I not have a smaller phone, and therefor want it's big brother in a pad
I used to use a smallish LG, but courtesy of Scott, I have a Unihertz jelly, https://www.unihertz.com/jelly.html that is about half the size , (3 1/2 x 1 3/4")with about 2/3 the screen area of the LG (3 1/2 x 1 3/4") Now I need something about the size of my Kobo, https://ca.kobobooks.com/products/kobo-aura (6.5 x 4.5") for programs like Open Street Map and Waites' Guide to North American Birds. Any recommendations for good, relatively inexpensive pads that run Android 7 or 8? --dave -- David Collier-Brown, | Always do right. This will gratify System Programmer and Author | some people and astonish the rest davecb@spamcop.net | -- Mark Twain
| From: David Collier-Brown via talk <talk@gtalug.org> | Now I need something about the size of my Kobo, | https://ca.kobobooks.com/products/kobo-aura (6.5 x 4.5") for programs like | Open Street Map and Waites' Guide to North American Birds. Any | recommendations for good, relatively inexpensive pads that run Android 7 or 8? The smaller a tablet is, the easier to carry and the worse to use. If you were are always going to carry a tablet and a phone, it is clearly a mistake to separate the functions from a phone -- go for a phablet. It seems as if Android tablets were mostly a fad. Don't ask me why -- I can never make sense of the market. The fact that you went for a small phone suggests you are only going to carry the tablet sometimes. If it isn't that often, and you really intend to use it when you do carry it, go for a big tablet. The Kobo Aura isn't big and it is lighter than any tablet. Are you going to need internet connectivity away from WiFi? - do you intend to tether with the phone? - do you need a data plan for the tablet (not throw-away money)? There are a few sizes of tablets that I know of: 7", 8", 10", 12". If you are carrying it, 7" is nice and light. The Nexus 7 (second version) was very nice: 1920x1200 pixels. But it is too old. The Kobo Arch 7 HD had similar characteristics but it is even less well supported now. I bought a refurb one for $40 a few years ago. If you need more visual space, 10" is nice. The Nexus 10 was great: 2560x1600 pixels. But it is too old. There Kobo Arc 10 HD tablet had similar characteristics but it is even less well supported. You can find it for ~$100 refurbished. If you like using a stylus, Samsung models with "Note" in their name have an "S-Pen" that should be quite good. Most people don't need that. Definitely try to get one with the latest Android. These things age quickly. Maybe the Android One program will help future tablets but there is no evidence yet. Other than firmware, I'm not aware of important advances in Android tablets. If your eyes can benefit from them, get as many pixels as you can. If you aren't picky, you can get Amazon tablets quite inexpensively. With a tiny bit of hacking you can get the Android Play Store installed on them. That may not work in the future. The Fire 7 was $49.99 last month. I don't think that I'd want one.
| From: David Collier-Brown via talk <talk@gtalug.org>
| Now I need something about the size of my Kobo, | https://ca.kobobooks.com/products/kobo-aura (6.5 x 4.5") for programs like | Open Street Map and Waites' Guide to North American Birds.ￜ Any | recommendations for good, relatively inexpensive pads that run Android 7 or 8?
The smaller a tablet is, the easier to carry and the worse to use.
If you were are always going to carry a tablet and a phone, it is clearly a mistake to separate the functions from a phone -- go for a phablet It seems as if Android tablets were mostly a fad. Don't ask me why -- I can never make sense of the market.
The fact that you went for a small phone suggests you are only going to carry the tablet sometimes. If it isn't that often, and you really intend to use it when you do carry it, go for a big tablet. The Kobo Aura isn't big and it is lighter than any tablet. Indeed, I always have the phone, the kobo and proposed tablet ride around in a backpack on weekdays, a jacket pocket on the weekend. I do have a bird book on the Kobo, but it's non-interactive: I want a
On 25/06/18 12:32 PM, D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk wrote: particular app for Android or iPad, plus open street map.
Are you going to need internet connectivity away from WiFi?
No
- do you intend to tether with the phone?
- do you need a data plan for the tablet (not throw-away money)? I could, if I wanted something specific, but probably not.
There are a few sizes of tablets that I know of: 7", 8", 10", 12".
If you are carrying it, 7" is nice and light. The Nexus 7 (second version) was very nice: 1920x1200 pixels. But it is too old. The Kobo Arch 7 HD had similar characteristics but it is even less well supported now. I bought a refurb one for $40 a few years ago. My wife has a newￜ 7.8 x 5.5" Kobo Aura One, I'll try and see if it carries well. Thanks!
--dave
If you need more visual space, 10" is nice. The Nexus 10 was great: 2560x1600 pixels. But it is too old. There Kobo Arc 10 HD tablet had similar characteristics but it is even less well supported. You can find it for ~$100 refurbished.
If you like using a stylus, Samsung models with "Note" in their name have an "S-Pen" that should be quite good. Most people don't need that.
Definitely try to get one with the latest Android. These things age quickly. Maybe the Android One program will help future tablets but there is no evidence yet. Other than firmware, I'm not aware of important advances in Android tablets.
If your eyes can benefit from them, get as many pixels as you can.
If you aren't picky, you can get Amazon tablets quite inexpensively. With a tiny bit of hacking you can get the Android Play Store installed on them. That may not work in the future. The Fire 7 was $49.99 last month. I don't think that I'd want one.
--- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
-- David Collier-Brown, | Always do right. This will gratify System Programmer and Author | some people and astonish the rest davecb@spamcop.net | -- Mark Twain
On 2018-06-24 15:32, David Collier-Brown via talk wrote:
Now I need something about the size of my Kobo, https://ca.kobobooks.com/products/kobo-aura (6.5 x 4.5") for programs like Open Street Map and Waites' Guide to North American Birds. Any recommendations for good, relatively inexpensive pads that run Android 7 or 8?
I was playing with an Amazon Fire 7 last weekend, it's a nice tablet in terms for the price, $80 for the 16GB version. It also has a microSD card slot so it's expandable to 256GB, which will probably be important for your bird watching guide and OSM cache. The only drawbacks (which are big drawback IMHO) is it runs Amazon's Android and not Google's, I'm not sure how they are subsidizing the price, and I'm not a fan of tablets with a 16x9 resolution.
On Mon, 25 Jun 2018 at 13:43, Myles Braithwaite 👾 via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
On 2018-06-24 15:32, David Collier-Brown via talk wrote:
Now I need something about the size of my Kobo, https://ca.kobobooks.com/products/kobo-aura (6.5 x 4.5") for programs like Open Street Map and Waites' Guide to North American Birds. Any recommendations for good, relatively inexpensive pads that run Android 7 or 8?
I was playing with an Amazon Fire 7 last weekend, it's a nice tablet in terms for the price, $80 for the 16GB version. It also has a microSD card slot so it's expandable to 256GB, which will probably be important for your bird watching guide and OSM cache.
The only drawbacks (which are big drawback IMHO) is it runs Amazon's Android and not Google's, I'm not sure how they are subsidizing the price, and I'm not a fan of tablets with a 16x9 resolution.
It's not very difficult <https://www.howtogeek.com/232726/how-to-install-the-google-play-store-on-your-amazon-fire-tablet/> to install Google Play on a Fire tablet, and once that's on you can install a new launcher and generally have a similar experience to a conventional Android tablet. In this respect that Fire HD 8 might be a nice idea, the 7 looks too underpowered to me. FWIW, I own four tablets including both models of the Nexus 7; its 2013 model still stands up as very good, though the stock OS doesn't get updated anymore and requires a ROM replacement such as Lineage if you want to keep it up to date. The other two are an 8" Dell that runs Windows and an 8" Acer with a nice screen but horribly underpowered. My own very personal observations: - The sweet spot for size is 8", especially if you want to use it instead of a laptop on your travels. An 8" together with a Bluetooth keyboard makes a great combo, and there are advantages to having a keyboard with good keys that's not wedded to the form factor of the screen. I have a Logitech K380 <https://www.logitech.com/en-ca/product/multi-device-keyboard-k380> and am very happy with it; happy to bring it to the next TLUG meeting. - From my own research to date, the best value right now is the Huawei MediaPad M5, available in 8.4" and 10.8" versions, and the best place to get them in Canada appears to be Newegg. Cheaper but less capable are the Asus Zenpads as a reasonable alternative. The Samsung S a series is overpriced and the A series is underpowered. Only downside of the Huawei is the lack of an audio jack (though it has really good dual/quad speakers depending on screen size). If you have headphones you'll either need the USB dongle it ships with or Bluetooth - I've also had experiences with the no-name brands from places like Gearbest and Aliexpress. All I can say is that they're cheap and usually under-powered, and don't ever expect a software upgrade (or 3rd party ROM support), They make a model, sell it until the batch runs out, then design a new model. (Come to think of it, that also describes OnePlus....) HTH, -- Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch or @el56
On 06/25/2018 04:16 PM, Evan Leibovitch via talk wrote:
FWIW, I own four tablets including both models of the Nexus 7; its 2013 model still stands up as very good, though the stock OS doesn't get updated anymore and requires a ROM replacement such as Lineage if you want to keep it up to date. The other two are an 8" Dell that runs Windows and an 8" Acer with a nice screen but horribly underpowered.
I recently bought an Asus Zenpad 10, with 1920 x 1200 resolution. There's a cheaper version with 1280 x 800. It's quite nice. I had been using a Nexus 7, original version. While it worked well, I often found the display a bit small. It also slowed down with one of the updates and the battery is about dead, so... I also bought a folding case/stand for the Zenpad from Amazon.
| From: James Knott via talk <talk@gtalug.org> | | I recently bought an Asus Zenpad 10, with 1920 x 1200 resolution. | There's a cheaper version with 1280 x 800. It's quite nice. I had been | using a Nexus 7, original version. While it worked well, I often found | the display a bit small. Do you mean too few inches or two few pixels (or both)? The second Nexus 7 is quite a bit better than the first one. In particular, it has the same number of pixels as the Zenpad 10. It depends on your eyes whether you find a 10" or a 7" is better when the number of pixels is the same. Don't trust other people's opinion because they have different eyes.
Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk@gtalug.org> writes:
- From my own research to date, the best value right now is the Huawei MediaPad M5, available in 8.4" and 10.8" versions, and the best place to get them in Canada appears to be Newegg.
I second the Mediapad's. I brought a M3 Lite 10 (which has an audio jack) from Newegg to replace my Nexus 7 2013. The price is right, it is fast, and the battery life and stand by time is great. The build quality is also great. The only downside is Emui, but it is far closer to stock than Touchwiz (or whatever they call it now). Charles
participants (6)
-
Charles Philip Chan -
D. Hugh Redelmeier -
David Collier-Brown -
Evan Leibovitch -
James Knott -
Myles Braithwaite 👾