Foo - Tablet + external display = doable?

My vision continues to degrade and my laptop is starting to show it's age. I like the form factor of a tablet, but viewing content on a 7" or 10" would become a problem in short order. I was wondering if it would be possible to hook a tablet up to an external display? A quick peek at the Kindle Fire (what is currently my wife's #1 contender) shows it has a USB 2.0 port and cable, but it looks like that is more for file management than sending a video signal.

What I'd like to do is set it up where have the tablet hooked up to a powered USB hub, with the monitor, maybe some speakers, and possibly a keyboard connected to the hub. Then again, I suspect that the tablet lacks the processing power to do what I want. Looking at the $200 and below pricepoint.

best bet would to be to look for a tablet with hdmi

Or an Acer Chromebook for $200

Has a VGA port, HDMI port

http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/acer-c7-chromebook.html#specs

Or an Acer Chromebook for $200

Has a VGA port, HDMI port

http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/acer-c7-chromebook.html#specs
May have to keep it in mind, but unless I'm wrong, the Chomebox and Chromebooks are severely limited in functionality if not connected to the internet.

Truth be told, I think I'd be better off with an all-in-one PC. However, since Win8 is out, it seems like all of those types of PCs have seen an increase across the board of $200-$300.

you should be able to find something for black friday in that price range.

While it's possible to find a tablet, perhaps even a smartphone (My RAZR MAXX has HDMI out and there's even a keyboard/monitor dock (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005P58B5G) for it), yes...your limitation will be processor speed for what you want to spend. Either pony up for the specs or suffer with a computer that crawls...your choice.

While it's possible to find a tablet, perhaps even a smartphone (My RAZR MAXX has HDMI out and there's even a keyboard/monitor dock (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005P58B5G) for it), yes...your limitation will be processor speed for what you want to spend. Either pony up for the specs or suffer with a computer that crawls...your choice.
There is truth to what you say. I'm not out to edit videos, pics, or music. Not a serious gamer, either. Just want to stream audio and video.

My wife has a little Android device. It's like an e-reader that has been hacked to think it's a tablet. I might be able to use that for a bit to see if I can tolerate the small font- I usually have IE9 set to 150% on my 16" laptop display.

Okay, just got done playing with my wife's Nextbook 2. While I realize that there are way better examples of tablets out there today, I think that I'm not a fan of pure touch navigation- I kept launching apps when all I wanted to do was scroll the screen. Back to the drawing board...

iPad combined with a lightning to hdmi cable should do the trick.

iPad combined with a lightning to hdmi cable should do the trick.Not a huge fan of Apple products- primarily due to the premium they like to charge. That being said, I've been looking at possibly going the desktop route and the new Mac Mini is competitively priced.

ya could build ya own desktop only takes like 15 minutes for the hardware and 1 hour more for the os and driver intall

ya could build ya own desktop only takes like 15 minutes for the hardware and 1 hour more for the os and driver intall
With what is available locally (as in walking distance), combined with my own ineptness, I really don't see that happening.

Not a huge fan of Apple products- primarily due to the premium they like to charge. That being said, I've been looking at possibly going the desktop route and the new Mac Mini is competitively priced.

And you can run whatever OS you so choose on it, so long as it knows what to do with a GPT partitioned disk and EFI.

Keep your OS in mind as well. The Mac OS has been pretty darn VI friendly for a long time(they had GOOD text to speech included back in '95, and I don't think windows has caught up yet!) with a minor bit of configuration. There is also a distribution of Linux called VInux that is customized FOR those with low vision, although linux can take some getting used to, especially if you've been using windows for most of your computer life.

some tablets have micro-HDMI out, so you just need a cable that can do micro-HDMI to HDMI.

There will be an 11.6" and 13.3" Asus transformer book available in a few months.

Those are full Win8 tablet/ultrabook convertible computers.

An alternative, you might want to look at samsung ATIV smart PC or ATIV smart PC Pro. They are 11.6" tablet/ultrabook convertibles as well.

Somewhere in between, there's the Dell XPS 12 Duo, which is a 12.5" ultrabook convertible.


IF you want larger... Then the only things left are all in ones, like Dell inspiron one 23 or XPS one 27.

Something that might be of interest is Dell's TP713, which is a wireless touchpad. It can give instant touch capability to any computer, just not on screen.

My Acer Aspire One has HDMI and VGA out. I think it only retails for $300 or $350, but I paid for it with credit card points. It came with Win7, but I've only ever run Linux on it. Performance is plenty good, bogs down a little when you fire up the google apps all at once. The trackpad is crap, though. Get a real mouse for it.

My Acer Aspire One has HDMI and VGA out. I think it only retails for $300 or $350, but I paid for it with credit card points. It came with Win7, but I've only ever run Linux on it. Performance is plenty good, bogs down a little when you fire up the google apps all at once. The trackpad is crap, though. Get a real mouse for it.
As was brought up by another earlier in the thread, Acer just rolled out the new C7 Chromebook for $199 (http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/acer-c7-chromebook.html#specs). The price is attractive, I'm just not too sure about the ChromeOS.

Just hook a PC up to a big screen tv and use a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Better yet, get a raspberry pi and use that.