My iPad2 is slowing down quite a bit and I've decided to get a new one.

I was waiting on the Apple announcement on the iPad Air refresh, which came yesterday.

BUT, I'm now wondering if I should give any of the Android based tablets a look?

I'm an Android phone user, but also have a iPhone for work, so I'm quite familiar with both environments.

Anyone have any opinions that might help me?

Edited Add --> my primary use for a tablet is surfing TexAgs from the couch, so I don't need a super-powerful rig.

I had a Galaxy Tab Pro a few years ago and winded up going back to an iPad 2. I actually prefer the set up of the Galaxy tab and using android over iOS when it comes down to it. Since you have android on your phone you are familiar with the experience, and there aren't a lot of differences going from phone to tablet. At this point apps aren't really an issue, I can't think of anything on the galaxy tab i couldn't get that I could get. In fact there are a lot of apps i have through the amazon app store i could use on my Galaxy Tab which was nice.

Here are the two biggest problems.

First may be my own fault. I bought a 16 gb tablet because it has a micro SD card slot and I figured I could save some money and get the smaller storage on the tablet and move everything to the SD card. While i could move things like movies and music to the SD card I couldn't move data from apps to the SD card. A big use of mine for the tablet is reading comic books and none of the data from kindle or comixology would transfer so I was constantly running low on space. This was a while ago and android may have fixed it but it's something to keep in mind and research. There are also not any versions with high internal storage in them, even the Galaxy Tab s3 only has a 32 gb option.

Second is the battery on the galaxy tab drained a lot more than the iPad does in standby. Even if only used it for a couple of hours or not at all the thing would be dead if i didn't charge it every 4-5 days. I would do things like put it in airplane mode when I wasn't using it which would help a lot but it was still annoying and I would forget to do that a lot. Again, years ago so maybe android is better at that.

Updates on the android tablets are also spotty. When I got my Galaxy Tab Pro (2014) within the year of its release they gave up on it and stopped providing operating system updates. By 2015 they had liquidated the line and you could get them for a couple hundred dollars. The resale value doesn't hold well for android phones or tablets. I got half reselling my Galaxy Tab Pro (2014 release) in 2015 than my wife did for reselling her iPad 2 (2011 release) in 2016.

The top of the line android tablet is the Galaxy Tab S 3

https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/22/samsung-galaxy-tab-s3-review/

It's a lot more than the "new" iPad but it looks like to get that price they cut some corners on it. But compared to a iPad 2 it should be a very significant upgrade

https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/22/apple-new-ipad-cheap-not-powerful/

I really do like android a lot more than iOS but since there hasn't been a front runner / flagship tablet its hard to say how well they hold up or be supported over multiple years. With apple you know they will support it for a while, but that 5-6 years later it will be slow to the point of unusable.

I got a Groupon type deal on a Nexus 7 about a year and a half ago and it seems like a great tablet. I use it for backup in my cockpit (primary is iPad Mini 2) but also mess around with it now and then. Great screen, great performance.

I have the latest Galaxy Tab S2. I like it but if I had to do it over again I would get the larger one. Thought I wanted a smaller form factor than my iPad 4 but realized I don't after alot of use.

I will say that Android has NOT fixed the battery problem that the poster above mentioned. I still have my old iPad 4 which will hold a battery for 3-5 days. This tab won't hold a battery for longer than 1 day with the same use.

My Galaxy 6 Edge is the same way. Battery on Android is absolute sh^t compared to Apple but I do like the OS better.

Edit:. Stopped using my iPad 4 because it's so slow now it's not functional.

I picked up a Pixel C tablet from Google back in December when they were offering $100 off the 64GB version. It's my favorite tablet I've ever owned. Build quality of an iPad with all the goodness and flexibility of Android.

Just got the (magnetic aluminum Bluetooth) keyboard for it as well, and it makes a fine little tablet notebooky thing.