Previously on Lemmy: Asus
Android tablets are devices that I don’t know a lot about. I’ve seen plenty of them around, but I haven’t seen many people actually use them, but I’ve seen plenty of iPads and sometimes Surfaces out in the wild. Many large Android manufacturers have tried, like Samsung and Huawei, but reception to them seems lurkwarm at best.
Tablets, to me, are more of media consumption devices than productivity devices. So, I guess the questions of the week would be, what is your experiences with Android tablets, and what are some features you are looking for in an Android tablet to make it worth buying?
Past Discussions:
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Recently got the pixel tablet and put GrapheneOS on it. I’ve been quite satisfied with it so far.
These are not “normal” tablets, but Boox’s line of ePaper-based readers are the only Android tablets that distinguish themselves sufficiently in my already-large family of devices. I’ve used “normal” tablets with full-color LCD/OLED displays, on both the Android and iPadOS side, but I rarely find a good use for them. I’ve found them to sit in an awkward space with neither the convenience of my phone, nor the utility of my laptop.
The ePaper-based tablets are ideal for reading, but I do not relegate them merely to the “e-reader” category because they allow you to install Google Play and run basically any Android app. This makes them more flexible and powerful than most e-readers.
It comes with a built-in browser optimized for monochrome, and you can also install third-party alternatives like EinkBro.
That said, it’s only for advanced users, and it’s not a perfectly smooth experience. Just getting Google Play running on it requires jumping through some hoops, and you will find that most Android apps simply don’t work well on a monochrome display (though Boox does offer color models, I have not used them myself).
I was hoping, for example, to use my Boox tablet to play Go, but despite the fact that Go is very much a “black and white” game, most of the apps use shading and colors that look like absolute ass on a black and white display. Some of them do not properly support the 4:3 aspect ratio either. So I don’t want to set unreasonable expectations here. These are niche devices.
Despite these drawbacks, I really appreciate having an ePaper device. It complements my device family (phone, laptop, etc.) in a way other tablets do not.
I have a Boox Nova 3 Color. What its good for is 3 things.
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reading books
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taking notes with its included stylus
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Good enough software to run normal apps well enough.
But what it is not is a Good Android Tablet. Its a typical 1 Android update Chinese tablet. Forever stuck on Android 10 (I think), with no expansion.
And for an E-Reader that’s more than enough, but if you want to watch video? Its bad. Read a webpage that’s scrolls? Be prepare to manually refresh a lot to read what’s there. Install Google Play? Good luck (it’s doable just annoying).
However compared with a Kobo or a Samsung and my most used Android Tablet I ever owned. I even made an e-reader case for it since the original disintegrated on me.
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I’ve tried Android Tablets for 15 years now, And the best Tablet I’ve ever used is my iPad, it has more power than I’ll ever know what to do with with software support that I could only dream of.
However there are things I still can only do on Android, and for that I am using my trusty and slowly dying Samsung Galaxy Tab s5e.
What I love about it as a regular user is
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light weight for it’s size
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Good Speakers
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FireFox + Ublock origin
some Advance user features I love are
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USB-C Video out for those apps I want on the big screen
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AMOLED for those inky blacks. Watching streaming content on it is a dream
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Side loading support, like apps that let me force the display to a 16:9 aspect ratio for my TV
My only complaint is that the Power is not enough for modern day content consumption. And that it doesn’t have a headphone jack.
The only reason I prefer my iPad is that the software support for the official apps I use like Disney Plus and Kobo are better supported and run better on it. However until Apple allows side loading or lets FireFox to actually use anything other than webkit, I will probably have a tablet like this near by when I want a screen without a keyboard.
I feel if I had to buy a new one and I didn’t care about the some of my advance user features the FE edition of the Samsung Tablets seem like a good deal.
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Lenovo Tab P11 Plus. Pixel Tablet.
My Galaxy Tab S7+ is very good.
It’s depressing how bad Android tablets are right now. Both iPad and Android tablets suck to repair and take a lot of user control out of your hands, but iPads are ridiculously more powerful, have better “official” software support in the world, and age a lot more gracefully.
I’m increasingly tempted to drop my Android tablet altogether - the only thing stopping me at this point is the support for “non-official” apps distributed outside of the play store that I enjoy so much.
My Galaxy Tab S8+ is definitely the best tablet I’ve ever owned. I just wish there were custom roms for it.
Really? My Galaxy Tab A was slow as crap right out of the box. Even removing the bloatware didn’t help too much, and it’s new enough to get forced updates that reinstall the bloatware. It’s so bad that simply swiping between home screen panels can take several seconds.
Also, the digitiser seems to shut off if it’s not used for a few seconds, then takes a second or two to start receiving input once touched again. It also has accuracy issues at regular intervals, almost like a few of the contacts didn’t make contact.
Is the S supposed to be better than the A? Either way, very disappointed.
Lenovo’s ones win for bang-for-your-buck. Not great for gaming or the like but for simple reading comics and watching videos you can’t beat the price for a big device like that.
The Galaxy Tab S series
Same – I have a Galaxy Tab S7+, and I love it for media consumption and note taking/drawing. I’ve also taken it in lieu of a full laptop for short work trips.
My only other experience with Android tablets is the Nexus 7. I also used a Windows tablet (Surface 3) in my last job, but rarely used it in tablet form.
