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Tablet recommendations


Destined

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Hi all,

 

I am currently considering to buy a tablet, but I am not really up to date, which specs a tablet should have. I will most likely use it mainly for Netflix, reading pdfs and maybe switching to it for e-books in general (pdfs are a pain on the Kindle), and playing small games (no specific ones in mind right now), while riding the train to my girlfriend (around 5 hours ride). I would prefer the cheaper price range (around 100; definitely below 200 €) and would prefer Andoid as I have a couple of apps on my phone that I would also use on the tablet. Finally, although I know this is quite uncommon, I do not have Wi-Fi at home, so it would be nice if I could use reverse-tethering without too much trouble.

 

Does anyone have any recommendations / advice?

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Hi all,

 

I am currently considering to buy a tablet, but I am not really up to date, which specs a tablet should have. I will most likely use it mainly for Netflix, reading pdfs and maybe switching to it for e-books in general (pdfs are a pain on the Kindle), and playing small games (no specific ones in mind right now), while riding the train to my girlfriend (around 5 hours ride). I would prefer the cheaper price range (around 100; definitely below 200 €) and would prefer Andoid as I have a couple of apps on my phone that I would also use on the tablet. Finally, although I know this is quite uncommon, I do not have Wi-Fi at home, so it would be nice if I could use reverse-tethering without too much trouble.

 

Does anyone have any recommendations / advice?

From my experience, if you have a decent-battery laptop and weight is not an issue, stick with it.

The larger screen will allow to read from larger distance, which in the long run is good for the eyes.

You can put it on your knees and your arms will rest.

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It should not be too small; lets say 8 inch minimum? I don't really have a comparison on what can be considered big or small with tablets...

I have no idea, how the flavour of Android influences my experience. My phone is Samsung and I am quite happy with it, but as long as the apps I want to run work, I don't really care.

My own comparison so far has led me to the Samsung SM-T580 although it is a bit more expensive than I wanted (but isn't it always ;)). It appears to have slightly better stats than others in that price region, but there might still be other manufacturers than the big ones (Huawei, Samsung) that offer good deals. From a couple of reviews I gathered that the Amazon Fire tablets, while quite cheap, are rather problematic with a couple of apps, so I think I would rather not risk it. I rather would have no problems and pay some Euros more than save some money and struggle with it. Additionally, I rather not have Alexa (or Siri or some other similar audio control) that permanently listens in on me, if I can avoid it.

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TBH, i'd get a portable laptop too. You can already get a Lenovo 320S 14" for about 400 €, which is a pretty decent device, according to tests, and, you'd have a battery time of 8-10 depending on what you do as well. But, don't take it from me, i'd always prefer a laptop over a tablet. :P

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I strongly recommend not getting a Windows 10 tablet, so far their updates have borked the motion sensor & the touch screen, I managed to get into the registry & get the touch screen working but nothing has fixed the motion sensor so far, the second someone gets Linux on to my particular model Win10 is history

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I strongly recommend not getting a Windows 10 tablet, so far their updates have borked the motion sensor & the touch screen

 

On which tablet, specifically?

 

I'd never get a non-Windows tablet. With an Android tablet, you get 1 1/2 years of updates, max. With an iPad, you're bond to Apple, their app store, and their way of doing things. Won't comment on Linux, especially in a context where stability, and bugs are a concern. Even the most popular distros ALWAYS had sever bugs, when i had Linux installed on my computers. I gave up on it a couple of years ago. Can't be arsed to mess with bugs, and fix errors non stop. I'm a computer user, not an administrator. Also, it's always a matter of whether Linux supports the hardware or not. The more exotic the hardware, the less likely it will run Linux. And, the more likely bugs will never be fixed.

Edited by chakkman
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I strongly recommend not getting a Windows 10 tablet, so far their updates have borked the motion sensor & the touch screen, I managed to get into the registry & get the touch screen working but nothing has fixed the motion sensor so far, the second someone gets Linux on to my particular model Win10 is history

You can always give Android-x86 a shot. I did, it is nice, but there are some bugs on my device. But what's great is that it doesn't come with a colossal collection of crapware, like a store-purchased Android phone (or Windows 10) device does. That means more free memory and better performance.

 

http://www.android-x86.org/

 

Of course, don't mess with this unless you know what you're doing (and how to fix Windows if it doesn't work out for you).

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Tablet market is pretty dead at the moment. There's not a lot of competition and most of the ones out there are poor value when it comes to specifications and the chipsets used in them (generally old mediateks or low end snapdragons, really mediocre), but I have heard good things about Huawei tablets. Make sure you get something that has 2 or more gigabytes of RAM, anything under that will run like ass for general use.

I'd suggest buying a laptop instead, but if you watch movies you probably want a good screen, and most laptops under 400 euro/dollars will have sub par 1366x768 TN panels with poor colors and viewing angles.

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Maybe wait for the next Surface entry level tablet. Should be available for about 400 €,

Those things have never been cheap and secondly even windows 10 isnt properly optomised for tablet.

 

@Destined, the T580 look like a very nice tablet because the CPU/GOU in that is the same as the Galaxy S6/7 - in otherwords very fast and good battery life. It should also have SSD based NAND storage instead of the slower flash that is in previous tablets. For example the CPU/SSD upgrade from my old Galaxy Note 4 to my S6/7 was night and day. But if you dont need LTE/4G you go for the wifi version and the price should drop closer to €100.

 

Let me go through the list of 10.1" tablets and see if we can get the same perf for closer to €100.

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Let me go through the list of 10.1" tablets and see if we can get the same perf for closer to €100.

Well colour me suprised, the Above tablet is the best bang for buck for under £200. Eveything else I found around the £100 was only quad core and much slower.

 

The advantage of the Samsung, is there will load of thread on XDA on how to root it, install customer recovery and custom roms!

 

- https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-tab-a

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Those things have never been cheap and secondly even windows 10 isnt properly optomised for tablet.

 

I know that they never were cheap, but, MS will be releasing a cheaper, iPad style model.

 

Not sure what you mean with Windows 10 being not properly optmized for tablet. It has a tablet mode, but, if you mean that the applications wouldn't be optimized for touch, yes, true. But, then, Android will only run Android apps, and a Surface will run real Windows desktop applications. And, you will be receiving upgrades, unlike Android, where you're stuck with your version of Android 1 1/2 years after the tablet was released.

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Tablet market is pretty dead at the moment. There's not a lot of competition and most of the ones out there are poor value when it comes to specifications and the chipsets used in them (generally old mediateks or low end snapdragons, really mediocre), but I have heard good things about Huawei tablets. Make sure you get something that has 2 or more gigabytes of RAM, anything under that will run like ass for general use.

I'd suggest buying a laptop instead, but if you watch movies you probably want a good screen, and most laptops under 400 euro/dollars will have sub par 1366x768 TN panels with poor colors and viewing angles.

 

Maybe wait for the next Surface entry level tablet. Should be available for about 400 €, and, will surely feature nice hardware.

I absolutely agree that a laptop may cover my needs better than a tablet could. Still, as stated above, I don't want to spend 400€ for this, but rather stay below 200€. In this regard any new Surface tablet has the same problem. I also would not worry about Windows desktop applications. I have a PC for that and do not plan to use the tablet in that way. It is really mainly for entertaining myself on long train rides. Maybe I will use it as an "extension" for my PC for skyping with my girlfriend, which gets rid of the small window on my screen (I only have one at the moment).

 

 

Well colour me suprised, the Above tablet is the best bang for buck for under £200. Eveything else I found around the £100 was only quad core and much slower.

 

The advantage of the Samsung, is there will load of thread on XDA on how to root it, install customer recovery and custom roms!

 

- https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-tab-a

Thank you for taking the time to look into it! The Samsung above is listed at 35% off on Amazon (not sure why). It would ususally cost 260€ as well, which makes it less surprising that it is superior to most tablets in its current price range. I will visit my girlfriend this weekend and get it while being out shopping with her, if I find it for the same price. If not, I will order at the end of the weekend.

 

Thank you all again for your time and effort!

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I absolutely agree that a laptop may cover my needs better than a tablet could. Still, as stated above, I don't want to spend 400€ for this, but rather stay below 200€.

 

Ah... i didn't read the price requirement. Fair enough then. I'd think a Android tablet is your bet bet then indeed.

 

I'd get a Samsung as well.

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On which tablet, specifically?

 

Mine is a Linx 8.1, dirt cheap, pretty basic tablet

 

I've seen reports of the touch screen issue on many tablets from different manufacturers, the fix I implemented came from a Lenovo site

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