My niece just recently announced that she will be attending SUNY ESF this fall, so I'm helping my brother pick out a new laptop + tablet for her (or maybe a laptop/tablet hybrid) that she can use even out in the field, and hopefully one that will last for 5 years or so, and be able to take a beating (let's not beat around the bushes -- she can be very clumsy and careless, not that I wasn't at her age). To quote my brother 'it should be able to survive being run over in a car' (yes, it's funny, but that's actually based on experience). Price is not an issue (I assume because his in-laws, who have money, are helping to pay for it). It doesn't HAVE to be a Laptop/Tablet hybrid, but if it is, that would be a plus. But if separate items, the main priority is that both need to be sturdy.
If survivability is really the primary priority, you'll do a lot worse than look at the Toughbooks. One of my cousins is an EMT on a fire truck and that's the laptop they use. She's dropped it off the ladder and it still worked fine. Pretty sure they even backed over it partially once. For half-way between a tablet and a laptop, they also make convertibles. Same cousin said they used some of those on a trial run a year or so back, but they preferred the standard laptop. And there's also their tablets, but I don't know anybody with any experience with those. My dad is the second most accident-prone person I know and he uses a Samsung Galaxy 10 in a Ballistix case, and so far it's still alive. I'll ask my uncle what he and his friends use. He drives a snowplow for the city of Flagstaff and is good friends with some forest rangers.
I actually did look at the toughbook laptop, but didn't see the tablet. The one I saw looked a bit underpowered for what it was, but I guess that's the trade-off. After I saw some of them, I was trying to convince my brother that maybe she just needs a regular old laptop but with a really good case.
Yeah, the toughbooks are a very specific line for a very specific function. If you're just looking for normal laptop I always recommend Asus, and Acer for the low-end. Alienware aren't bad, but aren't the end-all everybody claims them to be. I wish it was as easy and cheap to build a laptop as it was to build a desktop. Oh well.
Only problem with toughbooks is that they tend to be heavy, and expensive for what you get. I'd recommend picking up a reasonably old but cheap netbook, like a HP DM1 or something (this is mine), then just replace it halfway. Buy two cheap ones instead of 1 big one. It can handle being dropped, if not run over, and it's light enough to carry around and will handle essays just fine.
Alienware is Dell, and overpriced. If you've got a lot of money to spend, you're better off with http://www.eurocom.com/ custom laptops. It's where I intend to go for my next one(something in the €2k range, but that's because I'm springing for extras and high end, you can get something midrange for half that). The draw with eurocom for me is a) choosing what goes in myself, b) win 7 option instead of forced 8(which I hate), and c) they're known for using quality parts.
I convinced my brother to go with a normal laptop + tablet instead of a toughbook. My thinking was that she could keep a more full-powered laptop in her dormroom (for the most part), and carry the tablet only into the field. So for a laptop, I gave him a few mid to high end alternatives, all with good user feedback, and for a tablet, I suggested either a 7" Android model from Samsung or a Kindle Fire (I really like my Samsung smartphone, so that's what I'm basing that on). I did look at a few convertible laptop/tablet hybrids, and decided they were a bad choice overall. They were a good alternative to the tablet, but not such a good alternative to a solid PC.
Actually, you should not use ANY tablet for reading books, only an e-reader, because they screens are hard on your eyes. And everything that I've seen as far as reviews by both users and reviewers with regards to the Kindle Fire, has been incredibly positive. If you've heard otherwise, let me know your source.
BTW, the tablet that I recommended was this one: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Galax...ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1399122846&sr=1-5 But what I said was that the Kindle Fire HDX was also good (and user feedback has been consistently good as well). the reason why I thought that was a good choice was that, as she's already a Kindle e-reader owner, any active content on her old kindle would also likely run on the Kindle Fire. The only thing is that apps from the Google Play store will not run on it, but since it does come with an office suite (which is important), that shouldn't be a huge issue.
Fair enough, I just know my mum has one and I've found using it to be a pain due to the carousel thing and it having it's own store, rather than the straight Play Store. I have a Nexus 7 and wouldn't look back...
The bolded section is why I never recommend Kindle Fires or Nooks (do those even exist anymore? lol) to anyone. It might not seem like a big deal at first, but it quickly becomes apparent that the Amazon-only apps don't handle nearly enough. It's rather like a cheaper version of the Apple walled-garden, just with even less options. That's never a good thing. The only way to salvage a Fire is to root it and install a custom ROM on it so it acts like the Android device it's supposed to be. That makes it just like a phone and you can install anything you want.
Although at this point I'd recommend an iPad over Android anything for the simple reason that the Google Play store is rife with malware and spyware to a much greater degree, Apple's got better(any) quality control, at least for casual users(Android might be better if you're paranoid and do your research before installing anything, that takes time though). I don't know about Amazon's quality control, but considering how walled that garden is, there probably is some. Basically Android I recommend only for power users, iPad for anyone else.
I don't have much direct experience with tablets but from what I've heard Windows 8 tablets sound like the best tablet OS (as a hybrid of desktop OS and tablet OS it should theoretically be far superior to all other tablet operating systems while at the same time pitifully inferior to all other desktop operating systems; even the worst desktop os is better than the best tablet os (this is seriously my opinion; If you could get a tablet to run MS-DOS I would personally take that over any mainstream tablet on the market))
I've used devices with IOS and with Android, but I've never used one with Windows, so I'd be hesitant to advise anyone (myself) from buying such a device. The one Windows tablet that I looked at a couple of months ago for my brother had gotten really bad reviews (he was mostly interested in it because he could use his mileage points to get one -- his family racks up a lot of miles since his in-laws live in Taiwan, plus they typically vacation with them (and usually they vacation with cousins and uncles and so on in some part of Asia). The only good thing they said about it in the review was that it could run a special version of Office on it. Unfortunately, the caveat was that it was not actually a touch-enabled version (which kind of defeats the purpose, I'd think). I'm sure there are better Windows tablets, but he had asked about a specific model because that's what he was being offered.
It's not as "rife" as people are led to believe. Sure, there's a bit, but a simple amount of intelligence and not downloading everything in sight will protect you from 99% of it. Also, the free Lookout security suite will protect you for that 1%.
Actually data mining is extremely rife, there's lots of "free" apps that spy on you, that's how they make their money, what do you think facebook and twitter's business models are?
Datamining, while personally despicable, is not technically malware; it's grayware. And reading what an app requires/does on your phone is the first part of installing it. All it really requires is a few moments to see which apps are recommended by reputable sources and seeing what it requires. Unfortunately, that is beyond the technological know-how of all-too-many people who flee to Apple and/or other "secure" sources. That's why I try to educate people about the security process, because even Apple's walled garden can't protect you from phishing schemes or the datamining of facebook and twitter. But that doesn't really have anything to do with laptops anymore. D'oh! Haldurson, did your niece ever get a specific laptop and tablet combination, and if so, how's it working out so far?
I made some recommendations, and my brother instead made some counter-recommendations. I'm not sure why but he seems set on buying from BJ's which is one of these supermarket warehouse stores that is near where he lives, which kind of limits his selection a bit. I think he thinks he can get a bargain from them. The laptops he selected, were smaller than the ones I picked. One I thought was underpowered (an ASUS, actually the best that BJ's carried, which wasn't saying much). The other one was decent (an HP Envy which is HP's higher end laptop series). Their prices are not much different from Amazon, and Newegg doesn't carry any of the specific models he picked out. I guess he figures that if he has to return it, the store is about a mile from his house. I don't know the store well, but it's probably not terribly different than Costco or Sam''s Club.
Latest update -- my niece graduated and her mom and dad got her (and her little brother, who's graduating from elementary school) Ipad Minis (on sale for like $200 each). My mom and I are going to pitch in together to buy her a laptop (so I guess, price IS an issue lol). Picking one out right now. Now I need a gift for an elementary school education (something a lot more modest though, than a computer).
