As a full-time working mom to a busy 1-year old toddler, I’m always trying to find better ways to manage my time and multitask effectively. I’ve long relied on my iPhone for such multitasking but have found it lacking in a few aspects due to lack of screen size. My most critical use cases where I’ve needed a tablet over an iPhone were the following:
- Work (i.e. being able to remote desktop into my office when necessary): I’ve had a few situations where I’ve needed to take care of some work after hours and having a convenient tablet handy so that I could compute would make a world of difference. The iPhone is just too small to do any work and I don’t always have a laptop on me, so the tablet is the perfect in-between.
- Cooking: I love cooking and enjoy being in the kitchen experimenting with new recipes. A tablet is a perfect prop to help me display recipes that I’m working with. With the counter space filled with food supplies, I can’t afford to have a big laptop taking up lots of space. Not to mention worrying about spilling something on the keyboard!
- Mobile Photo Album (especially useful when visiting family!): When visiting family over this Thanksgiving break, everyone wanted to see more pictures of Dylan. The tablet was great in everyone could sit back and enjoy the slideshow of pictures instead of having to pass a phone around for people to look at.
- Blogging: Blogging does take a couple hours of my time every day and usually will cut into my sleeping time. I usually have random down times during my day so it’s nice to have my tablet handy and be able to make progress on a blog post so that I can get some more beauty sleep at night.
The hard part came down to picking the right tablet. I started with my requirements:
- Quick and responsive – I needed something that was just as snappy as my state-of-the-art desktop computer.
- Long battery life – I don’t want to always be tethered and looking for outlets to plug into, so having something that could hold a charge was crucial.
- Video and camera capabilities – I needed something that could take and display photos and videos without a problem.
- Wide selection of native apps – My phone is loaded with apps and I wanted to make sure that I had those same app options in whatever new tablet I ended up buying.
I did some research online and ended up deciding I wanted to go with an Android device. While I do have an iPhone, I run Windows on everything else. Given that I wanted to use this tablet as a full-featured computing device, I wanted to go with an OS that has been reported as the most responsive for mobile devices. I then headed out to my local Office Depot where they had a huge selection of tablets and very knowledgeable sales associates who were able to answer my questions for me and guide me in my tablet selection.
Checking out the tablet selection at Office Depot |
I noticed that a couple tablets were marked as having “Intel Inside” and having been a longtime loyal Intel consumer, I asked the sales associates on his thoughts regarding Intel in tablets. It turns out that Intel Atom processors are optimized for a “superspeed” app experience and provide responsive Web browsing, stunning 3-D graphics, advanced camera capabilities and vivid HD video with energy efficiency for outstanding battery life — everything I needed! I chose the Intel Asus ME302c tablet as it had the most storage capacity at 16 GB with an additional microSD slot to expand to 32GB. Not to mention the fact that it was just simply beautiful. 🙂
How do I like my tablet? It’s been amazing, to say the least! I purchased a Bluetooth keyboard to go with the tablet to help me type more easily and it has made the tablet into the perfect mobile device that allows me to get meaningful work done! Even with the keyboard folio, the tablet is the perfect size for me to stow in my purse so I can have it with me at all times. I’ve been able to get work done when I’m waiting in lines at the mall or taking a pumping break at work. Our relatives loved seeing pictures of Dylan during our recent Thanksgiving trip to El Paso and it’s also been a real help in the kitchen when I’m cooking. As for blogging, this post was actually written using the tablet! For those of you who also have busy busy lifestyles and are trying to fit it all in, having the Intel Asus ME302c mobile tablet device with you on the go everywhere is a real lifechanger! #IntelTablets
7% Solution says
Hmm. I got an ipad mini but it doesn't mutitask too well!
Heather says
Sharing photos with family is always challenging from my phone too. The tablet is a great way to have your photos available to share! Thanks for sharing all the features and how this tablet fits into your lifestyle. #client