Microsoft Surface vs Kindle vs iPad Mini

[Starbrite]

Can someone help out a technically challenged mom??

DD12 is asking for the Kindle Fire for Christmas. Grandma has one, so she's very familiar with it.

I believe her primary uses would be games, pictures, internet browsing, movies, music, and reading books.

I suggested the iPad Mini instead of the Kindle since she already has an iPhone, she would be able to share stuff between the 2.

But then today I saw the Best Buy BF deal for the Surface and it looks like a great buy!!

Can someone compare these products for me? If I got the Surface, what wouldn't she be able to do that she could on one of the other devices?

 

[wiigirl]

If she has an iPhone the iPad would be a good option.

The advantage of the Surface is that is has MS Office and that would be helpful for school work.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

If she has an iPhone the iPad would be a good option.

The advantage of the Surface is that is has MS Office and that would be helpful for school work.

I agree, if she has an iPhone, go for the mini.

IPad Airs and the new minis get Pages, Keynote, and Numbers apps for free.

 

[soccerchick]

We have a surface (given as a gift) and I hate it. The keyboard is difficult to use IMO. My kids, ages 14 and 10 don't touch it. We have ipad2 that everyone fights over and both kids are hopefully getting mini ipads for Christmas.

 

[wenrob]

If she already has an iPhone I would get the iPad Mini. Myself, DH and Teen DD all have iPhones and my younger two got Kindle Fire HDs for their birthdays last year. I cannot even tell you what a pain in the butt it is to switch back and forth between the two systems, especially when 95% of our stuff is in iTunes. Instead of all of us having access to our movies, music etc. we have to buy things separate (or get creative) for the Kindles. Next year we will be getting them iPad Minis so Mama doesn't have to maintain two systems. Anything she can do on the Kindle she can do on the iPad Mini, probably more.

 

[PA Princess]

Various members of our household own each of the products you mentioned...I have a Surface, grandma who lives with us has a kindle fire HD, and dh has an Ipad. In addition our son has a Nexus tablet. The one my 12 year old wants for her own purposes is my Surface. She borrows mine and has asked repeatedly for one of her own (answer had been no, but now with the Best Buy Black Friday deal, I am thinking yes).

DD has an Ipod and an has used all of the appliances in the house. What she really likes about the surface is the ability to do school work (she is 7th grade and paper writing has been rather extensive this year) in addition to all of the regular tablet type features. The Surface may have more long term use for your dd?

 

[Starbrite]

DD has an Ipod and an has used all of the appliances in the house. What she really likes about the surface is the ability to do school work (she is 7th grade and paper writing has been rather extensive this year) in addition to all of the regular tablet type features. The Surface may have more long term use for your dd?

This was my thought as well.
I know the iPad may be more functional as far as sharing her music & apps. But this could potentially get us thru the Middle School years without the need for a new computer or laptop.

 

[SC Minnie]

DD has an Ipod and an has used all of the appliances in the house. What she really likes about the surface is the ability to do school work (she is 7th grade and paper writing has been rather extensive this year) in addition to all of the regular tablet type features. The Surface may have more long term use for your dd?

DD19 wanted an iPad until researching the Surface. She's now decided the surface would work better for her to do her school work plus everything else. Hoping we can snag one of the black friday Best Buy deals too.

 

[pandamom]

I've been researching this too for the past few weeks (also considered Asus tablets and HP's split thing.) I finally decided to try and get the Best Buy Black Friday deal on the surface for dd13 and I'm going with the surface pro 2 for dd15.

 

[purplegirl1818]

Just remember, the Kindle was built for reading. Although it now has the functionality of a tablet, it's basic design was for reading.

I've told my mother that a million times before she got the Kindle to basically play on Facebook. I LOVE my Kindle (Fire), but I rarely do anything but read on it. I wouldn't recommend it for someone who wants to use it as a tablet.

 

[rachael95]

If she likes using apps on her iPhone, then I'd go for the iPad. Anything she has on her phone can be installed on the iPad without repurchasing. If she has a Surface, she would have to repurchase all the apps she wants for the Surface.

Apple is also putting their version of the programs you get in Office (called iWork) available to all of their customers on the App store for free. So she could get spreadsheet program like Excel (called Numbers), a word processor program like Word (called Pages) and a presentation program like PowerPoint (called Keynote). It depends on which version of the Surface you get whether or not you get Office with it. So make sure you check into that. Remember, if you need to save files, you can always do a "save as" and save the file in another format. So you're not stuck with using only MS Office products. You can always save your iWork files into Office format.

The Kindle Fire has some apps but like PP said, it was originally designed as a one-trick pony of only being an e-reader. Because of that, everything else is a bit of an add-on and isn't flowing quite as well as if it were designed as a tablet from the beginning. That being said, my DH thinks his Kindle Fire is interesting and ok (he still LOVES the iPad though) and he did like being able to set it up so DS had his own screen. My DH has a Surface he uses for work. He hates it. He purchased a MacBook so he could use something nicer at home.

The Kindle is a LOT cheaper than the iPad. So if price matters, that can make a big difference.

One other note, you really don't need to worry too much about programs like Word/Pages or Excel/Numbers. Google Docs has versions of these on the web for free. Most of your kids probably already know about them. So as long as they can get to the web, they could type a paper and save it.

 

[mistysue]

I'm sorry to add to all of this, but have you considered an android tablet?
I have a Nexus 7 for my DD. It is essentially an Ipad mini, but instead of itunes you use the google play store and all of the Kindle/Amazon apps on it as well. It functions as a kindle would for reading, but is a full tablet. You can also get a keyboard dock for it so it is easy to use for school work. I've played with my nexus 7 and a Ipad mini together and prefer the nexus 7.
They are currently listed at $229.

 

[Soupermom]

I am looking at getting a tablet as well. I have droid phone at the moment, but will most like get an iPhone in February when I am due for an upgrade; my kids both have iPhoness. I really don't need a tablet for schoolwork, more for games, internet and photo editing. Are photo editing programs available for the iPad/mini? How would I get my photos from my camera to the iPad...is there a direct way to do it? Does anyone know of any BL deals for iPads? I saw minis on QVC the other day with tons of storage and accessories for $500; seemed like a good deal but I have no idea.

Also, what exactly is the deal being offered on BF for the Surface?

 

[wenrob]

For those concerned about having SD cards or transfers you can always install Dropbox or something similar to your devices. Then you can just transfer from there. With all the different forms of "cloud" storage out there and most places that sell digital movies, books and music having their own version you really don't actually have to have much of anything loaded onto your portable devices anymore. Retrieving and installing takes just seconds.

To the PP, for photos there are any number of ways. Something like Dropbox like mentioned above you just "drop" them in there and they will be available on any device you have it installed on. I have PhotoStream on my iphone and it automatically sends my pics to my PC. I can also drop pics from my PC to phone. Photostream is an Apple thing but there's many, many services like these you can use, Amazon even has one. Or you can do it the "old fashioned" way and use a USB cable to transfer from your phone/camera to your computer and then use your computer and USB to transfer to the tablet. With my camera I transfer memory card to computer then just drop in photostream or dropbox if I want to share. I don't know about editing photos on an iPad (I never would) but I know they have programs/apps for it.

 

[Starbrite]

Also, what exactly is the deal being offered on BF for the Surface?

$199 @ Best Buy
$249 @ Staples w/ keyboard included

This is not for the Pro2, this is the older model.

 

[Caseheidi]

Just another quick thought. With my IPad Mini I have the google docs app, which lets me use Word and Excel in my tablet. So basically, a kid could do homework on it. So if your daughter already has an iPhone, I would recommend the iPad mini and use google docs for homework.

 

[HM]

We have both a Kindle Fire and an iPad Mini. The Mini gets almost all the use in our house. Must easier to use, we think.