If you are looking to purchase your first mobile tablet, or you're in the market to buy a new one, you're in luck! In this episode, Ray, Augusto and Francis tackle some of the important questions you should ask yourself about what kind of mobile tablet you should own.
As a quick overview, please take note of the following criteria you can use to make a decision:
Operating System – Choose the operating system that matches your smartphone.
If you don’t have a smartphone, compare Android, iOS and Windows operating systems against one another by the features you're most likely to use, not the marginal features.
Choose the right tablet format factor for your productivity needs.
App parity, or select based on the need of a specific app(s).
Decide on a budget.
Choose a few tablets based on operating system, form factor, app parity, and budget to test in your local electronics store.
Now, go enjoy this cast! Give us feedback! And, thank you for listening and please send us your questions!
If you'd like to discuss this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post).
In this Cast
Ray Sidney-Smith
Augusto Pinaud
Francis Wade
Show Notes
Resources we mention, including links to them will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context.
Amazon Kindle Fire tablets
Day One (iOS/Mac journal software)
OmniFocus 2 (iOS/Mac GTD-inspired software)
iCalendar Sync Cloud
Google Chrome Remote Desktop
Outlook
Microsoft Outlook
Evernote
ASUS Chromebook Flip
Microsoft Surface Pro 4
Lenovo Yoga and Yoga Book
UX (user experience / user design)
Palm Foleo
Jeff Hawkins
Amazon Fire Kids Edition
Facebook developers forced to use Android smartphones until it's better
Google Maps
Raw Text Transcript
Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by key words or phrases.
0:00:00.000,0:00:04.080
are you ready to manage your work and
0:00:02.100,0:00:05.940
personal world better to live a more
0:00:04.080,0:00:06.779
fulfilling productive life then you've
0:00:05.940,0:00:09.719
come to the right place
0:00:06.779,0:00:12.389
welcome to productivity cast the weekly
0:00:09.719,0:00:14.849
show about all things productivity here
0:00:12.389,0:00:18.210
are your hosts ray Sidney-Smith and
0:00:14.849,0:00:20.310
Augusto Pinaud welcome back everybody to
0:00:18.210,0:00:22.710
productivity cast the weekly show about
0:00:20.310,0:00:24.840
all things personal productivity I'm Ray
0:00:22.710,0:00:26.490
S-dney-Smith and I'm here with Augusto
0:00:24.840,0:00:28.980
Pinaud how's it going Augusto good
0:00:26.490,0:00:32.070
morning how are you today I'm doing
0:00:28.980,0:00:34.079
really well and we are joined again with
0:00:32.070,0:00:36.120
our regular contributor Francis Wade how
0:00:34.079,0:00:37.290
are you doing Francis I'm fine it's
0:00:36.120,0:00:40.469
great to be with you guys again
0:00:37.290,0:00:42.750
I am sitting in my office and looking at
0:00:40.469,0:00:44.700
the beautiful sunny sky and looking
0:00:42.750,0:00:47.520
forward to this conversation we are
0:00:44.700,0:00:50.460
going to be talking about choosing a
0:00:47.520,0:00:52.680
tablet computer and/or mobile tablet as
0:00:50.460,0:00:54.390
some people call it and I think this is
0:00:52.680,0:00:56.969
a really important topic for a lot of
0:00:54.390,0:01:00.120
people because of the fact that we we
0:00:56.969,0:01:03.899
use screens of different sizes today and
0:01:00.120,0:01:05.880
as we traverse between screens that's
0:01:03.899,0:01:09.330
really important that the tool we use
0:01:05.880,0:01:11.220
the tool we choose to use is effective
0:01:09.330,0:01:12.689
for us and that comes with a lot of
0:01:11.220,0:01:15.210
different options and a lot of choices
0:01:12.689,0:01:16.770
and I think it's really good that we
0:01:15.210,0:01:19.200
make that choice that first choice right
0:01:16.770,0:01:21.750
out the gate I want to talk about
0:01:19.200,0:01:25.439
operating system and form factor and
0:01:21.750,0:01:27.119
budget and at parity across ecosystems
0:01:25.439,0:01:29.520
we're each gonna probably have a
0:01:27.119,0:01:30.600
different opinion on choosing some of
0:01:29.520,0:01:32.579
these pieces and I think that'll be
0:01:30.600,0:01:34.439
really healthy for us so let's get
0:01:32.579,0:01:37.310
started with choosing an operating
0:01:34.439,0:01:40.619
system I believe in an operating system
0:01:37.310,0:01:42.180
choices being sort of twofold right you
0:01:40.619,0:01:45.390
have the selection of the operating
0:01:42.180,0:01:47.640
system because it matches your smart
0:01:45.390,0:01:49.140
phone right it so it's already your
0:01:47.640,0:01:51.540
smart phone operating system why
0:01:49.140,0:01:53.250
shouldn't it be your tablet operating
0:01:51.540,0:01:55.439
system and then the other side is that
0:01:53.250,0:01:57.240
you're not particularly wedded to your
0:01:55.439,0:01:59.549
smartphone or you don't own a smartphone
0:01:57.240,0:02:02.219
and so therefore you should compare it
0:01:59.549,0:02:05.280
against the three major tablet operating
0:02:02.219,0:02:07.799
systems and make a choice based on those
0:02:05.280,0:02:11.310
that comparison that you that you meet
0:02:07.799,0:02:13.250
for me is starred a matter of something
0:02:11.310,0:02:17.300
I'd paid I
0:02:13.250,0:02:20.510
I was on and I think my tablet or my
0:02:17.300,0:02:23.780
original tablet when the first iPad came
0:02:20.510,0:02:27.980
out where tablet still was not something
0:02:23.780,0:02:31.400
that was mainstream I understood the
0:02:27.980,0:02:34.670
power that God doublet May had on my
0:02:31.400,0:02:39.260
work or what I was hoping he was going
0:02:34.670,0:02:41.690
to have on mark worthless and after I
0:02:39.260,0:02:47.000
moved there and have been so many years
0:02:41.690,0:02:52.070
in the iOS ecosystem there certain apps
0:02:47.000,0:02:54.770
that are still only available the iPad
0:02:52.070,0:02:59.090
that I use that make me hard and unmake
0:02:54.770,0:03:00.860
a challenge to for me to leave the iOS
0:02:59.090,0:03:03.860
mostly because then I need to find out
0:03:00.860,0:03:06.320
my replacement and I like them and enjoy
0:03:03.860,0:03:10.070
them and use them almost every day not
0:03:06.320,0:03:12.590
every day multiple times so sorry I'm in
0:03:10.070,0:03:15.050
a certain way of talking iOS there is a
0:03:12.590,0:03:19.340
couple of outside projects I'm doing
0:03:15.050,0:03:23.900
right now where the people is forcing me
0:03:19.340,0:03:27.530
to go to Google Docs and it's been a
0:03:23.900,0:03:31.220
struggle because Google Docs on the iPad
0:03:27.530,0:03:33.620
it works 80% so you can write and all
0:03:31.220,0:03:37.459
that but you cannot see for example as
0:03:33.620,0:03:40.910
of today the changes that others do or
0:03:37.459,0:03:42.019
have done to that document but then or a
0:03:40.910,0:03:43.850
co-writing
0:03:42.019,0:03:46.489
stakes that is what we're doing on that
0:03:43.850,0:03:50.030
case in that project it's a problem
0:03:46.489,0:03:51.680
because I cannot go simply and dump text
0:03:50.030,0:03:55.239
in there and you know what happened and
0:03:51.680,0:03:59.150
what not so that has forced me to
0:03:55.239,0:04:02.570
consider the possibility of adding
0:03:59.150,0:04:04.720
another piece of gear to my arsenal but
0:04:02.570,0:04:07.130
I'm trying to avoid mostly because I
0:04:04.720,0:04:12.140
already carry more gear than what I
0:04:07.130,0:04:14.840
should and on and when then when you
0:04:12.140,0:04:17.780
look into that you discover that the
0:04:14.840,0:04:20.900
gear you know I need it it's basically
0:04:17.780,0:04:24.590
forcing or going to lock me into a
0:04:20.900,0:04:26.480
Chromebook or Chrome tablets because of
0:04:24.590,0:04:29.870
that that said
0:04:26.480,0:04:31.790
my criteria for laptop or her tablets
0:04:29.870,0:04:35.120
used to be the same one as laughter the
0:04:31.790,0:04:37.310
larger the battery the better that is
0:04:35.120,0:04:40.940
one of the reasons I have used also the
0:04:37.310,0:04:43.610
iPad for so long because in it used to
0:04:40.940,0:04:46.340
last me a whole workday now the
0:04:43.610,0:04:49.130
processor has improved and more speed
0:04:46.340,0:04:50.960
has improved and I use it more it loves
0:04:49.130,0:04:54.890
me the whole workday but then I have no
0:04:50.960,0:04:57.080
use for night so sorry eventually end up
0:04:54.890,0:04:59.510
charging my iPad around the middle of
0:04:57.080,0:05:03.020
the day so that way I have used for the
0:04:59.510,0:05:05.870
night but I believe that the better the
0:05:03.020,0:05:08.990
larger the larger the capacity working
0:05:05.870,0:05:11.960
wise for the battery that is in my
0:05:08.990,0:05:16.400
opinion the most important feature that
0:05:11.960,0:05:18.770
a tablet and a laptop can have well for
0:05:16.400,0:05:21.530
me if you remember the last time we
0:05:18.770,0:05:24.140
talked about this I spoke about the way
0:05:21.530,0:05:26.990
that I use my ecosystem I used my laptop
0:05:24.140,0:05:30.590
for creation my tablet for consumption
0:05:26.990,0:05:32.720
and my phone for mobility no I can't say
0:05:30.590,0:05:35.720
that I started out thinking that I
0:05:32.720,0:05:39.320
should do it this way it is it's more of
0:05:35.720,0:05:41.960
an evolution and to be honest I only got
0:05:39.320,0:05:44.480
a tablet because I wanted to watch
0:05:41.960,0:05:46.280
movies on a veranda that's that's what
0:05:44.480,0:05:48.260
motivated me I said you know what it's
0:05:46.280,0:05:50.930