What's the best tablet for $300-500, especially for viewing PDFs?

hiccupleftovers

hiccupleftovers

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Not sure if this belongs in the other deals forum or here, so my apologies to those members that might be offended (probably Scorch and a few others) and for the extra work I might be giving to the mods.

Anyway, let's get down to the nitty gritty. I'm trying to find a tablet that will be good for viewing PDFs, especially those of textbooks, manuals, programming literature, etc. Most of my book files are in PDF format, with a scarce few as txt. I thought about getting a Kindle Fire, and while I do really want one for several things and ebook reading, I have read on the net that it isn't the best when it comes to PDF viewing (not only for the fact that its screen size is only 7"), but for the fact that it sometimes will not display the PDF properly depending on the size of the text in the PDF, whether it can resize it, the PDF program viewer, etc. The other thing I'll need it to do is be able to dispaly cbz/cbr well.

I've pretty much drilled it down to needing to be in the 10" size group or thereabouts.

I also would like one with either SD card or microSD card expandable slot, so I can add content and not be limited to the on board space.

Can anyone tell me what they use or what they'd recommend? I've heard some good things about the Asus Transformer Prime, but don't know how PDFs work on it
 
I got my asus transformer (not prime) 10" for $399. I love it. not sure how anything else compares, but Ive had no problems with PDFs or flash websties. Purchased in july 2010. Also it does have a miniSD slot and a mini HDMI to port to your tv.
 
I have an iPad 2 and use it a ton for PDFs as I have to read a ton of scholarly journal articles for work.

The $5 Goodreader app is fantastic for PDFs. Great for organizing them into folders, great for marking them up (highlight, jotting notes, can write on them etc.), lot of features for reading like easily cropping the empty margins so it can zoom in on the text more etc.

Obviously the iPad 2 is right at the upper limit of your budget right now. But there's a rumor that they're going to keep the iPad 2 around at a lower price when they launch the iPad 3 in a couple of months.

There are cheaper options in the Android arena for sure. If PDF reading is going to be a main use, make sure you don't get smaller than a 9.7" screen regardless of which model you get. A lot of PDF docs are pretty big (up to 8.5x11") and that makes them very hard to deal with on a 7" tablet like the Kindle Fire as it's a ton of zooming in and panning around.

App selection would be the one big advantage to the iPad. The iPad has over 100,000 iPad specific apps (not counting iPhone apps which don't run full screen). Android still only has a few hundred tablet specific apps that run full screen.

But if you just need basic apps, you'll probably find all you need on Android if you can find a tablet you like. The 10" Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Motrola Zoom are the only one's I've seen that come close to matching the iPad 2 in form factor and battery life though.
 
I've had the original Asus Transformer pretty close from launch and I love it. I've owned iPad 2, Asus Transformer and the HP Touchpad. All have their strengths and weaknesses but I only have the Asus Transformer now as I sold the other two. It has great battery life and I even have the dock that basically turns it into a netbook. That has been quite handy as well.

I read a lot of digital comics in the CBZ format and the Android has the best app available for reading digital comics period. That app is ComicRack for Android. I use ComicRack for my PC side and the Android version can be used with files on an microsd card or you can have it where you sync from the PC to the tablet. It's the most fluid application for CBR/CBZ.
 
Just as another option, you could always root any tablet you get (like the Kindle Fire). Chances are you can find some app that will do everything you need with a PDF. And you'll most likely be able to find a good app to read those other formats as well.
 
With that budget, I'd actually go with the Thinkpad tablet and get the stylus, which is what I did. It's good for reading, taking notes, browsing, actual buttons, expand upto 32gb SD, AND has an actual usb port that you can hook up a keyboard, mouse, and usb drive. It's what I have and prefer it over the other android tablets and ipads.

The stylus really helps with note taking and comes with an app to mark up pdf's. There's also a keyboard folio that pretty much turns it into a netbook at well.
 
I'd have to put in a nod for the Asus Transformer as well. It's handled everything I've thrown at it and never had any issues with speed.

However, if you go that route, you'll be locked into a 16GB Transformer as ASUS had decided to drop the 32GB Transformer in place of the 32GB Transformer Prime.

The Prime is quad-core/Tegra 3 while the non-prime is dual-core/Tegra 2. PDF viewing shouldn't matter if you have the non-Prime or the Prime.

The keyboard dock is a great add-on, though pushes your price out of the $500 range with the tablet. The keyboard dock gives 16 hours of battery life, real USB ports for use with USB devices and doesn't add a lot of thickness or weight to it.
 
I've never really seen the appeal of pairing a tablet with a keyboard. If I needed that I'd just stick with a laptop/netbook.

Though I have the luxury of work providing me with a laptop, so my tablet is mostly just a toy I use for reading newspapers and magazines, playing games etc. that I do a few work related things on like read PDFs, take notes in meetings (since it's much more portable than my Thinkpad) etc.
 
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Thanks guys. It's looking more and more like I'm going to go for the Transformer Prime as it seems to have everything I need based your guys' recommendations. Really by getting the tablet right now, it's actually taking the money from something else and using it on one of them as a substitute (think expensive book). I know I'm close in the ball park for an Ipad 2, and while I would love to own/have one, I just can't stand the thought of being locked into Apple's garden and/or have to pay for every tiny dumb app that I might want. Android is better in that regard, and so would have been Microsoft, had one of their tablets finally hit the market. I just am sort of in an urgent/rush situation that I have to purchase one now, rather than wait for later.

One last quick question, does the Transformer/Prime have an expandable SD slot of some sort?
 
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