Hey peeps, I've recently noted I have tons of time to write during my day to day activities but usually I am nowhere near my home and my phone, though amazing, would slow me down to the point of frustration. I've decided to look into netbooks/tablets and the like. I didn't want a $500 model as I am cheap and it would go far beyond my needs and it would cause me to be distracted by all the bells and whistles. I've Googled around and found out that I need two things for it: full-sized USB port (So I can add a rollup keyboard to it or perhaps get a solid mini) and can download either a word processor or has a decent integrated writing software. Currently, I found Dragon Touch R10 for about 150$ and has the USB port and capabilities I'd need on the go. For that price, I doubt you can find much better. That's what my research got me. I am curious, does anyone have a better suggestion or experience in this? Also, any ideas for cheap and quality bluetooth keyboards I could use instead? They don't need to be fancy, just easy to connect, stable, and reliable.
I'm not going to be helpful, but I'm a Mac girl and I love my MacBookPro. I thought about the simpler notebooks that have word processor capability, it's probably all I really need in a notebook given I have an iMac as well. But having a full capacity notebook means I have a back up when the PC is down, which has happened. Otherwise I think I'd be looking at a tablet.
I use Notebooks on both my iPhone and iPad. Wireless keyboards happily sync with both of them. I have a Mac wireless keyboard and also a rubber rollup one that I used in my old job because we weren't allowed to use keyboards and the rubber one was silent and they couldn't tell I was using it. The cool bit is that Notebooks works hand-in-hand with Scrivener on my (several) Macs. Everything syncs with everything. Mobile, laptop, iMac, MacMini, they all sync and my project stays up to date no matter what I'm using.
Yeah, what you need is a $2,000 dollar typewriter. I would recommend a netbook over a tablet, and be very careful around the low end tablets. I used to test on them and anything under $200 dollars was a guaranteed piece of crap. At the very least I would get a tablet with bluetooth so that you can hook up a bluetooth keyboard which is going to be loads better then a usb keyboard. A barebones netbook will come in at around $200 and you have more options there, both in software, (Scrivener and Open Office run just fine on mine) but they also have the advantage of having the file structure open and editable, which I think is worth at least $50 so the netbook will only cost $150!
Thanks for all the replies. From what I've read in my continuing research is that the low-end models are 50/50 gamble with it either working perfectly or being a dud very fast. Also, everyone seems to prefer netbooks or straight up laptops as it's more secure and does everything they need hassle free. Now, I'm considering getting a 10" or 11" screen.
That small it doesn't really matter. I've got an 11 inch and it's immerse enough. I'd like to think I'd be fine with just an inch smaller, but I honestly can't decide if I would or wouldn't.
I think bigger is better, just for comfort and distance BUT this is specifically to bring to work and keep it low key so as not to seem like I'm not paying attention to the world around me with a big hulk of a laptop. Heck, 6" would be good enough but that's a phone size and writing on a phone just doesn't work too well.
Hey, Just a quick update. I went on kijijio and bought from a guy a 7" Samsung tab 3 Lite for 150. It came with a cute 12" bluetooth motorola keyboard and a handy carrying case to keep it from scratches. Even had rechargeable batteries(2 AA) inside! There was also a 16gb memory card inside the slot for me to use. I probably saved close to a 100 dollars if not more. Best deal ever. The tab and keyboard work as well as my home computer if not better. I am very hapilly typing away at work on my stories with just as much speed as at home and possibly even more comfortably as I can move the keyboard comfortably on my lap (its so tiny ) and weighs nothing while the screen can go anywhere I want it to without issue. It was fully reset to factory settings Which include polaris office suite (Which Is basically an android compatible version of microsoft Word) and Dropbox and Google Drive. I downloaded an Openoffice application (Andreoffice) as that is what I use and all my files are automatically saved to my dropbox to be synced as soon as I find a wireless spot! So, if anyone was considering something like this, I got an amazing deal and this might be a good option for you as well.
That's a great deal. I've liked Samsung tablets so far...I have the 2014 edition Note which replaced two previous Asus Transformers (Prime then Infinity) and I've been much happier in the 7 months I've had this one than the 2 1/2 years with the others. I've also never heard of Kijijio so will check that out, thanks.
@A.M.P. I was going to suggest the Tab 3, as that is what i got, i paid £140 new for mine, and, ok i havent got a keyboard with mine, i still find it useful. ok, i dont write on mine (im a hand-writer while out) but i use it to keep vital information on.
@sunsplash Sorry I meant kijiji. Kijijio was a typo. I'm rather surprised you never heard of it considering how popular it is. @ChaosReigns yeah, that would've been an excellent suggestion. I am really loving it.
I can't say I've written full chapters on my phone (well I once wrote an essay a period before it was due, but that was painful), but if an idea comes to me I scrawl it down on either my phone or on my little writing notebook I carry around. I never go anywhere without it if I can help it.
No worries...google autocorrected me when I searched for it. I've never bought anything through classified ads before...even craigslist I've only looked at once or twice. I don't trust people enough, lol.
I would not use a tablet for working on. I have a kindle fire hd and I love it as a reader and movie box, but as a working computer, no. Too small and the keyboard I have for it is equally too small. On top of it, having bluetooth going runs the battery out much faster. I have a dell laptop/notebook (still don't know the difference) that was < $300. It has a celeron proc, 15" display, huge HD, 4 gig of ram, 4 USB (2 2.0 and 2 3.0), integrated network card (wired and wireless), camera, mic, etc. It has all I need in a portable computer. A good wireless mouse would replace the dumb mousepad and it's solid. I have all the writing software that is on my desktop on my laptop (scrivener, final draft and outline 4d, freeplane) as well as the open office suite. Works wonderfully.
True bluetooth and other programs can eat the battey fast. I easily get 4+ hours of writing at work before battey is half dead. also, Ihave lots of outlets to use so battey issues dontbother me. Good point om watvhing out for bwttery usage.
Just a quick question as I didn't find an answer on tab specs: is it possible to hook up two keyboards to one tab? For instance, one wireless USB keyboard and one bluetooth? Looks like most tabs have just one USB port if even that.
From my own research, I read that very few tablets have an actual full-sized USB. They have mini USB ports which would either require an adapter or a specific type of keyboard (Dunno if they are even made). The specs often say they have USB 2.0 or 3.0 but never mention the size. Only one I found for a good price that has is the Dragon Touch R10 and a few others I can't recall (Just Google tablets with full sized USB ports) but they were in the $300~ range so I didn't look too much into them. I'd test it for you, of course, but the Samsung Tab 3 has no USB port at all (Aside the charger one)
Thanks for the info. You wouldn't happen to know if it's possible to connect two bluetooth keyboards to one tablet? I'll probably have to pick up the phone and start bugging electronics store clerks...
Yeah, you were! You explained the stuff about the USBs (or the lack thereof) and all! So, I called a couple of shops and, man, this must be one rare question since none of those guys knew if it was possible to hook up two keyboards to one tab one way or another. Told me to contact the manufacturers directly. Whoo boy...
Technically speaking there's no reason you couldn't pair two bluetooth keyboards at the same time. Is the question is whether both keyboards would be functional at the same time?
That's exactly what we're after: since I write together with @KaTrian, it's just so much easier if we both have our own keyboards and mice (in this case, minikeyboards with touch pads) just like we have on our home computer, so we don't have to pass it over every time we write dialogue between our characters or something that requires us to switch typing duties back and forth a lot.
I know they are expensive, but iPad is fantastic for all that. I used to be squeamish about spending on Macs, and I ended up spending a lot more due to having to replace PCs and all the viruses, malware, hardware being made poorly, glitches etc. I finally bit the bullet and went Mac and I never looked back. I still use iPad2 I bought in 2010, it's never too far away from me and I can work on it, read on it, everything. Maybe a second hand or a refurbished iPad2 would cost much less, and suit your needs?
