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Tablet suggestions?
Looking to get a tablet for my birthday but I'm so disconnected I don't know what specs to look for, where to get one or a decent price range to expect. I do need something on the cheaper side, but am ok with something good if refurbished. Only ever had a tablet once and it was a "free*" one from Verizon over a decade ago. I'm also open to other device suggestions.
Wants:
- Not an iPad
- To be able to use it with an attachable keyboard as a light laptop replacement for the couch.
- To be able to use it to play mobile games similarly while on the couch.
- To set up in the kitchen when cooking with recipes or a video.
- To work for playing/running D&D or Pathfinder (Foundry VTT is the biggest memory user.
I am wanting to be able to disconnect from my phone and all the work apps and social media and such while still playing farmrpg on a lazy night watching a panel show on TV.
Or watch something on the tablet while knitting or something.
Okay, I hear you on not wanting an iPad, but…
Apple kinda cornered the tablet market just because nobody else has bothered to make a good user experience for their tablet operating system. Android tablets have so many weird limitations, either from the device manufacturer or because app developers don’t bother testing with larger screen androids. An iPad (any iPad) fits your requirements spectacularly, except the « not an iPad » requirement. I would strongly recommend you consider an iPad. Apple actually has a pretty decent return policy, and sometimes extends it during the holidays. You can buy one and return it if you don’t like it. Or ask a family member if they have one you could try for a bit.
Anyway, my personal favorite tablet in terms of hardware is the Microsoft surface line. It has an attachable keyboard for real laptop use, but separates out into a tablet with a fantastic kickstand. If you want an Android, I think Google has made some tablets in the same form factor as the surface devices. Those could be worth considering.
Agree, surfaces are the best non apple tablet by a wide margin, but an iPad Pro is better than a surface by a similar margin.
By what metrics?
The iPad is tablet-first, and a well defined platform. All of its apps work properly on the tablet form factor because they were designed to, and there aren’t very many physical specs to consider. Storage is better too, with up to 2TB. The stylus support is leagues ahead of anything else in terms of responsiveness and sensitivity. The display is excellent. Real world battery life is better on iPad from my experience, unless you are very particular about your apps. Also heating is a real issue on a surface. Expect to be downclocked frequently.
The only thing I wish it had was the button support, eraser, and alternate tips that the surface has. I understand their desire for a clean appearance but it’s very useful.
I think if Windows 8 hadn’t been terminated that the surface could have been a closer competitor or even superior. The first few generations of the surface pro were very slick. Unfortunately, regular windows desktop apps, while fairly usable on a tablet, are still a bit janky. You will frequently run into weird conditions that are difficult to debug or sometimes more or less impossible. Lots of DPI issues too, which isn’t a tablet specific issue but just a windows complaint that crops up frequently on this hardware.
For context, I own every surface device (I mean every, including all the desktops, laptops, hybrid tablets, and tablets) and also every iPad and iPhone. I have a large number of android devices, but obviously with the size of the market I can’t have all of them, which is one of their biggest weaknesses for compatibility.
I'm with you on the Windows 8 train. I know people hated it, but Windows 8.1 might have actually been the best and most forward-thinking release of Windows of all time, correctly foreseeing the tabletization of computers, and the fact that Windows computers include touchscreens for some reason just makes me sad because Windows without Metro is a miserable experience for touch.
Sadly I would have never known this if I had not impulse bought one of those ludicrously cheap windows tablets that Microcenter was selling at the time.
As someone who has seen surfaces deployed in a work environment, most.
It is ironically windows here with the bullshit proprietary charger that works with nothing else you use and clutters up everything or you waste a precious USB slot. Oh it’s also a piece of shit that fails, falls out easily if you put a serious protector on it, and will cost a bunch to replace/suck even more if you get a knock off.
I cannot stress enough the testing. So much stuff made for windows/android assumes desktop/phone. Using those same products on their tablets has often shown massive blind spots in UI/X and performance. Lots of “wait how the fuck do I…” or “oh this thing that shouldn’t take more than a few CPU cycles and a K of RAM is written in nothing but JS and has come for everything I have “.
It’s a last mile/fit and finish thing that feels especially awful on the surface given how they’re priced. At least the androids are “cheap”.
That said if you NEED windows, well you need windows.
Edit: if having Foundry usable is a dealbreaker I’d start there. I’m not even sure if you can get that on adroid or apple, and even if you can get it on all 3 that’s EXACTLY the kind of program I’d expect to have all sorts of issues. Not just performance but things like “oh cool I can read literally none of this“. I’d check around and see if you can find someone who’s done it already if I’m not just living in a cave and this is known and solved problem.
Hard to find a sadder phrase in the English language than “I need Windows”
For what it’s worth I do think it catches a lot of hate it doesn’t deserve which dilutes the hate it does deserve.
If you want a gaming machine that just works, it’s still windows. Full stop. I know at least one person who’s gone down the PopOS/Bazzite/whatever route and it’s 1000x better than it was even 10 years ago, but it’s still not anywhere near windows in plug and play for whatever.
Excel is also still THE spreadsheet tool by a few miles. It’s got more half baked and undeveloped features than its competitors have features combined which is super awful but if you need to live in data and disperse it to non techy humans who want to do their own analysis sheets is going to cause you headaches and libro nightmares.
Shame about the never ending press to be more and more 1984. I still find that just saying “no” to the install dark patten minefield and turning off a few things makes it out of sight out of mind, but I am ready to jump ship the day that’s not true.
Yeah I'm looking through the conversations about using Foundry (just as a player) on mobile and it looks like there's some modifications out there but... Probably no. Certainly not without something high end. Which just means the tablet could function as character sheet/quick searching skills. (I do already have to run it in Chrome instead of FF and not split my screen. ) Looks unlikely all around basically.
Ah well.
I use them for work and really don't like using them, plus I'd not be able to carry over my mobile games and in general I just really dont want the thing.
I also don't need super high performance, I just don't want to get a cheap tablet like the "free*" one that runs like junk and has no memory.
I have not, other than work/school reqs, used Apple since iTunes came out and fucked up all my totally legitimate mp3 files by helping me organize them. I don't anticipate that changing. Open to Microsoft or Google though.
I've been a huge android fan on phones for years, and generally speaking prefer PC over Mac, but I have an iPad and would never even consider an Android tablet. They are just miles ahead of the competition and it isn't even close.
Otherwise probably a Surface device might be the next best thing if OP is adamant about not iPad.
This is interesting and clearly a lot of people agree with you but as someone who had owned both I hard disagree, I much prefer my Android tablet to the iPad in virtually every way. I think a large part of this is that I haven't used apple products anywhere else so the Android device is just much more intuitive/obvious to me. I also find Apple too restrictive with things like browsers where you can't actually install anything other than what's essentially a skin over Safari.
It's like 5 years old now but my tablet, Galaxy Tab S6, still runs and works great. I would recommend it (or whatever is the new one in that line of products).
The irony is my sibling offered me a free iPad... Because it was originally free to them, and they got a new one for free from Xfinity.
She then tried to get me to take the ipad I still don't want.
Sigh
Hah, that's rich. Good luck in the search! It sounds like you're a casual user like me so anything not bottom of the line should be okay. If it were me, I'd be searching for:
After I had 5 or so models I like in my price range I'd run them through Phone Arena which can do side by side comparisons and then just pick the one with the best combo of specs I like.
I think I'm just trying to figure out what is bottom of the line to avoid it, but also what looks nicer and is actually trash. Plus figuring out how many more updates something will get.
I have no idea why this feels harder than a phone.
My tablets of choice are iPads for reasons outlined in a sibling reply, so I can't necessarily give a recommendation, but I can share my experience.
I have a couple of Android tablets I use for app dev/testing:
The first is intended as a stand-in for a crappy cheap Android device, for which it's quite suited. It's quite slow and plods along with just about any imaginable task. The display is surprisingly decent for its original price point, but the 16:9 aspect ratio is for practical purposes only usable in landscape mode because in portrait, it's awkwardly skinny and doesn't fit printed documents like PDFs or manga without either horizontal scrolling or a big chunk of vertical empty space. Bundled crapware is present but not overbearing. It might have accessories like keyboard covers for it but I think those would be a waste of money given the assuredly short useful lifetime of the device (OS/app requirement creep will bog it down even further with time). Overall I'd recommend spending a bit more on something nicer even for basic usage.
The S8+ is a much higher end device. Display is great which is no surprise with Samsung being one of the premier OLED panel manufacturers. It's speedy enough that most users would be hard pressed to find issues with performance. Its 16:10 aspect ratio is less lopsided than the Lenovo's 16:9 and is a much closer fit to paper documents, but at its size it still feels awkwardly tall. Accessory ecosystem (keyboard covers, etc) is vastly more robust. Its biggest negative point though is the trademark dump truck of crapware that Samsung is famous for… this can be disabled if you're a little handy with a terminal and disable packages via
adbwith a computer, but not an amazing out of the box experience.I don't own one and have never used their products, but on the Android side of things, OnePlus' Pad lineup has caught my eye on multiple occasions. The Pad 3 (13") and Pad Go 2 (12") in particular look like the closest thing to Android clones of iPads without crossing into brands where availability may be limited (Xiaomi, etc). Their more square 7:5 aspect ratio is nicely balanced and practical for portrait use while still being wide enough for multitasking in landscape, and they sell a case with integrated KB+trackpad for the Pad 3 which should make it quite laptop-like.
Windows tablets are an utter mystery to me because nothing I've seen indicates that the Windows pure touch experience is anywhere near as good of that as "real" mobile operating systems, and the Intel based options (which are the most interesting for perfect software compatibility) are all markedly hotter, noisier, and more power hungry than their ARM counterparts.
Thanks for the info
I don't want a lot in the way of accessories, just the ability to type if say I want to do a longer Tildes post for example. I'll have to go through and make some lists.
+1 for the Lenovo Tab M10 Plus 3rd Gen
Confused, the previous poster said it functions as essentially a crappy cheap android device? Are you recommending it?
Haha, I just saw the name and didn't read the post. But yeah, I don't have any complaints about this tablet at its price, it does its job. Sure it's not the fastest, but it fits your requirements.
The only thing is that it's now relatively old, and it hasn't received security updates in a while I think.
Yeah that makes it less appealing, especially if I can't run apps because of its age.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite (2022 or 2024 models) can be found for very cheap used/refurbished (often <100$), and has pretty good stylus support (so, good for digital art if you want a really cheap standalone drawing tablet). I can't say how it would perform for Foundry VTT or mobile games, but my S6 lite has been pretty good for various art tasks. My one gripe with it is the aspect ratio, I would have preferred a more square aspect ratio, rather than the narrow-ish 16:10.
Thanks. Worth looking into. Definitely open to a refurb
I have a Galaxy Tab S7 FE which has a separate keyboard cover.
I use it mostly for digital comic reading, watching stuff while I row, and playing the occasional game. It works for all of those and I think it would clear all of your requirements.
My main complaint is that don’t love it as a laptop replacement. The keyboard works fine and is easy to connect and disconnect, but I just don’t like touching the screen in place of a mouse. It’s workable but clunky.
As a tablet though, it’s great. I don’t love Samsung’s OneUI, but I also haven’t been bothered by it enough to replace it.
Fwiw I do have a laptop still, plus I can use my work laptop at home sometimes. But comics and basically couch activities are definitely what I'm thinking about it for.
The only thing I think would strain it is using it for Foundry. Which if nothing else it could be my character sheet and I could run foundry on my laptop. (When I'm DMing it'll be a nice notes page for me)
I've been on the hunt for years now to see if there's anything I prefer over my Surface Go 2. So far: Nope.
So I know you're not interested in a Surface and that's fine, but I'm going to try and briefly go through what I've discovered by buying different tablets; in 2025 alone, I bought three different ones and none of them have supplanted my little 10" Surface Go. Keep in mind I've purchased all of these used, at a discount.
Anyway, I picked up a couple Android tablets this year, but the one I want to mention is the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 SM-T870 128 GB, which I paid $170 for and then another $63 on eBay for a type cover and so far, I like it a lot. It has a beautiful screen, pretty good battery life, access to Samsung Dex, which is a nice approximation of a proper desktop OS. It's played every game I've thrown at it, including Civ 6 and I've successfully emulated (not a lot of) PS2 and Gamecube. I think it's really great with the pen too (mine is a knock-off third party pen) and has been great for tracking data in my tabletop wargames.
That said, I struggle to use Android. I find it annoying as hell that I can't access deep into the OS file structure and have to use all these workarounds to actually do that; I like to transfer my save files from various games around to different devices I own and it irritates the the hell out of me that I'm not trusted as a user to do so. I also dislike that it's essentially a large phone. I use an Android telephone and it's fine for that, but it feels silly to me to use it on such a big device, because I feel like I should be able to do things I can do on a proper computer. For instance, seeing multiple tabs at once in Firefox and the ability to switch windows while an app does its thing in the background. Dex helps with this, but again, I feel limited by Android and much as I really like the tablet, I keep running into these little roadblocks that drive me crazy. I also dislike that many apps and games often become deprecated; I have quite a few games I've bought that just straight-up won't work on modern versions of Android because they're too old.
It's also stuck on Android 13. I don't find this to be much of a bother personally and I do know you can install GammaOS or some other costume ROM, but I haven't bothered with that. But maybe that would resolve some of my issues with Android as an OS?
I also picked-up a Surface Pro 7 for $120 on Craiglist. It's fine. It's more powerful than my Surface Go 2, but I find the size obnoxious. It's far too large to be able to use as a tablet when I want to (which isn't often) and overall, I just find it a step down from the Surface Go 2. Obviously you don't care for that, but just figured I'd throw it out there.
Anyway, over the years I've tried half a dozen tablets and I always come back to my Surface Go 2. It's just the right size for me, has access to all the software I want, can play a good portion of my Steam and GoG libraries and works great as a tablet for when I want to read PDFs, game manuals or what have you. Yeah, it's a little more fiddly to use the touch interface on Windows, but I don't mind it at all and my usage is probably 70% laptop, 30% tablet. If I had to pick one to keep forever, I'd keep the Surface Go. That said, I'm still probably going to hang on to the Galaxy Tab, because I do want to get over my misgivings and appreciate it for what it is, rather than what it isn't.
I'm not opposed to a Surface necessarily, I just don't know much about it. I do still have a laptop that's older but serviceable and maybe long term I just need to replace it but I don't feel I can spend that much money right now.
Thanks for the other info though, worth me looking into!
FWIW, I didn't know if I'd like a Surface either, but I picked up a very basic one several years ago for about $150 to see how I liked it. Long story short, I loved it so much that I upgraded it to the 2 with a faster processor and twice the RAM. It's not a speed demon by any means, but it does what I want it to without complaint. And they're even cheaper these days than they were back then. The upgraded 2 I paid $300 for and they can be found for half and less these days. Do note that the linked one is the Surface Go 1, with less RAM and a slower processor, but that is the same version I initially fell in love with. If you were to get one without the tablet cover, I'd highly recommend an official Microsoft one, it's just so much better than the third party ones.
That said, again you'll be paying roughly the same (maybe a bit more) for a similar Galaxy Tab 7 and it is a big upgrade over the surface as far as screen and general performance go. The Surface Go can be a bit sluggish at times, but for me I don't find that bothersome, because it's still a fully featured OS.
After typing my last comment on my Surface Go, I did switch over to my Galaxy Tab, since I was thinking about it and it certainly does have a lot to recommend it. Better pen performance using Samsung Notes vs Microsoft Onedrive, better screen, keyboard is maybe not as good and tactile, but is slightly larger and easier to type on, but the touchpad is kind of garbage, especially in comparison to the glass one on the Surface type cover. But it is a fine tablet, very premium feeling and generally just very nice if you're not a weirdo like me.
I should also say that the Surface line also has it's own community of Linux developers, so you can actually switch over to various distros that work very well on the Surface. On my Surface Pro when I first picked it up, I installed Debian and it was actually perfect and fully featured; I ended-up not keeping it on there for long, as I'm not a big Linux fan, but it was a very good experience overall. I am considering installing it again on my Go, but I'm happy right now with how it performs and I don't want to go hunting for new software to do what I am already doing in Windows.
Edit: Making a quick edit here to say that I went back and edited this post several times and used the touchpad on the Galaxy to put the cursor where I wanted it and eventually ended-up just using the arrow keys because the touchpad is so shit it's difficult to point and click where you want it. That's my primary complaint, but the keyboard is pretty good otherwise.
I am definitely not going to be installing Linux. Very much out of my baliwick and while that could have been me with different life choices, I don't have the energy or inclination to have to fuck with my OS and all the other little adjustments. I'm not really a putterer by nature.
Appreciate all the info though!
I like to mess with stuff, but exactly why I never stick with Linux long term!
Oh also, battery life on the Galaxy seems to be significantly better, but never measured it. As well, both tablets have MicroSD, which I like.
I tend to over inform, so if it's too much info, sorry! I'm certain to think of new things to come back and blab about...
No no the info is good. I miss SD slots on phones but the security stuff got weird near the end anyway.
I'm mostly trying to not have a piece of junk but I don't need something high performing either. I prefer a smaller phone so something larger feels like it'd be better for couch time.
Sounds like you probably use a tablet exactly like myself, since I tend to use mine when I'm sitting on the couch in the morning or evening. I definitely like having a keyboard that I can flip up for those times I want to do some research or type a quick comment here or something.
The Surface Go is slightly lighter and feels more comfortable to hold for longer periods. The Galaxy is surprisingly heavy, but feels very sturdy for it.
Oh, I remember what else I wanted to say:
Much as I love my Surface Go, it can feel a little redundant, since I have a powerful 4lb Thinkpad Workstation. But the Surface is damn nice for transport if I'm going somewhere, since it weighs basically nothing and can use the same charger as my Steam Deck. But the redundancy, since you already have a laptop, is something to consider.
But I've still kept the little thing all these years and I've had four different Thinkpads in the time I've had the Surface Go. Love my Thinkpads, but the Go is just doing something special.
My laptop is huge. I got it a while back on sale as a gaming computer whose battery/power supply couldn't keep up with it for any extended period. I don't game much but it's big enough to struggle to fit in a standard dedicated laptop bag. Plus due to some repairs unplugging and replugging it often isn't super good for the jack so we try not to move it daily. (It doesn't fit at all in my cute leather briefcase bag my partner got which is as close to a purse as I've ever gotten. Does fit in the Bag of Holding which was a fantastic purchase.)
All of which to say... It's why I want something in between, size wise.
Definitely!
My P1 feels enormous, even though it's "only" 16" and 4lbs. It can feel cumbersome to even move around the house, so it's nice to have a little machine to cart around.
What's nice about having a low power PC in the form of the Surface is that it also gets me to look at my Steam library differently; I start looking for stuff that feels like a waste to play on my huge workstation and it feels like it broadens my thought process on what to play.
A fellow knitter!
I picked up a pixel tablet pretty cheap. It satisfied everything I might need to use a tablet for. If you don't like the Google ecosystem, look elsewhere.
I use a Pixel phone, just had never heard much about Pixel tablets. Worth checking out, ty!
And yes, I haven't really done much this past year and I want to get back into it. Life has been hard.
Let me know if you want a hand or anything else to keep you going - it's a hobby I keep coming back to.
I mostly just stalled out working on a hat. I try to learn something new with every pattern. Did a boomerang shaped scarf, done a hat with a little tree pattern, but as soon as I start making something for someone else I stall out.
I love tricking 1D objects into being 2D objects by wiggling them a lot.
Colorwork (I think the right word) beyond basic stripes is something I'm interested in tackling soon. But mostly I need to find and use all my existing yarn 😅 buying new yarn is too tempting.
Also no refurbs on the Pixels... I did realize I should probably wait until people trade in their old items after getting Christmas presents before expecting much on places like backmarket or even via Google's store.
as another knitter, I have also been intrigued with colour work. I have done stripes before, but nothing beyond that. I have done some complex patterns though. A sweater is on my one day project list, but I have been stubborn in trying to figure out the pattern myself
Oh I don't need to make my own patterns, but I like knowing enough to know how to fix or alter a pattern slightly. Not enough to do clothing though.
I am hoping to darn some sweaters and figuring out how to patch them in some colorful visible mending ways though!
visible mending is such a cool concept and something I want to get into one day
I'm trying to use the internet for learning things that are useful to me, and that's one of them!
I did a bunch of crochet color work blankets in the mid-2000's. I'm not sure if it was called that then, I was just making my own patterns using grids in photoshop. Here's a gallery with a few of them.
For the more complex ones, I would calibrate yarn length to stitches and use one of these measuring tools to make spools (wound on toilet paper tubes) for specific blocks. That saves on needing so many skeins. I also made a frame out of these cubes with a bunch of bars (cut the straight part out of a wire hanger, leave a little hooked part on each end, then insert them in the wire frame). The bars hold all the spools so they don't get tangled. Not very portable, but very effective.
Happy to share more detail if you get into it.
That's very interesting! I don't know how much this type of work varies between knitting and crochet (my crochet work is... Usable for edges at best) because I think you don't typically make multiple separate mini skeins for knitting. Idk though going to have to learn some stuff!
+1 for the Pixel Tablet. I bought one for my iPhone using wife, and she's enjoyed it. About two years old and like the Pixel phones, performance is still great. Great integration with the dock, too.
I'm going to suggest some alternates that no one has mentioned and I think would fit your needs better. The reason I say this is that:
1: iPads are overkill for your need and will be one of the most expensive choices.
2. You sound more like a casual user rather than a power user so speed isn't super important to you. You also mentioned you wanted to stay away from the Apple ecosystem (I can't blame you)
3. Surface pro's are excellent but large and relatively unwieldy as a tablet. I absolutely love my surface pro 7 that I downgraded to win10 but they are expensive, heavy, and overkill more in the sense of what they can accomplish. They are a laptop replacement rather than a cheap tablet replacement. Also the go2 is OK, but installing windows with ram limitations means you will be trading off processing power and battery life just so you can use windows which still isn't the best form factor for a tablet.
4. Gone are the days of android os being terrible as a tablet so long as you are using a newer OS version. I would suggest you stay away from the Samsung recommendations because they are full of uninstallable bloat ware unless you use workarounds. Dex is perfect for tablets, but android 16 is making Dex less of a game changer.
My mom asked for a tablet years ago and I suggested the galaxy tab. Outstanding tablet, it still looks and runs great for the casual user, and is super lightweight. Her problem is they are very old, slow, and still running a super old android version. Unlike her S5, I wasn't able to install a homebrew OS to bring it up to date. She asked for a newer recommendation. I couldn't recommend the newer S tablets for reasons stated above. She mostly wanted an e-reader with light browsing capabilities but could also video call. I gave her 2 choices: go iPad and learn the OS (yes, I know they're easy but we're talking about a boomer trying to learn new technology - she uses hand written notes on how to do the most basic of functions but she's learned android for the most part), or go with what I suggested. The Lenovo legion y700 (Gen 2). A newer OS, snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, stunning screen, and outstanding battery life. It also can connect to an external keyboard.
Now, I'm not going to recommend that one you to. It's stunningly fast (back to my point about overkill) and everything happens instantly. As a casual user it has 2 aspects that you probably won't be able to live without - get one with a good screen (this removes most android tablets from your list) and the higher refresh rate really improves scrolling and looking at things on your screen. The tablet is spectacular, has stunning sound, and runs like a dream. Also, Lenovo lets you uninstall pretty much everything on the tablet. But 2 reasons I wouldn't recommend: it would be that OS updates are pretty much non-existent with lenovo even though it runs perfectly out of the box, and that it's too heavy. My mom said she'll use it in bed as an e-reader and then as she's starting to pass out it will bonk her on the head. Also, the screen is a bit too small for the browsing aspects (but perfect as an E reader)
So here's my suggestion:
There used to be no real contenders on android (other than Samsung) but as of the past year or so, this would be my recommendation: Xiaomi pad 7 or 8.
It will be very much like the legion in terms of speed, refresh rate, great screen but its size is the perfect form factor, and it has mostly removable bloat ware (with Samsung, you can disable the apps but not remove them, xiaomi you can mostly fully uninstall them). It comes with newer android OS and some promise of updates so it's somewhat future-proofing. It will do everything you want and look/sound great but it won't break the bank. There's a pro model which is fully and galaxy tab S replacement, but again, overkill. Reviewers of these tablets praise them and point out that the newest android os now has bridged the gap with Samsung Dex that there's almost no benefit of it now.
OP doesn’t want Apple for understandable reasons, but it seems disingenuous to claim that the iPad will be one of the most expensive options. Xiaomi doesn’t appear to have an MSRP listed on their website. But based on an Amazon price for the pad 7, an iPad would cost an extra… $5. Not exactly breaking the bank. And if you follow the Xiaomi recommended link from their website to aliexpress, a pad 7 costs nearly twice as much as the iPad.
Well it's only a hundred bucks on Temu, but I'm assuming tariffs might be part of the issues.
Maybe I need to look at refurbs (´;︵;`)
Thanks so much for this, the only question I have really is that I'm not finding the Xiaomi to be cheaper than the Lenovo you mentioned. (Except on Temu which I've never used.)
But I also don't know if there's a particular place to go look or if I'm finding the wrong items. Any you'd recommend?
The Lenovo can be had for cheaper - my comment was just that the 8.8" screen is a bit small for some, and it's only on android 12 with no updates coming. If not, I'd probably recommend the Lenovo, it was pretty nice.
As for tariffs, yeah that might change things. You could try European, south American, or even Singapore suppliers since xiaomi has spread well outside of China. Even eBay might be a good way to find some second hand ones.
Gotcha. Unfortunately $400 is out of my birthday price range and I'm not finding any on the refurb sites I've used. I don't expect a much cheaper option - I certainly don't know where to buy things from a Singaporean supplier - short of Temu and I don't trust a 75 percent discount or Temu. (Nor eBay with the ease of fraud there these days for electronics. Alas. ). Bummer.
Ahhhhh. So one of the important aspects of your request that you need to address is - what is your budget? I would highly recommend that you don't make a request like this unless you mention that upfront. I've done this with requests and some people will ignore it, but it's important or else you will get many useless suggestions. From what you've mentioned I think everyone's suggestions have been out of your desired price range.
I did mention it, I asked about price ranges and what to expect and that I needed something on the cheaper side, with my only experience being getting one for free.
I don't have a hard or fast number, and if I (my partner) can't afford one right now, I can't.
There are tablets on Amazon for under a hundred bucks and the one you recommended is on Temu for that cheap, but I don't know if they're all junk which is how we ended up with me asking y'all. I needed a starting point because I literally don't know what to look for and wanted options that weren't "an iPad"
I tend to use versus to help me decide some of my tech questions like this. I can scroll down the list of features (sometimes things I didn't even know were options), decide what's important and not, and filter down the list. Even if I end up doing other research, knowing some of the options I could choose to have, is good.
Thanks, something like this can be helpful, it's also a bit overwhelming since I don't know the actual technical specs I need.
I understand. What I do is to scroll down the list looking for the things I know I do want (or decide that I want once I see that it's an option). Like when I got my last cellphone, I didn't know anything about the internals, but I knew that I wanted at least 6gb RAM, a headphone jack, ability to add a memory card, a smaller sized phone for my small-ish hands, etc. So I filtered by all the stuff that was important to me first - couldn't've cared less what type processor or how many mb the camera was.
Once I had it reduced, I started scrolling through the available features to see what features looked or sounded good: okay, yeah, a camera with some higher resolution would be nice so let's set a minimum for that, increased water resistance would be nice so let's add that, let's exclude anything with less than a 70% approval, etc.
Then I selected the top 3 (?4) recommendations and brought up their specs for comparison: oh this one's heavy, let's drop it and bring in the next one. Eventually you get it down to a handful of options that are pretty decently targeted to your needs, and then you can ask opinions about the models. Otherwise, I ended up with a bunch of "I'm happy with my apple/Google/Samsung" and "these other phones can run Lineage", which was nice but didn't tell me what other options I might've been happy/happier with
Yeah I think I'm going in really blind on the tablet just because I haven't had one in forever: what do I need. I may go look at the Foundry VTT recommended specs and go from there. (And rule out that perk entirely if needed)
Phone wise, while I've gone with the Pixel a series for a while, it gives me a starting point for comparison that I don't feel like I have on another device. I'd feel about as lost with shopping for a computer at this point. Some of it is just operating on a tight budget now. I may also check out some local resale stores as well as backmarket and try to find ideas of what's available.
Or give up on the tablet for a while. The phone and laptop work ok. Just not what I wanted.
I do very much appreciate the resource and hope it'll help me more when I have a better grasp.
I'm in the market for a tablet and am similarly out of the loop. Nobody mentioned Starlabs, which I've only recently discovered myself. I wonder if there are any opinions on this?
https://us.starlabs.systems/pages/starlite?shpxid=2507f0c3-d38a-4e14-8e58-6d4fa6ffe63d
Reviews I've seen peg it at around 4 hours of battery life and poor hardware performance (aside from a nice display). Seems like a terrible tablet. iPad for general tablet use, Surface for laptop-first, Android if you can't stand the other platforms, and Linux never (for tablets).
I love Linux, but there's no significant drive within the community to build even a passable tablet experience so it'll remain poor for the foreseeable future.
Disappointing but thank you so much for saving me the disappointment. Off to buy an iPad.
I've had an iPad Pro, a Pixel Tablet and currently have a Galaxy Tab S9+. The Pixel tablet would work well, especially with its speaker dock, but you'd have to seek out a keyboard case + stylus. Google's Pixel UI scales well to a tablet and is as fluid as an iPad would be. Samsungs hardware is iPad Pro level (at least for their S series) and the software is functional. Samsung includes a stylus but their first party keyboard cases suck. Would recommend getting a Dexnor case. I've got one and it's the closest you can get to Apples Magic Keyboard case.
Thanks though I laughed because I don't have a clue what Apple's keyboard case is like to compare anything to. Literally never heard the Magic Keyboard term.
There are however no refurbs of Pixels hanging around right now that I can find and new is too expensive so I'll be waiting for the post Christmas present rebound in inventory.ಠ,_｣ಠ
I should've read your other comments before posting then haha, apologies! You might have some luck buying a used Pixel Tablet actually. Most people simply left them on the speaker dock and didn't touch them much so most of the used ones are in fairly good condition. You also might be able to score a Tab S9 (11 inch, 2024 model), Tab S8/+ (11in/12.4in, 2023 model) used for cheap.
Yeah I'm assuming that stocks are low due to the holidays and folks who got new/upgraded tech will be selling theirs (or have and it's being refurbed) soon.
I probably need to just be patient. Alas my birthday is relatively soon. I appreciate some specifics!
I hope you find one soon! Early happy birthday wishes to you as well!
Thanks! It may become something I save for later but I at least have a starting point now
Even though an Android tablet doesn't meet your Foundry VTT request, let me suggest one that's both within your budget (currently $224 at Walmart if you can stand shopping there) and has some features you may want.
The TCL NXTPAPER 11 Plus* is a versatile tablet for both media/e-book consumption and Android gaming, has a big enough screen for use with an add-on Bluetooth keyboard, and decent battery life. At 500 grams, it's heavy for one-handed use (a limitation for anything bigger than 8", IMHO), but would be a good mini-laptop for your purposes.
*I stumbled on this because I'm currently trudging through the latest e-reader specs and concluding there are still no good options that do everything I want (portability, clarity, battery life, open book ecosystem, note-taking, non-proprietary OS, etc.) for a reasonable price. Back to my antique 8" Huawei Mediapad M5 international version. Even though it's Android EMUI 9, the screen is still gorgeous for reading and the battery life is great. I have two, and might get around to trying Lineage OS on the U.S. version that's stuck at EMUI 8.
Additional rant: I'm not sure it's possible to achieve everyone's wish lists in a tablet form factor with current technologies. Even iPad fans admit the failings of the device in comparison to a Mac laptop.
I've lived with a Surface as a daily professional tool - it's an okay Windows laptop especially when docked, but not very good as a tablet (gesture recognition, writing, app scaling, battery life, etc. aren't good). Price/performance and proprietary connectors are additional drawbacks.
Android doesn't have any emulation for other ecosystems (you can at least RDP into a Windows PC if you want...) and many apps still aren't optimized for tablet use. I have a OnePlus Pad Gen 1, which is in that "tablet usable as a laptop" form factor niche - Oxygen OS overlay does some things to make app scaling and multi-windowing better, but it's still a little flaky. It doesn't get as much use as I'd like because the weight isn't friendly to my crip-hands, and I'd consider selling it cheap (including OEM keyboard and stylus) if this is something you're interested in... PM me if you'd like.
Samsung's proprietary junk and slow updates aren't worthwhile even if the hardware is glorious.
E-ink's graphics limitations reduce e-readers to niche use, even with proprietary overlays.
With the exception of e-ink, the problems are mainly software and not hardware - aside from the Google Pixel (driven by platform-independent universal data harvesting and ad sales) and iPad devices, there's no market advantage in the tablet form factor that justifies the investment in unified, coherent development.
Thanks! I'll definitely check it out. My abstention from Walmart is not a hard and fast rule just a strong preference so it's at least worth considering.
Very much appreciate it!
This is as unhelpful as someone saying I should get an iPad, FYI.
I can appreciate snark but I'm in the US wanting a non-iPad and have gotten multiple recommendations. So.... What's the point? Does the tablet you have meet my needs? What does it cost currently?
I think the current Pixel tablet is the best sorta basic Android tablet on the market currently. I think it's definitely the best android tablet I've had, but I've always accidentally, somehow, got either older or just-off mainline Samsung tablets. It can play any game I would want (Balatro, Slay the Spire, Vampire Survivors), has a nice, clean, vanilla Android experience. A benefit to Google devices is you don't have vendor-specific bloat, as well. At risk of sounding like a Google market copy, it's a perfect extension of my Pixel 8 for stuff I wanna do as well, especially games with cloud support, or reading (I buy DRM-free and upload to Play Books, which syncs to everything). Something I don't use, but you can include, is a speaker dock that you can charge it on. If you've got somewhere you're gonna sit, point it there, watch what you want hands-free. Frankly, in a future setup I would probably use it as my alarm clock.
Something people don't talk about is the USI Stylus standard, which is also compatible with many flagship tablets. I use a Penoval tablet with my Pixel Tablet, through a tempered glass screen protector, with no issues.
EDIT: I saw you mention having a Pixel Phone. I'd say just get the Tablet as well.
I have an iPad but find a lot of stuff I think I should be able to do is a limiting factor (sharing Logseq from my desktop to my tablet, phone, and laptop, for example) simply can't be done in a way that makes sense for me on iPad because they block everything off. It's my only iDevice so it sort of sits on its own island to get dusted off on occasion.
Yeah if they weren't 4-500 dollars new it'd prob have been an easy decision, out of compatibility and having a credit line at the Google Store alone.
But alas.