New tablet. Which one?

[Trixanity]

I'm in the market for a new tablet. However I'm not sure which one to buy.

 

Nexus 9 has just been released but it doesn't seem to be that great and the price not so much either. No SD card.

 

I kinda like the Shield Tablet for the price and performance. The speakers I've heard aren't that great but they're still front-facing stereo and it'll get 5.0 Lollipop quickly. I'm unsure about the screen and battery life. The stylus is a nice feature but I'm not sure how much I'd use it. It would be decent for note-taking especially drawing diagrams, models etc. - also it has an SD card slot.

 

I really want the AMOLED display that's on the Tab S and I would probably buy a successor to that (Tab S2?) which will hopefully have a better SoC. Now besides the display and SD card storage, the Tab S sucks including TouchWiz in particular. So basically "dat display" for the Samsung.

 

Next up is the Lenovo Yoga tablets. They have excellent battery life with their barrel-shaped built-in huge battery pack. However again, it seems like pretty much the rest of it sucks. The new ones have (in the top expensive Pro models) a projector which is somewhat awesome but that's all besides the battery it has going for it. Also, probably no updates, so it'll probably have the OS it ships with and I doubt the XDA community will be huge.

 

So which would you guys recommend?
Primary usage is media consumption. Video playback mostly as well as web browsing on the couch. 

I do have a GTX 970 for GameStreaming but I hear there's a third party solution called Limelight that does exactly the same so that's not much of a consideration and I don't know how much I'll use it. Also, I'm not doing much Android gaming either but maybe I'll get into it more with a tablet.

 

[TheRoss0411]

I am going to get the shield tablet

[thekeemo]

budget';

[Scia]

I'd go for the Nexus 9 tbh. Really the only android tablet worth buying.

[kameshss]

Get a Nexus 10, if you really want a AMOLED display (Old though). But Tab S is also good!

Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 and Pro is also a good option if you opt for great battery life!

I'll suggest you to go with Yoga Tablet 2 Since it has QuadCore Processor from Intel. Better graphics performance!

Good luck choosing your Tablet!

[Trixanity]

Budget is irrelevant. Sort of. I'll be buying one tablet and probably keep it for a very long time, so I'll spend as much as I have to. It's only my phone I'll exchange on a fixed schedule.

 

The perfect tablet for me would be vanilla (ish) Android with proper update schedule, stereo front-facing speakers, SD card, decent SoC and great battery life and AMOLED display But no perfect tablet exists, so I'm searching for the best compromise. I appreciate the input.

 

Edit: Want a reasonably new tablet, so that means less than 6 months old I like new toys hehe.

[Trixanity]

I think I might just go for the Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact. It seems to be the best compromise all things considered. It's not cheap but it seems nice.

[Pomfinator]

I had a go with the Shield tablet, and I didn't like it.  But I've recently discovered one of my biggest gripes with it (the weirdass cover-stand) was being moody because I totally used it like my iPad Air cover (folding it into a triangle and leaning the device on it) and not like how it's advertised on the box.  The speakers aren't exactly great, but they're stereo, and miles better than mono.  1920x1200 is a great middle ground between 4:3 and 16:9, the black bars aren't so apparent but you get some extra width when using the tablet in portrait mode.  Gamestream was actually great, felt nearly no latency locally with DSII, but unless I'm traveling I don't really see a reason to us it and that might introduce way more latency.

 

I still don't like the locking mechanism on the cover, but I'm thinking of re-evaluating it, after the fiasco that is the Nexus 6 launch and the problems with the Nexus 9.  

 

But maybe I'm just not in the correct demographic for tablets, I'm rarely on the move without a purpose since I don't live near my university and I don't find taking notes on it very compelling. If only I didn't have my Razer Blade already, then I could've tried out a convertible.

[kungpaogao]

Well, I think you are best off going with the Shield Tablet.

 

But, Nexus 9 is a pretty good choice esp. if you can get it from http://www.htc.com/us/go/htc-hot-deals/

Also, if you really want that display from Samsung, but dislike TouchWiz blah blah, then just root it and get a custom ROM on it.

[razor767]

Budget is irrelevant. Sort of. I'll be buying one tablet and probably keep it for a very long time, so I'll spend as much as I have to. It's only my phone I'll exchange on a fixed schedule.

 

The perfect tablet for me would be vanilla (ish) Android with proper update schedule, stereo front-facing speakers, SD card, decent SoC and great battery life and AMOLED display But no perfect tablet exists, so I'm searching for the best compromise. I appreciate the input.

 

Edit: Want a reasonably new tablet, so that means less than 6 months old I like new toys hehe.

 

 

I think I might just go for the Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact. It seems to be the best compromise all things considered. It's not cheap but it seems nice.

 

The Z3 Tablet Compact seems to be a good choice for you. The display looks nice even though I don't think it's AMOLED. It also has the bonus of being waterproof.

[Aniallation]

Get a Nexus 10, if you really want a AMOLED display (Old though)

Nexus 10 is really starting to show it's age, and isn't really an appropriate suggestion for a new tablet. 

 

 

I think I might just go for the Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact. It seems to be the best compromise all things considered. It's not cheap but it seems nice.

The big thing you have to decide from is 16:9 vs 4:3. Do you do more media consumption on your tablet, or more web browsing and productivity? 

[Mew]

Just curious, why do you want an AMOLED display? IMO, the tradeoffs aren't worth it (color accuracy-over saturated colors, image degradation after a couple years- something about blue led dying more quickly?) I'd rather have a high quality IPS screen.

[Trixanity]

TL;DR: I'm kinda sold on the Sony Z3

 

Long version:

My primary usage would probably be media consumption but browsing would definitely be a thing as well. 

 

The reason why I like the AMOLED is the superior black levels. The recent AMOLED displays have excellent color accuracy and can even be adjusted in calibration to sRGB or Adobe RGB according to what you want through the display settings which is quite nice. The saturated colors are sort of still a thing but I don't mind it too much. The image degradation is probably the worst trade-off with the AMOLED displays but it takes a significant amount of time for it to be visible - and yes, it is indeed blue LED that has a shorter lifespan. I actually did a presentation on OLED displays once in class. My mate actually theorized the reason behind the blue OLED having a much shorter lifespan was because of the wavelength that blue light operates at. Whether that's true, I don't know, but it was an interesting theory nevertheless.

 

And no, the Z3 does not use an AMOLED display. It uses an IPS LCD display with Sonys Triluminos display technology which can sort of close the gap between LCD and OLED displays a little bit and provides some clear advantages in color gamut. It should be able to display at least sRGB if not some of Adobe RGB

 

HTCs deals are only available in the US - alas I cannot utilize that. 

 

I get the sense that the Shield tablet is a mixed bag.

I've kinda decided that I'm not gonna get Nexus 9, Samsung Galaxy Tab S nor the Lenovo Yoga Tablets.

So I'm just kinda gonna have to decide between the Shield Tablet and the Sony Z3. And I have the feeling that I've kinda decided that I want the Sony (for some reason) even though the Shield is definitely a great buy despite the issues I've read about such as wifi and cracks in the plastic. The Sony can also utilize a PS controller so if I ever want to go down that road, it's possible. The only downside is that it doesn't have the same GameStream or TegraZone support that the Shield Tablet does. So no Half-Life, Portal or any such titles for the Sony but gaming won't be the primary thing I'll use it for.

The primary will be watching Netflix, YouTube and just in general movies and tv shows. Secondary will be web browsing.

 

And since I expect to buy the Z4 when it comes out, they'll be complimenting each other visually. Although that's still up in the air since I will make my next phone purchase in March/April and I'll have to see the new models then, but I'm definitely considering also going Sony.

 

Lastly, I'll note that I am not afraid of rooting. I'm currently running a rooted LG G2 with a G3 ported rom And I do intend to root every future device