QuickOffice is now free on Android and includes legacy format compatibility.

Worth trying, and bear in mind that the Windows RT Office software suite slightly surprisingly, also limits Office compatibility.

QuickOffice has a degree of compatibility but not "full" compatibility - I've seen plenty of slide decks whose formatting has been ruined by quickoffice and openoffice.

No, RT has full compatibility in terms of preserving document formatting and Office features.

There's only certain things it doesn't support for security reasons such as running VBA and office add-ons.

This is because RT was always supposed to be an appliance-like device OS where you don't have the usual headaches of a full blown PC.

Resolution matters on these small-screen displays. You need resolution so you can read things even when zoomed out. Using my Lenovo X220 withh 1366x768 panel compared to my Dell XPS 12 with 1080p panel is like night and day. Excel, word, powerpoint are all so much better on the 1080p panel.

Surface 2 has a 1080p panel, I doubt the netbooks you are proposing have that.

Plus, you have the tablet form factor which is handy in meetings when you want to pass a tablet around for viewing something.

Thanks for all the comments,
I think all in all, even though you can buy cheap notebooks these days, a tablet is fit for my purpose.
Note all the comments re Surface RT etc, however, the surface 2 on the face of it looks fit for purpose for my needs-

However,given the comments re Microsoft and Surface, is there any other make of tablet worth considering?

To recap:-
To read and send e mails with excel attachments.
To read and amend existing excel docs
To take photos
To access my dropbox account & look at docs contained therein
To use it to present slides/photos in meeting room scenario, either on the device, or connected to a projector.

Cheers
Phil

You can get a nexus 10 for 279, it runs pure android so will have fantastic support and can do all the above and more.

You can use with a bluetooth keyboard if needed and I'm pretty sure it has a hdmi out which will output the screen to a projector.

If you need to create the spreadsheets then you have to be looking at a proper computer imo but these tablets will be fine for amending them.

Macros and add-ons,.

You can also use Windows 8 tablets. Asus and Samsung have some, but then you need to buy an Office license as well. I saw some W8 tablets with such a license included in the price (Student and Home), but I can't find them anymore. Basically if you want edit Office documents, you use Windows RT or 8. BTW Office RT includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. RT 8.1 also includes Outlook.

You really sound like you're so anti-microsoft that you're willing to recommend anything but windows, despite the fact it is going to meet the OP's needs well.

The projector might be VGA only, the RT will support it but non-windows tablets might not.

No my actual recommendation is for a small windows laptop actually running Microsoft windows.

For a tablet at that sort of price though IMO you may as well get something that isn't on its way to obsolescence like windows RT.

The op is welcome to make their own mind up from the different opinions given.

MS seems to be dedicated to Windows RT, there would not be Surface 2 otherwise. I think we can expect Windows RT 9. And even if not, the tablet won't stop working, because there is a new OS version. All WinRT apps compatible with 8.1 will work, too.

You'll probably want to switch from dropbox to Skydrive if using Windows 8 but from those points I definitely think Surface 2 is a very strong contender for your needs if you must have a tablet.

I think there is a dropbox app for W8/RT, not sure how good it is. SkyDrive should be better integrated in the OS, though.

They were also dedicated to the Zune.

* 2006 - + 2012. It bombed and still lasted 7 years. That's a lot of time ahead of Windows RT, some will have gone through several tablets during that. And if you buy any W8 app they will all work on full Windows 8, too

I think Windows RT will head for the tech scrapheap soon. It's been nothing but a flop.

One thing for sure.
Whichever tablet you choose, you need to take extra care to ensure it does not break.

http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20...trict-reports/

That bad headline of 10% 1st year screen breakage, by the sound of it, is quite common. As usage filters down breakage also goes up.

If work are rolling out virtualised desktops on a Citrix infrastructure - you could load on Citrix Receiver - and then work remotely.

I don't think RT has a seven year life span unless sales improve dramatically.

Even MS can't sustain massive losses for that long.