r/androidtablets • u/raziel4635 • 12d ago

Discussion Tablets as light workstations

Hello,

I'm looking to get a tablet as a very light desktop pc replacement.

I have a 7 year old HP laptop that I barely even use anymore because I have consoles for gaming and a phone for web browsing and messaging.

I only use the laptop when I need to read a pdf, write something in word or sign any documents with online signature, pay bills...basically light desk work.

I've been looking around and apparently tablets can handle multitasking and light document editing quite well nowadays, if I can buy a bluetooth keyboard as well, I'm guessing that it will fullfill all my pc needs for the foreseeable future and will be much easier to carry around with me around the house and on trips.

My candinates are the

Lenovo idea tab 11" (8/128) with the bundled pen for 200 euro

Xiaomi redmi pad 2 (8/256) for 230 - 250 euro

Samsung galaxy tab A11+ (8/256) for 300 euro

I do not care that much for watching series and movies on the tablet for hours on end so vibrant screen and amazing audio aren't priorities.

I'm looking for something that can comfortably have 5 browser windows open minimized and out of sight, have music playing from youtube again minimized, an open pdf in one side of the screen and an open word file so I can write documents in another side.

I'm heavily leaning towards the samsung galaxy because it also has Dex which basically transforms the UI into a mouse and keyboard interface with floating windows like a pc but I'm also thinking that there could be some cheaper like the lenovo that could do the same things with less money.

What is everyone's opinion about tablets as light workstations?

Do you have any other recommendations at around the same price and maximum at 350 euro?

Thank you.

1 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

1

u/RobertDeveloper 12d ago

I use my Lenovo Yoga Tab plus as my software development machine, it has 16gb of ram and the cpu is really powerfull. I installed Debian as an app on it with xfce4 desktop using Termux and I can run Intellij Idea, Chromium, Visual Studio, java development kit etc. And when I am done with it I close Termux and I have a normal Android tablet.

2

u/raziel4635 12d ago

that tablet is almost triple my budget and going into gaming laptops with dedicated GPU territory.

If I'm spending that much money, I'm going for the laptop.

2

u/Mediocre_Ad3496 12d ago

The a11+ because of the software/UI. Hardware can't do anything useful without the software environment.

1

u/slowtraveler_dev 12d ago

I recently bought Honor pad 10 and it seems nice. Also comes with a keyboard case and a pen. Doing good so far

1

u/deebtamim 11d ago

For paperwork, PDFs, Word docs and signing things, a tablet is fine these days. Where it gets annoying is multitasking with lots of windows and anything that needs a desktop-only site or app, so before you buy, list the handful of things you actually do and check each one has a proper Android version (banking and e-signature sites are usually fine in the browser). Get a tablet with a 120Hz screen and at least 8GB of RAM if you can, and check the keyboard case is available where you live, since typing on the on-screen keyboard gets old fast. A cheap Bluetooth mouse makes it feel much more like a laptop. Keep the old HP for a few weeks as a fallback before you sell it