Tablet recommendation

lustyd said:
Not at all, iPads can do all of that stuff, they just need some accessories. Most rugged tablet use is done using cases, and HDMI is pretty rare on tablets for good reason. A usb-c to HDMI is a very cheap accessory.
A good Android may well be a better fit here but iPad can definitely meet those criteria.
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Not the USB one
 
steve yates said:
USB ports, can’tise flashdrives for storage or transfer of data/images etc.
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We do this all the time on my partner’s iPad Air. Yesterday I connected an SSD and imported a video project to Davinci Resolve which was created on Windows, then edited it with keyboard and mouse on the iPad before rendering it.
IPad has changed a lot
 
Slight thread drift, but if I was buying an iPad these days I’d avoid any of them with a lightning connector. Not Apple’s finest moment. Newer stuff has USB-C - much less failure prone in my experience.
 
steve yates said:
It certainly has, but thats very good to hear, off to google lightning to usb adaptors now! every day is a school day :)
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Don't do that! Lightning is USB2 and slow AF so even if it works it'll be a bad experience. USB-C iPads are USB3 and above. With iPhones the Pro is USB3 while standard is still USB2.

I know I may seem pro Apple here, but they have their problems too and a good Android is as good or better than an iPad. My issue with Android is that good ones are challenging to identify and consumers often get caught out for various reasons. Even worse, price is not a good indicator, there are good cheap ones and bad expensive ones. My Android tablet mentioned above was £600 so I feel entitled to be bitter that it was obsolete even when they first released it.
 
fredrussell said:
Slight thread drift, but if I was buying an iPad these days I’d avoid any of them with a lightning connector. Not Apple’s finest moment. Newer stuff has USB-C - much less failure prone in my experience.
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Vastly superior to the micro USB which is what everyone else was using at the time. Lightning was one of the original proposals for USB-C but other members of the standards group wanted a higher power connection which is what eventually came out 5 years later. So Apple went their own way for phone and tablets. USB-C is great provided you get a good make, there are an awful lot of dodgy, low spec cables out there and if you use one in a high power application it may melt.
 
The connector makes very little difference to power. USB is almost universally 3A max with some exceptions for 5A. What changes is Voltage and that doesn't need bigger wire. The wires can be thicker for longer runs to avoid voltage drop.

Some cheap cables melt and catch fire but only because they used thinner cores or iron cores (not kidding!) to reduce cost.

The lightning spec actually supports far less power than USB-C, but in reality this is a spec issue rather than a connector issue. Apple just hasn't upped the max voltage supported because they were phasing it out and didn't need to.
 
lustyd said:
The connector makes very little difference to power. USB is almost universally 3A max with some exceptions for 5A. What changes is Voltage and that doesn't need bigger wire. The wires can be thicker for longer runs to avoid voltage drop.

Some cheap cables melt and catch fire but only because they used thinner cores or iron cores (not kidding!) to reduce cost.

The lightning spec actually supports far less power than USB-C, but in reality this is a spec issue rather than a connector issue. Apple just hasn't upped the max voltage supported because they were phasing it out and didn't need to.
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If you are using power delivery, you need thicker wire. Simple Ohms law and that is the problem. Somebody gets a USB-C cable with a skinny wire and uses it to charge his high power laptop and it will melt.
 
SimonX said:
If you are using power delivery, you need thicker wire. Simple Ohms law and that is the problem. Somebody gets a USB-C cable with a skinny wire and uses it to charge his high power laptop and it will melt.
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No, power delivery uses higher Voltage to deliver more power, the Amps remain the same so the same wires can transfer more Watts.
 
lustyd said:
Nope, Amps melt cables. It's literally how cables are rated! Same reason 48V boat systems use thinner wires than 12V ones to deliver more power.
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Go back to school. Power is what melts cables. Cables are rated by amps and volts = Watts. Cables melt by the heating effect of current passing through resistance (Power = I2R). Smaller wires have higher resistance, hence more heat. You cannot look at voltage in isolation (!) - the wire may break down due to insulation failaure if it is not rated to the higher voltage but this is unlikely, it is much more likely to melt
 
lustyd said:
Also beware that some brand new current version Android tablets don’t get updates to the OS due to the way the licensing is tied to the processor rather than device. I made this mistake and it’s deeply frustrating as it immediately limits various things including app availability and ability to connect to work type systems where policies are in place.
Unfortunately it takes legwork to find what’s what for a given device in terms of expected update life.

Not wanting to extend the Apple vs Android but the additional cost of an iPad does buy a very extended device life in terms of updates and upgrades so higher price isn’t the same as higher cost.
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Have you got any hard evidence to back that up or just bought the Apple marketing hype.
Firstly it is important not to try to compare a £500 plus (including GPS) iPad against a cheapo unbranded £50 Android tablet - though the latter can did a function. Need to compare to an equivalent mid range Android tablet from a known brand supplier.

And it is simply untrue that iPad give longer supported life - we have a stack of old iPads in physically perfect condition that are no longer usable as they won’t run the apps we or the grand children need. IOS has become so big that it simply could not update to the new ion within the vision within the memory of my wife’s iPad, even deleting all the minimal user files - so had to buy a new one and scrap the pristine existing one. Lots of other iPads where the hardware is not supported by latest IOS - and apps won’t run on old IOS.
 
SimonX said:
Go back to school. Power is what melts cables. Cables are rated by amps and volts = Watts. Cables melt by the heating effect of current passing through resistance (Power = I2R). Smaller wires have higher resistance, hence more heat. You cannot look at voltage in isolation (!) - the wire may break down due to insulation failaure if it is not rated to the higher voltage but this is unlikely, it is much more likely to melt
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You are incorrect. I'm not sure how else to explain it since the 12/48V boat thing didn't help and neither did the previous technical information. A very brief Google will confirm what I've said, but that's on you. The USB PD specs are widely available.
 
dunedin said:
Have you got any hard evidence to back that up or just bought the Apple marketing hype.
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Yes. 2018 models are still supported with current OS and security updates. Android 13 from 2022 is the oldest version still supported, although that support is ending this year. Samsung is a leader for Android tablets, their Tab S8 from 2022 is their oldest tablet with current support. That's double the effective lifespan.

Knock yourself out on Ebay for resale value. IPad are consistently retaining their resale price better than Android equivalents, probably due to marketing hype but probably also because the remaining life is longer as above. The reason is irrelevant, the fact is that resale value is higher so ownership cost is lower.

As I said above, there are good Android tablets and I'm entirely unbiased in the matter.
 
lustyd said:
You are incorrect. I'm not sure how else to explain it since the 12/48V boat thing didn't help and neither did the previous technical information. A very brief Google will confirm what I've said, but that's on you. The USB PD specs are widely available.
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I am fully aware of the PD specs but the fact remains it is power that melts things not voltage or current, you need both. You can have as mucch voltage as you like and, provided the insulation doesn't break down, the cable will not melt, it need to be drawing current for that to happen , hence power
 
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