs up 300 ppi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_displays_by_pixel_density

And PPI’s are about to go higher still apparently. Could this be the answer to a mobile reference monitor?

http://www.display-central.com/free-news/display-daily/studio-reference-monitor-quality-tablet/

Add to all this the Pentax K-3 can be controlled by one of these Android tablets via a FLU card. It’s like Live View on steroids and you can pick your focus points by touching the screen! I have resisted Tablets because I thought they were a fad. But it seems the technology has more applications and interface with other technologies these days to make it worth looking at now.

So, any advice on which tablet to look at would be most appreciated. It needs to run Google Android. Also, is it possible to run LR or Photoshop on these things?

[FracturedRabbit]

No advice on which tablet because I have an iPad which falls outside your requirements; but I find tablets are extremely useful if you are travelling and want a way to back up your photos. Transfer all your photos onto the tablet at the end of the day and you now have a back-up (iPad will import RAW and JPEG in full size, I assume Android will do also).

Then you can sit back and enjoy reviewing your photos and chuck a few onto the social media site of your choice if you so desire. At the end of the trip you can upload your photos from your SD card; or just plug in your tablet and upload everything from there.

Of course you can buy dedicated back-up devices; but they don't also let you browse the web and play Angry Birds!

[MJP]

I'm looking at tablets now and I'm totally confused.

Apparently the new Google Nexus 10 is out soon, going to wait for that thing, see what the resolution and performance is like.

Can't find anything about using LR or PS on the these things, guess it's down to the operating system. The power of them now with octa-core processors and wotnot should be enough to use good RAW post-processing software.

I'd love to junk this laptop, the thing weighs 4 kilos and that's before the power pack!

[FracturedRabbit]

I have Photoshop Touch on my tablet; but prefer using Snapseed if I really want to edit on a tablet; which normally I don't. Tablets are great for consuming, not so good for creating; some things are just easier with a mouse and keyboard.

Plenty of manufacturers can offer you a powerful, light laptop if that is what you need (and are prepared to pay for it).

[MJP]

I think you can use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse with some of these tablets. I've seen some called 'convertible' tablets that turn into laptops . . . hell this is confusing.

I've looked at the Macbook Pro Retina, but waiting on IGZO displays, specifically if Samsung will use them.

To be honest, this Samsung 700G7A hasn't let me down and its screen is good enough. I had a military spec Dell XFR for a short period, it's meant to withstand a nuclear blast or something. Anyway it died about a month into a contract on an old RAF base and I did the whole job using a Samsung netbook which is still going to this day.

Samsung = Good.

Edited November 8, 2013 by MJP

[FracturedRabbit]

My personal view is that tablets are great for consuming.

Movies

Books

Magazines

E-mail (reading with writing)

Web browsing

Games

Photo storing/browsing when travelling

etc etc

As soon as you start needing a keyboard or a mouse; then use a computer. I have a bluetooth keyboard that works with my tablet. Used it once just to see if it worked.

My tablet is my slump in a chair, sit on the toilet (sorry), read the news in the morning in bed, take to the coffee shop device. I use it daily and could not live without it. But process a photo or write a long blog post or prepare a spreadsheet: computer.

If you think the two can be combined, Microsoft will sell you a Surface....

[MJP]

This MS Surface Pro 2 thing is almost there. Just needs better display resolution.

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tablets-in-the-enterprise/fact-sheet-microsoft-surface-pro-2/

[MaxwellsDemon]

I've got a top-of-the-line Dell XPS 12, primarily a notebook with the ability to kinda-become-a-tablet. As in, it folds and the screen flips, but at 3 lbs it is a little hefty. But as a laptop it's still wonderfully light, and as a client-sharing device it's great to fold it up and show people photos, either as a portfolio or to your creative director seconds after you hit the shutter.

Plus, it's a 12 inch 1080p screen. Not sure offhand what the ppi is, but it's stellar. And it's a full fledged laptop with photoshop/etc, and runs great.

Little pricey.

Just a little, though.