Blog

A Tablet for Trainers

Trainers are on the road a lot. To travel lightly, consider replacing your notebook / laptop with a tablet. A tablet is lighter, smaller and the battery lasts longer. It also allows you to use a projector, beamer or big screen monitor without being glued to your laptop. In other words, you can walk through your classroom with your tablet in hand, displaying the content of the tablet on the big screen.

Here are the requirements for the ideal tablet for the trainer.

1. Number one is battery life. You don’t want your tablet to die half way through the day because the battery is completely drained.
2. Screen size should be at least 9.7 inch. Any smaller than that, and you might as well just use a smart phone. On the other hand, you don’t want it to be much bigger – or you won’t be able to walk through your classroom with it (of course, this only applies if your training is classroom based). Here’s a video of a teacher walking around the classroom while using a tablet.
3. USB ports. You want to be able to connect your tablet to peripherals (printers, monitors, etc.).
4. An easily accessible file system. If you’ve got a video or a some heavy presentation slides, you don’t want to upload all files through Dropbox. You want to be able to connect your tablet to your pc at the office (where you prepared the presentation) and simply copy the files to the right place. This pretty much rules out Apple (i.e. iOS based) devices.
5. Bluetooth support. You should be able to hook up your phone to the tablet so you can access the internet. Bluetooth also provides the wireless connection with the projector, beamer or big screen in your classroom.

Like ordinary PCs, tablet computers have an operating system (OS) too. Most PCs have Windows, Apple has OS X. For tablet computers there are currently three major operating systems: Windows (a special version of it), iOS (on iPads, from Apple) and Android (from Google). And just like ordinary PCs, tablets can run computer programs too, except they’re called “apps”.

Because Windows’ apps are still not up to a par with Android’s (strictly speaking about mobile devices of course), I’m leaving out all Windows based tablets (as well as Apple iPads for reasons mentioned above), focusing exclusively on Android devices.

Market in July 2014

I did  a little bit of market research in July 2014 and based on that I’ve compiled a small list of tablets which meet our requirements.

• Acer ICONIA A3-A10-L662: 11 battery hours; $255
• Acer Iconia Tab A510: 15 battery hours; $380
• Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF300TG: 14 battery hours; $300
• Asus Transformer Pad TF701: 13 battery hours; $350
• Lenovo Yoga Tablet 10: 18 battery hours; $240
• Sony Xperia Tablet S: 12 battery hours; $290
• Toshiba Excite 10 SE: 12 battery hours;  $350

Prices are based on features and properties such as working memory (ram) and storage memory, type of microprocessor and all the other usual stuff for computers in general.

Not all reviews of the listed tablets were positive. For instance, quite a few reviews were very negative about the Lenovo Yoga tablet, especially the pre-installed software (and adaptations made to the OS, or operating system – Android, in this case). I’ve used a unit in a store very briefly, and I didn’t find anything wrong with it. But then again, I haven’t actually used it as thoroughly as the reviewers presumably did.

The Winner Is…

I’ve used the Asus Transformer TF300TG extensively for a few hours and I was very charmed by the detachable keyboard which comes along with it. I prefer a real keyboard over the screen based keyboard as introduced by Apple’s iOS. On the other hand, while reading or browsing I don’t want to carry a superfluous keyboard. So a detachable keyboard is the perfect solution for me.

The Asus Transformer TF300TG is probably still a perfect choice for many people, but I wanted a little more power. So in the end I chose the slightly more expensive Asus Transformer Pad TF701, trading a little battery life for better performance.

Coming from the original iPad (the one which started the entire table industry), I have to say it took a little while to get acquainted with the Android platform (the operating system behind the selected Asus Transformer tablet). If you’re new to Android as well, you should spend a few moments looking around in the ‘Settings’ menu. Here you can adjust notification options. You don’t want your presentation interrupted by a chime or a message flashing on the screen.

Sources

http://tablets.findthebest.com/saved_search/Tablets-With-Longest-Battery-Life

Be aware though: this site lists a few very unrealistic entries, reporting a battery life of 1240 hours in one instance. This is obviously wrong, things start to get realistic at 18 hours and lower.

http://www.tabletpccomparison.net/battery-life/large-autonomy

No erroneous entries, but no option to select multiple features.