Which tablet should we buy - or none at all?

I have an iPad which I like - good for Internet etc and my model does take good photos and I can link it to the iMac but you cannot do any word processing on it and if you wish to print things you need an 'air printer' which it seems is a bit different to a normal wifi type. This just means that at the moment when I want to print out booking confirmations etc I need to use the computer.

What do you want to use it for ?
How much do you want to spend?
How much do you think you will use it?
Do you have smart phones which can do a lot of the stuff tablets can?
Like lying in bed writing on Gransnet.

I am using a Google Nexus 7. It does not have mobile Data connection like a smart phone but picks up Wi Fi well. It is very portable and takes E books as well.

IPad mini is good for travelling and fits nicely into a bag, but I find the bigger one better for the lying in bed shopping, reading etc.

I bought a Tablet recently in a sale. Personally I wouldn't recommend it. I find it awkward to use and it has to be recharged regularly. I think a smart phone would be a better buy because you can use them anywhere (as far as I know) whereas a Tablet can only be used where there is a WiFi connection.

We do have smart phones but feel they are a bit small! How do you know that I lie in bed posting on gn, Nellie!

I bought a Hudl2 in January, and I love it. It does everything I need and it's good value.
It depends on what you want to use it for.

I love my ipad and can't imagine being without it. OH has the ipad mini and I would probably go for that now, because it would fit better in my handbag. I can word process quite happily on the Word or Pages (using a stylus) and our cheap as chips printer does air printing. I plug it in to re-charge overnight so no problems there.
We have a MacMini and a Windows laptop, but they rarely get turned on these days. Pretty much everything can be done from the ipad.

Didn't answer the "while we are away" bit, sorry.
Pretty much anything and everything really, but in particular:
Travel plans, gallery / museum sites, good restaurants and hotels, Skype / Facetime (for staying in touch) banking, ferry updates, local information etc.
When we were in Spain in January we had a Mifi device with unlimet internet at 5€ a day. This meant we could use the ipads independent of wifi connections / hotspots and was much cheaper than using the data allowance on our iphones.

I got my hudl2 for Christmas Lona. I love mine too. I took it to my Sister's house yesterday, and took some lovely photos of her new granddaughter with it. It is fairly portable and I like it very much. I have sudoku and ebooks on it for entertainment.

If you have a modern smart phone you can use the data connection as a portable Wi Fi hot spot. Just google for instructions.
I often link my tablet to my phone to use it's data connection simply because the bigger screen is easier to read and bigger buttons to type with.

You can also download games, books, magazines etc that you can use without Wi-Fi

Thanks for all the info! I'm a bit confused now - do we have to pay someone a contract fee? How do we connect to the internet? By air printing, do you mean wifi? Anyone got a spare child to sort it out for me?

Kitty, I am as thick as a plank and I have no problems with my i-pad. I even set it up myself following the on screen instuctions. I would find the mini too small but that is personal, and with "sky on the go" your DH would be able to watch Forest on it while you watch something far more interesting on the tele.

Basically you connect through wifi; at home, hotel, shopping centre etc. It is also possible to connect through your mobile phone as Pittcity says, if you don't have access to wifi. Air printing uses your wifi network but needs a printer that will support it and most new ones do that. Or you just email something on to your main computer and print from there. I don't print stuff like hotel reservations though, just show them the booking details on screen.

Thanks all! That's much clearer now. We print by wifi at home already so that should be ok.

I think we had almost decided on a Hudl to begin with, as the cheapest option, and if we like it we can donate to a DGC and buy a better one for us!

How will we cope with one between us? Will we end up divorced?

SkyGo is good Ann, but our allocation is already taken up by 2 x DS. Anyway, he's a bit off watching Forest at the moment! He even gave up his season ticket to DSiL on Saturday!

Derby is getting the same reception here kitty all hopes dashed,all that promise gone.

My cousin who couldn't cope at all with a Tablet has a Hudli and she is getting on great with it.

She is in her late 70s and not very IT savvy but she's now posting on Facebook, putting in photos and having a great time.

Mamie Pittcity My new smart mobile is Bluetooth paired to my tablet. How can I use the phones mobile data connection to show stuff on the tablet?

Kitty I think you will need one each so you can sit and post to each other with no need to talk.

The 'experts' reckon the Hudl2 is the best value tablet on the market. It's extremely easy to use kitty and you're already computer savvy

Hudl2 is brilliant! Nice sized screen. Really pleased with mine. Made my choice partly based on the fact that small DGS aged four could use it - thought I stood a chance!

Nellie it depends on your phone. Mine has a setting under connections to use it as a mobile hot-spot. I enable this and it then shows up as an available wi fi connection on my tablet.

I suggest you google your make of phone and tablet and mobile hot-spot.

Remember that you will have to pay for the mobile data you use if it is not included in your contract.

I have had an i-pad for 3 years and love it. I am about to buy an i-phone to go with it.

So I would say go for an i-pad, maybe a mini depending on how portable you want it to be.

I love my ipad (so does DH ). The only thing to watch is that you either have, or get, a printer that is AirPrint compatible, or that you can convert. Unfortunately, mine isn't and can't, but I can print emails and internet stuff from my android phone and laptop, so I'm not minded to buy a new one just to accommodate yet another Apple anomaly.

Another Apple hag here as DN calls it. Love the way phone, desktop and iPad all talk to each other. DH bought a Samsung tablet sneakily and I hated having to learn all the Android stuff so we took it back and paid the difference for another iPad. But it is all very much what you are used to and what suits you best.