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I'm torn. My iPad Mini is my last non-retina device and I'm fed up with that. We have an iPad 4 but it's too big. I like Android in general as well, had an N4 and an HTC One, liked both. I can't decide between the Kindle HDX 7" or the Nexus 7. I only use Tablets for reading via Kindle, Pocket, web-browsing, Twitter and FB. I don't care about gaming at all. I really can't decide between these two devices. As my current phone is an iPhone, I like the idea of having a pure Android device to putz around and stay current with. But it sounds like the build of the Fire is a bit higher quality and the Amazon integration would really work for me. I'm hoping somebody has a killer flaw they can share about one or the other (holding a Nexus 7 gives you the clap, or something) to make this easier.
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# ¿ Oct 5, 2013 00:29 |
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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 17:16 |
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Slo-Tek posted:Just my own experience, but the build quality of my (admittedly, second) N7-2 is considerably excellent, and I thought I was a lot more hooked in to the amazon ecosystem than I really am. I've got a kindle fire and an N7 and an n7-2 and the kindle fire got bumped back to the kiddy tablet in very short order. It is possible that the later gen kindles suck less, but I was amazed at how rarely I watched anything on amazon video, and how bad the Kindle Fire UI was for organizing, and looking at books. Between that, and the shameful Amazon marketplace, I'd look a lot harder at the n7. The kindle app and Calibre make reading on the n7 very good. Hrm... I guess I'm leaning towards the N7 at this point. Maybe I'll hit Best Buy and check them out in person first.
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# ¿ Oct 5, 2013 04:28 |
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Trip Report: Got a Nexus 7 because I wanted a retina screen on something nearer to my iPad Mini's size. If this is the consensus best Android tablet, they've got a ways to go before they've reached parity of experience with the iPads (please note: not a fanboi, I have an HTC One and consider it equal to the latest iPhones, easily. Android's caught up on the phones to where deciding between them is just preference, not an objective quality thing). A lot of the apps I used on the iPad exist on the Nexus 7, but in, well, shittier fashion. The Words With Friends port is hilariously terrible. There simply isn't a good Twitter client. And the Kindle app, which is what I spend the bulk of my time in on tablets, can't fully hide the notification bar and the aspect ratio is very un-book-like :S Oh: I can't also tap-to-advance the page, I _have_ to swipe? That's nonsense. The store being integrated and usable for buying, unlike the iOS app, is very nice, though. On the plus side, it's portable as poo poo, the easiest tablet to one hand by quite a margin, even cased. I think the portrait aspect ratio is just... off, though. Full-screen reading on it just doesn't feel quite right to me. Battery's been great. That Poetic case everybody's been mentioning is just fine, too. The... smoothness of the UI is just not quite as smooth as my HTC One or even iPad Mini running iOS7 achieve. It's a little thing, but watching an app stutter as it renders open, or having the APPROVE button in Play Store freeze the app with no indication that it's frozen or just missed your input is jarring. Not deal-killers, but a definite downgrade from the iPad experience. I'm going to stick with it for at least a week but my initial reactions are pretty disappointed
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# ¿ Oct 9, 2013 02:58 |
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bull3964 posted:Not sure what kindle app you are using, but mine taps to advance just fine. I'm using the Amazon Kindle app and just did some more testing. Both the iOS and Android versions do support tap to advance or go back, it seems, but I have to tap nearer to the edges than I do with my Paperwhite, where I basically can tap anywhere on the right 2/3rds of the screen to go forward and the left 1/3rd to go back, top inch or so to invoke the menu. The menu on the Android app is a lot easier to accidentally invoke, it seems. I know it dims everything down but the battery and time, but even that bugs the poo poo out of me. Having a clock visible on the screen I'm trying to sink into reading mode on just hits all the wrong OCD triggers on me. Everything but the page disappears on the iOS version of the app. I wonder how the Fire HDX app handles it?
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# ¿ Oct 9, 2013 15:19 |
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Digital Jesus posted:Individual apps are up to individual developers obviously. A lot are not as good as their iOS equivalents though, definitely agree there. Kindle app is not one I'd complain about though. Tap to switch pages definitely works, I'm using it right now. As far as not hiding the notifications bar, it hides everything but the time and battery, which is fine for me but obviously personal preference I have until 11/7 to return it, so I'm going to try to soak with it more and see. I've got my iPad 4 and Nexus 7 with me today and am doing some comparing against each other since 99% of the apps I use are available on both (except Tweetbot, which is something I'll REALLY miss if I stick with the Nexus, I'm learning). I _do_ like the widgets perma-available on the homescreen, having my calendar and !Yahoo weather app just there to glance at is very nice. I like the info shade on iOS7 but you still have to invoke it first.
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# ¿ Oct 9, 2013 15:22 |
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Vykk.Draygo posted:Play Books does it right: hide the notification bar and only show it if you tap in the middle if the screen. Not being able to hide it at all seems like a really weird design choice and would bug me too. You're not kidding; my face visibly fell and I muttered an "aw, you fuckin' kidding me?" according to the wife when I loaded up a book for the first time and saw that the battery indicator stayed persistent. The iOS version of the app and, apparently, the Fire version (though it's bizarre that there's not a single screenshot of an open book in the Kindle app on Amazon's product page for this thing) properly hide it. I immediately looked for a setting, because I can certainly understand some folks maybe wanting a persistent notifications bar, but there's no options to control the behavior. I'm going to keep using the Nexus 7, but if we get the expected Retina Mini announcement later this month I expect I'll be returning it. I'll grab a Nexus 5 for my dick-around-with-stock-Android needs.
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# ¿ Oct 9, 2013 22:28 |
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Pyroxene Stigma posted:It's more about personal preference though. If your tablet has great hardware but you modify the software a little, it's really disingenuous to say it was the wrong purchase. goons gonna goon... Rooting your device is not "modify[ing] the software a little", it's a pretty big step for Joe Average User. Going into settings a choosing a different them, that's modifying your software a little.
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# ¿ Jun 5, 2014 23:07 |
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So, bought a Nexus 9 to see if the Android tablet space has remotely caught up to the iPad's like it already has with phones... That's a resounding "NO". Backlight bleed all across the top bezel, terrible, terrible buttons.... I _do_ think it's the perfect size; the iPad Air is just a lil' too big and the Mini a lil' too small. The app situation, outside of Google's native stuff, is just criminal. Back it goes (I do love my Nexus 6 though)
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# ¿ Jan 16, 2015 00:08 |
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Syrinxx posted:You bought a lovely $350 tablet with widely reported build quality issues to compare to a $500 Apple flagship, this seems like a smart idea. It's marketed as the loving flagship Android tablet, so yes, I'm going to compare it to its competition, which is the goddamned iPad. Point being that there are NO Android tablets that can compete yet, unlike in the phone space, and I'd really like to see that reversed as there ARE things I prefer about the Android ecosystem that I'd love have in a tablet, but not enough to outweigh the downsides. Christ, the excuses people will make when their favey-fave piece of hardware is actually judged fairly against its competition...
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# ¿ Jan 16, 2015 20:57 |
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chocolateTHUNDER posted:Get a tab S and your build quality issues will go away. I looked at it hard but, in the end, I know I can't stand Touchwiz from looking at people's S5's and Notes whereas I like Lollipop quite a bit. And it also wouldn't solve the abysmal app market problem.
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# ¿ Jan 16, 2015 21:02 |
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Rastor posted:I've never had an issue with this, but then, I mostly use my tablet for games and web browsing. I don't game or really browse the web, I like to pump content through dedicated apps and use my tablet mostly for reading things. I don't watch movies, either, so when I tried out the Nexus 7, for example, I didn't care for it because the aspect resolution is much better for watching than reading media. Nexus 9 doesn't have that issue, at least. I like the size/form factor a lot on the 9. So, things like a decent FB app, a very good Twitter app, Kindle app (I'm content-invested in Amazon for books and love reading on my Voyager as well so Calibre'ing to another e-book app isn't something that would work for me), RSS reader, Pocket, etc., all matter a lot. The FB app sucks, it's just the phone app blown up, and the mobile website version doesn't cut it for me as I like real-time notifications. For Twitter, there are some nice clients, but working sync between phone and tablet is critical and the only apps that even try do it via Tweetmarker, and Tweetmarker works for poo poo. Tweetbot on iOS is perfect on this front using iCloud and also syncs to an OSX client, which is golden. The Android Kindle app has the bonus of allowing you to buy content directly, unlike iOS's, but it's jankier in other ways. For example, it doesn't open the book you're currently reading automatically when you open the app. A little thing, but annoys me. RSS readers, Press is okay but Reeder kicks it in the tits. Pocket is a wash, same on both platforms. Other things: whereas Lollipop seems fine and spiffy and my Nexus 6, it seems a bit jankier on the 9 in terms of getting around. It's way easier to, like, overscroll or underscroll things, mis-tap... the bezel detection for "I'm just holding the device here, don't register taps" isn't as good as iOS's, I was turning pages in Chrome and Kindle when I didn't intend to much more often than I do with the iPad. I still prefer Lollipop's/Android/s cross-app integration, though, iOS is getting better at this but Android's just works. I dunno... moreso than I do on my phones, I want Android's ability to arrange icons and widgets on my tablet. I really dig that. I love love love the size/form factor of the 9. But Google needs to either roll their own tablet apps (their Lollipop apps are very nice but even a lot of those don't quite make proper use of the extra screen space the way good iOS tablet apps do) or start bribing the big apps to do a better job on their own. The weird stutteriness I detect on the 9 might be addressable in hardware, but it's just not present AT ALL on a current-gen iPad. I'm not some Apple fanboi who thinks Steve Jobs shat gold, I've basically always had a flagship iOS and flagship Android phone going back years now and flip back and forth depending on mood. I also have a Mac and Windows laptop at home and do likewise. I just don't think Android, in the tablet realm, is really competing at all yet. If this is the flagship, and Google is sure as hell saying it is, it's not there yet.
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# ¿ Jan 16, 2015 21:21 |
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mod sassinator posted:I'm with you--Android tablets are pretty poo poo, with the exception of the 2nd gen N7. I don't know how Google can go from such a nice tablet there to a total screwup with the N9. The N7 _was_ nice except that the form factor didn't really work for me, but it was pocketable as poo poo and, apps aside, did the trick for me for a while compared to the available iPads at the time. The N9... doesn't.
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# ¿ Jan 16, 2015 21:23 |
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Three Olives posted:Uh, was it? As far as I can tell it was barely marketed at all and more of as a 64 bit Lollipop quasi-reference design with a weirdo SOC and otherwise mediocre specs, it doesn't even have a native LTE modem because of their weirdo SOC. If you're trying to tell me that the Nexus 9 isn't Google's shot at "this is what we think the Lollipop Android experience should be" we're just going to have to agree to disagree.
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# ¿ Jan 16, 2015 21:24 |
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Three Olives posted:That's not the same thing as a flagship, Nexus devices haven't ever really pushed specs, have they? It's a solid, mostly unfucked with middle of the road tablet, nothing more. Flagship isn't always about specs, I mean, Apple barely releases any for their devices. It's the top tablet available by the actual developer of the OS.
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# ¿ Jan 16, 2015 21:36 |
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Guillermus posted:The Nexus 9 is Google's flagship tablet but it isn't by any means Android's flagship. There are better built android tablets and some have better features when it comes to your tablet experience. If you talk about specific apps then well, it's the developer's fault (like the lovely FB app). I don't know how Apple manages that to be honest all I know is that they have more tablet optimized (or even specific) ones. Do any of the other flagship tablets actually run Lollipop yet? I'd think that a "flagship" should be running at least the latest major release version of its OS to be considered as such. As for the app develops, everything I've seen shows that it just doesn't pay to develop quality Android tablet apps. The phones barely suffice for the effort because there's so fuckin' many Android phones out there, but the tablet market is just dominated by the iPad and the smaller comparative number of tablets out there combined with the lower-willingness of the average Android user to actually pay for an app compared to the average iOS user makes this not something many app devs want to bother with. There's a couple good articles out there from dev makers with the numbers breakdown on this stuff that I've come across. Hence why I think, if Google really wants to compete in this space, they need to start shoveling some of their cash at the devs to get these apps built. Guillermus posted:I'm one of the Touchwiz haters but between my phone (Galaxy S4) wich was flashed to AOSP or Google Edition roms and an actual Samsung tablet, touchwiz isn't as bad unless you really, really can't stand the settings menu wich is horrible but by any means unusable. Samsung gets all the hate while LG and HTC love to do their thing with this too. I had an HTC One m7 and Sense was way, way, WAY more tolerable than Touchwiz has ever managed. Haven't had a non-Nexus LG device ever. I've dicked around with rooted Samsung devices and you can MOSTLY get the Touchwiz stain out but that just makes it that more jarring when some un-modifiable piece of it does throw up in your eyes, like that settings menu or the persistent top bar.
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# ¿ Jan 16, 2015 21:42 |
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wooger posted:Seriously? Reeder is one of those apps that somehow got in early and became famous, despite being very average. It's almost like different people like different apps for different reasons. My app criticisms are based on my needs and use cases; Unread comes close to being better than Reeder on iOS but I like Reeder's existence on OSX as well and like to have the same experience across all of my devices. I don't give a single poo poo about night node, and would not consider that table stakes at all.
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# ¿ Jan 16, 2015 22:36 |
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LastInLine posted:Hey, that's the same combo I use! I can't recommend it enough for straight RSS (i.e. no "magazine-ifying") and it looks good, works great, and works well on a tablet or phone. No, no, apparently I'm just some douchebag who's supposed to shut up and not talk about his experience with his Android tablet in the loving Android tablet thread and gently caress off to the iPad one instead. Some of the goons here, man... I want to like Android tablets. I've owned three. None of them lasted more than a few months due to a variety of issues that affected my use and enjoyment of them. Same thing happened with the N9, and I thought I'd post those thoughts here. Apparently, that offends the hell out of some little babies.
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# ¿ Jan 18, 2015 06:25 |
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I've been dicking around with a Nexus 9 to be my companion tablet for when I'm using my 6P as my daily driver phone. It's no iPad, but it's pretty serviceable. It would be much better, though, if there was a way to jack up the font sizes on apps that do not have an internal setting for that (looking at you, FB app). Is there a way to do this that anyone knows of? I do _not_ want to just increase the font size across the whole tablet, just in this app. Thoughts?
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# ¿ Feb 22, 2016 21:31 |
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I just ordered a Samsung Tab S2 used off of Swappa to go with the Pixel that's being delivered this week. I ping-pong between using an iPhone/iPad and whatever the Android equivalents of those are, currently. Since the Pixel C lacks what I consider to be table stakes for tablets at this point (fingerprint sensor for unlocking) I went with the Tab S2 instead, since it seems to be the closest thing Android has to an iPad-quality device. Am... am I going to be horribly disappointed or is this thing decent? Even with a hugephone, I still use tablets a shitload because I like a nice canvas for reading. I find going from an Android phone to an iOS tablet (or vice verse) incredibly jarring so I keep matched pairs, much to my wife's annoyance. The hardware seems to be fine for a current tablet even given its age, but this is my first Samsung device since the Galaxy Nexus (which I actually liked quite a bit) and, Note 7 explosions aside, people seem to either love the current Samsung phones tremendously or consider them utter garbage. There's not nearly as much opinion out there from actual users about the tablet. Anybody been using one? Love it or hate it?
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# ¿ Jan 9, 2017 16:55 |
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AlexDeGruven posted:Holy poo poo this. Well; that's discouraging; then again, I have no issues stripping out TW as much as is possible as soon as I get this thing. Assuming that, do things get better? Do you LIKE your S6 device (I believe the Tab S2's TW implementation is very similar to what was shipped on the S6) with all of the TW crap turned off? I _had_ a Pixel-C sometime back and liked it but eventually sold it because typing a passphrase to get into it or to access 1Password every goddamned time instead of just mushing my thumb on a sensor eventually drove me insane.
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# ¿ Jan 9, 2017 19:26 |
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Protocol7 posted:It should be fine. From what I can tell most people who bitch about Samsung are never really satisfied with any manner of device. It should be perfectly fine for what you're doing with it. Recently got my used Samsung Tab S2 8". It's... fine. It's more than fine. The only quirk I really dislike is Samsung's stupid swapping of where the system soft buttons go. And how they light up every time you touch the device (fortunately, easily disabled by using an app to shut them off forever). The screen is lovely, it's the only Android tablet worth poo poo that has a fingerprint reader, which is just non-negotiable for me when it comes to mobile devices now, it's plenty fast, hasn't choked on anything I've asked it to do yet... Given what I paid for it used, I'm quite happy with it.
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# ¿ Jan 16, 2017 20:18 |
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KingSlime posted:Upon my better judgement, I decided to buy a tablet for fun after all. This is after I sold my Asus Zenpad 8c a few months ago by the way, mostly because I never used it. But I'd always been dying to try out a 7 inch "skinnier" form factor so after getting excited over the Fire 7, I decided to spend more for something slightly better. I've bought and sold back two Pixel C's since they first came out (REALLY like it, but holy gently caress is the lack of a fingerprint reader a dealbreaker for me now) and the only other tablets that I feel are even worth considering are the K1 (but drat is that one getting old now), and the Galaxy Tab S line. I have a Fire 7 just for dicking around (and yeah, that screen is hot garbage, but the rest of the package is compelling) and a Tab S2 8.0 which... I surprisingly like quite a lot. I got it used off of Swappa for like $220 and I'm fine with it being my standard Android tablet. Screen is frankly great, I was able to shut off the stupid auto-lightup on the Samsung hardware buttons, and the version of Touchwiz that's ontop of Android 6 here is somehow way less annoying on a tablet than it is on a phone for me (this is my first Samsung device since the original Nexus). Rumors of it even getting Nougat soon seem to be getting louder, which, if it happens, will probably fix the last few niggles I have with it. So, I dunno, if the lesser Tab is almost there for you, you can probably find a Tab S2 8.0 used on Swappa for about what you paid for the Tab A new, and you'll like it a lot more methinks.
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# ¿ May 24, 2017 21:34 |
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Huh; booted up my Tab 8.0 S2 tonight for the first time in a while and hey, the Nougat update is available! Upgrading now, going to be very happy to have these features if they all work properly.
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# ¿ Jun 7, 2017 05:41 |
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Minty Swagger posted:Great to hear, sounds like I'll be happy with either the 8 or the 10, just need to figure out which is best for me screenwise. man i have recently tried a bunch of android tablets and they're all kinda poo poo in their own ways but honestly, amazon's lower-res devices have been the best of the bunch. Over the last few months I've had: - Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 8inch - Amazon Fire HD 8 (not the latest, the one from last year, the $60 special or whatever) - Amazon Fire HDX 8.9 (grabbed for like $120 from the latest Woot sale thing) - Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus (US edition, w/cellular and the crippling 2GB RAM) and honestly, the Fire HD 8 was the least-annoying of the bunch, but that screen... woof. I just want an 8 inch Android tablet that: - has a non-annoying fingerprint reader (NONE of the Fires has one; why the gently caress?) - hi-res screen would be nice, but I can roll with the lower-res Fires. The screen on the 10in. should be just fine for you. - USB-C charging - Cellular and the only one that has all of this is the Lenovo, but the gimped US version just runs like absolute poo poo. The Kindle app, for crying out loud, was about as stable as a last-turn Jenga game at a bar. That's like job one for a tablet for me, just let me read books. And the screen, while decently hi-res, washed out bad from any off-angle and was really blue and cold. I returned it. I bounce between iOS and Android kinda regularly 'cuz I have brain disease but man Apple just whomps Android's rear end in the tablet space, even if the top-end Android phones are now fully competitive, which I think they are. I just want to be entirely in either ecosystem, and I actually use my tablets a ton, and it's just not doable with Android right now. The "cheap" iPad or a used Mini would kick the piss out of any available Android tablet at the moment, even with the ecosystem issues using one with an Android phone would introduce.
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# ¿ Oct 31, 2017 04:25 |
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Adolf Glitter posted:Didn't notice this thread somehow, so crossposting from the recommend me a tablet thread as I definitely want an Android one. Galaxy Tab S2 might fit the bill. Got Android 7, great screen.
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# ¿ Dec 2, 2017 20:18 |
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Adolf Glitter posted:Yeah, the screen has a decent resolution. What's the current Touchwiz(?) like? Touchwiz on the latest update w/Android 7 isn't terrible. I found it usable. The other three you mention, I dunno man... I tried the Tab 4... it sucked. Stuttery as all hell. The Tab A has a screen that reflects the price cut from the S2. If you can find an S2 used, I really think it would be your winner.
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# ¿ Dec 4, 2017 15:24 |
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bull3964 posted:I just want to be using the same version and user experience on my tablet as my phone. That's not possible at all right now. Amen, brother. I recently bought a second Lenovo Tab 4 8 Plus (gimped US edition) to pair with a Pixel 2 XL because I don't want to use iOS on my tablet and Android on my phone. I keep an iPhone-iPad pair and have tried to keep an Android Phone & tablet pair as well, but Android tablets are just garbage... this tablet meets my requirements for "mine-sized" and "has cellular" but it also runs like a stuttering prick and for gently caress's sake it has an LED notification light I can't actually turn off that also doesn't seem to respect an app's notification settings regarding the LED? Jesus gently caress. Really wish Samsung made an 8" edition of the Tab S3, I had an 8" S2 for a while and didn't mind it but I refuse to have anything in my life that charges over USB-mini anymore (Kindle excepted). I'd pay iPad money for a modern Pixel tablet, no problem. Somebody make the fuckin' thing.
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# ¿ Jan 12, 2018 19:37 |
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Got a Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e yesterday and my takeaway is: this would rule in an 8" form factor. It's pretty bitching as a 10 incher, too. I do not care about pen support and use tablets 95% of the time in Portrait Mode, so keep that in mind with my take here. It's ridiculously light, and much easier to one-hand hold for longer than the iPad Pro 10.5 or 11 are. Screen's gorgeous, a little bit of jelly on some portrait scrolling, but not enough to annoy me particularly. Speakers are very good, media sounds great. This is my first experience with Samsung's One UI and... it's fine. Still prefer Pixel/Android but there's nothing particularly objectionable about it. I like it much more than I liked the Huawei MediaPad M5 8.4, which is the only other Android tablet I'd even look at these days (the other Samsung Tabs are either lol expensive and have a bunch of poo poo I don't want in them, or trash). I still think any modern iPad is the best bet, Google Services work fine on them, but if you want your Android phone text syncing and that kinda jazz, you kind of have to have Android on the tablet, too, and if that's the case, this is fine. Still would like to see this done in a Mini factor though.
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# ¿ May 1, 2019 22:45 |
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Moey posted:Just was reading this, any wifi issues you can reproduce? Hahahaha, gently caress, let me go get the thing... (like I said, I'm almost 100% portrait mode so this hasn't come up yet).
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# ¿ May 2, 2019 03:27 |
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smr posted:Hahahaha, gently caress, let me go get the thing... (like I said, I'm almost 100% portrait mode so this hasn't come up yet). I gripped the poo poo outta the lower-left corner (which isn't natural, at least to me), and the wifi didn't lose a bar or anything. The speedtest I ran on my home wifi is showing there, that's about what everything wifi gets in that location of my house. Oddly, I fast.fm'd in Portrait mode with my usual grip and got 130Mbps, so it was slower. *shrug* Kinda smacks of "every new device from a major maker MUST have a something-gate" to me. EDIT: Cool how none of the usual Dropbox or iCloud share links work here smr fucked around with this message at 03:40 on May 2, 2019 |
# ¿ May 2, 2019 03:37 |
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mfny posted:So I fixed this issue with a factory reset. Return it, dude. It shouldn’t be doing any of this poo poo.
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# ¿ Aug 6, 2020 05:53 |
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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 17:16 |
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One thing this has nailed compared to my Galaxy Tab S7 is simple poo poo like: proper touch rejection. I couldn't enjoy using the Samsung to read in bed because I'd rest it on my forearm as I laid on my side and it would interpret like my arm hair or the bit of flesh that would indent to the screen as touching and reject anything I actually tapped with. Or, worse, interpret it as a touch and make everything go nuts. Swiping around the UI also generally felt like poo poo to me on the Samsung. Pixel Tab was... absolutely fine at this last night. Just like an iPad. It registers only what I intend to be actual touches 99.999% of the time. Swiping feels fine. Extremely happy to just have two Pixel OS devices that work smoothly both by themselves and as an ecosystem.
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# ¿ Jun 21, 2023 18:47 |