Help Me Buy A Civ Tablet

TheGrumpyBuddha · Sep 24, 2014

Hey, guys. I'd like to buy a tablet that can run Civ V (and soon, Civ: BE):

1) Without being super-slow
2) For at least 5 hours without charging
3) Without spending more than $800

Any advice? Thanks! :goodjob:

m15a · Sep 24, 2014

Run Civ V for 5 hours on battery? Or run civ V and have a 5 hour battery life not playing Civ V?

joncnunn · Sep 24, 2014

I'm not aware of a single off the shelf tablet that could run Civ V on battery for 5 hours even if you turned its wifi & GPS off first.
For that matter I'm also not aware of an off the shelf notebook that could run Civ V on battery for 5 hours either. (You'd need to separately buy a longer battery than what comes with the device in the stores.)

(Your battery life is at least 4 times shorter playing Civ V than not)

As to without being super slow, if you are intending to play on a huge map : None at all.
If you are intending to play on standard size map, then the Surface Pro 2 or 3 might do this. (SP3 is probably above that price point) Avoid the SP1 [it might have barely met the hybird category when it was first released but it doesn't now] and also avoid the "regular" Surface.

TheGrumpyBuddha · Sep 24, 2014

Small or standard map is fine -- just *something* to take pain out of flying 6.5 hours in coach. But it looks like I might have to settle for less than 5 hours.

I wonder how much a backup/auxiliary battery costs ...

Thanks, I'll look into the Surface Pros 2+.

m15a · Sep 24, 2014

Definitely don't get a Surface Pro 1 if battery life is a concern. The Surface Pro 2's battery life is somewhere around double. Some tablets/hybrids give you the option of getting a keyboard with its own battery (including the Surface Pro line, which has the power keyboard for $200) . Maybe you could get a good deal on a Surface Pro 2. I got a Pro 1 6 months ago for $400.

Although, if you're thinking about getting an extra battery attachment, maybe you're better off looking at standard laptops anyway.

Probably goes without saying, but you need one that can run standard Windows (or I guess Linux now). So, yeah, that rules out the non-Pro Surface completely.

joncnunn · Sep 24, 2014

m15a said:
Definitely don't get a Surface Pro 1 if battery life is a concern. The Surface Pro 2's battery life is somewhere around double. Some tablets/hybrids give you the option of getting a keyboard with its own battery (including the Surface Pro line, which has the power keyboard for $200) . Maybe you could get a good deal on a Surface Pro 2. I got a Pro 1 6 months ago for $400.

Although, if you're thinking about getting an extra battery attachment, maybe you're better off looking at standard laptops anyway.

Probably goes without saying, but you need one that can run standard Windows (or I guess Linux now). So, yeah, that rules out the non-Pro Surface completely.

The only versions of Civ V available are for Windows and Mac. So if you have a machine running Linux (or a tablet running Android for that matter) you'd first need a windows emulator.
Another possible option would be a program on your device that's away from home that logs you in remotely to your machine at home so that your machine at home is actually doing the work. (You'd need an unlimited data plan though since this is likely to use a ton of band width, lag may also be so much as to be unplayable.)

m15a · Sep 25, 2014

I thought a Linux version came out recently. Anyway, Windows is likely the way to go for a tablet.

Arcaian · Sep 25, 2014

TheGrumpyBuddha said:
Small or standard map is fine -- just *something* to take pain out of flying 6.5 hours in coach. But it looks like I might have to settle for less than 5 hours.

I wonder how much a backup/auxiliary battery costs ...

Thanks, I'll look into the Surface Pros 2+.

Dunno about your flights, but I regularly fly about 5-8 hours on coach, and they supply a USB port, even on the cheap flights. Could charge it on the plane then

beetle · Sep 25, 2014

joncnunn said:
Another possible option would be a program on your device that's away from home that logs you in remotely to your machine at home so that your machine at home is actually doing the work.

OP is going to be on a plane. Good luck with the remote connection!

AlcatrazUK · Sep 25, 2014

joncnunn said:
The only versions of Civ V available are for Windows and Mac. So if you have a machine running Linux (or a tablet running Android for that matter) you'd first need a windows emulator.
Another possible option would be a program on your device that's away from home that logs you in remotely to your machine at home so that your machine at home is actually doing the work. (You'd need an unlimited data plan though since this is likely to use a ton of band width, lag may also be so much as to be unplayable.)

I looked into this exact thing as have a powerful desktop PC but occasionally want to play from the armchair or bed. Windows have lots of options for remote access. I looked at getting a Toshiba WT310 11.6-inch Tablet PC

beetle · Sep 25, 2014

TheGrumpyBuddha said:
I'd like to buy a tablet that can run Civ...

I am also in the market for a commuting platform mostly for Civ, but it looks like no one has a brilliant suggestion.

OP, have you looked at the MacBook Air? The nominal battery life is 9 hours of playing a movie, so I bet that translate to 4½ hours of Civ. Its $900 bucks though. Might be bigger than what you were hoping for, but I think you will need a keyboard anyway. No touch screen either, but I am skeptical how well that would work for Civ. You asked about a tablet, but needing a keyboard, I think the netbook form factor might be the way to go. My mental hangup is justifying $900 to play a $50 game!

TheGrumpyBuddha · Sep 25, 2014

Re keyboard --- I'm hoping to be able to play without a keyboard, otherwise I would just bring a laptop, but in coach using a laptop is usually tough/uncomfortable.

Re USB port for charging -- I don't find that they are often available on my flights, but on the other hand, I rarely fly to Europe, I'll have to do some research!

joncnunn · Sep 25, 2014

Actually, you don't really need a keyboard at all for Civ V, I have a USB keyboard for my notebook but the only thing I use it for in Civ V is upon continuing a game zooming back out to my normal zoom setting which I wish it would remember. (Page Up & Page Down keys)

What you need is a pointer device other than your raw finger to avoid finger sprain, so either a stylus (if you have a touchscreen that supports it such as the SP2+) or a pointer device is recommended.

rschissler · Sep 25, 2014

I can't imagine wanting to play Civ on a dinky little screen. I think that would get tiresome real fast.

beetle · Sep 25, 2014

TheGrumpyBuddha said:
otherwise I would just bring a laptop, but in coach using a laptop is usually tough/uncomfortable

I am thinking about my daily train commute. There, even a small laptop is uncomfortably large. But I think netbook size would be okay.

joncnunn said:
Actually, you don't really need a keyboard at all for Civ V, I have a USB keyboard for my notebook but the only thing I use it for in Civ V is upon continuing a game zooming back out to my normal zoom setting which I wish it would remember.

Thinking about this more, I use the keyboard constantly, but half of the time it's the number pad. A laptop keyboard might still leave me frustrated! Zooming can be done with the mouse, but only with a scroll wheel or ctrl key, so a touchscreen-only approach seems insufficient. Can you pinch-to-zoom on a Windows tablet with apps that have not been designed for touch?

...a pointer device is recommended.

The travel mice have terrible ergonomics. So this implies touchpad, and thus back to the netbook form factor.

rschissler said:
I can't imagine wanting to play Civ on a dinky little screen. I think that would get tiresome real fast.

I think I could live with 1024x768, and most tablets and netbooks nowadays support that resolution at least.

acetoolguy · Sep 27, 2014

I was looking to do the same for much the same reasons, lots of travel and time in hotels. I ended up with a laptop. Its not as portable but will Civ on any size, and even Skyrim if I want.

tetley · Sep 27, 2014

So can you boot up civ on steam and then hibernate till you're on board the plane?

joncnunn · Sep 28, 2014

tetley said:
So can you boot up civ on steam and then hibernate till you're on board the plane?

You actually can start Civ V without internet connection, it times out in about 30 seconds and pops up a warning message that it couldn't connect to the cloud but has an option to continue anyway.

(The only time you can't is if a patch had just been detected since it starts by deleting the exe so there's no way to continue until the patch fully downloads and installs.)

beetle · Sep 28, 2014

I thought Civ5 and/or Steam specifically had an off-line mode? (I never looked for it.)

joncnunn · Sep 28, 2014

beetle said:
I thought Civ5 and/or Steam specifically had an off-line mode? (I never looked for it.)

My above post deals with Civ V detecting your offline and it's prompt to go to it.

Steam also has an offline mode. Which if upon booting up it doesn't find the server in about 30 seconds or so it will time out and ask if you want to start in offline mode.

If steam is already in offline mode, I don't recall if Civ V instantly goes to that same popup (skipping its own normal check) or just starts up.

Also, if you intend to get BE note that if a patch to any steamapp is detected while your online that the first thing it does is delete the exe in which case you won't be able to play at all offline until you both bring it back online and the patch finishes downloading and installing. (There's no more Civ V patches expected so this isn't an issue for Civ V now, just BE)

Help Me Buy A Civ Tablet

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