Want a really light tablet for the girlfriend. Air 3 or something else on the market?

[TJ82]

She's in the airport whinging about how heavy her MBP 15inch feels and she's tried of travelling with it all the time. Think it's time to grab her a tablet. She does travel enough to make it worthwhile. We had an iPad before. 1 and 2 actually and neither of us cared for it much. Comedy file management and was relatively heavy. Fine for a bit of browsing I guess. We sold one and gave the other away. That was years ago now.

I know Microsoft has a Surface effort, but I don't really know much about them. How light do you think the Air 3 will be compared to Air 2? And how will it stack up against anything else launching in 2016? Not in a rush, doesn't have to be out now, quite happy to wait up to October (have a reason for this month as a limit) for something if it's good enough, though the sooner the better.

Thoughts?

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

It will be faster, but if either of you don't like the experience, why go for it again? If portability and productivity are both requirements, I would recommend a retina Macbook instead.

 

[TJ82]

It will be faster, but if either of you don't like the experience, why go for it again? If portability and productivity are both requirements, I would recommend a retina Macbook instead.

They should feel light by now. The original ones were around 700 grams? Something just under 400 grams would feel significantly lighter. She wasn't travelling so much then either so the iPads we had were just used around the house. Or unused around the house I should say.

Think she'd look at me like an idiot if I got her another Retina Macbook!

Lightness is the key requirement right now and decent screen size, so that Mini is out the window.

 

[Night Spring]

What does she do on the MacBook Pro, and can it be done on iPads? Also, as above poster suggested, why not consider the lighter MacBooks, like the 11 inch MacBook Air or the retina MacBook?

 

[sjleworthy]

Get her a mini4

 

[Night Spring]

Think she'd look at me like an idiot if I got her another Retina Macbook!

Why? The new retina MacBook is 12 inches, and weighs only 0.9 kg.

 

[TJ82]

Why? The new retina MacBook is 12 inches, and weighs only 0.9 kg.

0.9kg being heavier than the 0.7kg she found too heavy with the iPad 1.

We had an iPad before. 1 and 2 actually and neither of us cared for it much. ...was relatively heavy

Just to be clear, in case the title of the thread wasn't. I'm looking for a lightweight tablet. So that's a tablet. That's light in weight.

Anyone got any good lightweight tablet suggestions or ideas about the Air 3 weight?

Slept like 2 hours last night, feeling snarky today!

 

[zhenya]

You admit that she doesn't like tablets yet you think that's the best answer for her? You are getting repeated suggestions for the retina Macbook because it's the perfect portable device for someone who doesn't like tablets. She wouldn't think it's too big because the entire point is she wouldn't have to carry her heavy MBP any more as the Macbook is a complete computer, more than functional enough for a huge portion of users. My wife had the same reaction to iPads from the beginning so I got her an 11" Macbook Air years ago and it hardly ever leaves her side and goes in her bag every day. The Macbook is even better.

Otherwise, yeah, waiting for the Air 3 is not a bad idea, although the current Air 2 is a solid tablet as well. I wouldn't bother with other brands. The Surface Pro is really a laptop disguised as a tablet, and Android tablets only advantage is being cheap. If she really just wants something super portable as a browsing/reading device while traveling, she may prefer the mini as that's even simpler and more discreet to pull out and use at the airport, on the plane, etc.

 

[Night Spring]

0.9kg being heavier than the 0.7kg she found too heavy with the iPad 1.

You said she was complaining that her MBP was too heavy, and that the iPads 1 and 2 didn't work out for you. You did mention the weight, but the primary reasons were that it had "comedy file management," and it was only good for a bit of browsing. Well, the file management hasn't changed that much.

So if you are sure that she can do everything she wants to on an iPad, sure, the Air 2 is 400 and something grams, and who knows what will happen with Air 3? It might even get slightly heavier, if Apple adds more speakers or Pencil support.

 

[Eric5273]

Doubtful the Air 3 is going to weigh any less than the Air 2. All the talk/rumors have been that they will add new features to the Air 3 like better speakers and more RAM. I doubt they can do that and also make it lighter without significant loss of battery life.

 

[TJ82]

You said she was complaining that her MBP was too heavy, and that the iPads 1 and 2 didn't work out for you. You didn't mention that the reason was that the iPad 1 was too heavy.

I even quoted myself again where I said we found them relatively heavy. That's twice in three posts. Are you being funny?

 

[AFEPPL]

Pen and paper?
Surface 4 if you dont want to carry two devices.

 

[TJ82]

You admit that she doesn't like tablets yet you think that's the best answer for her?

We had our iPads in 2010 - 2011. That was around 5 years ago. I'm guessing things, maybe just maybe, who knows.. have improved by then by the miracle of an alien donation. And no-one said she doesn't like tablets. Where did I say that. I said we didn't like the iPad 1 and 2 when we had them. oay9egn0w9'uwq]0wq98h0podj. Might as well type random stuff on page. Basic comprehension would be just as good for some it seems.

Twilight zone in here.

Doubtful the Air 3 is going to weigh any less than the Air 2. All the talk/rumors have been that they will add new features to the Air 3 like better speakers and more RAM. I doubt they can do that and also make it lighter without significant loss of battery life.

Yeah that's what I was thinking as well. Apple don't always shave the grams. The Air 2 look decent though, around 400 grams. That's about a 1/4 less weight than what we had before. I'd love another 50 grams of that. That would really be lovely, but maybe a bit much to ask. If they make it heavier, I might just pick up an Air 2.

 

[Eric5273]

Based on what you say in the first post, I'd also recommend the 12" Retina MacBook. It is less than half the weight of the 15" MacBook Pro. I realize that you say the original iPad was too heavy, and yes the Retina MacBook is even slightly heavier, but we use laptops in different ways than we use tablets. Tablets are typically held in both hands while a laptop is typically put on your lap, so weight cannot be directly compared.

But if you are set on a tablet, then I'd suggest an Air 2, or if you want you can wait for the Air 3. Although as I mentioned above, I would not expect a weight reduction but perhaps some added features and a newer processor.

Myself, I have an iPad Pro, and while the weight is the same as the original iPad, the screen is much larger and the speakers are awesome, so I don't mind the extra weight. And it's still much lighter than even the lightest laptops.

One more thing to consider.... iPads can be had with a cellular modem. It's a nice convenience to have if you travel often.

 

[Night Spring]

I even quoted myself again where I said we found them relatively heavy. That's twice in three posts. Are you being funny?

Sorry, missed that. Went back and edited my post. But in my defense, it did sounds like the weight wasn't the primary reason the iPads didn't work for you.

 

[zhenya]

We had our iPads in 2010 - 2011. That was around 5 years ago. I'm guessing things, maybe just maybe, who knows.. have improved by then by the miracle of an alien donation. And no-one said she doesn't like tablets. Where did I say that. I said we didn't like the iPad 1 and 2 when we had them. oay9egn0w9'uwq]0wq98h0podj. Might as well type random stuff on page. Basic comprehension would be just as good for some it seems.

Twilight zone in here.

No, you very clearly stated in your first post that it was much more than just the weight you didn't like.

We had an iPad before. 1 and 2 actually and neither of us cared for it much. Comedy file management and was relatively heavy. Fine for a bit of browsing I guess.

The iPads of today are not fundamentally that different than your iPad 2. I would argue that a retina Macbook is a much bigger change. That, plus the above comments are why the suggestions for the retina Macbook keep coming.

 

[Night Spring]

We had our iPads in 2010 - 2011. That was around 5 years ago. I'm guessing things, maybe just maybe, who knows.. have improved by then by the miracle of an alien donation. And no-one said she doesn't like tablets. Where did I say that. I said we didn't like the iPad 1 and 2 when we had them.

Yeah, but the iPads 1 and 2 were the best tablets back then, and if you didn't like them, well, Air 2 is just a lighter, bit faster version of the iPads 1 and 2. No, no alien intervention has made iPads significantly different.
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I would argue that a retina Macbook is a much bigger change

Exactly. Retina MacBook Pro and retina MacBook are totally different beasts. They have a lot less in common than the iPad 1 and Air 2.

 

[Badrottie]

Air 3 might not change that much. Like some people said about Mini 4 but I think you will be ok with Android tablet.They are cheap but Lollipop 5.0 is getting better now.

 

[Infinitewisdom]

Not sure why the OP is getting so snarky because clearly he and the gf didn't like iPads previously in part of OS limitations. Those limitations haven't gone away. A better way to address both the weight and OS limitations is to do as others have suggested and get the newest MacBook or MacBook Air. Super light and they don't have "comedy" file management.

Now on the other hand if you really do know you want a tablet, then my guess is that is the Air 3 won't be much thinner or lighter than the Air 2. Thinner and lighter maybe, but not significantly. The Air 2 is already really light. It's not the weight that's the problem for most people right now, but just simply the size of the thing.

 

[Channan]

There's no way the iPad Air 3 is going to be significantly lighter, if any lighter at all, than the iPad Air 2. If you didn't like the iPad 1 and 2 for functionality, you probably aren't going to like iPads now, so I'll echo what others are saying and suggest the rMB, even though I know you aren't asking for a light laptop.