Suggestion for a new tablet?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have a computer, downstairs in the office, and a smart phone, also often downstairs on its charging station, and an old Samsung Galaxy android tablet that I keep in the living room. It is connected to the house wi-fi (Comcast). I do two things in the living room, often at the same time: watch TV, and do crosswords. I use the tablet to look up stuff for the crosswords, and to check on movies and TV programs I might be watching. My current tablet must be 7 or 8 years old, and it is very slow. I’m not sure why it is slow, whether it’s because it’s old and has a slow processor, or because it is lagging due to being on wi-fi, or both, or something else.

I have been considering buying a new tablet, if I can be reasonably sure that it will be noticeably faster (and won’t slow down after a few months).

Let’s say price is not the primary object (within reason), the primary object would be performance for the above tasks (I won’t be streaming videos or playing games on it, for example). Let’s also say I’m not moving to Apple. Are there any shining lights of Android tablets that I should be looking at? Or is it just a numbers game (fastest processor, plus other stuff I suppose)?

Or is there a good review site that you trust that I can check out?

2

For a tablet of that age, it’s pretty much a certainty that it’s running an older OS, but a really common issue on old tablets is storage. Even if you don’t download anything and use few apps, the OS itself tends to grow substantially over time, and a lot of earlier tablets and phones found their storage full/nearly full very quickly. Which products a hell of a lot of issues!

Another issue for smart devices is bloat - lots of manufacturer specific versions of apps that you don’t really need, but that integrate with their own ecosystem. If I wanted a long lasting android tablet with few to no probably long term software issues, I’d probably recommend a Pixel tablet - but performance to price wise, they’re “meh” at best.

As a starting point, I’d check the picks here:

That said, I’d rule out the Fire line right off - great if you’re a heavy Amazon user with limited high performance needs, but not being able to do default App store is a major pain, and the Silk browser is terrible.

Of the one mentioned, I’d say “budget” pick of the Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 + is a good match to your needs. I personally dislike a lot of their bloatware, but in terms of value for money, it’s a far better choice than the Pixel tablet, is likely to have long support, and I doubt at 128G for $199 you’re going to have any storage issues even with app/OS updates.

ETA - personally, I find the 10" models to be my sweet spot, with the 8" being a bit too small for easy reading and my aging eyes, and the 12" models being just too bulky, but if a bigger or smaller screen are a priority for you @Roderick_Femm, let us know. If a bigger screen is better, the Lenovo mentioned in the same article would also be a fine choice, especially at the current sale price of $259.

And please be aware, these prices are currently reflecting Black Friday/Cyber-Monday sales, though they’re close to common “sale” prices you’ll find multiple times a year. I frequently see the Samsung model close to the current $199 point, and the Lenovo frequently around $299 or so.

3

I need to re-think my response.

4

I just got a new 13th gen Fire HD10 tablet. It’s not very powerful or fast, but it’s only $70 right now and I really just wanted it to read comics in the bathroom, and for that, it’s been great. :+1:

The built-in Silk browser kind of sucks but you can install the Play Store and then install whatever browser you want without jailbreaking it.

5

I agree with the first part, but the second is… problematic. Sure, you’re not technically jailbreaking, the process is often called “side-loading” but you’re hacking the OS with third party software to enable basic google functions, with zero promises of 100% compatibility (likely a very minor issue) but noticeable issues with stability and reliability, though both are probably not going to be an issue for the OP’s uses. Though it also can also be an issue down the road if your OS gets any major updates. Not to mention, you may also have issues with the language of the keyboard and some apps defaulting to Chinese…

Of course, I won’t say I’m speaking from experience…

–eyes glance over at his old Fire 8–

But since the OP specifically asked for stability and reliability, without much concern about price, I think it’s a misstep to head in the direction of serious hacks. I mean, if all I’m looking at is price and specs, there are a ton of Chinese tablet models out there that’ll blow all of the major options out of the water on paper… just not sure they’re a good match to the OP.

Anecdotally, my current working tablet lineup: Fire 8 (as above), Fire 10, VastKing 10 (similar to the link above), REVVYL Tab 5G (cellular tablet, nearly free from carrier).

6

This is my recommendation. For home-based media consumption and light app usage, I’d just pick whichever 10” Samsung or Lenovo is priced best for you and call it a day. I pretty much bounce between the two brands and each time they do what I want for years before the battery starts its inevitable downslide (which is also usually around when the overall performance starts feeling creaky). My c.2020 Samsung Tab A7 is just about hitting that point now.

7

My Fire tablets won’t connect to sites that use Cloudflare for security. This has become a problem recently and Amazon has no current solution.

My next tablet will be a Samsung.

8

I really like my Samsung Galaxy S9 FE+

I bought it to take hand written work notes. I much prefer that to typing. I now have about a dozen ‘notebooks’ on there. Work, home, whatever projects.

I also have one in my car used as a GPS. My 4Runners GPS is so bad I could start a thread about it. So I have two of those S9’s. I’m planning on taking it to the hot tube to read, once I get my lazy ass in there. It supposed to be water resistant to 3 feet deep for 20 minutes. So, I should be ok with a bit of steam or a splash.

9

I don’t use tablets, so i don’t know if this is an issue. But for both laptops and phones, i like to handle the device before i buy it. I spend a lot of time physically interacting with my devices, and i want that physical interaction to be pleasant. Do the laptop keys feel responsive under my fingers? Does the phone fit acceptably into my hand? Is it too heavy? Is it awkwardly large. (My husband also asks if the font is awkwardly small.) I want to know that i will enjoy the physicality of interacting with this device.

10

I had already ordered one of these (11 inch) and expect it to be delivered by the end of the week.

Do people have advice about the bloatware it comes with? Is it like my phone where a lot of apps warn I shouldn’t uninstall or things won’t work right?

What else do tech-savvy people do when they get a new tablet? looking at you @SmartAleq

11

Although I am a “Windows on the Desktop” kind of guy, I am an iOS user for mobile and my current tablet is an iPad Air M2 that I am quite happy with. I agree that the Amazon Fire tablets are cheap but are underpowered and the app store limitation is an issue. The last non-Fire tablet I had was a Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 many moons ago.

12

Thank you for starting this thread @Roderick_Femm and to all for the suggestions! My approx 8 y.o. Samsung tablet has been having a tough time charging lately (ISTM the cable port on my tablets is always the first thing to go) and I’d really like one with a bigger screen as I get older. I’m very similar to you in usage – mostly playing solitaire or reading email & SDMB while watching TV.

I checked Amazon & they have a 128 Gig model on Cyber Monday sale for $199. That’s less than my water bill was last month! So I have made an impulse purchase.

13

Follow-up question: Is there anything at the higher end that can approach the performance-to-power ratio of Apple Silicon or at least the Snapdragon Elite in Surfaces?

The last time I shopped for an Android tablet, they were all using bargain-bin CPUs and GPUs, the kind you’d find in throwaway school Chromebooks. Meanwhile Apple leapfrogged them by several generations by putting premium laptop-grade M chips into iPads, and then Surface followed suit with the Snapdragons.

Have the Android tablets caught up yet in that regard?

Or can you load Android onto a Surface?

14

While briefly “doing my own research” I saw that some of the tablets I was looking at had Snapdragon processors (but I didn’t write down which ones). One of my problems in this area is that I have no idea what processors are good, bad or indifferent.

15

Unfortunately, Snapdragon is just a marketing brand name that can apply to a broad range of processors, from super low end to super high end. For example, the Snapdragon 695 in a Samsung Galaxy Tab A9 only has like 20-30% the power of the Snapdragon X Elite in a Surface Pro: https://www.cpu-monkey.com/en/compare_cpu-qualcomm_snapdragon_695_5g-vs-qualcomm_snapdragon_x_elite_x1e_78_100

I’m not sure if any Android tablets have the higher-end Snapdragons.

Meanwhile Apple Silicon is so dramatically better that they’re some of the most powerful computers in the world now… it’s really too bad they run iOS and are basically glorified TVs :frowning: Like you, I can’t stand the iPads. Tried one for a few hours, found that it couldn’t really do anything with all that horsepower, and returned it.

16

I’ve never tried an iPad. I just don’t want to become an Apple user.

This is what I mean. I don’t want to have to dig down to learn this kind of thing (not any more, once it would have been catnip to me). So I take advice, like here. I’ll probably end up with the budget Samsung that a couple of folks have recommended.

17

You’re not worried about the inevitable slowdown? Battery is one thing (they are consumables), but there is a pretty big difference between the weaker CPUs and the more powerful ones. If all you’re doing is crosswords, though, it shouldn’t really matter. Plus it’s still a lot cheaper to buy a low end tablet every few years than a really expensive one; the price performance ratio strongly favors the lower to medium end.

18

To clarify, I’m not doing crosswords on the tablet, I’m looking up stuff to help me (cheat*) with crosswords. So frequent forays into IMDb, maps, and various Google searches.

*I do crosswords in books, which tend to be several years old, and some of the topical clues in entertainment are things I never knew or have forgotten. Also capitals of Azerbaijani provinces and stuff like that.

Also, since I am always in the same place, on the sofa, when using it, my tablet stays plugged in, so I don’t worry much about battery life.

19

Can you elaborate on that? Are they poorly made or prone to stop working or something like that? Because I could buy almost three of those for the cost of one Samsung.

20

Ahh, gotcha.

In that case, do you specifically need a tablet, rather than a laptop or Chromebook? You’d have a lot more options for “powerful computing device that sits by the TV” if you’re not specifically limited to Android tablets in particular.

In particular, the Surface Pro 2-in-1s mentioned previously can be used as both a tablet and a laptop (they have detachable keyboards, like some of the Samsungs). They are much more expensive than your typical Android tablet, but they have much faster processors. The primary downside (IMHO) is that they run Windows, which isn’t really very well suited to a tablet form factor, especially if you like to use it in portrait orientation. There’s also far fewer apps than in the Android ecosystem. They can sometimes run SOME Android apps, I think, but I wouldn’t count on it.