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Finding the Best Tablets for College Students

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Gone are the days when a book and a pen were a must-take to your first class as a freshman. Today, you can march into the lecture hall with only a tablet in your right hand. No paper or pen for the class notes or end of year exam. An exam software on your tablet could be all you need.

However, unless your best friend or big brother is a high-tech guru, picking the best tablet for college can be overwhelming. The technology market is filled with tablets that vary in size, price, among other aspects.

As a student, we recommend choosing a tablet with the following factors in mind.

Versatility

You will most likely be using your tablet for taking notes, exams, entertainment, etc. With this in mind, choose a tablet that allows room for such versatility.

Budget

You are a college student, not a top-notch Apple executive. The last thing you need is a tablet that scraps off all your student upkeep loan. Our list has put this into consideration.

Operating system

To make your user experience memorable, buy a tablet with an OS that you can easily navigate.

Other specifications

Other specifications, such as accessories, processing power, battery life, size, and storage space, should also be considered. With the above factors in mind, we’ve put up the following list to help you decide on picking the best tablet for your college life

Top Tablets for College Students

With the above factors in mind, we’ve put up the following list to help you decide on picking the best tablet for your college life.

1. Microsoft Surface Pro 7

At the top of our list of the best tablets for students is Microsoft Surface Pro 7. One of the features that make it stand out among students is its excellent versatility that allows you to juggle between taking notes, managing all your class assignments and projects; to enjoying your favorite series on Netflix.

Other benefits include its high convertibility, a high RAM of up to 16GB, storage of 128/256 GB, a light and kick-stand design, and even affordability.

2. Microsoft Surface Go 2

This is a good pick if you are working from a low budget as it is friendly to your student pocket. Also, it comes with the feature of convertibility, just like its sister mentioned above. This makes it an excellent fit for your versatile student lifestyle.

Another characteristic that makes it stand out is the powerful Gold Processor 4425Y that makes the device withstand whatever operations are drawn at the device.

If you are a selfie enthusiast, or maybe a long-distance learner who loves to catch up with family on video calls, this tablet comes in handy. Why? Because it’s Full HD Display offers a quality resolution that makes your experience unforgettable.

3. Samsung Galaxy Tab S7

This is a perfect choice for students at all levels regardless of their age or major.

Not only does it come with an attachable keyboard, but it also displays a myriad of admirable features. For instance, its multitasking mode allows you to handle different stuff without worrying about storage space, which goes up to 512GB.

Another advantage is the tablet’s OS. It runs on Android 10, which is the latest and most popular operating system. Not to forget the long battery life. This tablet is engineered to be fully charged in about two hours and last for another fifteen hours on the same charge. You don’t have to worry about running out of power when you have this masterpiece.

4. Apple iPad Pro 11′

This is like the coolest on our guide for the best tablets for college students. It runs on iPad OS, the most refined OS that has ever emerged in the tablet tech world. This powerful OS makes it a top performer in student multitasking and other complex actions such as editing 4K videos.

Also, this tablet comes with necessary accessories such as the 2nd Generation Apple Pencil. As a student, you can now seamlessly take your notes without a drop of sweat on your brows.

If you are one of those sophisticated and spend-free students, then this is your perfect pick—just part with about $700 to swagger with this gem around the campus corridors.

5. Lenovo Tab M10 Plus

Our last pick is also the cheapest on this list.  Unlike the common belief that cheap translates to low quality, this device defies the principle. It comes with an excellent build for multitasking, a big colorful screen, and a battery life to envy. If you are a student that doesn’t want to lose an arm for a tablet, then here is your pick.

Parting thoughts

Choosing the best tablet for college can be overwhelming as there are very many options. However, putting a few factors like those we mentioned above in mind while shopping should simplify the process. Our guide has also shown you some of the best tablets for college students that you could consider while shopping. Happy tablet hunting!

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How to Speed Up a Slow Tablet

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How to Speed Up a Slow Tablet

When you first open a new tablet, it’s amazing how sleek they look and how fast they run. Every tap and swipe flows smoothly with ease, and you wonder how you managed with that older device. However, even the fastest tablet can slow down over time. There are many reasons for this. Advances in the software and apps can cause this, but often this isn’t the only cause.
If your tablet is beginning to run slow, don’t worry. There are several different things you can try to speed up your tablet. Let’s look at several different ways you can speed up a slow tablet so you don’t have to run out and buy a new one. Most of these fixes will work if you have an iPad, an Android tablet or even a Windows tablet.

Turn Off Auto Updates

It may not seem like that big a deal, but if you have your app settings set to auto update your apps, you could be diverting valuable processing power to updates when you are trying to use your tablet. Since apps are constantly being updated with new versions, if you have auto update turned on, your tablet will continually look for and install the new versions of these apps once they are released. While this is great as far as app management goes, it can really hurt the performance of older tablets as the installations and upgrades compete for processing power while you are using it. Instead, turn off the auto update features and periodically check for and install new updates yourself.

Run a Malware Scan

Many people don’t realize that malware and viruses can be a problem on a tablet. This isn’t as much of a concern on an iPad, but on Android tablets malware is a big problem and on Windows tablets you have to worry about both malware and viruses just as you do with your PC. If your tablet has become infected, these malicious programs could not only be slowing your tablet down, but they could be stealing from you as well. Run a thorough malware scan using something like Malwarebytes on your tablet or Windows Defender if you have a Windows tablet and make sure you keep it protected to reduce the chances of becoming infected in the first place.

Clean Up Your Files and Apps

Honestly, this may be the least effective of everything on this list, but I still feel that it is important to do. Over time, you accumulate a lot of files and apps that you no longer need and never use. As more and more of your storage is taken, there is less room for the swap files that assist the processor and your RAM in the performance of your tablet. This is even more pronounced when you go under 1GB of free space on your device. Periodically clean up any old files you don’t need and get rid of apps you don’t use. If you find you are still low on space, try using cloud storage such as Dropbox or Google Drive to store your files and get them off your tablet. The more space your tablet has, the better and more efficient it will run. Again, you will see the biggest boost if you are under 1GB and you clear out enough to get it above that threshold, but I still believe it’s a good idea to do even if you have tons of free space.

Reset Your Tablet Settings

Sometimes, your tablet will slow down because of a simple problem in your cached settings. These settings save things such as your network information, app preferences, and much more. If something becomes corrupt, you may need to do a reset. There are different levels of reset, and while this various based on your tablet’s operating system, most have three basic levels that you can try. Let’s break them down one by one so you can understand the function of each one a little better.

Reset Network Settings

Your network settings store all the network information for the different wireless networks you use with your tablet. Sometimes, this may be only one or two networks, but in other cases there could be several if you carry your tablet around with you all the time. If these settings are corrupt, you could find your tablet feels slow or even disconnects from the networks you use. A slow network means a slow tablet. By resetting these settings and then re-entering your network passwords, this can speed up your tablet quite a bit, especially if you rely heavily on the Internet when you are using your tablet.

Reset Settings

This is one step above your network settings reset but not quite as far as the factory reset that I will discuss below. Resetting your settings will basically reset everything on your tablet, but it won’t remove your apps and your files. Think of it as a go between. It saves you the time of having to reinstall and copy your files back to it, but it does wipe away a lot of settings that will require you to do things like re-enter your passwords or re-link a few of your accounts here and there. If the network settings doesn’t do the trick, give this one a try before you go all in with the factory reset.

Factory Reset

This is the ultimate reset of your tablet. A factory reset will remove everything from your tablet. That includes all your apps, saved files, all your settings, everything. Basically this will take your tablet back to day one when you first opened it. You will have to reset everything and reinstall any apps you have downloaded. While that can be a pain, if you have tried everything else and your tablet still feels slow, then this is a great way to make sure you take care of the problem once and for all. This process will take some time, both for the tablet to reset and for you to fix it back to the way you like it. But if your tablet is slow, it’s well worth the time. Once it’s refreshed, I think you will find it will run much better than it did before.

When All Else Fails, Buy New

Sometimes, your tablet will simply be too old. Yes, the useful life is much longer compared to a smartphone, but even with the longer life of tablets, sometimes there is nothing you can do. This is true for both Android and iOS, but chances are you will feel it much sooner with the iPad than you will some of the Android and Windows devices as Apple tends to stop updating their devices much sooner than the others. If you are looking for a new tablet, we have several guides to walk you through some of the best choices. I would encourage to begin with our best 10-inch tablet guide and then narrow your search from there.

Final Thoughts

Just because your tablet is getting slow, that doesn’t mean that you need to buy something new. Sure, in some cases, you tablet may just be getting too old so there is nothing else you can do. However, in many cases, by going through these different methods you can clean up your tablet and restore it to working order. Now that you know how to speed up a slow tablet, maybe you can save yourself from buying something new, unless, of course, you just want one!

 

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How the Tablet Market Differs From the Smartphone Market

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How the Tablet Market Differs From the Smartphone Market

It seems like almost every week we read a new article about how tablets are dead. In some ways, they may be correct. But I believe that their premise for declaring that a tablet is dead is, well, dead wrong. The fact is that the tablet market is very different from the smartphone market, and the sales of tablets demonstrate that clearly, but many tech writers fail to see this difference.

So I suggest you all stop believing the hype around the death of tablets and start looking at how the tablet market differs from the smartphone market. Once you do, you begin to see why tablet sales are in a “slump”. In fact, once you understand the market, I believe you will begin to see it the way I do. How do I see it? Tablets are not in a slump. Their market is just very different.

How Tablet Doomsday Criers Are Correct

To be honest, the tablet doomsday “experts” aren’t entirely incorrect. The fact is that the tablet market has been steadily dropping for some time. According to the IDC, tablet sales fell in the fourth quarter last year by as much as 20.1 percent.

“The sentiment around the tablet market continues to grow stale despite a lot of talk about vendors pivoting their product portfolios toward the detachable segment,” said Ryan Reith, program vice president with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers. “Typical tablets without a dedicated keyboard, which IDC refers to as slate tablets, are continuing to lose relevancy across all regions and, as a result, we see the decline happening globally. We do see future growth in some emerging markets like the Middle East & Africa as well as Central & Eastern Europe with the sole catalysts being simplicity and low cost. Unfortunately for the industry these are the devices that don’t equate to large revenues.”

That’s a huge drop when you think about it. But, it represents a drop from a time when tablets were still considered new and many consumers were leaping at the chance to pick one up. Today, they are like many other devices in our homes, and that alters the market as we know it.

Many so called experts believe that the time of the tablet is over because of these figures, and it’s easy to see why they would believe that. But I believe there is more to it than that.

There is also a belief that the market and products have stagnated, as manufacturers have failed to offer anything really new to the market that would make consumers rush out to the store and buy one. In many ways this is true. While the devices have gotten more powerful, can the new devices today really do a lot more compared to some of the first tablets to be released? Not really. In the cases where they can, its often only in small ways that often aren’t enough to cause consumers to rush out and buy something new.

A lot of the manufacturers have slowed down their releases as well. Just look at Samsung, for example. There was almost two years between the release of the Galaxy Tab S2 and the Galaxy Tab S3. As you can see, a slower release window means less demand from consumers as they find their existing tablet is more than enough for their needs.

How Consumers Use Tablets

To understand why the tablet market is in the state is in, you must understand how consumers use their tablets.

Not A Smartphone

First, they don’t use them like a smartphone. These devices don’t go with them wherever they go. Most tablets remain at home and are used as entertainment devices, with a little light work on the side. Consumers use these devices for a more comfortable way of consuming media. That could be surfing the Internet, watching movies, or even playing a few games when they have spare time. Because they aren’t used like a smartphone, most consumers don’t believe they need to invest in a new one every other year like they do a smartphone.

Hardware Lasts Longer

The other thing you need to consider is the hardware. Tablets are often much more powerful than smartphones, although that is changing as hardware evolves. Still, the app market really hasn’t kept up with the hardware, so that means that the same apps today can still run on devices that are much older.

Take the iPad Air, for example. It was first released on November 1, 2013. Just over 4 years ago now. Four years! And you can still find it available for sale. Not only that, but it is still compatible with all the latest apps so it will continue to be viable for quite some time. While there are definitely more powerful tablets out there with a lot more features, for many users they will never need anything more than what the iPad Air can provide, even though we are talking about a four year old tablet.

So what does this mean for tablets? It means that many users are keeping their tablets far longer than they do a smartphone. In fact, some are keeping their tablets for four or five years or more. This translates into fewer sales for tablets as consumers hang on to their devices. This scenario is very good for consumers, as tablets act more like a laptop, but it does cause sales to drop when you compare them to other types of devices.

Some Don’t Use Them At All

Finally, you have to remember there is a segment of consumers that own a laptop and a smartphone, but just don’t see any need for a tablet. Their lifestyles don’t allow for the time or the desire to use the media consuming devices, and when they do, they just use their smartphones or laptops for it instead of spending more money on a device that they will only use occasionally. This is different when compared to the smartphone and laptop markets, as most every consumer believes these to be necessities today.

What Market Are They Really Like?

So, now that we understand how consumers really use tablets, it’s much easier to identify which market they are truly more like. The fact is that while they may look like a bigger version of a smartphone and while they may run the same software, when it comes to use they are nothing like a phone. Yes, they do similar things in much the same way, but how consumers use them are totally different.

Because tablets are used as more of an entertainment device than an essentially accessory like a smartphone, I believe that the tablet market is much more like the television market than the smartphone market. Think about how often you buy a new television. It’s not like you run out a buy a new television every year, now do you? Okay, I’m sure some of you out there do. But for most of us, we buy a television and then keep it anywhere from five to ten years and sometimes even longer than that.

The same can be said for a tablet. Consumers hang on to their tablets for a few years, if not more, before they start looking for a new one. Contrast that with the smartphone market, where consumers are upgrading their devices whenever the latest phone is released or at least every two years when their contracts are up. And this is needed in the smartphone world. Our smartphones go with us every day. That means after two years of being carried around with us as an extension of our arm, most of them need to be replaced.

But tablets are very different. Most tablets don’t travel with us unless we take a trip and want a bigger screen on the plane to watch our favorite movie.

How to Change the Game

Now I’m not saying that tablet makers couldn’t change the game. In fact, they could. But to do it, they are really need to pull off something truly innovative. Right now, a tablet can replace a laptop for many people maybe 80 percent of the time. But even basic users still need a laptop or a desktop for some of their computing tasks. If you really want to see the tablet market explode, that will have to change.

We have already seen new innovations from Microsoft and others as they release the hybrid tablets that give you the best of both worlds all wrapped into one expensive package. But, if you want to see tablets truly alter the computing world as we know it, tablets are going to have to do more than replace the laptop 80 percent of the time.

For the tablet market to truly explode again, manufacturers are going to have to create a tablet that can really be a complete laptop replacement. You can’t expect consumers to buy a new tablet that will only replace their laptop part of the time, even if it covers most of their tasks. They still have to invest their money in a laptop as well, and if they are going to buy a device, most will buy the one that works the most, especially if they are on a limited budget.

To be fair, I think we are almost there, but there is still much more to do if we want to see the desktop and laptop move on to a more specialized role. Will this happen? Honestly, I don’t know. The PC market represents a lot of money to many companies out there, and many will be slow to convert while profits remain high. In the end, it will take an innovator to come up with something unique that will truly alter the market, much like what Apple did when they released the first iPad.

Parting Thoughts

While tablet sales have definitely declined over the years, understanding how people use tablets and why they buy them will go a long way towards understanding why they are in a slump. In the beginning, tablets were being scooped up by everybody. Today, many people still have a tablet they bought a few years ago, because they last. Remember, that’s a good thing for consumers. These devices are much more like televisions than they are smartphones, so everyone needs to stop comparing them to smartphones.

Once you do, you realize that they are a luxury for most people, and consumers tend to keep them longer, just a like a television or even a small appliance. When you realize this, you understand that the tablet isn’t dead, it’s just different. Because they look like bigger smartphones, many people compare them to a device they carry with them every day. But that’s not what a tablet is. It’s a luxury that most of use to relax.

Because of this, the tablet will never have the market that a smartphone will. So, as you can see, the tablet isn’t dead. It’s just not the same as a smartphone. So stop crying about the death of the tablet and really look at what they are and how they are used. Once you do, I think you will agree that the tablet isn’t going anywhere. While sales may never be as they were when they were first released, they still continue to be a popular choice for consumers and will continue to be for many years to come.