husband has a kindle fire that is INCREDIBLE. It is truly amazing though I have zero idea what practical use it is. Mostly because he is not a practical kind of guy, Know what I mean?? But he goes all over the web, tracks spending, grades, etc...., and seems to use it constantly. He had tried a friends' tablet, not an ipad but one almost as expensive, for a couple of days last fall because the friend was travelling and needed his older (a year old maybe) one and didn't want his teen son to use the new one as the kid was break-prone with them. husband did not find that one to be nearly as user friendly as the kindle fire.
Wiz has an ipad and seems to love it. My mom bought it for him and my dad about had a cow. He loathes apple for some reason. I dislike their prices and the fact that they seem to make you purchase everything all over again at each upgrade. I know people who have spent many hundreds on apps and things when they upgraded an apple product from one version to the next.. Our nephew on husband's side loves his iphone but says it is a major financial 'investment' each time a new one comes out because so many things do not transfer. He works for AT&T managing a large number of cell phone stores and says that these expenses are far more than for other brands but he feels the need to stick with the iphone as he has used it for so long.
Not sure what help that is, but it is all I know about the ipad. I do NOT know if you need to upgrade everything if you upgrade your tablet and it isn't an apple, but I do know you don't have to repurchase ebooks etc... and nephew says he had to stop keeping on one his iphone because whatever he did he had to buy it all over when he upgraded. That seemed to irritate him more than repurchasing the apps.
Xmas before last, husband got me a cheap tablet. I was an ice creamsandwich or some such type, and not a big name but not an unheard of one. I could do exactly NOTHING on it. I told j that if she could make it work she could have it. She couldn't/didn't. So I gave it to thank you witht he same proviso. He couldn't make it work either. He could get online after he upgraded the OS, but not for long or to do anything. We have not pitched it only because thank you wants to play with it. He is still pondering ways to make it work, and becoming more and more curious about what is inside it. So at some point he will likely ask Gpa to help him deconstruct it. NOT 'take it apart' or destroy it. It will be carefully taken apart and each part will be examined to see how it does/doesn't work and what purpose it does/doesn't serve. It is fun to watch him do this because he is focused and you can literally see the wheels in his brain turning and the steam of ideas heating up in there.
That was a Big Lots $89 tablet and I do NOT NOTNOT recommend them. It was a known brand name, but not a big one, and the company was very little help. The money was well worth the lesson.
husband got his kindle from his dad and stepmom. They love their kindles and realized that his kindle was having issues with the screen. He had a big tech holiday because I had done some work for my mom and saved a bit here and there to buy him a new laptop or update his old one with some new hardware etc... We got an amazing deal at Sam's so he had the new laptop and the new tablet to play wtih.
I hope this helps some. I don't know much about these except that they seem quitei nteresting. I just am not sure of the practicality, Know what I mean??