New Member Tablet Advice

Hello All,

I've never introduced myself because I wasn't that serious about Mystery Shopping. However, I'm thinking about stepping it up a notch. I'm going to purchase a tablet to make things easier for me when I'm doing assignments.

Does anyone have advice/preference about tablets to use for this work? I was wondering if you've had problems downloading Mystery Shopping apps on certain tablets. I read reviews that some people had problems downloading certain apps from the playstore. I want to purchase a tablet that allows me to download the apps that I need for Mystery Shopping assignments.

Thanks in advance for any advice that I receive.

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Hi iobpb66. Welcome to the forum!

I find tablets difficult to use because of their size. I use my phone for shop related tasks: taking pictures, inputting notes, filling out reports, referring to guidelines, GeoVerify, etc.

I have a Samsung phone and Samsung tablets. I'm able to universally download the shop apps to my devices.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton

Thanks for responding HonnyBrown. My cell provider told me that all Samsung tablets are compatible with my plan if I choose to add it. I want to complete the assignments in my car. I thought that a tablet would be easier than completing them on my cell phone.

I have a selection of devices including ipad and android tablets and different models of android phones. Despite the variety of choices I typically do everything I can on my phone as I just find that simpler.

I usually have at least two phones along, each on a different carrier, and a tablet or laptop in the car. I don't skimp on my primary phone. That's usually the flagship model from a major brand and the largest memory card I can stuff in there. But the secondary phone / carrier could be either a cheap phone or my old primary phone, if it has survived in a serviceable state.

When things are narrative heavy and I want a real keyboard I use a small laptop. Current favorite is the Microsoft Surface Pro. If I've been too lazy to take it along then I fall back to the ipad. So I'm probably using my phone about 70% of the time, laptop 25% of the time, and ipad the remaining 5%. I could use the ipad much more but I am just in the habit of using the laptop.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/2019 05:58AM by JustForFun.

I too prefer a small laptop to a tablet. Now that they make laptops with detachable keyboards and touch surfaces they are like tablets but with windows functionality. However, the prevalence of apps also makes a tablet desirable since those only come in android and apple. I would go with whatever operating system you use for your phone. If you use android get a good android tablet.
In the best of all worlds you have a phone, tablet, and surface at your disposal.

I use my laptop or my phone, even though we have two tablets. A smart phone is useful for the essier shops, the laptop is good for narratives.

My Chromebook and android phone do everything that I need. I have the 14inch HP Chromebook because I like the larger size and it is really light with a long battery life. I do not fill out reports on the phone because it is just too irritating to me but I can easily lug around my laptop and go to Starbucks or a library. It took me a couple of years to find the combination that works for me. The android phone and Chromebook have never had a problem syncing with each other.

Yes, I found the phone to be too irritating to me too. I was thinking about an inexpensive 8 inch tablet. Amazon Fire is less than $70 bucks right now. I did a couple of assignments that were completed in an app. The questions were mostly yes or no. It was difficult completing it on my phone. I never owned a tablet, but thought that an inexpensive tablet for that purpose would be good.

I have never used my kindle for completing a shop if you use apps. It is difficult for me to download apps from the Google store to my kindle unless the app is in the kindle store.

Thank you Equine24. I now understand what the Amazon tablet reviewers were saying. I doubt if the apps that I need will be in the Kindle store. You helped me to rule out the Amazon tablets. Thanks again.

I use Samsung cell phone and Toshiba lap top, work great for me. Used for pictures and verify.
I also own a black & white only Brother printer HL-227oDW, with a Toner Cartridge purchased through Amazon TN 450. ($ 60.) last for years.
NEAT Receipts Neat Mobile Scanner, sizes receipts, business cards, creates PDF files, quick and easy.

I've looked into a tablet but ended up sticking to my cell phone and Samsung Chromebook. I did get a cheaper back up phone for that 'just in case' emergency. I also use speech text on my phone for shorter narratives.

I had a tablet but never used it for mystery shopping. Be careful if you are thinking of an inexpensive tablet. That is what I have. It's a Samsung I paid around $85 for and after two to three years the apps I had upgraded and I was no longer able to use them with my "old" tablet. I was told by a friend that the flagship more expensive tablets are kept up to date with new software but the cheaper ones are not. I know little about all this stuff but just a warning that an inexpensive tablet may have to be replaced more often than a more expensive one.

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New Member Tablet Advice

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