Monday, December 15, 2014

A geek’s guide to geeky holiday gifts (part 1)

Looking for the right gift for the techie in your life? Perhaps I can help you out. See, here at OverDrive, I get my eager little hands on tons of new tablets and eBook reading devices every year–often right after they release. If you combine that experience with my natural, nerdy FanDevicesobsession with technology, then you get me: your friendly neighborhood tech advice geek.

In short, I'm here to give you my advice on what tablets, eBook readers, and even phones are particularly good at media consumption (eBooks, audiobooks, movies, etc.). The end goal: to help you with your holiday shopping.

This will be a two-parter. Today's post will give a little background, but cover mostly tablets and eBook readers. Tomorrow, you'll get part 2, which includes some less expensive options, "phablets," and some parting words of wisdom.

A bold new era (the background I mentioned)

This year is a bit unique because there's a new-ish device type that you should probably consider when purchasing gifts for a lover of media consumption.

Have you ever heard of a phablet? It's a cross between a tablet and a smartphone, which basically means: "giant smartphone." They're not as good as a tablet (in my book) for reading, but if you only want to lug aroundone device, then a phablet might be just the thing.

Personally, my go-to device for reading books or watching movies while traveling is still my tablet. That being said, I'm going to try to cover a somewhat broad range of devices so you can pick the one that works best for the people on your list.

Unleash the tablets!

My top pick: Nvidia SHIELD tablet

The Nvidia SHIELD tablet is pretty awesome. It's $299 of high-end, 8", HD glory. It has killer specs (with an Nvidia Tegra K1 SoC), and even includes front-facing stereo speakers (which every tablet should have).

The screen, while not necessarily the best out there, is still pretty darn good, so reading for extended periods isn't a problem. In fact, the most common complaint that I've seen is this: "it's made out of plastic." I would argue that sometimes plastic is the better choice, and doesn't always feel "cheap."

The real beauty of the Shield tablet is this: at $299, you're not paying a super-premium price, but you're getting a premium tablet (plastic and all). I'm not the only one that thinks so either, most review sites give the Shield Tablet high marks.

iPadAirSecond choice: iPad Air or iPad mini 2

I'm going to be very, very specific with this bit because there are now a total of five base-models to choose from when it comes to picking out an iPads Each one of those has a number of variants based on memory-size. Without diving into color options, you've got a total of 22 choices! So, which ones do I recommend?

For those who like larger tablets, I'd pick the iPad Air (no, not the Air 2).

And why not the iPad Air 2, you ask? Well, quite simply put, you can save yourself a considerable chunk of money going with the original Air, and unless you're doing some serious, professional (not home movie) video editing, you'll never notice the difference.

Heck, in several tests, the iPad Air is getting better battery life than the iPad Air 2. Yeah, the iPad Air 2 has slightly better specs, but there isn't a lot out there that requires those specs. My advice is to save some cash and buy the original Air.

For people that don't need quite so much screen, the iPad mini 2 is the way to go (again, not the 3).

Why not the mini 3? For exactly the same reasons I listed for the iPad Air up there. Unless you're doing one of the very rare things that would require the bump in hardware, the extra money just isn't worth it.

Something to keep in mind: do not buy the 16 GB model of either tablet!16 GB is just not enough if you expect to hold onto your tablet for a while. That puts the minimum level of iPad Air I'd recommend buying at $449, and the cheapest iPad mini at $349. If you step up to the iPad Air 2 or mini 3, you can add $150 to either price. See what I mean about saving cash?

Third place: It's a tie (Nexus 9 and Galaxy Tab S)

Nexus9_TriumphThis one is tough. I really love the Nexus line of products (I have a Nexus 6 right now, in fact), and there's a lot to love about the Nexus 9, in particular. But, it does have a few issues. For an in-depth review, check out my postfrom a little while back.

The Galaxy Tab S series of tablets likely have the best screen you can find on any tablet available to us regular old consumers. That being said, the price is higher than that of the Nexus 9.

I've never been a big fan of Samsung's Android modifications (they call their skin for the OS "TouchWiz"). These aren't as bad in the latest version of TouchWiz, however, which is what you'll find on the Tab S. The Nexus 9 is "pure" Android, which I definitely like. It generally means faster updates, and better performance.

My biggest problem with the Tab S and Nexus 9, however, is the price. The Nvidia SHIELD tablet (though marketed to "gamers") is a better all-around device than the either Tab S tablets or Nexus 9, and it costs less.

When should you consider getting one of these tablets? Buy the Galaxy Tab S or Nexus 9 if you like the size options better than the 8" SHIELD and want to stick with Android.

My favorite eBook reader of the year

Rather than pick my top-three eBook readers, I'm going to keep this simple. If I were going to buy an E Ink-based eBook reader today, it'd be the Kobo Aura H2O.

No, it's not cheap at a suggested retail price of $180, and you may not be terribly familiar with the name "Kobo," but this is a pretty killer device. It's got a nice, crisp, HD screen, and (best of all) it's waterproof! Why does that matter? One word, my friends: vacation.

I went to Florida over the summer, and it was good fun. However, I was terrified at the thought of bringing my tablet down to the deck so I could read between bouts of swimming (or splashing my wife) in the pool. Taking it to the beach was completely out of the question too. Sand and water near my tablet? No thank you, Mr. Beach.

Anyway, with the H2O, those worries go away. Personaly, I love to read while on vacation–there's something great about enjoying a good book when you know you have nothing pressing to do later in the day.

On top of all that, the H2O is receiving some pretty positive reviews from around the web. I am definitely a fan of this device.

That's all for today, folks!

Tune back in tomorrow for the thrilling conclusion of my holiday device buying guide!

 

Quinton Lawman is a Technical Writer with OverDrive.

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