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Advice needed, Tech-GAF: Buying an android tablet instead of a laptop - Any known big issues?

So I had the SP7, but wasn't happy with it, so I returned it. After a lot of thought I realized: I only need a bigger (than my smartphone) device for writing longer texts. At which point I discovered android tablets!

I highly value battery life, so the Huawei Mediapad M5 Lite is currently my favorite. Up to 17-18 hours. Even if it's realistically only like 12, that's great, too.

I can attach a usb-c dock, thus attach keyboard and mouse for text work in open office. I can watch movies, listen to music, go to twitter, facebook, etc, Chromecastck emails, and so on.

The only thing I can't do is use Steam.

Ofc you'll say 'but power!', but I'm not using this for gaming (and even then it can run stuff like fortnite and pubg).

So, pls help me: Is there anything I missing that could ruin everything? Because right now this feels like a great idea to me - even more so when this tablet costs only 200 Euro vs SP7's 1100 Euro 🤷‍♀️🐧
 

bati

Member
Future proofing? Newer android versions often completely leave the old hardware behind and so you're stuck with an OS that might not be adequate for the new apps that you want to use.
 
Future proofing? Newer android versions often completely leave the old hardware behind and so you're stuck with an OS that might not be adequate for the new apps that you want to use.

It's running android 8 and just got a new security update. Should be fine for 1-2 years. It's supposed to be a cheap stop gap. Next year I'll either get a Surface Neo or one of Lenovo Limitless laptops. But for now ai don't want to spend much.


Tablet?
Get an ipad pro.

Fuck Apple 💁 (also show me a new ipad pro for 200 ...)
 

Husky

THE Prey 2 fanatic
This tablet doesn't look like it lets users open it up. That'll be a big problem when you try to disconnect the webcams and microphone from the motherboard.
 

DESTROYA

Member
Android tablets suck as a laptop replacement.
If anything get a 2-1 chromebook. I have the SP7 i7 and love it and comparing that to a cheap ass android tablet is like comparing a Ferrari to a Hyundai.
Best android tablet to get is the Samsung Galaxy tab S6 with DEX. For €200 don’t expect much but a cheap ass tablet with crappy performance all around.
 

longdi

Banned
Sell your sp7 and get ipad pro.

Sadly apple is king of tablets, by far.

Sure the Huawei will work fine as secondary social media email screen.
 

20cent

Banned
I have a Galaxy Tab S2 since...forever. Can't find any reason to change it, it's perfect for basic stuff (comics, text, streaming videos) and it never shown lack of power. But I don't play any games on it. The battery is still holding well after so many years too...
Get a 2019 Samsung Tab A (8" / 10")?

I had every iteration of the iPad until Air2, I've always found it to be a pain, especially to copy contents onto it (comics..) via iTunes. Maybe they improved that though.
 
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Birdo

Banned
When you reach the point of attaching a mouse and keyboard to a tablet, you may as well just buy a cheap laptop.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Laptops are the most useful device in most places and are designed to be work horses, stop messing around with low powered tablets.
 
I have a Galaxy Tab S2 since...forever. Can't find any reason to change it, it's perfect for basic stuff (comics, text, streaming videos) and it never shown lack of power. But I don't play any games on it. The battery is still holding well after so many years too...
Get a 2019 Samsung Tab A (8" / 10")?

I had every iteration of the iPad until Air2, I've always found it to be a pain, especially to copy contents onto it (comics..) via iTunes. Maybe they improved that though.

Thx, the first non-shitpost in this thread :/

When you reach the point of attaching a mouse and keyboard to a tablet, you may as well just buy a cheap laptop.

Pls tell me: When writing something with Open Office, what will be different between a laptop and a tablet? Aside from a cheap laptop having 5 hours of battery life vs a good 15 hours of battery life in the tablet.

All of you are dismissing the tablet without giving any reason. You read what I'll be using ot for? Base your reply upon that ...
 
It's because it's kind of common sense. No offense, but buying a tablet for word procesing is kind of an odd choice to most people.

But why? I use Open Office. I have it on my smartphone even. You connect a keyboard et voila, writing like it's a laptop. Zero difference.

Plus here, it looks great.



I made this thread to see if I'm missing any huge downside of this, but everything looks nice imo. So blanket statements a la 'it sucks, dude' aren't helpful.
 

Quasicat

Member
I bought the biggest Kindle Fire (10 I think) for this very same purpose. I still use my desktop for video recording and editing purposes, but hate sitting at my desk to do any meaningful work.
I loaded the Google Play Store on it for more/better apps since Amazon’s store is a joke.
The only reason I did not pick up an iPad Pro, despite having an older iPad and an iPhone, is because of memory space. I throw a 512gb micro SD card into it, and it does everything a laptop does, but is also portable enough to load up Plex on it when I’m out of town without a decent internet connection.
 

BigBooper

Member
You might look into Samsung Dex. It only works on the Samsung tablets of course, but looks pretty useful for if you ever need a desktop experience.
 
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