Welcome to Laser Pointer Forums - discuss green laser pointers, blue laser pointers, and all types of lasers

LPF Donation via Stripe | LPF Donation - Other Methods

Links below open in new window

ArcticMyst Security by Avery

Post Your Tablet and Thoughts on It!

IsaacT

0
Joined
Aug 25, 2010
Messages
5,947
Points
83
Hey you guys! Just want to see what kinds of tablet computers the members here have and what opinions you have about them. Let me know what yall got!

Thanks,
Isaac
 
Last edited:





Joined
Aug 23, 2014
Messages
486
Points
0
I have the Dell Venue 8 pro.
Its one of the new windows 8 tablet computers so its fun being able to do anything a laptop can do.
It's rather hard explaining that to some people while showing them such a small 8" tablet.
Not very many people believe me unless I play Minecraft or another PC game on it in front of them.
Another cool thing is it has an Intel Atom Baytrail quad core processor. (1.8ghz in turbo mode) (also has 64GB solid state hard drive)
It is very snappy and is one of the best 8" tablets for PC gaming.
Thing is, I have to use a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse for everything I do. Otherwise, I struggle with clicking on the tiny little desktop icons with my thumbs.


attachment.php

Yes I got a picture off the internet. It always looks horrible when I take a picture of a digital screen. But if you still want to see some of them, just let me know.

As for opinions, I think it does seem a little odd at times having a laptop in the form of a small tablet. Because of the smaller screen, it tends to be difficult to see or read things on web pages and thus I end up having to zoom in and out a lot at times.
The battery life seems to be just fine lasting me through most of the day (heavy use) before having to start recharging. So I think Dell did a good job on that part.(4000mAh cell) I have noticed that when playing intense PC games, the back of the tablet tends to heat up quite a bit. Sometimes to the point where its too hot to touch. The bummer part of not having a small fan or thicker heat sink inside. The heat tends to stay in one spot.
As for the camera, it takes very nice pictures (5mp) in areas with more light but seems to lack in darker rooms, even compared to an IPhone's tiny camera.

Overall, I like it a lot. The prices have come down quite a bit since last year when I bought it for $350. (around the time it first came out in October 2013).

Guess you could count this as a small review :p
 

Attachments

  • dell-venue-8-pro-d.jpg
    dell-venue-8-pro-d.jpg
    51.4 KB · Views: 137
Last edited:

ARG

0
Joined
Feb 27, 2011
Messages
6,772
Points
113
I have a note 3, does that count? :p It does all the tablet sort of things I need it to do.
If I need more power/features I use my laptop, the SSD boot times make it viable to pull out and send a quick email or whatever.
 
Joined
Apr 6, 2014
Messages
2,436
Points
113
Lol nice RB :p
I like the iPad and iPadmini (not an Apple person though) because of the simplicity, ergonomics and App store choice.
For anything else I need to do using Windoze, I have a HP Pavilion x360 because it easily converts to a tablet and runs the full Win 8.1.
I installed start8 to get my beloved "Start" button back (idiots at M$).

:D
 
Last edited:
Joined
May 12, 2013
Messages
751
Points
43
I use an iPad mini for the apps, battery life and ergonomics. Not a fan of iOS though.

I'd love to have an iPad mini running Android L ;)
 

3Pig

0
Joined
Oct 26, 2013
Messages
242
Points
0
I'm not really a fan of tablets, but if I've come very close to buying a nexus 7, because its from google there is no bloatware built into the OS and man its cheap for the hardware.
 
Joined
Aug 23, 2014
Messages
486
Points
0
I have a note 3, does that count? :p It does all the tablet sort of things I need it to do.
If I need more power/features I use my laptop, the SSD boot times make it viable to pull out and send a quick email or whatever.

Galaxy Note 3 is cool.

I probably would buy a tablet and a laptop but I couldn't afford both lol.
So I bought a half tablet and laptop. (full windows 8.1).

I also bought a case for it that turns it into a tiny netbook for school (with the Bluetooth keyboard attached) but the straps broke after heavy use so now I need to buy another $40 case...
 
Last edited:
Joined
Feb 21, 2013
Messages
5,013
Points
0
Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 and have nothing bad to say about it, love it. Perfect size, not a phone but not a ipad huge. Exactly what I wanted, sized between my phone and laptop
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2013
Messages
911
Points
63
I've got a 32GB iPad Air. I do tend to favor apple tech over others. For me to winning factor with the ipad is the massive app store, the top notch hardware and build quality, and the stellar battery life. Plus because there are fewer hardware versions with iPads its a bit easier to find accessories when compared to the dozens of other tablets out there.

Also a bigger fan of iOS over Android or Windows. Just a personal preference though.

Oh and also I do a lot of digital drawing, so with a stylus I can use my iPad as a big digital canvas :D
 
Joined
May 9, 2013
Messages
838
Points
43
I use an iPad (3rd gen), but I find that I'm using it less now that I picked up the iPhone 6+... however, I feel it has more to do with the speed of the A8 processor than the relative screen size.
 
Joined
Dec 11, 2011
Messages
4,364
Points
83
I just recently got an Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7 32gb WiFi-only. This is the 2013 model that is a direct competitor of the Google Nexus 7 (identical price, screen, form-factor, memory, storage space).

I want to point out that my primary use for a tablet is nontypical, so what are deciding factors for me, may not be for others. Typically, I just want a tablet to read on (forums, schematics, scientific papers, encyclopedic articles), watch video (youtube, anime, netflix, livestreams etc), check Facebook, and write on (email, forums, lists/notes) while not at my desk. I love being able to get into my comfy chair or lie down in bed and do all the things I want/need to do. I don't use my tablet for gaming, drawing, or as a PC replacement.

As such, hardware is my primary concern; processing capacity, battery life, screen ppi/dpi, screen size, memory capacity, speaker quality, GPU, etc.

The key differences between the HDX7 and the Nexus 7 are this:
Nexus: True Andriod OS, poorer speakers, smaller battery, slower processor, slower GPU.
HDX 7: Amazon ONLY android fork OS, better (louder, clearer) speakers, larger battery, much faster processor, slightly faster GPU.

I did my research for over two weeks before picking which tablet to go with. I read dozens of reviews and compared each with scrutiny. All of the reviews and data said that both devices supported the same software, just that you would need to sideload some things that weren't in the Amazon store.

I went with the HDX purely for the better speakers and battery, betting that I wouldn't notice the difference in OS since I have nothing invested into the Google Play (Android) App Store or the Amazon App store, and that 90% of what I want to do on my tablet is native to ALL tablets and not processor/gpu intensive.

That being said, after having the HDX 7 for a week, two issues came up.

1) No native support for YouTube or Flash Video. The way Amazon gets around this is by having their proprietary browser, Silk, load up youtube videos in the amazon cloud, and stream the resultant video to you. Now, depending on your network and location, the amazon cloud can be really shitty at this. It is decent for me, but not all sites are supported by Amazon Cloud. Embedded video also isn't supported in Silk. Thankfully the site I use for anime is, and youtube is. Using Silk you are forced to using the Mobile version of YouTube, which does let you sign in and access all the subscriptions and playlists on your account. Unfortunately, the mobile version doesn't let you edit playlists (even the watch later list) or add things to playlists. Likewise you can't thumbs-up or thumbs-down of anything you watch. You also cannot comment, but you can read comments after the video is finished playing, not during. Pretty piss-poor implementation, right?

Now, with Flash, the hardware and OS itself DOES support Flash! Flash just isn't available from Amazon's severely limited app store. Nor are any other browsers. But, you can sideload Chrome and Dolphin browsers. So, you sideload chrome and it works flawlessly, aside from the fact that you cannot sign into Google and access any of the other chrome stuff from your other devices or account. Flash also doesn't work in Chrome. Go figure. It is possible a newer version of Chrome does support these things, but since I don't have an android device to steak the .apk from and have to rely on webhosted .apk's to work from, the only version I found does not.

Behold Dolphin! It is about as fast as I.E.8. So, yeah, not great. BUT you can directly download files in Dolphin just as you would on a PC in chrome. Additionally, it supports flash, and embedded videos once Flash is installed. And as such you can direct install flash from any site with a flash video when it pops up the error about not having flash. No need to go around looking for a flash .apk to work from.

So. I do most of my browsing with Silk, except when I have to input sensitive info that I don't want routed through Amazon's servers, in which case I use Chrome. If I want to watch embedded or flash video without having to go through Amazon's servers (either because they don't support that website or I don't want to trust their servers with that material) I use Dolphin.

Convoluted, yes. But I'm forced into it because Amazon has locked all of their devices in the Amazon Jail, and you cannot Jailbreak most of them (some of the 2012 models have been successfully jailbroken, but it is a high rate of failure and there is no way to unbrick the devices if they get bricked).

2) Exactly on the eighth day of ownership I noticed a small patch of dead pixels near the center of the display. It was triangular in shape and approximately encompassing about 18 pixels. I kept this tablet in pristine condition. It stayed in a soft padded case on my desk when not in use in my hands, and never felt so much as even a small bump. I even wiped the fingerprints off each night with a microfiber cloth. I contacted Amazon support with the onboard Mayday feature and reported the problem. They processed it immediately and set up a UPS pickup of the defective unit and a 2-day shipping of a replacement unit. UPS should be by tomorrow to pick up the old one and I expect delivery of the replacement on Tuesday.

I requested a full refund instead of free replacement but was denied because the unit was defective and had to go through the manufacturer warranty - not Amazon itself.

I can live with this because I was overall satisfied with the product for my needs, even with the convoluted workaround needed for Youtube and embedded or flash videos. I would have preferred to get a full refund and get the Nexus 7 instead though, just for simplicity and ease of software compatibility.

The HDX comes with a 1mo free trial of Amazon Prime as well, assuming you haven't had a trial of it before. This includes free shipping and up to 30% off purchases at amazon.com, as well as use of their instant streaming store for free. At the time that most of the info about the HDX was written, there was no support for Amazon Prime Streaming on anything except amazon devices. After getting the HDX I found out there is now support on all Android devices for this service, and you can now access the 1mo free of Prime without having to make a purchase.

So, if YouTube and selection of apps aren't important to you, but a simpler interface/OS is; go with the Kindle Fire HDX 7/8.9 or the new Fire HD 6/7. Otherwise, go with the Nexus 7, you won't regret it.

I'll enjoy the HDX 7 (replacement) because it's a pretty close fit for my needs, and I can't afford to go out and spend a lot of money on another tablet. Next year or perhaps in two years when Google has their latest and greatest tablet, I'll go with it instead. This was my first, and last, foray into the Amazon Ecosystem. If people manage to successfully jailbreak the Fire HD/HDX systems or Amazon tears down their walls, fantastic! If not, I'll live. It still beats not having a tablet, hands down.


edit: Btw, I am heavily invested into the Apple ecosystem, and love my iPhone 5 (and loved the 3GS before it), but their tablets are incredibly expensive for what their hardware offers. The original generation iPad, which is now four years old, is still $200. That's how much a 2013 Nexus 7 or HDX 7 is. If I could have afforded an iPad Mini or newer, I would have gone with it instead, but given how expensive they are it is very hard to justify when you're on a tight budget or not invested into the Apple world.
 
Last edited:

ARG

0
Joined
Feb 27, 2011
Messages
6,772
Points
113
1) No native support for YouTube or Flash Video. The way Amazon gets around this is by having their proprietary browser, Silk, load up youtube videos in the amazon cloud, and stream the resultant video to you.

You'd think it would be easier to add native support.
 
Joined
Dec 11, 2011
Messages
4,364
Points
83
Ya, I really don't know what the deal is. I wouldn't have gone with the HDX 7 if they were truly honest about it, either. They claim it supports youtube, but only through a loophole in the term "support" they're able to get around false advertising charges.

I realize they're trying to be a competitor app market, and that's all well and fine, but you need to compete, to be a competitor. There's no reason why they can't have an official YouTube app in their market. They have native support for Netflix - a DIRECT competitor for their Prime streaming service. There's also no reason they don't allow other browsers on their app market, or flash, etc. All of the problems are with their app market, plain and simple. The OS itself runs beautifully, and aside from not being able to access google play, has no flaws. If the core things you need from google play were available on Amazon Apps, there'd be no issue at all.
 




Top