Pondering a new tablet

[MoodyBlues]

I recently bought a slew of new Android games, knowing full well that I wouldn't be happy playing them on my phone, and that they're better suited to a tablet. My "current" tablet is 9 years old! It's an Amazon Fire HD 8.9" that I rooted, so I could get rid of its silly 'carousel' thing I couldn't stand, and turned it into a normal Android tablet. That was nine years ago. I don't root any more. My brain has been fried by sepsis since then, and I'm not up for even TRYING to root a new tablet.

Additionally, I have *no* business whatsoever buying a tablet, considering the expansive, expensive renovations I had done at my house recently. I'm not willing to shell out a premium price for a tablet that will strictly be used for occasionally playing casual games.

With all that in mind, are there any tablets you'd recommend? I mean nice ones with big screens, but CHEAP (as in inexpensive, not crappy quality). I have no complaints about the Fire I have. I mean, back when I was using it. I didn't have it in the hospital, and I think I've only booted it up once since then. I don't even know if it still works. It was very nice, great graphics, nice screen size, but kind of heavy as I recall. If an Amazon tablet turns out to be my best choice, I guess I could live with whatever iteration of its silly carousel menu thing is now, but I'd *strongly* prefer a regular, normal Android interface. Thoughts? Suggestions? All input gratefully accepted, as always.

 

[ocnbrze]

How cheap are we talking about? $200 or less? Samsung makes a decent Tab A tablets under $200.

 

[Unforgiven]

Look for a convertable (360 degree) Chromebook. I'm posting on this right now. I have a 15" (I think) touch screen with a full keyboard like a laptop, but I can flip it all the way around for a tablet like experience. Plus, I have all my Play apps available so my games are all good. I'm stepping out, but I'll give you a link to the exact thing I have later on.

 

[ocnbrze]

Look for a convertable (360 degree) Chromebook. I'm posting on this right now. I have a 15" (I think) touch screen with a full keyboard like a laptop, but I can flip it all the way around for a tablet like experience. Plus, I have all my Play apps available so my games are all good. I'm stepping out, but I'll give you a link to the exact thing I have later on.

the only thing some developers will not let you use a chromebook to play android games. i used to play Boom Beach on on my chromebook, but the developers stopped support on android emulators which is what they say i used on chromebooks. so i stopped playing the game.

.....just saying so keep this in mind if you are wanting to play android games on it. most should be fine, but Boom Beach was or still is a pretty big game and its company is pretty big so i don't know why they decided on this policy.

 

[Milo Williamson]

I have been using my Samsung Galaxy Tablet for a least four or five years now, it is well worth the 800 I did pay forward it, the graphics are amazing on it, and how cheap do you want one, and with amazing lock down technology that can save you in the end, it just crystal clears on game play too, the battery last super long as well

 

[Unforgiven]

i used to play Boom Beach on on my chromebook, but the developers stopped support on android emulators which is what they say i used on chromebooks. so i stopped playing the game.

There is native support now. This is how Boom Beach shows in the Play app on my Chromebook (notice it says Install which means compatible).

I've only noticed a few apps with specific hardware requirements that weren't compatible with the Chromebooks nowadays.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Thanks for the input so far guys! Appreciate it.

As for price, I really don't know. I'm just telling myself I have NO BUSINESS spending money on a tablet right now, considering how much I spent on the house stuff. But I don't want garbage, you know? @ocnbrze, the Samsung you mentioned, is it decent? @Milo Williamson, there's no way I can justify $800 right now. Not for an occasional game. @Unforgiven, my only hesitation with a Chromebook is that I'd want to do to it what I did to the Acer Chromebook I bought before I got sick: put my favorite Linux distro (Kubuntu) on it, in place of its silly idea of Linux (where everything is cloud-based--I want local apps, local storage, offline use, etc.). So I'm kind of scared that if I decided to do that...I might get inclined to root the tablet part while I'm at it! I should probably investigate it to see for myself what's what.

Keep the ideas coming, please. I definitely don't want a screen smaller than 8 or 9 inches; the bigger the better, but still cheap! And I'd prefer that it not be very heavy; as noted before, I recall that my Fire was pretty heavy. Of course, that was nine years ago, and I know everything's gotten smaller/lighter since then.

 

[ocnbrze]

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsun...test-model-wi-fi-gray/6492906.p?skuId=6492906

its on sale for $179 normally $229.

i have the A7 8" version and i use it from time to time.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsun...-with-wi-fi-dark-gray/6464584.p?skuId=6464584

they are decent, but they are not like their top of the line Tab S8. i mostly surf the net with it and play some games .

 

[ocnbrze]

There is native support now. This is how Boom Beach shows in the Play app on my Chromebook (notice it says Install which means compatible).
View attachment 163885


I've only noticed a few apps with specific hardware requirements that weren't compatible with the Chromebooks nowadays.

hmmm well i talked to the devs via email and they told me that the last update (at the time), they stopped support for emulators which they said is what chromebooks does with android apps. so i stopped playing the game.....and i'm not going back to them and support their apps. i was done with them.

 

[Milo Williamson]

Thanks for the input so far guys! Appreciate it.

As for price, I really don't know. I'm just telling myself I have NO BUSINESS spending money on a tablet right now, considering how much I spent on the house stuff. But I don't want garbage, you know? @ocnbrze, the Samsung you mentioned, is it decent? @Milo Williamson, there's no way I can justify $800 right now. Not for an occasional game. @Unforgiven, my only hesitation with a Chromebook is that I'd want to do to it what I did to the Acer Chromebook I bought before I got sick: put my favorite Linux distro (Kubuntu) on it, in place of its silly idea of Linux (where everything is cloud-based--I want local apps, local storage, offline use, etc.). So I'm kind of scared that if I decided to do that...I might get inclined to root the tablet part while I'm at it! I should probably investigate it to see for myself what's what.

Keep the ideas coming, please. I definitely don't want a screen smaller than 8 or 9 inches; the bigger the better, but still cheap! And I'd prefer that it not be very heavy; as noted before, I recall that my Fire was pretty heavy. Of course, that was nine years ago, and I know everything's gotten smaller/lighter since then.

I kind of wanted that huge chunk of change out of my massive savings for SSID porpouses, without having the gravity attatched to it, although it felt and still feel great..


https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo...ablet-32gb-storm-grey/6502014.p?skuId=6502014 My mother has a Levono comp and she keeps like moaning on how much it just crashes down a lot, but heard great things of this.

 

[Bearsyzf]

i have the Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet, i like it. but @MoodyBlues why not wait for Black Friday or Cyber Monday .... i'm sure there will be some great deals.

 

[MoodyBlues]

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsun...test-model-wi-fi-gray/6492906.p?skuId=6492906

its on sale for $179 normally $229.

i have the A7 8" version and i use it from time to time.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsun...-with-wi-fi-dark-gray/6464584.p?skuId=6464584

they are decent, but they are not like their top of the line Tab S8. i mostly surf the net with it and play some games .

Amazon's price is the same, $179, and they're reminding me that I can get six months 0% interest on my Prime card....

Since I would not be taking my new tablet outside (at this time), I think I'd forego the Otterbox Defender case--that's what I've put every device in since I....um......well, let's just say my very first smartphone's screen met with an untimely death. After that, every device has immediately been put in an Otterbox upon arrival!

Once at Amazon, I went ahead and looked at their latest Fire, 10.1", and it looks like a normal Android tablet now. But I had forgotten that I would have to pay to get the stupid lock-screen ads removed (or put up with ads, which I don't do), and I don't know, I just think I'm leaning toward the Samsung. It looks VERY nice. Thanks for the heads-up @ocnbrze.

 

[ocnbrze]

Amazon's price is the same, $179, and they're reminding me that I can get six months 0% interest on my Prime card....

Since I would not be taking my new tablet outside (at this time), I think I'd forego the Otterbox Defender case--that's what I've put every device in since I....um......well, let's just say my very first smartphone's screen met with an untimely death. After that, every device has immediately been put in an Otterbox upon arrival!

Once at Amazon, I went ahead and looked at their latest Fire, 10.1", and it looks like a normal Android tablet now. But I had forgotten that I would have to pay to get the stupid lock-screen ads removed (or put up with ads, which I don't do), and I don't know, I just think I'm leaning toward the Samsung. It looks VERY nice. Thanks for the heads-up @ocnbrze.

no worries, let us know what you think when you get it. its not the world's worst tablet, but it is not best of the best either.

 

[MoodyBlues]

no worries, let us know what you think when you get it. its not the world's worst tablet, but it is not best of the best either.

Right, and as long as I know that going in, there's no problem, you know? I don't have any need for the world's best tablet right now. Really, I never did. For me a tablet has just been a fun toy that is better suited for some games than a phone. I never relied on my tablet for anything. That's why it wasn't with me in the hospital those six months! I normally didn't use it for anything besides games, maybe once in a blue moon I'd use some other app or watch a YT video, but it wasn't important. If I do go with this Samsung, I *might* get its 64GB version, just because I know how I am about using up space, but we'll see.

 

[Milo Williamson]

Right, and as long as I know that going in, there's no problem, you know? I don't have any need for the world's best tablet right now. Really, I never did. For me a tablet has just been a fun toy that is better suited for some games than a phone. I never relied on my tablet for anything. That's why it wasn't with me in the hospital those six months! I normally didn't use it for anything besides games, maybe once in a blue moon I'd use some other app or watch a YT video, but it wasn't important. If I do go with this Samsung, I *might* get its 64GB version, just because I know how I am about using up space, but we'll see.

You can get a foldable cover for it like mine, it's bottom is a magnet, that you can put your phone ontop of it and it will be fine..
Mine is (no pun) A galaxy for my galaxy tablet (okay so it is a little bit funny) here are a few examples via amazon..

https://www.amazon.com/samsung-tablet-covers/s?k=samsung+tablet+covers

 

[nickdalzell]

I outright DESPISE Amazon tablets. Lag, specs from 2010, and ads are not my forte. I had a short stint with the Fire 7 and Fire HD 8 and nope. I expected something better than my original 2011 Kindle Fire, but they're total downgrades, with crap specs, and forget adding Google Play to them unless you actually want to relive the glory days of the Samsung Galaxy ACE after logging into a Google account and updating the apps.

I highly recommend the A-series tablets circa 2021+. They've come a long way, and feel like premium tablets but for far less money. Samsung still has a Tablet UI and tablet apps. I don't play modern mobile games due to the way they intend to rob you blind via IAP and micro-transactions plus relying on addiction to gain user time, instead I opt for the classic versions of Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies to name two. Thankfully I backed the APKs up and they still run on modern tablets. I think my Tab A8 11.5" cost $200 at Walmart.

However, that being said, I still got my Note 10.1 from 2012 and it works fine still, and my Note 8.0 LTE still works. There's something more charming about their design, front-firing speakers (seriously why doesn't anyone have that anymore!) and the skeuomorphism that cannot be truly brought back properly on a modern one. I can install older apps to replace the built in apps but the flatness still asserts itself with the dialogue boxes, notification area, lock screen style and so on.

 

[MoodyBlues]

I outright DESPISE Amazon tablets. Lag, specs from 2010, and ads are not my forte. I had a short stint with the Fire 7 and Fire HD 8 and nope. I expected something better than my original 2011 Kindle Fire, but they're total downgrades, with crap specs, and forget adding Google Play to them unless you actually want to relive the glory days of the Samsung Galaxy ACE after logging into a Google account and updating the apps.

Well, as noted earlier, I definitely *loved* my Amazon tablet. I still have it--I just don't know where it is right now. The last time I fired it up, it still worked great, but I wasn't well enough to use it so it got put away...somewhere. But for the years I did use it, it was wonderful! Its graphics were beautiful, its display size was really nice (it's the 8.9" Fire HD), the ads didn't bother me because I got rid of them right away--it was worth $10 or $20 or whatever it was back then to get rid of that nonsense. It held a charge for hours, ran fast as lightning, and played just fine with Google. It's been a long time since I set it up, and many details are gone from my memory; all I can say for sure is that I rooted it so I could turn it into a normal Android tablet, I installed the Play store on it, and I used a combination of Amazon's Appstore and Google's Play store to buy apps for it. I simply had no complaints about it at all, and I used it a lot!

I highly recommend the A-series tablets circa 2021+. They've come a long way, and feel like premium tablets but for far less money. Samsung still has a Tablet UI and tablet apps. I don't play modern mobile games due to the way they intend to rob you blind via IAP and micro-transactions plus relying on addiction to gain user time, instead I opt for the classic versions of Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies to name two. Thankfully I backed the APKs up and they still run on modern tablets. I think my Tab A8 11.5" cost $200 at Walmart.

However, that being said, I still got my Note 10.1 from 2012 and it works fine still, and my Note 8.0 LTE still works. There's something more charming about their design, front-firing speakers (seriously why doesn't anyone have that anymore!) and the skeuomorphism that cannot be truly brought back properly on a modern one. I can install older apps to replace the built in apps but the flatness still asserts itself with the dialogue boxes, notification area, lock screen style and so on.

I don't know...I was leaning heavily toward Samsung, but right now I'm about to pull the trigger on... wait for it.... an AMAZON tablet!! It's the Fire HD 10" and its sale price is $74.99! After spending some time reading up on the ad thing, I may not even pay to get rid of them this time--apparently, they're ONLY on the lockscreen, i.e., you only see them when you go to unlock it. Ads do NOT pop up or show up randomly while you're using it. I'm thinking...

 

[nickdalzell]

$74? Sorry but the phrase 'you get what you pay for' means more than everyone expects. I hope your memories of your HD 8 were just rose-tinted because that thing was awful. It lagged, stuttered, and heaven forbid I'd ever put Google on it. That'd make it worse. It would eat battery sitting there doing nothing because when I'd wake it, it'd be playing some video loop for some rando game. The ads are on the lockscreen but they eat data and battery playing in the background. The only way to get a few days out of it was to keep it in Airplane mode and only go online when you needed it. I also had zero control over updates. Not being able to disable ALL updates is a deal breaker. Fire Sticks are even worse. They freeze requiring plug pulls just trying to play content via Paramount+ or Netflix. My Apple TV from 2010 still works and is far superior as are my ONN brand streaming sticks that run Android TV. I still have both my Fire 7 and Fire HD 8. but only because I don't support e-waste. I never turn them on and their batteries are likely fried from sitting for over a year.

In contrast I have fond memories of the original Kindle Fire that ran a variant of Android 2.3. I wonder if any of those survived and are on Amazon?

 

[Bearsyzf]

Mine are only on my lock screen and i don't get pop up ads.

 

[mikedt]

Amazon tablets...YMMV. Of course I've never seen or had one myself.

 

[nickdalzell]

I never said I got popups. The lockscreen ads play even with the screen off and make the battery lucky to go a couple of days, or in my case, more than 8-12 hours. I had to use Airplane mode when I used it just to keep it usable (all the games I had installed, books downloaded didn't require internet.)

With tablets today, for me at least, I tend to fill the storage up with enough offline content that I never need them online ever again. That way I avoid updates, ads, and the possibility of Amazon or Google remote-deleting a book I've downloaded (read that happened to Kindle copies of 1984). The only exception is when I intend to use the tablet for media consumption such as YouTube, YouTube Music, or multi-player games, although lately my Wii-U and PS Vita have taken that role.

 

[MoodyBlues]

$74? Sorry but the phrase 'you get what you pay for' means more than everyone expects. I hope your memories of your HD 8 were just rose-tinted because that thing was awful. It lagged, stuttered, and heaven forbid I'd ever put Google on it. That'd make it worse. It would eat battery sitting there doing nothing because when I'd wake it, it'd be playing some video loop for some rando game. The ads are on the lockscreen but they eat data and battery playing in the background. The only way to get a few days out of it was to keep it in Airplane mode and only go online when you needed it. I also had zero control over updates. Not being able to disable ALL updates is a deal breaker.

Nope, nothing rose-colored about my memories. I used it daily for years, and if it had been plagued by problems--including lag time, stuttering, eating the battery doing nothing--I would've returned it, not used it daily for years! As for this one's $75 price tag, that's on sale 50% off, for Prime; I don't know what its non-Prime price is. I ordered it. It's coming today. I bought the 64GB version just for the hell of it. As my previous one, this is Wi-Fi only, so eating data never was and won't be a concern. If it turns out to be shitty, I'll just return. I'm not interested in rooting it, so if it's truly unusable for my purposes (playing games), off it goes!

 

[Bearsyzf]

i got the same @MoodyBlues and i have not had any problems out f mine, and it's a couple years old.

 

[nickdalzell]

When I said eating data I meant bandwidth. It used a ton and even affected my ability to stream on my TV (either it was downloading updates or continually loading ads). The amount of wifi usage would span 20GiB a month. That's not a good thing.

Maybe if you had another more quality tablet to compare it to you'd know what I'm talking about. Performance was never part of Amazon tablets. They kinda remind me of my first Coby tablet from 2009.

 

[MoodyBlues]

When I said eating data I meant bandwidth. It used a ton and even affected my ability to stream on my TV (either it was downloading updates or continually loading ads). The amount of wifi usage would span 20GiB a month. That's not a good thing.

Mine was nothing like that.

Maybe if you had another more quality tablet to compare it to you'd know what I'm talking about. Performance was never part of Amazon tablets. They kinda remind me of my first Coby tablet from 2009.

Perhaps you had a lemon. My old one was great, and although I only know a few people IRL who have also had them, they've been happy with theirs, too. Online ratings for them are overwhelmingly positive; yes, I take that with a grain of salt on everything I buy, but when you're seeing thousands of reviews and they're overwhelmingly good, that's usually a good sign. Mine never did the things you've mentioned; its Wi-Fi usage was no more or less than I'd expect. When not playing games on it, I'd use it while out on my patio to stream music, and it worked flawlessly, no lagging, no hiccups, no issues at all. I think yours may have simply been a lemon.

Well, my new one arrived about an hour ago. As soon as I'd fired it up, we held it side by side with my helper's Samsung tablet (not bottom of the line), and *she* said my display is nicer. It's also slightly bigger.

So far it's just like I remember the old one: fast, beautiful graphics, nothing to annoy me [yet]--and as we all know, I do get annoyed easily! That silly carousel menu--that couldn't be replaced with something else (without rooting)--is long gone, so that's good. Now it just looks like an off-the-shelf Android tablet. I don't know how much I'm going to bother customizing it, as it's literally only going to be used for playing games. This is what it looks like at the moment:

I need to brush up on how to install Google Play on it and/or how to install APK files. Some of my file managers let me save my apps as APK files, which comes in really handy when I've already paid for an app on Google but want to use it on an Amazon device. If anyone can clue me in, that would be fantastic!