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Wife got me an Ipad mini a year or two ago for my birthday and it worked wonderfully until the ios7 update. At that point, certain apps would just crash left and right. Nothing would fix it, including a full factory reset. Updated to ios8 and the problem remains - apps will just randomly shut down for no obvious reason. It's doesn't happen all the time but it enough to frustrate me. Seems to happen most often with one of my games, Google maps, and occasionally my banking app.

So, I could possibly take it into an Apple store only to have them tell me it's out of warranty and I'm screwed, or I could Ebay it and go out and get an Android tablet. I'm looking at the Galaxy 4 Tab 10.1" model. I can get it at Costco for $299. Specs are nice...good screen, quad core chip, 16gb onboard with micro-sd expansion slot, etc. Only other difference is that my ipad mini has a 4g connection and the Samsung is wifi-only.

So, is switching from the Mini to the Galaxy Tab a fair trade, or are there other Android tablets that I should consider? Or am I just better off sticking with the Ipad and waiting for another iOS update?

If you are sticking to the Apple's ecosystem, you can probably get a newer Ipad mini 2 instead. No need to go for the ipad mini 3 since the only difference with the earlier model is the inclusion of touch id.

If you are going to go Android, maybe you can wait for the new Nexus tablet to drop or if your budget permits, the new Galaxy Tab S models are way sweet.

Yeah budget doesn't go that high, but the Tab S tablets are very nice. I do like them. I have heard good things about the Nexus so I should probably check it out too.

Borgholio wrote:Wife got me an Ipad mini a year or two ago for my birthday and it worked wonderfully until the ios7 update. At that point, certain apps would just crash left and right. Nothing would fix it, including a full factory reset. Updated to ios8 and the problem remains - apps will just randomly shut down for no obvious reason. It's doesn't happen all the time but it enough to frustrate me. Seems to happen most often with one of my games, Google maps, and occasionally my banking app.

Have you tried installing 8.1? My wife's iPhone 5 was having all sorts of problems until she updated.

Yeah, 8.1 didn't help at all.

Do NOT buy a Samsung tablet. They are known for being laggy pieces of shit. I played with a display model of the newest one today at Best Buy and it lagged. It sucks. Period. I'd recommend the Google Nexus line. They are straight from Google and they are the best tablets for the Android ecosystem. It's straight Android. No BS.

Don't confuse the hardware with the operating system. Everyone currently in the Android game is putting their own software on top of or hybridized with Android, with usually terrible results. Samsung's hardware is great, once you root, unlock the bootloader, and install a custom ROM (which is fairly simple, for the vast majority of the name-brand ones).

HTC Sense, TouchWiz, etc. are all crap.

Would you be open to a Windows 8 tablet? The Dell Venue 8 Pro is better than any iOS or Android tablet, functionality wise. And it's only $250 too.

If you're intent on Android, I've heard great things about the new NVIDIA Shield tablet.

Terralthra wrote:Don't confuse the hardware with the operating system. Everyone currently in the Android game is putting their own software on top of or hybridized with Android, with usually terrible results. Samsung's hardware is great, once you root, unlock the bootloader, and install a custom ROM (which is fairly simple, for the vast majority of the name-brand ones).

HTC Sense, TouchWiz, etc. are all crap.

I'd say TouchWiz is useless if AOSP got MW but it hasn't so it remains the best tablet android skin.

Kaku Of The Monsoon wrote:Would you be open to a Windows 8 tablet? The Dell Venue 8 Pro is better than any iOS or Android tablet, functionality wise. And it's only $250 too.

If you're intent on Android, I've heard great things about the new NVIDIA Shield tablet.

Not really into Windows 8. Many of the games and apps that I use don't have Win8 ports yet. I looked at the Nvidia Shield but it appeared to be a tablet meant for video and things like that, not general purpose. Or can it do everything?

JLTucker wrote:Do NOT buy a Samsung tablet. They are known for being laggy pieces of shit. I played with a display model of the newest one today at Best Buy and it lagged. It sucks. Period. I'd recommend the Google Nexus line. They are straight from Google and they are the best tablets for the Android ecosystem. It's straight Android. No BS.

I was looking at the Nexus too. I only considered Samsung because of the high overall user ratings it got pretty much everywhere. The Nexus did well too though...

Borgholio wrote:

Kaku Of The Monsoon wrote:Would you be open to a Windows 8 tablet? The Dell Venue 8 Pro is better than any iOS or Android tablet, functionality wise. And it's only $250 too.

If you're intent on Android, I've heard great things about the new NVIDIA Shield tablet.

Not really into Windows 8. Many of the games and apps that I use don't have Win8 ports yet. I looked at the Nvidia Shield but it appeared to be a tablet meant for video and things like that, not general purpose. Or can it do everything?

The SHIELD can do everything any other Android tablet can do, barring model-specific gimmicks, but also offers the ability to connect to your computer (if you have a GTX 600-series video card or higher) and serve as a remote display for gaming using the optional SHIELD gamepad, among other gaming- and media-specific features. It also includes a stylus for getting work done.

The Lenovo tablet I played around with at Best Buy a few days ago actually felt really solid. It has a few perks over the iPad, but a lot of apps simply aren't going to be there depending on what you use.

Did the Lenovo run Android or it's own custom OS?

Borgholio wrote:

JLTucker wrote:Do NOT buy a Samsung tablet. They are known for being laggy pieces of shit. I played with a display model of the newest one today at Best Buy and it lagged. It sucks. Period. I'd recommend the Google Nexus line. They are straight from Google and they are the best tablets for the Android ecosystem. It's straight Android. No BS.

I was looking at the Nexus too. I only considered Samsung because of the high overall user ratings it got pretty much everywhere. The Nexus did well too though...

The Nexus 9 looks like a solid device, once the Android 5.0 kinks are taken care of. It's $100 cheaper than an iPad.

Borgholio wrote:Did the Lenovo run Android or it's own custom OS?

It runs Android. Most tablets that aren't Apple run either Android or Windows these days. Best of all it was under $200.

You could just replace your ipad mini with another ipad mini. It's as cheap as most android tablets, and then you don't spend to rebuy apps too. Then chuck the old ipad mini at one of those refurbishing houses that buy old ipads and iphones.

Beowulf wrote:You could just replace your ipad mini with another ipad mini. It's as cheap as most android tablets, and then you don't spend to rebuy apps too. Then chuck the old ipad mini at one of those refurbishing houses that buy old ipads and iphones.

That's true, I could do that. Thing is I already have an Android phone so I wouldn't have to re-buy anything, and I can get a full-size Android tablet for the cost of an Ipad mini.