Android tablet/Google Play recommendations

The Game Room
21

Not quite sure I understand this…? What do you mean “an advantage over Android”?

Android is just the operating system made by Google, and Pixel is their own line of phones & tablets that run Android. So Pixels are the “purest” Androids you can find in the market, straight from Google. It’s kinda like how there are many brands of PCs that can run Windows, but Microsoft also makes their own “Surface” line of Windows PCs. Pixels are just Google’s own Android devices.

From there, other companies like Samsung and Lenovo also use their own modified versions of Android, usually a few versions behind the latest, and add their own UIs and app stores and bloatware on top of it. These can sometimes have better hardware (screens, CPUs, graphics cards, keyboards, etc.) than the Pixels, and can be both higher or lower price depending on specific brand and model.

Fire is a heavily modified version of Android, and in its particular case, Amazon decided to ditch the Google ecosystem altogether so they can have their own (and keep all the profits). I think the Barnes & Noble Nook is similar, except I’m pretty sure even that can access the Play Store. Most manufacturers aren’t big enough to ditch Google Play, but Amazon is and decided to take that risk for the sake of Bezos’s wallet.

So it’s really up to you. The advantage of Pixel is just that it’s straight from Google so it will always have the latest updates and no third-party software except the ones you add yourself. Samsung and Lenovo tablets may have better hardware but run slightly modified versions of Android, which may or may not be a big deal to you. Try them at the store and see. They should all be able to run the apps you mentioned.

22

I know you’re asking for an Android tablet, but since you’ve brought up the iPad a few times now, you know that $1,100 is for the high end iPad Pro that would be total overkill for your needs, right? A new low-end iPad at $350 from Apple ($299 at Costco) is going to be fast (probably beating out almost all competitors benchmarks) and reliable and will definitely provide 4-8 years of excellent service.

23

I love my Samsung tablet, but there’s one big problem with it. You can barely use expanded memory. Add a card and it won’t let you install things on it. Or you can, but it will keep moving apps back onto internal memory without your bidding. So there’s not much you can do with an expansion card.

Basically, if you get a Samsung tablet, make sure it has a lot of internal storage. Don’t count on an SD card fixing it for you. It’s just one of those major annoyances of that Samsung system.

I made sure my tablet had a lot of storage so I don’t have to fight with it like my old Samsung.

24

Reply - I still remember when I took entire college courses to learn how to use computers, and picking up everything about tablets via osmosis, hopeful Internet searches, and lots of plain old learning the hard way has been daunting. Appreciate the clarification. I definitely have a better idea of what I want now.

zbuzz - I’ll just give it to you straight: I am done with IPads. Completely, categorically, irrevocably done. The “good” IPad cost me well over $800 and developed battery and operational problems after less than two years. And if there were environmental factors that massively reduced the life of that piece of junk (warmth, for example), it should have given me a damn warning about them. What, a cutting-edge tech company doesn’t know how to make a red screen and a buzzer?? I have no confidence that any of those newfangled geegaws is built to last, and I’m not going to get taken again. Just for a point of comparison, I’ve had my Fire tablet for almost five years, during which I took it through plenty of warm environments and dropped it on the floor at least three times, and it still works just fine.

Atamasama - Don’t really use SD cards, but good to know, thanks. I’m confident 64GB is going to be more than adequate for a long time.

All right, looks like I’m making another trip to Sam’s Club this weekend! :slightly_smiling_face:

25

It’s a bit unusual that you want an Android tablet despite using an iPhone… but I’m the same way… I use an Android phone with an iPad :slight_smile: And I totally get wanting to write off a brand after a bad experience with them. I have a similar irrational fear of Acer and HP laptops, despite millions of people using them without issue.

Anyhow, the current iPads do have better CPU/GPU chips, making them on paper the best gaming tablets you can get, but that only really matters for graphics-intensive, 3D-heavy games (usually the cross-platform ones that were originally meant for PC or consoles). The mobile-native games you mentioned shouldn’t have issues on any recent tablet, Android or iPad.

I only have an iPad because there was a period of about a decade when Google was rather tepid about Android tablets, barely dipping their feet in the water, releasing a model for a year or two and then not having any tablets at all for another five years. But eventually Lenovo and especially Samsung stepped up and started more seriously investing in that form factor, and now there are a bunch of good ones to choose from. Samsung’s higher-end tablets especially rival the iPads in most ways except performance. The Apple M-series chips that power the iPads are still miles and miles ahead of anything else on the market, but the Samsungs have really good screens and are more affordable than the iPads.

The Pixels are not particularly standout devices in any way, except that they’re a good “middle of the road” choice in most regards. They’re not the fastest or cheapest or biggest or brightest, but they are generally good enough devices that are made and maintained directly by Google. In the past, third-party Android devices severely lagged behind the latest official Android versions, usually by 1-2 years, but I think that situation has improved somewhat. And anyway, I can’t even tell apart the last 4-5 versions of Android in any meaningful way; the updates don’t mean much these days anymore. They were a much bigger deal like 10 years ago, but I guess old habits (and fears) die hard.

If I were you (and price isn’t an issue), I’d check out the premium Samsung tablets first, the Pixel second, and only bother with the other brands if none of those serve your needs.

Also keep in mind that almost every popular tablet will have a broad selection of third-party cases, including possibly some “infinite hinge” ones. But the best cases are almost never sold in brick and mortar stores, only online. You might want to research case options beforehand, figure out which tablets have the kind of case you want, and do your shopping based on that.

Have fun!