My iPad gets lonely – Android vs iPad

I have both an iPad and a Samsung Galaxy Note 2014 Android device.  Both are 10” tablets and both are pretty nice.  The iPad has IOS 8.1 and the Samsung has Andrioid Version 4.4.2 (Kit Kat).  I teach free technology classes so I need to have both.

When I just want to look something up or when I leave the house I have a choice of which tablet I will use or take with me and I always choose the Android tablet.  This got me wondering – Why?   The iPad is clearly more popular in the marketplace even though it is more expensive than the equivalent Android tablet – so why do I prefer my Android tablet?

Here are some of the reasons:

1.       Cost

An equivalent Android Tablet is typically less expensive than the iPad.  The iPad Air 2 with 16GB of memory is $499US and a Nexus 9 is $399US.  Although cost is not my main consideration, balancing cost for function is; I prefer to get the most function for the best price.

2.        Widgets

I like Widgets.  I like the fact that all the icons on the screen are not the same size and that some show the data without having to click on the icon and bring up the app.  Some common examples are the Weather, YouTube and News app Widgets.  You can size them and move them on the screen.  They also organize and make the screen look much friendlier.

3.       The Pen

I bought the Galaxy Note with a pen thinking that I would never use it but now I find myself taking notes about all kinds of things - groceries we need, ideas for the blog, measurements of windows so we know what size blinds to get and tons more.

4.        The GPS                             

Every Android tablet I have used recently has a built-in GPS.  Yes, a real GPS.   Unlike an iPad, there is no need to be connected to a cell tower to know where you are.  Somehow, when I get lost I seem to be in an area where there is no cell reception.  A real GPS allows you to download one of the many apps, like Navigator, that will allow you to navigate when you are not connected to the internet or near a cell tower.

5.        A Real File System

I guess it is my Windows background.  I like to group the things I do in file folders.  Here is an example - I was recently on a trip to Europe and I have airline tickets, boarding passes, hotel confirmations, photos, videos, brochures, travel insurance documents, costs and many web links.  I like to have all of these in a folder called “My Trip to Europe.”  I could, for example, use my tablet for my boarding pass for the flight or provide the hotel with my confirmation number at check-in.  Everything is in one place. 

On the iPad, for some reason, everything is stored by the app that runs it, a PDF is stored with the app that can run PDFs, JPGs are with a photo app etc.  I don’t care if my boarding pass is a JPG or a PDF - it’s my boarding pass.  I want it where I can find it.

6.        The SD Card

Probably the most important reason is the SD card.  Every tablet come with a limited amount of memory - say 16GB.  You can purchase a tablet with more memory but that costs about $100 per 16 additional GBs.  This memory has to store all the apps you download as well as all of your books, music, videos and files you need.

Most, not all, Android tablets have an SD or Micro SD card slot that will allow you to store up to an additional 64GB of info on your tablet.  Yesterday, I purchased a 32GB Micro SD card for $16.  Given that a movie can be 1GB or more, 32GB will allow me to keep a few movies, a few thousand songs, a small library of books and a file folder containing my European trip information with me.  I can swap the card out and put a new one very simply.  This allows me to keep the internal storage of the tablet for apps only. 

The best part is that I can put the SD card in my laptop and drag and drop the files, folders, music and video I want to the card.  I then simply place the card back in the tablet and the information is accessible “as is”.  Compare this, with using iTunes to copy your media and data to an iPad. You have to first find the cable that will connect your iPad to your laptop and then figure out how to sync each group of items to it. I find this much more complicated and less intuitive than dragging and dropping items to an SD Card.

There are many other reasons I prefer Android to IOS on the iPad.  I prefer Google Search to Siri, I love Android’s Screen Casting and the ability to attach a thumb drive, just to mention a few, but these are topics for another day.  I hope I have given some good things to think about the next time you’re in the market for a new tablet and some says “Buy an iPad.”