Android Tablet Thread

locknload

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I'm thinking about upgrading my ancient kindle fire and was wondering what tablets people like/dislike out there.   Seems every company this day has an android tablet offering.  I've been using Samsung phones for the past few years so I'm drawn toward the tab.  I'll probably end up going a generation back to be able to go to 8+ inch screen and keep the price point down.  Anyone have anything they absolutely love or anything I should definitely avoid?  This will be mostly for surfing/streaming/light games.
 

smastroyin

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I love my Nexus 7 but that's not big enough for you.
 

Monbo Jumbo

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The brand new Nexus 9s out within days are supposed to be the state of the art for Android tablets. Not sure of exact availability times for those.
 

johnmd20

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I got the Galaxy Tab S. The screen is nice and it's fast enough but if you're streaming Amazon videos, it is not able to do it right now. Which is annoying as hell. 
 

locknload

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johnmd20 said:
I got the Galaxy Tab S. The screen is nice and it's fast enough but if you're streaming Amazon videos, it is not able to do it right now. Which is annoying as hell. 
 
 
I actually do have Prime but I never use the streaming on it.  99% of the streaming i do is HBO go, Netflix.   One big bonus I may look for is expandable memory so I can throw a bunch of movies on a 500gb microsd card to bounce between my phone or tablet depending on how im traveling.
 

smastroyin

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Do you mean 500 MB?
 
I don't think there is a commercially available 500 GB MicroSD at this time, and most phones can only take 64 right now.  
 

SumnerH

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smastroyin said:
Do you mean 500 MB?
 
I don't think there is a commercially available 500 GB MicroSD at this time, and most phones can only take 64 right now.  
 
The cutoff's usually 32GB.  
 
And it's quietly horseshit; the standards require that cards bigger than 32GB be preformatted as exFat filesystems (rather than the older VFAT fs used by older SD cards), which older phones won't support.  But if you reformat a 64/128/256GB card as VFAT then most (all?) phones that "only accept up to 32GB" cards will happily use it.
 

locknload

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smastroyin said:
Do you mean 500 MB?
 
I don't think there is a commercially available 500 GB MicroSD at this time, and most phones can only take 64 right now.  
 
 
Yeah I quickly looked at newegg to see what size microSD was available saw one for 500mb and brain farted that into 500gb.  Even 32gb is enough to store more than enough media for weekend trip.
 

saintnick912

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The Sonys (Xperia Z2 in particular) have pretty good water resistance, which may or may not be interesting to you.  I also like the form factor when I've held them.  I'm still on my Nexus 10 because I haven't used it enough to care to upgrade.
 
There are some Dells that are overlooked too but have interesting form factors.
 

Blacken

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SumnerH said:
The cutoff's usually 32GB.  
 
And it's quietly horseshit; the standards require that cards bigger than 32GB be preformatted as exFat filesystems (rather than the older VFAT fs used by older SD cards), which older phones won't support.  But if you reformat a 64/128/256GB card as VFAT then most (all?) phones that "only accept up to 32GB" cards will happily use it.
They also can't hold a file bigger than 4GB, so steer fucking clear for video. :smith:
 

saintnick912

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Downloaded/sideloaded the Lollipop OTA on my Nexus 10.  Don't really see too much difference outside of the refreshed apps.  Went back to Nova Launcher because the Google one has too much margin on the sides of the screen and it seemed like a waste.  Miss the quick settings being on the right, hard to reach the top/middle from either edge.
 

SeoulSoxFan

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I think in terms of specs/build/price you can't beat the Galaxy Tab S tablets right now. Samsung will push out Lollipop soon so not too worried there. You owe it to yourself to go and handle one at your local shop. The display is absolutely stunning and extremely light. 
 

locknload

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SeoulSoxFan said:
I think in terms of specs/build/price you can't beat the Galaxy Tab S tablets right now. Samsung will push out Lollipop soon so not too worried there. You owe it to yourself to go and handle one at your local shop. The display is absolutely stunning and extremely light. 
 
 
Starting looking at black friday deals and noticed that best buy is offering Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 for $199.  I understand its a pretty major hardware downgrade from the S, but ill have to go the store and play with both and see if the S is worth the extra $200.  
 

Soxy

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locknload said:
Starting looking at black friday deals and noticed that best buy is offering Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 for $199.  I understand its a pretty major hardware downgrade from the S, but ill have to go the store and play with both and see if the S is worth the extra $200.  
 
 
The only hardware downgrade from Tab S to Tab Pro is the quality of the screen and the thinness/form factor.  In terms of hardware specs, the Tab Pro actually beats the Tab S in pretty much every benchmark I've seen that isn't regarding the display. But that AMOLED screen.... it's pretty fucking beautiful, man.  I ended up going with the 10.5" Tab S because of that and the thinness and lightness.  And it's hardware is still plenty capable.
 
That said, the Tab Pro wasn't going for as cheap as it is now when I bought my Tab S.  I think it was a $50-100 difference between the two when I bought mine.  Is the phenomenal display (generally considered to be the best on any Android tablet) and the sexy form factor worth $200?  If you watch a ton of movies on it, I would say yes.  But that's obviously for you to decide. Definitely go check them out in a store and play around with them for a bit.
 

Fratboy

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Lollipop, I think, has killed my Nexus 7. Performance has crawled to a grinding halt on this sucker. Not happy!
 

Hextall

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Fratboy said:
Lollipop, I think, has killed my Nexus 7. Performance has crawled to a grinding halt on this sucker. Not happy!
 
Another data point: My original Nexus 7 has slowed down tremendously after getting lollipop.  I wish I could go back.
 

teddykgb

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Messed around with a Nexus 9 in store at Best Buy and really liked it.  The reviews were sort of tepid, but I love that they went 4:3 and like that he size seems in between an ipad mini and ipad air...anyone purchase one of these? I'm finding myself eager (and the Material design is such a dramatic improvement for Android, imo, I can't believe people aren't raving more about this)