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Tablet recommendations

mgj
By mgj
in Phones and Tablets
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Hi,

I'm looking for a tablet that kids can use occasionally to play games (Minecraft if possible) and I can use to stream youtube, etc while doing chores and the TV isn't near by.  I'm personally an Android phone user, but my wife has an iphone, so comfortable in either ecosystem.

 

Middle schooler son would occasionally use it to type up homework, so something that can interface with a keyboard would be nice.

 

I'm not opposed to refurbished.

 

Biggest thing is price. Our budget isn't in the range of a brand new iPad, but I also don't want to have something that will be EoL for updates in the next couple of years.  I would like this to be useful for many years.

 

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

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I can't help you with a specific recommendation, but, as a fellow Android user, I can tell you that 3rd party bluetooth/usb mouse and keyboards add a lot of functionality to touch screen devices without having to pay for name brand.

 

If price is your main consideration, Android tablets offers much less expensive solutions for both upfront cost and utility additions down the road. The longevity of Apple tablets are nice, but kids are gonna break it before you get your money's worth (even with a nice Otterbox and tempered glass screen protector trust me). Samsung's mid-tier mobile devices are also, regularly, some of the best values on the market.

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Sony has you covered!  Their Tab Z from 2013 can have the bootloader unlocked (reading xda forums makes me confident these devices allow it, why would Sony have a page with a list of devices and instructions, calling it open hardware etc and then lock it down?) and you can put LineageOS on the device.

 

Being so easy with a guide directly from Sony developer page, to unlock the bootloader will help increase the chances of ongoing support, and will help reduce e-waste.

 

The Tab Z only has 2GB of memory, but depending on how much LineageOS uses at idle, that may just be enough.  1.5GB is very limiting on my tablet, but 1.2GB of memory is being used by android.  Once Fennec (firefox) uses 400MB of memory, I usually have to force close it, but that's with four or five tabs open, and I can close what I'm not reading and it works fine.

 

https://lineageOS.org

 

https://forum.xda-developers.com

: JRE #1914 Siddarth Kara

How bad is e-waste?  Listen to that Joe Rogan episode.

 

"Now you get what you want, but do you want more?
- Bob Marley, Rastaman Vibration album 1976

 

Windows 11 will just force business to "recycle" "obscolete" hardware.  Microsoft definitely isn't bothered by this at all, and seems to want hardware produced just a few years ago to be considered obsolete.  They have also not shown any interest nor has any other company in a similar financial position, to help increase tech recycling whatsoever.  Windows 12 might be cloud-based and be a monthly or yearly fee.

 

Software suggestions


Just get f.lux [Link removed due to forum rules] so your screen isn't bright white at night, a golden orange in place of stark 6500K bluish white.

released in 2008 and still being improved.

 

Dark Reader addon for webpages.  Pick any color you want for both background and text (background and foreground page elements).  Enable the preview mode on desktop for Firefox and Chrome addon, by clicking the dark reader addon settings, Choose dev tools amd click preview mode.

 

NoScript or EFF's privacy badger addons can block many scripts and websites that would load and track you, possibly halving page load time!

 

F-droid is a place to install open-source software for android, Antennapod, RethinkDNS, Fennec which is Firefox with about:config, lots of performance and other changes available, mozilla KB has a huge database of what most of the settings do.  Most software in the repository only requires Android 5 and 6!

 

I recommend firewall apps (blocks apps) and dns filters (redirect all dns requests on android, to your choice of dns, even if overridden).  RethinkDNS is my pick and I set it to use pi-hole, installed inside Ubuntu/Debian, which is inside Virtualbox, until I go to a website, nothing at all connects to any other server.  I also use NextDNS.io to do the same when away from home wi-fi or even cellular!  I can even tether from cellular to any device sharing via wi-fi, and block anything with dns set to NextDNS, regardless if the device allows changing dns.  This style of network filtration is being overridden by software updates on some devices, forcing a backup dns provuder, such as google dns, when built in dns requests are not connecting.  Without a complete firewall setup, dns redirection itself is no longer always effective.

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