You're absolutely right regarding the Surface and the review I wrote was
in no way designed to discourage anyone from using one of these devices.
I like the way Samsung does things too and the first thing you'll notice
when using the Galaxy Book is Samsung's approach to bloat-ware,
practically nothing is on this machine.
The best onscreen keyboards I've ever used have been on Android devices
because all the keyboard is present on the screen - letters and numbers
- so you don't have to double-tap this or double-tap that to have
various parts of the keyboard appear, disappear and then reappear again,
a real pain in the but.
Android keyboards are incredibly versatile and I suppose they very well
ought to be given that there are more than 900 Android keyboards
available, my favourite being the Swiftkey keyboard.
As for iPads? I'm very sorry to hear about your iPad and I truly mean that.
Not that I begrudge you having one of these machines in fact on the
contary, I had one of these iPads and I couldn't wait to get rid of the
thing, I found the speakers to be dreadful, thankfully Apple very much
improved the audio quality in the Forth generation of iPad and iPad
Mini, I really liked those machines.
On 3/11/2017 4:25 AM, Gordon Smith wrote:
As someone who has used a Surface Pro 3 for a couple of years now, I
can tell you that touch access with JAWS is by no means limited to the
Samsung. Of course, that was not the implication. I haven’t and won’t
upgrade to the latest Surface modell because of the horrendous pricing.
It’s good if you can get these thing via a mobile/cellular provider.
Then, I guess, you just need to insert your SIM and away you go.
I’m *still* looking for the advertised Microsoft from-the-ground-up
Windows installation that is accessible. I must update my Windows
media file, to incorporate the latest Fall Creator’s update. I know
where to go for that, so will do that later I think.
Getting back to tablet computing. On iOS, I am still stuck with my
third generation iPad. But I’m not in a hurry to change that. I will
do so once my business venture launches. But I might just push the
boat out some time soon and buy me one of the latest tablets. Maybe
the Samsung, because I like the way that Samsung does thing. But there
are lots more on the market as well which also have their respective
merits. So we’ll see.
I have to admit that sometimes I do get a bit frustrated with
on-screen keyboards. My BrailleNote Touch has one, and I have to keep
re-calibrating it for my fingers so sometimes typing on it can be a
real pain.
But I think that, which ever way I eventually jump, it must be a
cellular model. I don’t know where I’d be without that sometimes. My
ElBraille has one, and when I’m out and about in the car, it’s a joy
to still have unrestrained access to the things I want.
========================================
My compliments and kindest regards
Gordon Smith:
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On 1 Nov 2017, at 12:51, Dane Trethowan <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Hi!
My Birthday has come and gone for 2017 so thought I'd make the best of it.
I wanted to get into Tablet computing however the road I chose to take
wasn't exactly what I had planned 6 months ago when I started looking
at tablet devices.
I won't tell the whole story here suffice to say that I had intended
to use a iPad Mini mobile model and ended up with a Windows tablet
complete with keyboard cover instead.
Firstly the Galaxy Book is Samsung's answer to the hugely popular and
hugely overpriced - in my view - Microsoft Surface.
I'm not saying that one is better than the other as both have
advantages and disadvantages, the main advantages going for the
Samsung Galaxy Book are great value for money and good supplied
accessories such as the Keyboard Cover and S-Pen, you don't get either
with your Surface purchase.
To me - given that I'm blind - a keyboard is hugely important for
entering text though I can make do with the Onscreen keyboard the
Tablet offers which works well with JAWS, the physical keyboard is
quicker.
Anyway about the bundle.
The Tablet clips onto the keyboard and you can fold the back cover
down to make a stand thus the tablet looks like a small TV with
adjustable angles, just adjust the stand to the angle of display you
desire.
The keyboard has big keys which are nice to type on but unfortunately
doesn't have a numeric keypad so you're going to need to use the
"Laptop" keyboard layout if using JAWS.
Below the keyboard is your tipical touch trackpad though this doesn't
seem to interact with JAWS at all as it does on a Macbook machine, I
rather hoped it might.
The Galaxy Book is equipped with two very nice sounding stereo
speakers and "An Aray" of microphones according to the technical data,
though I've not found the actual physical location of these
microphones on the unit I can tell you that the sound from them is
excellent and this excellent sound is particularly noticed when using
a VOIP or chat client such as Skype, the ambiance of the room is
barely audible so I would suggest the tablet would be right at home in
a small video conference setting.
So down to specs which are very reasonable for a tablet of this sort.
I bought the top model Galaxy Book which has 8GB of RAM and a 256GB
SSD drive so the machine is very fast.
The internal battery is rated at 5.5AH and should give you around 11
hours of video playback.
Connections are at a minimum but I believe them to be well chosen, you
get 2 USB-C general ports and a combo Headphones port.
Wireless is well catered for with Wi-Fi AC 2.4/5GHZ and Bluetooth
though not the latest version 5 it does support APTX.
I've used the Galaxy Book with both Wi-Fi and cell networks, the
machine will switch between them automatically depending on your
location or if the Wi-Fi network is down, the Wi-Fi network takes
priority by default.
Setting up the Galaxy Book couldn't have been easier thanks to the
machine running the latest build of Windows 10 Professional.
When I'd booted the machine - hold down the power button for 2 seconds
- all I had to do was wait a bit and start the Windows Narrator Screen
Reader using the Windows-Ctrl-Enter keyboard shortcut, Narrator came
up along with the self--speaking Windows setup wizard which you can
follow very easily.
I Haven't done any audio editing etc with this device yet and I really
didn't buy the Galaxy Book for that sort of thing.
I've written eMail messages - this one included -, used Word, played
music, listened to radio, used a VPN etc with no problems.
I've not needed to tweak much in the way of settings though I'm sure
in time I'll probably change a few things.
It should be noted that - if you're listening to radio for example -
and you don't use the keyboard for a while the machine won't respond
to a first press of a key on the keyboard, I imagine this is some sort
of power saving function that activates after a time of inactivity on
the keyboard.
The build of the Samsung Galaxy Book is tough even though the case is
a Polly Carbonate plastic rather than metal.
If you're going to hold the Tablet as a tablet in your hand then I
advise a good elbow rest or you make yourself comfortable on a couch
as the Galaxy Book is a little heavy for one hand and - at 12 inches -
a large but yet powerful brute.
The tablet can get rather warm when multi tasking but - believe it or
not - Samsung have managed to squeeze a fan into this thing.
So there you have it, my first impressions of the Galaxy Book 12 which
I've now had for a week.
Its always good when you find those products that you really enjoy
using and you struggle to find anything to dislike.
--
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