Tablet upgrade for gaming

[porina]

Currently I'm using a Huawei Mediapad M5 8" for my mobile gaming needs. There's only one game I care about at the moment, and that's Azur Lane. The annoying thing I'm having is sometimes the UI is laggy, and it seems to be getting worse the more stuff they put in the game. Wondering if throwing more hardware at it would help? If so, what is there?

 

I think I'm starting to see why people buy Apple in this space... finding out what's available in Android-land is a minefield. There's a mix of old and new, and little info to compare across them, especially for gaming. Yes, I'm even considering an iPad. Having a quick look on Apple's site, the latest ones seem to be the mini and air, and specs seem pretty similar for both apart from size and price. Still no idea how it compares with anything else though...

 

Not much on requirements, basically gaming performance should be 1st priority. Size 8" is fine, could do 10" but don't want to pay more for it unless it has more hardware. Budget, I'm not ruling out the ipad mini, take that as a guide.

 

Edit: maybe I should install it onto my work iphone to see how performance is on that... it's an 8 Plus so older generation compared to the ipad mini.

[DrMacintosh]

How do you feel about the $329 iPad? The iPad mini is a bit more expensive but much more powerful than the $329 iPad but that isn't to say that the $329 iPad is weak, it still has the A10 Fusion. 

 

The mini is only $399 but you get much more future proofing and massive GPU performance improvements and the Mini should last you at least 2 years longer. 

[porina]

2 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

How do you feel about the $329 iPad?

If I'm going to change, then I'd aim higher rather than try to save a little and get something not as fast. I've still no clue how they actually perform though... just downloaded the game onto the iphone. Checking one area I know that lags on the tablet, it is flying fast. will do more testing shortly.

 

Is there a gesture or something on iOS devices that works like the "back" button on Android? On the Huawei, short pressing the multi-function button goes back and is easier than pressing the tiny thing on top left of screen. Doing same on the iphone dumps me back on the launcher home screen whatever it is called.

 

That's a point, on some android devices the back button is a soft button that doesn't always appear. In that sense, I'd prefer a hardware back button, or multi-function button that does the same.

[DrMacintosh]

2 hours ago, porina said:

Is there a gesture or something on iOS devices that works like the "back" button on Android?

on iOS, at least on iPhone, you can swipe to the right from the left corner of the screen to go back. This works in about 95% of all instances when you would want to go "back." 

 

There is no dedicated hardware back button though. 

 

This should help you decide between the two devices:

 

[porina]

29 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

on iOS, at least on iPhone, you can swipe to the right from the left corner of the screen to go back. This works in about 95% of all instances when you would want to go "back." 

Did you mean edge? I couldn't get the corners to work and they pulled up/down other stuff. Tried it on Twitter, and it kinda works. But it seems rather sensitive if there is even the slightest up or down movement it wants to scroll instead.  Maybe I just need more practice.

 

29 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

There is no dedicated hardware back button though. 

Is there any customisation possibility for something else like using the home button? It probably isn't a deal breaker, but it is certainly much less convenient.

 

29 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

This should help you decide between the two devices:

Thanks. I have no idea what an iphone 10S is like which they said the mini was equivalent to, but I'd assume it is faster than the 8 plus I have?

 

I did play the game a bit more on the 8 plus, and wow, it is nothing like any of my android devices. Now, I don't get higher end android devices, but the loading time on the 8 plus for the maps was of a magnitude of 2x difference, maybe more. It's not, maybe it is a bit faster, it was very obviously so.

 

Right now I think I'm 80% sure I'll get the mini. It's just gone midnight here so I'll look to order tomorrow unless anything else comes up. Doesn't appear to come in pink rose gold though.

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, porina said:

Is there any customisation possibility for something else like using the home button?

No

1 minute ago, porina said:

but I'd assume it is faster than the 8 plus I have?

Yep, the GPU is up to 50% faster than the 8 Plus

 

[porina]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

Yep, the GPU is up to 50% faster than the 8 Plus

I can't imagine what 50% faster than the 2x or more faster than my android devices will be like... well, I wanted performance, sounds like I'm gonna get it!

[porina]

ipad mini 64GB gold ordered. Should get it tomorrow. Now I have to remember my personal Apple account login since I probably haven't used it since I had a Mac Mini (early Intel model).

[Commodus]

7 hours ago, porina said:

ipad mini 64GB gold ordered. Should get it tomorrow. Now I have to remember my personal Apple account login since I probably haven't used it since I had a Mac Mini (early Intel model).

Sounds like a good pick.  While there are definitely reasons to consider Android over iOS in phones, in tablets the iPad just cleans Android's clock.  It's both because Apple seems to be the only one that cares about mobile tablet and that it ensures you can easily find tablet-native apps.  Sadly, Google still tends to act as if its dominance in phones should automatically translate to tablets, and it keeps wondering why that doesn't happen.

[porina]

41 minutes ago, Commodus said:

Sadly, Google still tends to act as if its dominance in phones should automatically translate to tablets, and it keeps wondering why that doesn't happen.

It's not Google as such, they left the tablet market a while ago. It's the Android community as a whole, that manufacturers presumably don't see enough profit in it to make higher spec models.

 

Outside of gaming, the ones I have are plenty fine. But like my PC gaming, I don't want an ok experience, I want a great experience. For it's day, the nvidia shield tablet was great, but it is rather old now.

 

I just realised, the ipad mini will be the most expensive mobile device I've ever bought. I keep thinking I need to go upmarket with my phone too, but their use case doesn't really need top spec outside of a good camera.

[porina]

ipad set up, game installed and running... and I'm sat here laughing at something not considered. It turns out Azur Lane is fixed aspect ratio at 16:9. The ipad is... very not 16:9. Also, even though it is 8" class, the screen is slightly less. With the game letterboxed, it is 7.25". My old tablet was 8.5", so there's some shrinkage here. I don't blame anyone for being wrong here, just something I never thought to consider before.

 

Sound quality is good but only comes out of one side, so another downgrade there from my android tablet. Still, the reason I got the ipad remains, it is much more responsive in game.

 

Random trivia: while measuring the display, the long side is 16cm, so it was easy to confirm the game was 16:9 in that the height was 9cm.

[Mr.Meerkat]

2 hours ago, porina said:

It turns out Azur Lane is fixed aspect ratio at 16:9. The ipad is... very not 16:9.

Have this very exact issue on my ipad pro 9.7". Try watching 21:9 content or movies. The content display area literally becomes minuscule. But then again, AL on my poco F1 ends up with rather large letterboxes as it's quite a bit larger than 16:9. Sigh, first world problems  

[porina]

20 minutes ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

Have this very exact issue on my ipad pro 9.7". Try watching 21:9 content or movies. The content display area literally becomes minuscule. But then again, AL on my poco F1 ends up with rather large letterboxes as it's quite a bit larger than 16:9. Sigh, first world problems  

In a quick look up, poco F1 is slightly wider than 2:1? So that's pillar-boxed then. Yeah... first world problems.

 

You active in Azur Lane?

[Mr.Meerkat]

11 hours ago, porina said:

In a quick look up, poco F1 is slightly wider than 2:1? So that's pillar-boxed then. Yeah... first world problems.

 

You active in Azur Lane?

On one of the jpn servers, and kinda active. Currently level 35 but the next zone requires level 40 minimum while my build is horrendously unbalanced due to 2 ships being over level 90 while the other 4 are not even 65

 

I mean my Ayanami and Indianapolis both have a battle rating close to 4000...

[porina]

13 minutes ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

On one of the jpn servers, and kinda active. Currently level 35 but the next zone requires level 40 minimum while my build is horrendously unbalanced due to 2 ships being over level 90 while the other 4 are not even 65

 

I mean my Ayanami and Indianapolis both have a battle rating close to 4000...

Ok... I might be slightly more active Currently level 94, can do fleets of all level 110 (EN server level cap) and working on bringing more up so I have choice. Grinding Kizuna AI event currently... so many ships, so little oil... maybe I should start a thread elsewhere for this.

 

Swinging this thread back to why I started it, been using the ipad mini on the game since last evening. Way more responsive than my previous. With the amount of grind, a few seconds saved on each battle loading screen and other areas to a lesser extent could add up to something meaningful over time.

[Commodus]

7 hours ago, porina said:

Ok... I might be slightly more active Currently level 94, can do fleets of all level 110 (EN server level cap) and working on bringing more up so I have choice. Grinding Kizuna AI event currently... so many ships, so little oil... maybe I should start a thread elsewhere for this.

 

Swinging this thread back to why I started it, been using the ipad mini on the game since last evening. Way more responsive than my previous. With the amount of grind, a few seconds saved on each battle loading screen and other areas to a lesser extent could add up to something meaningful over time.

Glad it's working out as well as it is.  I can see why Apple specced it out the way it did, even if it meant a higher price.  If you're looking for a gaming tablet you can easily shove in a bag or hold on the couch, you really can't get better performance than this.

 

I would be very curious to see what happened if Apple unveiled an iPad mini in the style of the current iPad Pro -- I'll bet it'd fly off the shelf.  Although I wonder whether Apple would want a similar screen in a smaller size or a larger screen at the same size... 

[porina]

32 minutes ago, Commodus said:

Glad it's working out as well as it is.  I can see why Apple specced it out the way it did, even if it meant a higher price.  If you're looking for a gaming tablet you can easily shove in a bag or hold on the couch, you really can't get better performance than this.

I'm kinda new to Apple, especially in the iDevice range. Price isn't too critical to me. The Android tablet I was using was £300, compared to the mini at £390, both at time of purchase. So they're not that different. It's simply a case of I want something that does what I want, without going silly. 

 

32 minutes ago, Commodus said:

I would be very curious to see what happened if Apple unveiled an iPad mini in the style of the current iPad Pro -- I'll bet it'd fly off the shelf.  Although I wonder whether Apple would want a similar screen in a smaller size or a larger screen at the same size... 

From my Android background, I wonder the other direction. How great would it be to have the CPU/GPU of the ipad in an Android tablet. I know they're Apple's own design so it isn't happening, and I wonder how close to it other designs get. If this was a PC/Mac, you could at least install the other side's OS on it.