I bought a tablet, and I'm not happy with it.

fuzzybuddy

fuzzybuddy

SF VIP
Location
The Sticks, Northeast PA.
For years I just had a big ol' desk top computer. But now, that I do all my banking, and a lot of shopping on line, I figured I should have a back up. So, I got a Surface Pro 3. As a back up, it's OK, but I found it very limiting. I had a flip phone, and decided to get with the rest of the human race and got iPhone 13, on which I do all my banking. If I got the phone first, I never would have gotten the Pro #3. How would you rate a Pro 3?
 

I have a Windows laptop, an iPhone and an iPad. I know nothing much about those Surface Pro's except that they don't play well with Apple products. If you had instead purchased an iPad you might have had a better experience. It really depends though on what you use them for. I'm typing this on my iPhone, via my laptop which is hooked up to my TV, which is what I'm using for a monitor at present. My iPad is charging because I wore it down using it as my keyboard earlier.

I have a friend who has a surface pro and an iPhone but she seems to feel very similar to what you express. I personally thought that Surface Pros cost too much for the limitations they have. iPads are very portable and work great with iPhones.
 
I know as little as I can get away with about my computer. I just finally broke down and replaced my MacBook after doing everything on my iPhone for more than a year. Writing on the phone was awful though I’m doing it now since I’m taking a break in the garden, away from the computer. Awkward.

I’m not a good one to evaluate computer products. But I’m very happy with my even more recently purchased Kindle Paperwhite reader.
 

Can't say I've ever heard of them, altho' when I looked them up it says they're entry level...

I have a newish Mac all in one Desktop.. and an Ipad .. as well as an Iphone.. to access the internet..
 
fuzzybuddy said:
How would you rate a Pro 3?
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I Googled "Surface Pro 3" and it appears to have been released in 2014. With such hardware specs the Surface pro 3 would have been better off running ChromeOS, rather than Windows, which is a resource hog(at best) and a general pain-in-the-neck to maintain. But if you're just sufing the 'net it should be adequate for that.
 
I do not know anything about the Surface tablet, and I do not use anything with Windows anymore. I have my iphone and iPad, and I use the keyboard with my large iPad, making it like a laptop , in effect.
I also have a small portable keyboard that can work with any type of phone or tablet, so you do not have to use the virtual keyboard on the phone or tablet to type with. Amazon has a great selection of these, all sizes and prices.
Everything Apple integrates perfectly together, and even an older iPad would probably work much better with your iPhone than the Surface tablet does.
This is how my iPad looks with the keyboard attached.

F27B040F-A4EB-4E2B-8141-F347C9BDD462.jpeg
 
Wigglestein said:
We buy Amazon Fire tablets. They are cheap and we use them for Internet and email along with watching tv and movies. Oh and music. At Christmas the 10 inch was on sale for $75. The 7 or 8 inch are $40ish. Downside, can't get Google Play Store Apps. Just Amazon apps.
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I do the same and you can sideload Android on it. I do it and use it when charging my phone. Google "Putting Android onto Fire Tablet". It's not that difficult. Downside is it makes a somewhat sluggish run a little more sluggish and of course you can't put all your apps on it due to storage space but you are able to install more than you would think.
 
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Bought a Dell Chromebook running GoogleOS six months ago. Goal is to eventually migrate all my online activities to it. Bit of a slog.

Finding I am doing less and less desktop publishing and doing more online. Really like to cut the cord on the desktop but been with MS for so long not sure I can operate without its connectivity. Not sure I embrace this cloud concept but it's there for Windows 11 on my desktop, so 'shrug'.

Bottom line, fumbling about a bit with this change over and find myself reluctant to go all the way. Wondering how others that may been dabbling in ChromeOS are finding it? A
 
Happyflowerlady said:
I do not know anything about the Surface tablet, and I do not use anything with Windows anymore. I have my iphone and iPad, and I use the keyboard with my large iPad, making it like a laptop , in effect.
I also have a small portable keyboard that can work with any type of phone or tablet, so you do not have to use the virtual keyboard on the phone or tablet to type with. Amazon has a great selection of these, all sizes and prices.
Everything Apple integrates perfectly together, and even an older iPad would probably work much better with your iPhone than the Surface tablet does.
This is how my iPad looks with the keyboard attached.

View attachment 264900
Click to expand...
Hi HFLady. How does the keyboard connect to the iPad. Thinking about getting one soon. Pappy. Also the pencil I might get.
 
Most everything computer techy I have is Apple - ipads, iphone, watch, mac air laptop and a mac mini desktop. The only item I have that doesn’t have an apple on it is a Google TV dongle attached to my television. For some reason an Apple tv would not play nicely with my Sony tv.
 
Pappy said:
Hi HFLady. How does the keyboard connect to the iPad. Thinking about getting one soon. Pappy. Also the pencil I might get.
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I have the Apple Magic Keyboard, @Pappy . On the back of the ipad are three little dots, and they match up with three little dots on the top of the keyboard, so it is not a Bluetooth connection, but I am not exactly sure what it is called.
The ipad fits onto the keyboard magnetically, so it is easy to take off, not like having it inside of a holder, you just lift it off when you want to carry the iPad without the keyboard.
There is a usb-c connector on the keyboard, and you can connect with that or with the one on the ipad, and both the ipad and keyboard will charge, so you never have to charge the keyboard separately.
The whole thing folds up if you are traveling and taking the iPad along.
You will definitely like it once you get the Apple keyboard, it is much better than the Bluetooth ones that I have had before.
 
Used a desktop for many years

I jumped into this century and got an HP laptop a couple years ago
I was very tentative (scared)
Bought a hard drive and had a shop load it and my new laptop with all the desktop stuff

Struggled a bit with win10
then, after a few days....all good.....actually great
Never looked back
Love it

I also have a tablet.....somewhere in a desk drawer (I MUST have a real keyboard)
 
Happyflowerlady said:
I have the Apple Magic Keyboard, @Pappy . On the back of the ipad are three little dots, and they match up with three little dots on the top of the keyboard, so it is not a Bluetooth connection, but I am not exactly sure what it is called.
The ipad fits onto the keyboard magnetically, so it is easy to take off, not like having it inside of a holder, you just lift it off when you want to carry the iPad without the keyboard.
There is a usb-c connector on the keyboard, and you can connect with that or with the one on the ipad, and both the ipad and keyboard will charge, so you never have to charge the keyboard separately.
The whole thing folds up if you are traveling and taking the iPad along.
You will definitely like it once you get the Apple keyboard, it is much better than the Bluetooth ones that I have had before.
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Thank you so much. I will definitely get the Apple keyboard like you have.
 
Pappy said:
Hi HFLady. How does the keyboard connect to the iPad. Thinking about getting one soon. Pappy. Also the pencil I might get.
Click to expand...
Just an update on the magic keyboard.
For my 80th birthday last month, my daughter gave me a new iPad Pro 13”, which is just a little different than the 12.9 iPad Pro, although it is basically the same size. (My old one was the 2018 model, so I have had it a long time)
One really nice thing is that the front camera is now at the top in landscape mode, which it has never been before, it was always on the left side in landscape mode.

However, this iPad also needs a new Magic Keyboard, the connection is different; so she gave me a new Magic Keyboard along with the iPad.
I could not get the backlight to come on unless I turned off the lights and the room was dark, and then it lit up just fine. I checked all the adjustments for the keyboard, and there was nothing to change the settings, so I contacted Apple Support.

Apple Support had me try several more things, and finally told me I needed to take the keyboard to an Apple Store for help. We did this, and it turns out that the new keyboards have a sensor on them and do not turn the keyboard on unless the room is dark, which seems pretty stupid to me.
If you are paying for an expensive backlit keyboard the backlight should be able to come on when you want a backlight. I ended up returning the keyboard, and ordered another similar brand from Amazon that has an on-off switch for the backlight.
It is supposed to arrive today, and I am looking forward to having it. I will update on how I like it once I have it connected and try it out.
 
Had a few tablets, never got too good on them, they did what I wanted. After my FOMO days I gave my kindle to my g-grandson. Went back to my Linux driven laptop. Decided to get my wife a Chromebook years ago, she still uses it. I don't mess with it, simple to reset or use & the price was right. To each, their own. Things in my life that I can do without.
 
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I definitely like the Apple Magic Keyboard better than my new bluetooth keyboard. It holds the iPad the same way (magnetically) so it is easy to lift the iPad off of the keyboard case, but….. the same as all Bluetooth keyboards, there is that few seconds before you have actual connectivity.
I have to tap the keyboard a couple of times to wake it up before it switches from the digital keyboard to the external one.
The backlight works great, and has several colors, although I prefer just the plain while backlight when I use it.

Since I got the white keyboard, i can mostly use it without having a light, just like the Magic Keyboard in white. Overall, if you want something that operates about the same as the Apple keyboard, and want it for about 1/3 of the price of the Apple one, then this is an excellent keyboard option.



IMG_0240.jpeg
 

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