I’m thinking about getting a tablet for hobbies. I have a PC running Windows. Am I better off with an iPad or Android, or does it matter?
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I use PC for computer and iPad / iPhone for all else. I have no real issues.
PC Vs Mac is very personal. To me Mac is all backwards from pd and hurts my head enough to ignore it.
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I think it’s very much a personal choice. If you’re used to the look and feel and the interface of a pc, than an Android tablet might suit you better. Personally, I disdain Apple and all it’s products, so it’s a no brainer for me. But I honestly can’t advise you one way or the other.
iPad … Android sound engine is still way behind iOS. Also, I’ve encountered quite a few of iPad only apps related to music. The last time was with my DeepMind synth, which has only iPad tablet control app. And that’s not a rare occurrence.
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As a hardcore pc/android user I’d recommend iPad. Stuff just works and there are a lot more quality music-related apps developed for iPad.
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I’m always amazed at how seamless ipad can be / is Vs Mac implementations.
iPad eliminates the backward-weirdness (to a PC guy). My wife gave up her Mac and I really wanted to use it for music/video but ended up giving it to the kids cause was too annoying to get used to
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What do you want to use it for?
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I’ve had both. I would say iPad. My Samsung tablet took a crap in a little over 1 year. My 1st iPad lasted me like 8 years until finally one of the IOS updates killed it.
Well I want to do a couple things with it. I want to use it to run Songsterr, so it can sit on my music stand. I want to plug my iRig in and record music, and possibly do some light editing.
Hopefully I can port the files to my laptop and do the heavy lifting there.
Most of the other stuff, facetime, zoom, e-reader, dnd beyond, is non music related
“ 2. Android OS is shockingly inefficient in dealing with real-time audio. The operating system adds about a seven second delay, and the hardware adds a further five or six seconds, making the default delay 12-13 seconds overall. We have managed to reduce the real-time delay to around half a second (500ms) or less, which we believe is is the best achieved on Android to date. [Ed. note: the iPhone version doesn’t include perceptible delay.]”
If that’s the primary use then I’d do some research to see if they (iRig in particular) have any known issues with Android or iOS that would be a dealbreaker for you. If they work well on both platforms then it’s just down to personal preference.
If you’re going for a tablet, you may want to consider the iPad. Android tablet scene is a mess and consists of outdated Pixel tabs, Samsung tabs, and no-name Chinese tabs which appear to be great value BUT they won’t ever be updated beyond the version they come with. Samsung generally promise 2 or 3 Android updates plus security updates. So your best bet if you’re going the Google route would be either Samsung or a chromebook which can give anything up to 8 or 9 years of continuous updates, but are not known to be that good for audio…
For what you want it for a 2in1 chromebook with touchscreen could be an alternative to an Android tablet and are much better supported.
Another plus for Apple though is that they are arguably better with audio and multimedia, and historically they always have been. This comes back to the fact that they control both hardware and software.
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Btw. Microsoft’s Surface tablets are great. And I think they’re producing lower level models for quite a reasonable price.
All a personal choice. I use both…. I use my PC’s for everything other than music. I use my iPad and Macbook for all things music related…
What ever you use, you’ll figure out how to make it work….
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I use an iCloud Drive for this. Easy
I love my Samsung Galaxy tab S6 Lite, the only thing that’s really sub optimal with it is the screen but I don’t use it outside and I don’t want to spend the extra money for the better screen 
For android in general, there are still some apps (like Facebook) that don’t properly support tablets.
Samsung tablets are great and probably offer better value than iPad, esp if you want/need a stylus and Android should have even better windows integration with windows 11 as well. The one thing that Android really sucks at is music so if you ever want to use the tablet with an audio interface like the iRigHD2 and something like Amplitube, then you have to go iPad Well, there is the brig UA and HD-A but there more expensive and/or seem to not work quite as well. I have an iRig HD 2, I use it with my Desktop or my laptop.
There are some really good reviews on YT that are helpful for deciding which would be the best fit for you.
I’m not at all a Mac guy but earlier this year I bought a refurbished MacBook Air M1 for a great price and it’s replaced my tablet for everything outside of the house where I don’t want to bring a larger laptop. It gets about 15hrs battery life, it’s amazingly fast, even for video/photo editing, it’s small/light and is way better than using a tablet with a keyboard.
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Yeah the new M1 macs are awesome. My wife’s new mini is much, much faster than her (much more expensive) intel iMac.
Tablet? iPad all the way. Nothing on Android comes close. I tried a lot of androids Samsung a and s tab. Window surface pro, mainly because there’s massive discount on them and I was curious. There’s a reason why it’s over half off.
Obviously, I’m a big Apple fanboi but their products are not bad for what I need. When it comes to tablet format I think iOS really dominates.
I’ve never used any Apple products which means that I’m totally unqualified to comment on the topic at hand.
Which has never stopped me. 
I would agree that the current state of Android tablets is chaotic at best. I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 that is hopelessly obsolete. It hasn’t received any OS or security updates since July 2019.
I presently am using a Lenovo Duet for my tablet needs. This is a Chromebook that also runs Android apps and even runs Linux programs. I don’t use it for music stuff - it just doesn’t have the horsepower. Besides, there are very few if any music apps native to the Chrome OS.
I run Linux on my desktop and laptops, and have been able to find suitable Linux apps for all my music needs.
I’m obviously no Apple fanboi but if I wanted to use a tablet for my music needs I’d get an iPad.
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Okay so I’ve read this a few times and other threads around the iMac etc and it might as well be in Klingon .
So could somebody please tell me what the oldest MacBook I should be looking at and anything else SIMPLE I should look for.
Please understand I am a total f*ckwit when it comes to technology