It’s not only with Black Friday. The Android tablets market is flooded with absolute expensive stinkers for devices. You will notice this in any physical electronic store.
Not to mention fakes. I bought and Android 12 tablet on Amazon as new not long ago, the version string said 12, but the actual API level was 24 (Android 7) and the UI wasn’t android 12.
If you don’t think that’s a big deal on a cheap tablet then you’re not considering what else could have been done to it that you can’t see. They’re already lying after all.
And even apparently from name brands.
My sister bought a low-end Samsung tablet (some years ago admittedly), and it NEVER received a software update in the 3 years she owned it. Not a major update, not a security patch, nothing.
I’d hope they’ve gotten better about that, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Probably that was before Samsung offered 5 years of updates. And if the tablet was a bit outdated, it would have easily been outside of the software EOL date.
That’s why you should always go for phones/tablets that have been released this year and not take an outdated one. Not for the specs, but for the software support duration.
Over here there is a food discounter that also has a tiny electronics corner, where they have “great” deals. You can often get phones and tablets for less than half of the MSRP. The issue is, that all of them are either out of software support or close to it. A while ago they sold a cheap iPhone that had one month of software support left. And on iPhone, most apps only run on the currently newest iOS version. So a month after buying that iPhone, the user would lose access to most of their apps.
That’s honestly amazing for mobile software development. A stack of devices that can make great testing devices or compact servers if cheap enough. Or Clash of Clans/Pokemon GO alt accounts.
my s7 is on the latest android and still gets patches samsung is so much better these days
Even better tip : Don’t waste your money
on an awful Android tablet on Black FridayIt gets worse. Visiting a friend recently, they tried to give me an old Kindle, (which I politely declined). They have a drawer of about 6 old ones because they can’t help buying the latest every sale. They don’t even read that much!!
That’s so wasteful. And I dragged my old Sony reader for like 7 years and then even handed it down until the battery just wouldn’t hold a charge anymore. In 14 years I’m my second reader and feel the Kobo I’ve got is perfectly fine.
Battery replacement on the old Sony readers is trivial.
I relatively recently checked out some other ebook readers, mainly as the Sony isn’t too responsive with a big library on it, and I prefer just having everything on there - but turns out neither Kindle nor Kobo perform that well with a big library either. The UI of the old Sony reader is still way better than any of the other ebook readers I’ve tried.
I’m currently carrying a kindle in flight mode, filled via calibre - in the night the backlight is nicer than the clip on light I’ve been using with the Sony, but I still keep the Sony charged and use now and then.
If only more people realised this or could spare the 30 minutes it takes to educate themselves. I recently replaced the battery and charging port on an “old” Samsung phone (three years or so) and it’s as good as new. While I did use my 3D printer to soften the glue, I’ve been able to do the same with a hairdryer in the past. All you need is a couple of guitar picks or a set you can buy for next to nothing.
omg… fuck, totally forgot i could have used the printing bed for that… used a hair-dryer, worked too
Ha, didn’t think the battery would be easily changed, good to know. I don’t have it anymore, sold it cheap second-hand.
The whole reader series is just such an un-Sony thing, it’s almost a miracle it survived as long as it did. You’d never expect Sony to have an easy to use device, without forcing DRM or custom software, utilizing open standards, while also being easily repairable by the user. Or if it existed you’d think it was a fluke, and will be “fixed” in the next iteration.
Maybe they gave the project to a new guy who didn’t know the rules
Damn I would take a free Kindle!
I would have personally accepted. More devices for modding and tinkering with! 🔥
A fellow SBCgamer perhaps?
I’ve been using old kindles for homeassistant interfaces for across the house.
Are they wall mounted? If so, how do you hide the power cables?
That’s a good idea, but you can buy e-ink screens made specifically for that purpose, they use them in retail stores. Buying Kindles for that is expensive.
Those ones were free for OP though.
Ah, nothing cheaper than free.
Eink ones?
Crazy. I still have an old Kobo ereader which is a bit slow and has a low res screen but it’s fine for just reading (the slowness is almost a benefit since it’s less likely to be a distraction). I can’t imagine buying a new model every year.
They should stick them on swappa. Kindles hold value fairly well, and they’re great gifts to kids, as they can often encourage reading
I need an old Kindle. It’s the only way to strip DRM from books so I can use a good TTS app instead of the Kindle app.
When it comes to tablets, if it is not an iPad, Galaxy Tab S, or Pixel tablet don’t waste the money period. Everything else is pushed out the door and forgotten about by the OEM before the delivery truck leaves the warehouse.
This is literally terrible advice and incorrect. Lenovo and Xiaomi are at just 2 examples of brands whose midrange and high end tablets get supported with updates for years.
Proud owner of a Xiaomi Pad 5, still works like the day I got it. Also got my oldest child (who, like me, is into emulation) a Pad 6.
I have a Lenovo tablet, bar being useless to me as piece of tech it is very functional and continues to get updates.
What about Lenovo tablets?
Pixel
After getting burnt by both the Google endorsed Xoom and the Google branded Nexus 10, I don’t trust them at all when it comes to tablets.
With both, Google released good products, and then proceeded to ruin them with abhorrent changes to the software. They made the Nexus 10 dump it’s tablet interface in favor of a big phone UI ffs.
Still waiting for something that uses those pogo pins or the removable backplate…
And this also reminds me I have to check the battery in the one I have in storage. The Nexus 4 I had swelled up and pushed off its glass back while charging.
No matter how much Lemmy hates Apple, iPads are by and large the best tablets out there for the money, especially for art. The fact that I can use “Apple” and “best for the money” in the same sentence is funny. I don’t hate apple, I love iOS, but ya usually really do pay for it.
On that note, what are GOOD android tablets for different price ranges?
Samsung still makes great ones. Some of them are even compatible with Wacom pens.
Once I helped to set up a Lenovo Android tablet, that too was stellar compared to the cheap junk you can meet with easily.
Samsung’s are generally regarded as pretty good. There’s also that OnePlus tablet that MKBHD liked because it has features similar to iPads
samsung s series is top tier
dare i say better than the ipad
I picked up a xiaomi Redmi Pad earlier this year. Seems pretty decent. Runs games like Nikke pretty well.
A used samsung, or Xiaomi pad. Xiaomi pad if you want battery life especially.
The Alldocube iPlay 50 Pro is the best tablet I could find for under $250CAD with 8GB ram, 128GB storage, microSD, and a good processor.
Edit: For software updates to the latest Android version, you can install LineageOS or any other GSI ROM.
I don’t know about tablets, but if you want to go big on general purpose android smartphone:
Samsung flagships for the best hardware and Google flagships for the best software.
I assume the same rule might still hold for android tablets.
I just need a cheap tablet that can be rooted (hopefully) with an FHD+ display to watch a few episodes on. Which one do you recommend?
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I’d like a decent Samsung tab but I can’t unlock their bootloaders in the US
Whatever you can get second hand
What about battery life for used devices?
Not as bad as you’d think, especially if you buy from a place that tests the devices or know the person selling isn’t hard on their devices.
If you are going for a model thats a couple of years old, I would recommend going an alternative OS and no google apps. The analytics they run run does make a considerable difference to battery life. You could use something like microg if some banking apps don’t like not having google (the ones I use don’t have this issue YMMV)
I’d also recommend simplifying how you use you’re device. Ie, don’t have apps that run in the background like Facebook, try and keep to using those sites in the browser.
Don’t stream stuff over the mobile network(applicable to some tablets), as its a large battery drain. It’s designed to blast a load of data and then go inactive to save battery.
You could start doing some of these things on your current device and see if you get much of a change in battery life.
The best device is the one you already have.
Yeah I’d like to run custom ROMs too but do devices like these even have custom ROM support? I’m OK with patching the image manually with Magisk every now and then but doing that for every security update is a PITA. If only there could be a way to automate the patching, backup and flashing process
Check out XDA forums or if you want an easier time, check out the lineage OS devices page. If its on the lineage site there’s a good chance other OS’s are available as well.
Any tablets you recommend that have Lineage OS support?
Sadly not haven’t had a tablet for like 8 years
I think the Galaxy Tab A8 may be a good option. While I’ve only flashed a custom ROM, there are root guides at XDA.
Unfortunately, Samsung devices in the US come with locked bootloaders that can’t be unlocked (even if bought directly and not from a carrier)
I unlocked my US variant WiFi A8.
You don’t need to root a tablet to watch videos on it.
You don’t need to not do it either!
Yes
I have one of those Lenovos for reading comics, and they’re great. Nothing amazing but you can’t beat the bang for your buck.
I got the newer Lenovo M9 and it’s great for the price. It can stutter at times, but comics, books, and stremio - no problems.
but then what SHOULD I waste it on
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Ah, another kind of tablet I see /s
Are there any good deals for the Steam Deck?
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I want one so bad, but I can’t afford one right now.
You didn’t need to brag though /s
to play my backlog of games from the last… decade.
I hear you, I just started Breath of The Wild, and I am pretty sure I redeemed a lot of games for PC even when I don’t have a gaming one.
I’ve got some student loans…
Ignore them forever like I’m doing
I’ve hated tablets since they first came out and never really changed on that. It’s just a miserable way for me to do anything when I have a phone and computer already. I would be into a Kindle for reading on eink, but outside of that I can’t stand tablets.
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Most --> moet autocorrect suggests you are a combination of French, a drinker, or rich
I have no dog in the tablet trace however
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Sorry for your election :(
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because they don’t need space for a keyboard.
You know, that is fair, but the lack of a physical keyboard on a tablet is what hinders my good experience with them.
Yeah, I like to browse or read comics/manga on my iPad, but sooner or later it is gonna be time to type, and I can’t do it in a natural way just like I can from my phone (which should be the device I use to type the most).
Sure, you can use a BT keyboard or some other attachment, but that kinda breaks the portability of it.
If small phones were still a thing I could see myself getting a 7 or 8" tablet again (RIP Nexus 7) but with 6+" screens being the norm there’s no point.
I do love my kobo libre 2 for reading but also wish it was smaller.
I both agree and disagree. I definitely want a small phone, and the small size would limit the use case of the phone itself. But some of us artificially limit the capability of their phones in order to minimize distractions, and some use dumb or feature phones to accomplish similar goals.
Then there is further segregation of use case between devices. Just because you can do something on a phone, doesn’t mean you choose to. I want work nowhere near my phone, but I’ll put it in a work profile on my tablet.
One might choose to consume various media on their tablet instead of phone. Sure, you can watch movies on your phone, but it’s a lot better on a 10-12" tablet. Sure you can read ebooks on your phone, but it would be a lot better on a smaller tablet that unfortunately hardly exists in the Android world these days.
Btw, you might want to check out Onyx for some smaller readers. Particularly the Palma and Nova Air 2. There are definitely some privacy questions with them, though.
e-ink isn’t (edit: good) color.
Tablets are the ideal form factor for things that would traditionally require a large, full-color book. That is: passing around a photo album, reading magazines, textbooks, comics, playing turn-based games like board-games and strategy games. If you use a stylus they’re excellent for things that require free-form pen-and-paper like math homework and creating art.
Now, when they were a $600 luxury item that didn’t really make sense as a product. But now that they’re like $150 for a solidly good tablet they’re absolutely a worthwhile purchase for those use-cases.
Ahh, yes, well I suppose if you’re mostly reading comics that were made in the '70s and you really want to capture that faded 32-colors-Ben-Day-dot-printed-on-newsprint feel, that’ll be just perfect.
It’s limited for sure, but there are most definitely color e-ink displays now.
But the bigger limitation is still refresh rate, and lifespan of the display in devices that try to force more frequent refreshes.
Fair point. Will correct my above post. But either way: unless you find screens particularly eye-straining or have extreme battery-life desires, I don’t really see e-ink tech as worth the downsides at this point, at least for non-text content. For a watch where I want an always-on screen and endless battery and I’ll never watch video on it? Yes, I want more e-ink and low-power LED tech and the like. But for tablets? I’m good with the vibrant colors of a glowing LED screen.
Watches sound great on e-ink, but last I looked into it, the displays couldn’t support the frequency of refreshes over a reasonable life time.
I’m with you, by the way. I do like having a compact e-ink reader, but I really don’t want to do anything but that with it.
Huh, that’s disappointing. It’s funny how everybody keeps experimenting but nobody seems to have topped the Pebble for watch form-factor: low-power gameboy-ish LED screen and more of an old-school micro-controller chip instead of a phone-like chip and just use the “shake to wake” functionality to brighten the backlight.
Pebble might not have been the smartest smartwatch, but it was definitely the watchyest smartwatch. Always-on screen and week-long battery.
I specifically said for reading???
tablets are best for drawing
Back in 2014, I had a Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini, a 4-inch phone, and a 15.6" Dell laptop. That size of phone was difficult to do anything important on especially with no slide-out keyboard. There just wasn’t a lot of real estate for texting and emailing but it could do it. And laptops…you need to set up a station to use a laptop. Find a table or chair or something and spend a minute settling in. My tablet had a larger screen, louder speakers, it was easier to hold because it actually had some bezel, and the battery was excellent.
Now that I have a 5+ inch phone, whatever a Galaxy S10e is, a tablet is less useful.
I had bought a P11 Pro Gen 2 because I wanted an Oled tablet for reading, and outside of buying a very old Samsung S5e, it’s basically the cheapest option for oled along with its Chinese counterpart (Xiaoxin Pad Pro). Samsung Oled tablets are all of the # Plus tablets, which usually retail for more than the p11 pro gen 2.
I actually use a Samsung tab S5e and am considering upgrading. How is the P11 Pro Gen 2?
i bought it on wednesday, so I wouldn’t even be able to give you a fair assessment. hasn’t even arrived yet.
Ah ok. Well congrats on your new purchase! Whenever you feel you’ve got a good handle on it, would love your thoughts.
rocky linux tablet when
https://us.starlabs.systems/pages/starlite
Rocky isn’t one of the distros you can get preloaded, but it’s probably fairly trivial.
Yeahhhh ! But the price… PS : I don’t bought ever a Samsung pricing is too high… I got a Lenovo it works fine except the crappy battery
People keep saying this, but it’s pretty reasonable as far as tablets go. Its base is 16GB and 512GB, and it MSRPs for $713 USD with a sale to $655 for quite awhile now (though out of stock). The Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ with 12GB and 256GB is $700 on sale for $650. Considering the nature of the OS, maybe the standard FE is more equivalent with 8GB and 256GB at $520 on sale for $470. But you still have half the storage, and the Starlite is upgradable with standard M.2 NVME drive.
Even then, you’re getting a full Linux OS if that’s what you’re after. That’s a very niche market right now, to get a fully Linux capable tablet, much less one where the manufacturer supports and encourages it. Hell, it uses coreboot firmware. Considering the niche market, I’d say that’s a pretty damned good price. But if you don’t want full Linux support, and are happier with AOSP or Google’s Android, you can get a Pixel tablet for $400, or $500 with 256GB.
Sure you can get tablets for significantly less, like the Fire stuff from Amazon and a last-gen, base model iPad. But all of those have severe disadvantages as far as software and/or privacy. The N200 CPU in the Starlite isn’t going to set any records, but the ability to run full fat Linux puts it in a segment with the Surface and other Windows tablets. That’s something that the iPad Pro can’t even compete with, despite Apple fans begging for MacOS on those models for years.
Are there any of these cheapshit 7" tablets that will take something like LineageOS? Because that’s the first thing I’d do before I put a spyware laden thing like that on my network.
Blackview tab 16 is the best "offbrand "tablet I have found.
Mega specs,huge storage but less than 200euro with accessories.
Battery life is great,but we will have to see how it is in 6 months…
Also have a blackview tablet but unfortunately they will never update the software and I can’t find any tutorial on installing lineage os
The article mentions tablets with resistive touch.
Is that really a thing? I thought, Android only supported capacitative touch.
Resistive touch would mean no multitouch and thus no two-finger gestures.
I want to add that I bought the OnePlus Pad, which has been great for my use case of mainly reading epubs and PDFs. The aspect ratio is 7:5, which is much better for reading than many of the aspect ratios of other tablets I looked at. Also the battery life is pretty good, but I also don’t use it for anything computationally intensive
Edit: It’s not exactly cheap though, costing $480. But there’s a sale right now for $400, which is still not exactly cheap. But I think it was worth the price for me
If you’re just using it to read, I would highly recommend selling it and getting an e-ink display. I have both a Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle fire 8 plus. I just can’t read books on the fire 8 anymore, the Paperwhite is so good. If you can’t stand Amazon then rakuten makes a really good e-ink readers with their kobos.
Yeah I really considered getting an e-ink display, but most of the ones that can handle PDFs well are in the $400-500 range anyways. Since I didn’t have another tablet, I figured that getting the OnePlus Pad first and then buying another e-ink reader down the road would probably be the better option.
10” iPad is $250 at Best Buy right now. It’s the same one I have and it’s been brilliant for a very similar use case. I wish it were smaller though.
Genuinely curious, but for that use case and price, did you consider an eink tablet? I love my supernote for much the same use case.
Yeah I did, but I didn’t have another tablet, so I figured if I was going to spend $400-500, I might as well get a tablet first, and then branch out to e-ink displays if I feel that I want a more paper like display down the road. Thanks for the suggestion though! I’ll have to check out Supernote if I’m in the market- seems like it has sync integration with Google Drive which is really nice
Yeah, totally get where you’re coming from! Dev/Community engagement used to be fantastic (probably still is it’s just mostly on Reddit) best of luck!
