Matthew Williams writes .. We have finally launched the Topping Forty website. A new social site for the over forties which aims to provide them with more of the things they want and help them connect with like minded people.
Editor .. Congratulations Matthew – as usual Topping Forty website is a totally professional job and really very readable. We at theMarketingblog will be featuring articles from this new site over the next few months – enjoy them and more important – make sure you sign up for Topping Forty.
The first article .. Like the team at Topping Forty, we know you can’t do with out your gadgets. With so many out there to choose from we decided to take a look at this years tablet offerings. Here are the Topping Forty’s teams top 5.
Asus Taichi Ultrabook
Price: from £1,000
Manufacturer: Asus
The Taichi is created in the same way alongside some of the creations of Windows 8 products that have appeared in the past few months. It is a brave play on Asus’ part to put a double-sided screen on the Taichi. When you open it up and you will feel that you are using any of its Zenbooks.
Both screens can work seperatly. The touch screen is a second screen as far as Windows is used. You can drag windows between screens as you do in Windows 7, with a dual-screen setup, but because you can not see them both at the same time, it really is not all an easy thing to do.
There’s a backlit keyboard and an 11.6in non-reflective screen. When closed, you’re presented with an edge-to-edge glass panel which houses another 11.6in screen, this time a touch screen supporting 10 fingers. Both screens are IPS panels with an amazingly high 1920 x 1080 resolution, which equates to a 190ppi density.
The Taichi is almost stupidly expensive, but it shares the same excellent build quality as the rest of the Zenbook range with an aluminium ‘unibody’ chassis, similar to the MacBook Air.
Price: From £378
Manufacturer: Apple
The iPad with retina display, is Apple’s fourth generation tablet PC. You cannot mistake the iPad 4 from the other versions of Apple tablets. There are no changes in dimensions which are 186 x 241 x 9.4mm and 652g. As we all know and expect from the iPad and Mac range, the quality of the build is perfect. Attention to detail is as norm and the iPad feels perfect as to be expected. Yes Apple has updated the hardware of the tablet. First is a new processor, the A6X. This dual-core processor with quad-core graphics is twice as fast as the chip in the iPad 3 and has twice the graphics performance.
There are no changes when it comes to the screen, it’s still 9.7in in size with a 1536 x 2048 retina quality resolution. To be honest there is really no faulting the LED-backlit IPS display.There are a few changes when it comes to connectivity. The first, is the lightning connector. It’s smaller, reversible and means you need to buy an adaptor if you want to plug it into any existing 30-pin accessories.
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
Price: From £365
Manufacturer: Samsung
We could all be forgiven for mistaking the Galaxy Note 10.1 with the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, as both look the same. They are both 10-inch Android tablets and both come in grey or white.What is different about the Note is its stylus. The screen reacts to your fingers as normal, but also works like a tablet when you write with the pressure-sensitive stylus.
When you remove the stylus from the Note 10.1, a shortcut bar appears where you can launch, apps, as well as Samsung’s S Note app. With this app Samsung preloads it allows you to write notes, sketch and even write formulas. Text can then be converted to editable text. The pen is responsive and easy to use.
The Note has a fast 1.4GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM. It has 16GB of storage, with a 32GB model also available. There’s built-in GPS, Bluetooth and also Wi-Fi direct for sharing photos and other files with compatible devices. Even though it has the same 1280 x 800 resolution as the Galaxy Tab 2, it’s sharper and has more vivid colours. There is no USB in or HDMI out, but a micro SD slot lets you add up to 64GB of extra storage.
Microsoft Surface Pro ;
Price: From £399
Manufacturer: Microsoft
The Surface RT is Microsoft’s first own-brand tablet using its own Windows RT operating system. Microsoft’s first tablet is come in the form of the Surface RT. The design of the Surface RT is different to other tablets with a 10.6in screen you get a bit more screen than other tablets. The keyboard covers are a great element to the Surface RT. The Touch Cover is strange to use at first but you do get used to after a while. It is only 3mm thick and uses pressure sensitive touch pads.
From a user point of view the performance is very slick, like that of Windows Phone 8.Animations are smooth and tasks such as pinch zooming in Internet Explorer are very responsive. Once you learn all the different Windows 8 gestures, it’s a easy to navigate around. We do like swiping from the left of the screen to open recent apps and use the ability to view two at once with ‘snap screen’. A handy feature of Windows RT is the ability to have multiple user accounts, just like you would on a desktop PC.
Google Nexus 10
Price: From £319 for 16GB, £389 for 32GB
Manufacturer: Google
The Google Nexus 10 is a 10in Android tablet with a HD display with superb front-facing stereo speakers, great performance and long battery life. It also runs Google Android software and is guaranteed to receive future OS upgrades as soon as they’re released.
The device does have a limited on-board storage, without the option to add extra space. The Google Nexus 10 also has a plastic body that looks and feels not as good as the competition.Google’s Nexus 10 is powered by a 1.7GHz Samsung Exynos 5250 dual-core processor along with 2GB of RAM.
Navigating through the home screens is fast and clean, apps load instantly and multitasking is a breeze. Web browsing is simple also. The Corning Gorilla Glass 2 screen is crisp and sharp as you would expect. The colours pop out and details are clean. Watching HD movies, is just a great experience on this device, especially when you remember its dual front-facing stereo speakers, which provide the best audio of any tablet on the market.