the state of cheap tablets

adolf hamster · 13 Feb 2021 at 09:36

so i'm finding myself in need of a ~~portable tv~~ tablet.

not really interested in anything apart from screen size (10" minimum)/resolution (it's 2020 none of this "hd ready" bs)

used to have a tabpro which was pretty damn good until it died.

having a quick look seems the huawei matepad looks like it fits the bill nicely but figured a quick check with folks who pay more attention to these things than i do might be worthwhile.

adolf hamster · 13 Feb 2021 at 09:57

just looking up the fire, so they really charge a tenner more to not have it randomly advertise on the homescreen!?

adolf hamster · 13 Feb 2021 at 11:11

Semple said:
It's not the homescreen, it's the lock screen. So you only see book adverts when you wake it up to unlock.

If all you're after is a device to watch media on, then I'm not sure you'll find better for the price. It's not the quickest tablet on the market, so it really depends on your requirements.

yeah, it's a good £40 less than the huawei for the ad free version.

given it's 2 requirements are youtube and prime then yeah looks like it'll do the job.

adolf hamster · 14 Feb 2021 at 01:21

lsg1r said:
XDA 'fixes' can remove the ads for free supposedly, haven't bothered with xda yet with mine but all seems to be pretty minimal on adverts but amazon stuff is front and centre on the homescreen.

If you're after prime and youtube you should be fine though.

Dont really wanna be diving into the world of android tweaking, done it a few times over the years and its kind of a pain in the posterior.

arknor said:
I'm rocking a samsung galaxy tab a from 2016 I think.

2gb ram, 1.6ghz octa core CPU.
1920x1200 10.1inch TFT screen

Yeah the tabpro i had years ago was 1440p, oct core etc and after hitting it with cyanogen thing ran even the 60fps stuff on yt flawlessly. All for £220 too.

arknor said:
More important to you might be the speaker placement BTW, some are front facing others shoot the sound off to the side which obviously is annoying for watching videos

Not too worried there, its mostly gonna be headphones and i have a decent bluetooth speaker if needed.

adolf hamster · 20 Feb 2021 at 09:03

that teclast looks interesting.

some reviews complaining about lack of screen brightness/sheen but given the horrifically bad state of lighting in the room it's gonna be used in might not be so bad.

adolf hamster · 20 Feb 2021 at 12:13

leezer3 said:
Assume no software updates whatsoever.

HD doesn't work in DRM encrusted apps, so Netflix etc. as they haven't paid to implement the DRM.

So no hd on amazon prime then?

The rest of that i can deal with, but given this things sole purpose is gonna be a mini tv then hd is something i care about.

I mean its 2021 as far as i'm concerned "standard definition" should be 1920*1080 minimum.

adolf hamster · 23 Feb 2021 at 09:17

the problem with going more premium is it seems the spec to price curve drops off pretty quick.

adolf hamster · 23 Feb 2021 at 10:09

yeah, especially seeing as the last tablet i had was such a good spec for the price, i wonder what happened to the pricing schemes?

adolf hamster · 22 Mar 2021 at 00:29

That lenovo doesnt look too bad, currently hovering over the samsung tab a 10.1 option but a built in stand might not be the worst option (solvable with a case i know).