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Android tablet shopping

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ihrsetrdr

Señor Senior Member
Joined
May 17, 2005
Location
High Desert, Calif.
I'm looking for an Android tablet in the 9.x" to the 10.x size range.

A really important feature is that the tablet be eligible to get current version of Android. My last tablet can with 7.0, I figured it simply could be updated to the [then] current 8.0....but I was wrong, 7.0 ONLY. :eh?:

Recommendations?

Edit: is this too much to ask? Are tablets in the Android world treated differently from phones?
 
XDA Dev lists the Lenovo Tab4 10 (&8) Plus as being able to flash the latest LineageOS 16 (Android 9 Pie) build up from it's default nougat 7.1. Nice tablet.
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/tablets/android-tablets/tab-4-series/Lenovo-TB-X704/p/ZZITZTATB1X
If your not afraid to unlock the bootloader, full reset, and flash a couple things it should work well. The thread is from this year and only has 46 pages which imo means there are few problems. Plus the flash keeps everything working on device.
I'm running 9 pie on my One+3 from an xda dev thread.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/th...t/lineageos-16-0-lenovo-tab4-10-plus-t3923394

Tablets aren't so much treated different, it's just that the market is primarily handsets that google controls. In order to force everybody to do something they simply stop updating or flat out lock it down so that after so much time you are left holding yesterdays old news or flat out trying to figure out which device you will be screwed with the least if you buy new. I bought a galaxy5 brand new from att store 6 months after it came out and in that 6 month period, samsung had managed to lock the phone down with an update to where it was no longer rootable as it was at launch. I will only buy samsung hd's. Anything else they make they can keep.
 
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Interesting. I actually had a similar Lenovo 10" tablet in my Newegg shopping cart. However, it got pulled for being no longer being available. ?

That Tab4 looks interesting, I like the idea of being able to use LineageOS.
 
Just because it's not officially supported doesn't mean there isn't a ROM for the latest OS available, if you're willing to unlock your bootloader and use a custom ROM.
 
I really like the Nvidia shield. The first one that had the pen.
Good specs GeForce now works great and has a solid dev community behind it.

I really like mine.
 
I haven't abandoned this thread or my shopping efforts, but the focus has evolved a bit. Since replacing the battery in my laptop, the need for a 'backup' mobile device has lessened, so the 10" tablet has a much less priority. There are a handful of apps that I prefer using on a larger-than-cellphone android, so I drug out(dragged out?) two 8" Amazon Fire tablets that we acquired for free, from my son and wife's grandson. Charged up, installed my favorite apps and am keeping track of their battery life.

The very aged iPad Mini that had been my mobile backup has very short standby time, and will soon be laid to rest in my e-waste bin.
 
Good to know. Whenever one can increase the lifespan of ewaste it's always a good thing.
Just having a seperate device that does what you want without it being always your primary communication device is definitely preferred.
I loathe having to mod stuff just to get it to behave but that is almost always necessary unfortunately.
I really want to put linux on my tablet but unless I run some coax I can't atm. Spectrum doesn't do linux, or is it the other way round?
I love that snippet in your sig lol.
 
TV over internet via browser. I'm watching it now. It just hangs with the flash confirmation dialog in any linux browser and spits out error message. I need to get my nas working, run a windows vm, and try again. I need to spend a few hundreds first before I can do that because container station and vm's require lots of on board resources in the nas and I only have 4gb memory atm.
 
TV over internet via browser. I'm watching it now. It just hangs with the flash confirmation dialog in any linux browser and spits out error message.

Please bear with me, I can be as thick-as-a-brick sometimes. So, a flash confirmation dialog indicating an error....do you have Javascript disabled? I use Google's Chrome browser and Firefox on my Linux boxes(all my machines) and have not encountered problems with content. Of course Netflix will require enabling DRM in Firefox...:rolleyes:

I can't speak to how other Open Source browsers may behave, such as Midori, Chromium, Pale Moon or Epiphany....etc.
 
I've tried all the browsers and all failed with 'watch.spectrum.net'. I even just now checked my java install and I already have openjdk 8u222 (Deb9), and also the openjdk 11.04 jre (Deb10). I grabbed linux versions off the java site even and installed per instructions. Same problem. FF as of version 52 from 2 years ago now doesn't support plugins. I had to root into the .mozilla and .waterfox folders just to create a "plugin" folder so I could link the java install. Didn't work. Palemoon however allowed me to create the folder without root but still didn't work either.
Nbd. I plan on using my nas with a vm of windows anyways just for TV. I just need more memory which is $270 per 16gb stick of ddr4. I still need one more hd at a minimum just so the two I already have installed can be raid1. All my data is on on my 6tb's but the nas won't let me raid them unless it can erase them first. I'm gonna get an Ironwolf Pro 8tb so I can shuffle the data back and forth. It costs the same as a single stick of memory. I hope the vm works with spectrum. Otherwise I will have to create a dual boot on my desktop.
 
I haven't abandoned this thread or my shopping efforts, but the focus has evolved a bit. Since replacing the battery in my laptop, the need for a 'backup' mobile device has lessened, so the 10" tablet has a much less priority. There are a handful of apps that I prefer using on a larger-than-cellphone android, so I drug out(dragged out?) two 8" Amazon Fire tablets that we acquired for free, from my son and wife's grandson. Charged up, installed my favorite apps and am keeping track of their battery life.

The very aged iPad Mini that had been my mobile backup has very short standby time, and will soon be laid to rest in my e-waste bin.

Again the shopping goals have matured....the search is for an 8" tablet to replace my wife's aging 8" Amazon Fire . Christmas is coming, so this will be my first gift idea of the season. :attn: Doesn't need to be a powerhouse, she plays a couple really low tec games, checks email etc. Maybe one of these: Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.

Edit: nothing too impressive on Newegg for 8 to 10" tablets.....?
 
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Android tablets are a sad state of affairs. Samsung is the only company that makes a decent one and they're too darn expensive. Even if you get one, app makers have shown no willingness to make their apps look good on tablets - because nobody makes a good one. You just end up with a middling tablet and blown up phone apps that don't take advantage of the extra screen real estate.

IMO a larger phone is the more practical way to go.
 
Yes, bigger phone for me, as I'll be referring to Goggle Docs and other material frequently while learning to lead TaiChi practice. For my wife: I'd get her an iPad Mini , but she just only uses a tablet for a couple simple apps, so maybe just one of the cheap 10-core, 4gb memory tablets would suffice. Like this one: https://www.newegg.com/p/0EJ-00JD-00019
 
I ended up buying an iPad mini (2019) because I couldn't find a good Android tablet. The internal hardware of the iPad is great, but iOS doesn't do it for me and I feel like I'm constantly fighting it unlike on stock Android. The last Android tablet I got is the Huawei M5 8". It is ok, but the CPU/GPU is showing its age for gaming, which is my primary use for it. The do have a newer similar model with better hardware, but because some guy with bad hair got upset with China the worldwide market is effectively dead for it now. Why not Samsung? Last one I owned I hated more than iOS, which is impressive. They basically replaced all the good bits of Android with something worse.

As for using a phone... it comes down to what you want to do. Again, my primary usage for a tablet is gaming, and the bigger screen helps a LOT. I find 7-8" class about the sweet spot. Bigger than that gets hard to hold. I know phones are pushing 6+ now but they're still a phone. I find prolonged use of the small screen of a phone makes my eyes go funny so I try to avoid it.
 
IHuawei M5 8".

I had saved the Huawei M5 8" to a NE wish list. Specs look good, it would be suitable for my tastes, if for my wife- she wouldn't be utilizing much of it's resources. I've not owned a Samsung mobile device, but I don't think I'd like the bloatware that I've heard Samsung devices has. I'm not a fan of IOS but I can get by....
 
You could also consider one of the Amazon Fire tablets. If you side-load (install manually from download) the play store it's just as good as any other cheap android tablet. The Fire HD 10 without ads and with 64 GB (instead of 32) of storage is pretty darn cheap at $155 (on sale from $205). Storage is expandable with a micro SD card too. The thing about those is that they're built for media consumption, so while they may not have the most powerful processor, their screens are reputed to be very good.

The only downside is lack of OS updates, as it is with every manufacturer not named Google (which is why I get Pixel phones), Motorola/Lenovo or Oneplus.

iPads are the tablet. If I didn't hate Apple/iOS as much as I did (and needed/wanted a tablet), I wouldn't hesitate to get an iPad.
 
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I had saved the Huawei M5 8" to a NE wish list. Specs look good, it would be suitable for my tastes, if for my wife- she wouldn't be utilizing much of it's resources.

Skimming to the top of the thread again, is getting current Android OS still a requirement? The Huawei is still getting security patches but it isn't on current major version. I don't know if they intend to, or even able to now with the US-China situation.
 
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