I'm planning to buy a tablet or an Ipad soon and I was wondering which of the two is better for me.
Of course my main concern is using it to study Japanese, in particular I'm interested in:
- Using Rikaisama
- Using Anki
- Reading Visual Novel
- Watching anime
- Reading PDF
- Using subs2srs

Now I admit that I'm absolutely ignorant about Ipads, how they works etc. but since I have a relatively high budget for my standards (500 euros, a bit more than $500) I was also considering purchasing one.
I think that the best choice would be a tablet with windows since Visual Novel, Rikaisama etc. are thought to run on it.
This may a be stupid question but I'm assuming there aren't any ways to install windows on Ipads (or on tablet with android), right?
What do you think would be the best tablet with this budget for studying Japanese?
I'd also like to know if with such budget I'd be able to have a tablet decent enough to survive a bit more than a smarthphone (no problems for a couple of years at least...).
I'm sorry if there is an official tablet thread or something but I'd like to have specific suggestions on my case (budget etc.)

So.. what do you guys thinK?

Just FYI, there are now some inexpensive Intel-based tablets that can dual boot android and windows. Don't have any personal experience with them though.

I think the best tablet within your budget would be the Surface 3 (US$ 499 without the keyboard); it runs the full version of Windows 10, unlike the previous Surface RT ones that couldn't run x86 apps. An iPad or any Android tablet would not be enough for you if you want to run subs2srs on the tablet itself because it only runs on Windows, and Anki is also very limited on mobile OSs, while on the Surface you can run the full desktop version that can do anything. Also, some very useful stuff you can do with VNs can only be achieved on Windows, using Anime Games Text Hooker for example – you mention Rikaisama so I guess you'll need to search for words you read on a dictionary, and that can be very useful.

Also, you can't install Windows on an iPad or on most Android devices, you can only use a remote desktop app to access another machine running it, and that's far from the best option in most cases.

Also, the majority of VNs are Windows only. I usually only see Western VNs for OSX or mobile OSes. (If you do get a Windows tablet, ITH works great for most VNs and is easier to set up and faster to start than AGTH.)

As already mentioned, Rikaisama is Windows only, as is Subs2srs.

Pretty much any decent tablet (or smartphone) will play videos easily. (I can still stream videos from YouTube on my S3; have issues with VLC app though, so local video crashes sometimes, if you research better players then you'll be fine.)

Anki for iOS costs money ($25USD IIRC), all other versions are free.

Your toaster can probably read a PDF by now...

Thank you for the useful information.

As I thought Windows systems seem better for me and that Surface Pro looks just fine but I'm afraid it's out of my budget (unfortunately in my country is overpriced, normally about 600-700 euros).
I'll go for a tablet with Windows but I'm still uncertain about which one, if it lets me do heavy surfing, video, subs2srs etc. than it's fine..
And I'm glad to know that Windows tablet works well with text hooker like ITH, I wanted to ask that!

sholum Wrote:Your toaster can probably read a PDF by now...

Haha yeah I know, but somewhere I read that for example Kindle it's not that good for reading PDF with Kanji (or maybe it has issues altoghether with PDF, don't remember well), so I preferred pointing it out, who knows

TurboMan Wrote:As I thought Windows systems seem better for me and that Surface Pro looks just fine but I'm afraid it's out of my budget (unfortunately in my country is overpriced, normally about 600-700 euros).

You mentioned that the Surface 'pro' was out of your budget, are you aware that the surface 3 (not pro) exists and is much cheaper? Also, if your comfortable buying used, the prices are way cheaper on eBay. Not trying to sound like a Microsoft evangelist or anything but I bought a Surface Pro a few months ago for the same uses that you are looking for and I couldn't be happier. I had an iPad and tried using it for Japanese studying and visual novels but it really didn't work for me at all.

Senpai Wrote:You mentioned that the Surface 'pro' was out of your budget, are you aware that the surface 3 (not pro) exists and is much cheaper?

That's right; the only thing is that is has to be Surface 3, not 2 or 1 which used ARM processors that couldn't run any of these nice x86 apps. [Update concerning the price: I just checked it is so much more expensive in Germany for example, so maybe things are not as nice as they say in the 'ads'...]. There are other nice, less expensive detachable-hybrid Windows tablets such as the Acer Aspire Switch 10 E or the Transformer Book T100, maybe he can take a look at that too. The problem is that they tend to have lower specs and build, and have some bloatware that makes things not as good than they should be when the device is still new.

Nope, actually I didn't know about the standard Surface Pro, I'll probably go for it if! Also those other two seem nice, I'll consider them.
Thank you guys you've been really helpful!