My Mum (93 and counting) gave up her laptop last year, when she moved into a nursing home (which she thoroughly enjoys. Mostly).

She would really quite like to be able to google things and to send emails - nothing else, really: doesn't need to play games; doesn't need to shop online; doesn't need to watch films.

She is not fazed by electrickery, and has a Kindle Paperwhite and a mobile phone.
She used to be a touch typist but her fingers are a bit crooked now, so she'd probably have to go to a two-finger stabbing method.

I thought perhaps a tablet would be good for her and would welcome views, and suggestions for a good model.

Ta.

You could give her a try with a cheap one such as the one that either Aldi or Lidl (can't remember which), are currently offering for £79. If she gets on with that okay then you could consider spending a bit more.

If she has a Kindle ereader, then why not a Kindle Fire. You can get the outgoing HD models quite cheaply.

Your mum sounds really cool it's great she is tech savvy. My dad is 68 and doesn't know how to send a text.

Personally I think iPads are the easiest to use and type on. I had a samsung galaxy tablet 2 10 inch and found it harder to use and there was a lag between typing and the action happening on screen so I sold it.

I would recommend an ipad mini retina or an iPad air retina which I have as they are great for reading text and newspapers. The cheapest 16gb ones will be fine if like me your mum won't watch films on it.

I had to buy a tablet for an older person last christmas, in the end I went for a used 16GB iPad 1 for the following reasons:

Bigger screen.
Simple UI.
Button on the front less fiddly and easier to find\press.
Cheaper (but for what was needed was perfectly adequate for the job)

For what your mum needs I think it would be ideal.

It is an option .... but its probably more advisable to go for something new that offers some form of warranty.

My mum (65) figured that she could do with some form of PC and getting on-line. I suggested a tablet PC. We called into a few stores, she tried the on-screen keyboards and was pleasantly surprised.

You're probably right on the size - 10" or thereabouts makes everything more readable than the smaller devices.

She went for an Archos Titanium 10, think it was around £150. Nice and bright screen, easy/simple UI.

She's now happily skyping family, sending emails, taking photos and posting them to friends .... thankfully she has no interest in facebook

Good on your mum for keeping up with things.

The reason I posted was not so much to recommend a tablet, but something you might want to consider once you have bought one is the keyboard.

If you find that your mum is struggling with the stock keyboard there are others that you can install which may be more suitable for her. As a touch typist with stubby fat fingers I struggle myself with the fiddly keyboards and having to press another button to get to the numbers.

There are some which have predictive text, like "Swype". The one I am using at the moment is "Tablet Keyboard Free" which is more like a traditional keyboard and has the numbers on the top row separately from the letters. You can also make the keys bigger if she is finding them too small. There are lots of different keyboards available for Android, some are free.

It isn't very good, but there is a browser of sorts on the Kindle Paperwhite, however it does need a WiFi connection to work.

91 year old friend of mine uses an iPad (texts away, falls asleep mid text!) However she says it's too heavy so had to get it a stand. 90-something year olds fall asleep a lot and the tablet could fall and break.

If you can afford it an iPad is best.

Thankyou for all the suggestions, which I will go and check out.

There's also the option of buying a larger bluetooth keyboard to go with whichever tablet you end up buying. She might prefer having tactile keys to press rather than a touchscreen.

I love statements like this. Claim something is best, then don't give any reasoning.

Rather than starting a new thread of a similar nature, I hope you don't mind me posting my question here.

I too am after a tablet, preferably, 9.7 or 10.1 inches, for my parents, both in their 70's. . I would like to be able to buy them one each so cannot afford an iPad and the like. They both like to watch catch up TV, email, surf the net, Skype, YouTube, Facebook, games, as well as general tablet functions such as calendar, clock, etc.

Depends how much you want to spend really. The new Amazon Kindle tablets may be good as they have a button you can press and get straight through to Amazon if they have a problem and they can get 24/7 live help.