Looking for a new tablet - maybe

[csziggy]

I've been planning to buy a new tablet sometime in the next few months. Part of the plan was to use my tablet as my phone during our trip to Britain next year. My old Lenovo tablet has a place to put a SIM card in so it could be used that way and I assumed the new ones would, too.

Today I was looking at tablets online. It appears that now they no longer have SIM card or phone capabilities! I guess with smart phones getting such large screens and so many capabilities the idea of duplicating them in a tablet is not as important.

I need to be able to navigate and access the internet while my husband is driving. I HATE using his Samsung 8 smart phone for that. Even though the screen is a decent size, it is not big enough for my tastes.

I need suggestions for what device can do the things I need - or should we just look to rent a car with WiFi capabilities and just link a tablet to it?

[Gore1FL]

1. You could link a tablet to your husband's phone, too; just make it a hotspot.

It would be desirous if both devices had power.

[csziggy]

2. I'm not sure what you mean by both having power

We're planning on buying SIM cards for the time we're in Britain - that is a LOT cheaper than paying Verizon $10 a day for overseas access. For an additional fee the company I am considering will forward calls from our USA cell numbers to our UK numbers. So rather than upgrade my phone I'd planned on upgrading my tablet and using it as a phone. I never thought that they would reduce the capabilities of tablets!

My husband mostly uses his phone to get texts and keep up with his family on Facebook (their preferred way of keeping in touch). I'd like to keep our usage separate so I have my own device.

Our backup plan was that he would upgrade his phone, I would get his old one and we'd take both. We will also take at least one laptop since we're doing research while we are in the UK, but the laptop is too big to hold in the car while navigating. I guess we will have to test using his current phone as a WiFi hotspot and see how that works with my old tablet. If it does, then we can go to our backup plan.

[Timewas]

3. Galaxy Tab

I believe they have sim support, or you can check Amazon I know there are some in the $100 or maybe less that have sim support

[msongs]

4. t mobile, 2 lines one for fone and tablet, unlimited data all over the world nt

[csziggy]

5. I will NEVER do business with T-Mobile

They harassed me about an unpaid bill - problem I have never had an account with T-Mobile. It took four months and a complaint to the state consumer services before I could get them to STOP calling me with their demands. There was no way to let them know they were calling the wrong land line with their demands. The only way to get to anyone other than their sales force was to have an account number.

Even after I got a letter of apology from the president of T-Mobile they did not make any effort to change their system and told the state consumer services that they would not change it.

If T-Mobile were the last telephone service on earth I would use smoke signals.

[natheo]

6. iPad Air2 with SIM slot

I know iPad Air 2 supports LTE cellular bands.

[csziggy]

7. I'm not supporting the Apple cult

Anything more I could say about my opinion of the company and its customers might get me banned.

I have found a Lenovo tablet that does have a SIM slot and supports LTE. It's considerably more expensive than the base models similar to my old one and for some reason did not come up in my original searches. The Plus models that include SIM slots may not have been available in the US until after my first search.

[Buddyhughes]

8. Apple

the new apple tablet is one good piece which you definitely get your hands into.

[fleabiscuit]

9. For business?

If not, I would think it would be infinitely more rewarding to just engage with people for directions and recommendations, and using a printed map.

[csziggy]

10. For recreation - I want to be able to check out places to go

And we tend to stay in the undeveloped areas. For instance, we plan to visit a lot of Royal Society for the Preservation of Birds sites. They are often out in the middle of nowhere. The RSPB site gives great directions, but I don't want to have to print those out. Having a tablet for navigation as well as internet access would help a lot.

Another advantage is that I could plan my routes the night before and use Street View to see what the corners essential for turns look like and know better what to watch for.

The last several trips we have taken in the US the tablet has also helped with current traffic conditions. The online maps give info as to slow downs, construction, accidents, etc so we could plan alternate routes to avoid difficult situations.

While I grew up with printed maps and love them - have a collection that dates back to some my grandfather got in the 1930s - they can never be as current as the online maps are now. Too often we have found that "locals" often don't know the sites we are going to and give terrible directions even if they do know them.

We do engage with people as we travel but find them highly unreliable for the precise information we need.