Well if you're on the One Plan with Three, then tethering is included, but it's not included on every plan.

Tegra 4 is the latest chipset from Nvidia, it provides a good boost in power and hopefully reduces power consumption.

At any rate, going Android means you're not locked onto one manufacturer. Whatever apps you buy on Play store can be transferred when you get a tablet or smartphone.

The new Asus Transformer pads will have full HD screens although Tegra 4 (there is a FHD one out but it's powered by Tegra 3 which is underwhelming) and their docks will include a full SD card reader; further more the tablets themselves will have a microsd reader. If necessary you can just buy an adapter and you can read SD cards from your tablet as well. Basically with Android tablets you do get a lot more flexibility but if it's simplicity you're after take a look at gander but I firmly believe that post ICS and JB, Android is fully equal to iOS.

I didn't get 3G tablets because I can tether them to my phone when out and about. That way I can use my devices whenever I want whilst out at no extra cost.

Yes, but you have tethering as part of your package. The point is that there's a very good chance that the OP doesn't, because it isn't standard on most phone packages. I'm just trying to make it clear for the OP so they don't buy a wifi only tablet without at least checking that their phone tariff allows tethering, otherwise, as they say, they'll end up with another gadget that doesn't work as they want.

Grab a Nook HD+ while they are available. Arguably better than the 10.1 and maybe the 1080p screen is the best suited for the size.
£150 with 2 year John Lewis warranty!
Those 150 or so grams in weight saved are also backpack friendly. No GPS but the bluetooth should let it pair to your phone.

Note that when buying the iPad, bluetooth is much tied into the Apple ecosystem.

Thanks again all for replying. I know this info will help others too.

I am on T-Mobile PAYG only at the moment. If needed I could get the excellent plan from Three - I have read on the mobile phone forum what a good deal it is. I don't have a smartphone as yet but one is winging its way in the post right now. It is a HTC ONE which is Android and I may well get the Three £15 SIM only to help with connection.

The Nook HD looks nice - and saves some money too.

Great phone choice. Once you've got a phone and tariff you can tether with, you've got a much wider choice of tablets to look at.

Don't forget to let us know what you choose!

Having used various types of tablets I would definetly recommend an iPad, it has a larger range of high quality apps at a high resolution.

Just stump up £20 for 6 months unlimited t-mobile PAYG web browsing and see how it goes.
I'm slightly suspicious that the new Android phones stop unofficial tethering like with IOS

A month with that phablety phone will also tell you whether you even need/want a tablet.

Alan - are you saying that it may not be possible to connect an android tablet to the HTC phone? What would happen?

I think he means some networks might disable the tether option on their branded phones. I know that on the iPhone, only listed networks can be tethered.

So you are also asking if tethering is not available on IOS despite my use of the word unofficial.


The networks have control over your IOS phone so if you have not paid for tethering you simply do not get a tethering setting.
I'm not sure if any Android devices have followed that lead.

Alan, when I get the unlocked HTC and whatever tablet I will try to connect them. To be honest this is new ground to me - I am good at quite a few things but awkward settings and the like is not my forte.

If the tick box for tethering ain't there because you have not paid the network for tethering then it ain't there.

Its not my forte to call that 'awkward'.

Some Networks you can pay for "tethering" I think T-Mobile wanted £5.00 a month, I told them where to go... not paying for something I'm already paying for in my monthly fee.

You've bought an unlocked phone, ignore Alan. He's talking at crossed purposes. If your phone is SIM free there is no reason you should be stopped from tethering. He's talking about phones which are provided by the networks under contract. Sometimes they can be locked/unlocked by the networks depending on whether you have tethering officially enabled by your provider.

He's confusing you unnecessarily.

But you're not.

You're paying for data on your phone. As soon as you allow tethering you can connect a load of device and data usage can potentially shoot WAAAAAAY up.

Can't say I like the policy, but I can toally see why they do it.

What I can't work out is how they detect you're doing it.

I have a Lumia 920 running WP8. My phone provider thought I had a Galaxy Note (I used to, swapped to the 920 months back). I tethered the 920 to a Note 10.1 and an iPad Mini. It worked fine for 20-30 minutes or so before flashing up a message along the lines of "You don't pay for tethering in your plan so you shouldn't be doing it. Bad customer! Your connection will be disabled until you reboot your phone.". At which point I did indeed have to re-boot my phone.

As I say, no idea how they detect it. I have all you can eat data, but not tethering. They thought I should have been using an Android device so it can't be device specific signatures cos I've been using a WP8 phone for months.


Yes there is ..... if your contract doesn't include it! See above. SIM free makes no difference. My phones are SIM free. They can still detect it and stop your connection. You'll hear plenty folk saying "But mine works OK?". And maybe it does ... if you just test it quickly. Mine did. But they clicked after a little while and bye bye data connection (temporarily).



Anyhoo .... getting back on topic .... although I have a Note 10.1 myself, I wouldn't recommend it if you want to use the tablet for any serious photography usage. Sure, it would look OK, but it'd look better on a Nexus 10 or an iPad with retina display. Or any other tablet with higher resolution screen really. The Nook HD+ someone mentioned is worth a look. Maybe even the Archos Titanium 97 ....

Can't say I have ever had that happen.

Yet !

What is it today with people who don't read the flipping thread. Alan's talking about locked phones and you're talking about tariffs that don't include tethering. I already made that point back on page 1, and the OP has stated he's buying an unlocked phone and a SIM with the new tariff from Three which includes tethering.

Covering old ground is just confusing for the OP and it doesn't need to be!

He's sorted with a phone and tariff that will do the job, all he has to do is pick the tablet he likes best!

Whoever mentioned locked phones?

I was simply wondering whether the new Android phones have, like that other system, started to blank out tethering depending on your SIM and plan.

Obviously £5 spent on a months PAYG data can tell you that.

@ GOB (apologies for the acronym!) - Actually I did read it. But it flip-flopped and switched around so much, I must have lost track.


Who is your provider? I'm on Three with a monthly rolling SIM only contract with AYCE data. As I say, it works fine for maybe half an hour or so (think I managed to download two apps on the tablet before it kicked in) and when it does a reboot on the phone clears the lock. At which point you can start the cycle again.

Considering upgrading to the one plan that would give me tethering for £18. But I need to find out if they have allowanced on tethering on the revised tariff. The old ones (one plan or bolt on with AYCE data) both had usage caps. Don't know if the revised version does. It doesn't mention it on the website either way ....

Yes, but that's only possible on phones that aren't SIM free. The iPhone, if purchased SIM free will have the tethering (personal hotspot) feature available, whether or not your plan includes tethering.

My SIM free iPhone has the feature available, even though my SIM plan, with Three, doesn't have tethering included. It's only the phones bought from carriers that can turn that off when the phone is locked to that carrier.

Therefore, what you're referring to is phones which are "locked" to a carrier.

Thanks for the help. I will report back on this thread and let you know what I went for. At the moment I am struggling to get to grips with HTC ONE as there is no instruction manual and all the settings are buried in menus.

I will take it into the IT guy on Monday and he can get it sorted. I can't get rid of it wanting me to add contacts and Facebook - which I don't have.
He can link a tablet too - give him something to do other than rock on his chair and watch YouTube

it is like any PC.

It does takes 10 or 15 minutes to spot the changes.
The new coming updated tegra 4 based Asus Infinity is like the tegra 3 based version, about the only one with great outdoor brightness. For now.

It is also worth noting that the Retina iPad supposedly has a chunk of metal cut out of the chassis to lessen problems with the GPS.
I think it is at the Apple emblem but am unsure if the cut out is in the non 3G version that omits the GPS.

I've used android tablets and must say they are a mere shadow of an iPad.

Your tech friend might like a more open product like android for many reasons but the ordinary joe blogs isn't gonna need that.

You will have a much tablet friendly experience with an iPad.