Which tablet or Laptop?

[phlfly]

I'm actually reading this as I cant' decided between Samsung and iPad. Been all my live with Apple, since 2008. I have all devices Apple, but last summer I was sicked of out battery issue with Apple went Verizon traded for Samsung 9+S and been happy again. I don't to customize any thing, it works great as is. i think people are breaking Android with customized features.
I think I will give a shot with Samsung table 8 or 9 inches . So my question I have Jeep Grand Cherokee, so just looking at 9 inch is look big, but 8 may be too small ?I don't know . I like space, so putting too many things near front console is not preferring as well

 

[Schake]

OP, reporting in...
I ultimately got an iPad 6+ (?) and while it works well, it is far from intuitive or clear to use after several months.
GAIA works great on it, and while the iPad occupies a lot of space, I do appreciate the ease of viewing trails on its large screen.
Thanks for all your thoughts and input.

 

[KPMetrics]

So, if I wanted a 8" tablet with GPS built in to just run Gaia what's the best bang for the buck? Guessing it's one of the Samsung tablets?

 

[Mike W]

For a phone I prefer nexus/pixel/pure android... but I admit im totally sold on the 12.9" iPad pro.... crazy expensive but glorious in every way. I love the size for the car, huge and easy to see.

 

[old_man]

I am running a new ASUS folding laptop with touch screen, You fold the screen over and it is like a tablet. It is about a half inch thick. It is running a fast CORE i7 and is fast as hell. It lasts 8 hours on a battery charge. Mine came with a solid state 1tb drive and 24 gig of memory. All in all a very fast laptop. It gets as good battery run time as many tablets. You can even slow down the clock and drop the power. You get a nice 15.6" display. You don't give up anything. I paid just over a grand for it. You can pay that for a cell phone these days, especially an Apple. Most of the added cost was the big ram and big solid state disc. I am seriously thinking of just making a mount to use it in my Jeep.

I understand how simple the Apple is to use, but in my line of work, Apple simply does not have the applications I have to have... and they are too damned expensive for what you get. I'm running a multiboot config with Windows 10 and multiple configurations of Linux, all on the same machine. As far as efficiency, the charger can fully recharge the battery in a little over an hour and it is a medium sized wall wart and puts out 19v at less than 3 amps. In other words, the computer is very efficient. I built a 12v to 19v boost converter instead of an inverter, and you can buy a 12v car plug to computer power cable for not much. At worst case, a cheap 75 watt inverter would be enough.

 

[xplorr]

@old_man, have you found an effective software application for off-road GPS navigation for Windows 10 or Linux that is an actively maintained/supported product? It seems that the current crop of software options are all for mobile platforms, Android and iOS.

 

[BPCLFD]

I love my iPad pro I have it in a rugged case with Gaia maps I have completed the NMBDR an COBDR with this setup with zero problems. Use my iPhone as my back up nav and paper maps

 

[m_lars]

I am running a new ASUS folding laptop with touch screen, You fold the screen over and it is like a tablet. It is about a half inch thick. It is running a fast CORE i7 and is fast as hell. It lasts 8 hours on a battery charge. Mine came with a solid state 1tb drive and 24 gig of memory. All in all a very fast laptop. It gets as good battery run time as many tablets. You can even slow down the clock and drop the power. You get a nice 17" display. You don't give up anything. I paid just over a grand for it. You can pay that for a cell phone these days, especially an Apple. I am seriously thinking of just making a mount to use it in my Jeep.

I understand how simple the Apple is to use, but in my line of work, Apple simply does not have the applications I have to have... and they are too damned expensive for what you get. I'm running a multiboot config with Windows 10 and multiple configurations of Linux, all on the same machine.

Yeah, the cost of Apple products is always brought up by non-Apple users, including me once upon a time. The thing is, they just plain work. I used to be an windows/android user and got sick of the constant fiddling to keep it to working right. Our home computer is a 10 year old iMac, running windows parallels for things like home school programs and chirp. I never had a PC last that long and not fall flat on it’s own face.

 

[old_man]

My engineering use rules out Apple. I beat the heck out of my equipment, on it 10+ hours a day six days a week. I find that ASUS will routinely last 4-5 years of abuse and are very well supported. Now with the much lower power consumption and higher speed, coupled with a touch screen, I am very happy.

 

[m_lars]

My engineering use rules out Apple. I beat the heck out of my equipment, on it 10+ hours a day six days a week. I find that ASUS will routinely last 4-5 years of abuse and are very well supported. Now with the much lower power consumption and higher speed, coupled with a touch screen, I am very happy.

I wasn’t trying to convince you to switch, I was offering a counter point to the low value you placed on Apple products.

 

[flyfisher117]

I am curious how you are all running old apple products.
Our first gen iPad became slow and lost support the second the next gen iPad was released. Our 2nd and then our 3rd gen ipads were the same story. The minute they released the next model they stopped supporting the old ones. No new OS, which has now led to no app updates and no more app support. We now have 3 ipads that are good for literally nothing. I guess the calculators work, and one still has internet access to browse the internet..

My 9 year old mac book has aged and slowed down just as fast as my windows PCs. It has still had its own fair share of bugs. I've never seen an apple product that just "worked". Every apple and non apple product I have owned have required their own fidgeting and tweaking..

 

[Cdaug]

I am curious how you are all running old apple products.
Our first gen iPad became slow and lost support the second the next gen iPad was released. Our 2nd and then our 3rd gen ipads were the same story. The minute they released the next model they stopped supporting the old ones. No new OS, which has now led to no app updates and no more app support. We now have 3 ipads that are good for literally nothing. I guess the calculators work, and one still has internet access to browse the internet..

My 9 year old mac book has aged and slowed down just as fast as my windows PCs. It has still had its own fair share of bugs. I've never seen an apple product that just "worked". Every apple and non apple product I have owned have required their own fidgeting and tweaking..

I'm running into that same issue with an old iPad 2 I got about a year ago. The OS updates stopped with 9.3.5 and lots of apps now don't support back to that. We just got an update from Hulu that they wouldn't support it anymore, and it was a nightmare trying to get Netflix on there. That's 90% of what we use it for though. We'll likely upgrade to keep in the "ecosystem" with iPhone and accessories.

 

[m_lars]

I am curious how you are all running old apple products.
Our first gen iPad became slow and lost support the second the next gen iPad was released. Our 2nd and then our 3rd gen ipads were the same story. The minute they released the next model they stopped supporting the old ones. No new OS, which has now led to no app updates and no more app support. We now have 3 ipads that are good for literally nothing. I guess the calculators work, and one still has internet access to browse the internet..

My 9 year old mac book has aged and slowed down just as fast as my windows PCs. It has still had its own fair share of bugs. I've never seen an apple product that just "worked". Every apple and non apple product I have owned have required their own fidgeting and tweaking..

Beats me, I have had soooo much less trouble with apple products. I used to build my own home theater PCs and it was a constant battle to keep it working and virus free. Not to mention the hoops you had to jump through to network it to anything else. My iMac I bought used and it never fails. I installed a hard drive for more space, but that’s it.

I will admit my 1st gen iPad is slow, but all I use it for is GaiaGPS in the Land Rover and it works just fine for that. I guess I used to stream MN Wild games to my AppleTV when I had an FSN login and that worked great as well. I’m running low on OEM 30 pin cords for it now which may be an issue soon. Cheap cords don’t charge it fast enough.

My 7 year old has a 1st gen iPad mini that should in no way, shape or form should be working due to his abuse and it doesn’t skip a beat. The ONLY time I’ve run into an issue with the iOS being out of date on any of our iOS devices was on this mini. I was not able to install the Epic Mix app from Vail to view his account and see his skiing stats. Not really a big deal. I’m sure there are others, but none I’ve found.

Maybe I’m just lucky, but I’ve used both extensively and swear by Apple.

 

[flyfisher117]

I'm running into that same issue with an old iPad 2 I got about a year ago. The OS updates stopped with 9.3.5 and lots of apps now don't support back to that. We just got an update from Hulu that they wouldn't support it anymore, and it was a nightmare trying to get Netflix on there. That's 90% of what we use it for though. We'll likely upgrade to keep in the "ecosystem" with iPhone and accessories.

Yeah I haven't been able to use my Gen 1 Ipad for quite some time now because the OS has stopped, the apps need updated and they either cant be updated or they need the new OS. Some apps that are still downloaded work even though they are way out of date and others do not, like youtube. It just sucks that they can not at least keep them working for basic sitting around the house tasks.

Beats me, I have had soooo much less trouble with apple products. I used to build my own home theater PCs and it was a constant battle to keep it working and virus free. Not to mention the hoops you had to jump through to network it to anything else. My iMac I bought used and it never fails. I installed a hard drive for more space, but that’s it.

I will admit my 1st gen iPad is slow, but all I use it for is GaiaGPS in the Land Rover and it works just fine for that. I guess I used to stream MN Wild games to my AppleTV when I had an FSN login and that worked great as well. I’m running low on OEM 30 pin cords for it now which may be an issue soon. Cheap cords don’t charge it fast enough.

My 7 year old has a 1st gen iPad mini that should in no way, shape or form should be working due to his abuse and it doesn’t skip a beat. The ONLY time I’ve run into an issue with the iOS being out of date on any of our iOS devices was on this mini. I was not able to install the Epic Mix app from Vail to view his account and see his skiing stats. Not really a big deal. I’m sure there are others, but none I’ve found.

Maybe I’m just lucky, but I’ve used both extensively and swear by Apple.

How did you get GAIA on your gen 1 ipad? Mine only has a couple of apps on it that are still working even without updates. It sucks because it would be a handy tool to set on the coffee table and use for quick google searches or other light tasks. I used to love how it integrated with my MacBook pro and was planning on getting an iPhone to complete the set but after losing support on the iPad I decided to stick to other phones. I still want a new ipad just don't want to buy a 4th one for it to turn into a paper weight in a year or two.

 

[m_lars]

How did you get GAIA on your gen 1 ipad? Mine only has a couple of apps on it that are still working even without updates. It sucks because it would be a handy tool to set on the coffee table and use for quick google searches or other light tasks. I used to love how it integrated with my MacBook pro and was planning on getting an iPhone to complete the set but after losing support on the iPad I decided to stick to other phones. I still want a new ipad just don't want to buy a 4th one for it to turn into a paper weight in a year or two.

I don’t know why it works for me and not you, I’ve done nothing special. I’m guessing my version of Gaia is old enough I don’t have an issue, it’s been on there for quite some time. It may very well be I couldn’t install it today.

You’re acting like ending support for old hardware is exclusive to Apple, but it’s not. Old hardware can’t run the increasingly larger and more feature packed OS on any platform, so manufacturers do limit what OS can be run on old devices.

Sell the old iPads on eBay, they still go for stupid amounts of money on there.

 

[Jburns]

I'm actually reading this as I cant' decided between Samsung and iPad. Been all my live with Apple, since 2008. I have all devices Apple, but last summer I was sicked of out battery issue with Apple went Verizon traded for Samsung 9+S and been happy again. I don't to customize any thing, it works great as is. i think people are breaking Android with customized features.
I think I will give a shot with Samsung table 8 or 9 inches . So my question I have Jeep Grand Cherokee, so just looking at 9 inch is look big, but 8 may be too small ?I don't know . I like space, so putting too many things near front console is not preferring as well

I have both. I’m an apple person so regardless my iPads gonna be with me. I picked up a Samsung tablet to use in the car to hook up to the obd2. It’s been a long time since I messed with a Samsung but I know that the options are better in terms of what I want to do.

 

[1Louder]

I will preface this with that I highly prefer iOS and Gaia GPS on an iPad but..... Chromebooks can now run Android apps. This is an ASUS flipbook (meaning you can put it in tablet mode). I installed Gaia to see if it would work. Sure enough I paired it with my really old Dual GPS BT puck and it acquired my position after a few minutes. HP makes the X2 Chromebook where you can detach the keyboard and have a true tablet. So for those that want to do this type of thing it does work.

Again I would stick with a true tablet unless you can’t resist going this route. Chromebooks are pretty capable these days.

 

[Pyrotaco]

Personally I use a 6th gen iPad (wifi-cellular version). Have it jailbroken and running various mapping software.

 

[392 Hemi Jeep]

iPad over laptop for overlanding with GAIA GPS.

 

[Pindal]

My first option is obviously iPad (all my computers are Mac). But, ham radio softwares are usually only for PCs, also some car diagnostics such as those shown in "Lifestyle Overland", very good, but only work on PC platform, for now.
Taking this into account as the "solution" would be one of each, which would double the cost to invest and the physical space.
That is why the decision is difficult and perhaps, for now, the solution would be a tablet or a laptop but based on a PC.
I am still on the day of decision.