RIP Shield tablet, need replacement

[porina]

I've had my Shield tablet for some years now. Nvidia continue to provide security updates for it, and it is a nice form factor for mobile games. But it is past its best and I'm going to have to take it behind the shed and say goodbye one last time...

 

Ok, it's not that bad, but the USB charging port has worn out as I use it that much. Charging rarely works now, and in effect I can't use it any more.

 

So, what's out there android tablet wise these days? Is it even still a thing? I don't need a massive size, but the shield was showing its age in parts, most notably the lack of ram compared to more modern devices. Basically I'd like something with 3GB ram absolute minimum, 32GB+ storage, and enough CPU/GPU to handle some gaming. Really doesn't matter beyond that. 

[Himommies]

Tablet's are getting phased out because stuff like the note 8 exists 

Get a type of ipad or the s3

[Theguywhobea]

I had to work on my bosses tablet the other day and it was actually pretty nice, probably the nicest Android tablet I've used. It was the Galaxy Tab S3, kinda pricey for an Android tablet but it was very nice.

[Damascus]

Get a galaxy tab (current gen) 8, they have decent processors

[porina]

5 minutes ago, Himommies said:

Tablet's are getting phased out because stuff like the note 8 exists 

Get a type of ipad or the s3

Forgot to say, I hate Samsung's butchered interpretation of Android, so they are absolutely not a consideration. Also, I don't want to think about cross compatibility of cloud saves so need to stick to Android. I'd also like to keep to something rectangular. In a quick search I saw some horrible square looking things. No thanks. That just wouldn't work well at all.

 

Still searching for myself... one of the HUAWEI MediaPad M3 range might do the trick?

[Himommies]

7 minutes ago, porina said:

Forgot to say, I hate Samsung's butchered interpretation of Android, so they are absolutely not a consideration. Also, I don't want to think about cross compatibility of cloud saves so need to stick to Android. I'd also like to keep to something rectangular. In a quick search I saw some horrible square looking things. No thanks. That just wouldn't work well at all.

 

Still searching for myself... one of the HUAWEI MediaPad M3 range might do the trick?

honestly the S3 is so good that it might be worthwhile to run a custom ROM

 

[porina]

7 minutes ago, Himommies said:

honestly the S3 is so good that it might be worthwhile to run a custom ROM

It's the wrong aspect ratio and, how much does it cost??? It might be nice, but it isn't the right tool for the job.

[Himommies]

Just now, porina said:

It's the wrong aspect ratio and, how much does it cost??? It might be nice, but it isn't the right tool for the job.

its 500 if i remeber correctly

if that's too expsnive the mediapro is the frontrunner of the mid range category

[porina]

6 minutes ago, Himommies said:

its 500 if i remeber correctly

if that's too expsnive the mediapro is the frontrunner of the mid range category

I can afford it, but it makes no sense to pay that much for something I don't want. What's a mediapro?

[Himommies]

Just now, porina said:

I can afford it, but it makes no sense to pay that much for something I don't want. What's a mediapro?

autocorrect

I ment mediapad

[porina]

13 minutes ago, Himommies said:

autocorrect

I ment mediapad

In more looking around, I'm starting to think the MediaPad M5 8 is the one for me. Newer than the M3 so might have a bit more support life. Still looking up videos on it but no deal breakers so far.

[porina]

2 hours ago, huilun02 said:

You're going to be paying more for the M5 which spec-wise is hardly any better than the M3. You also pay more to lose the 3.5mm jack. The M3 is stuck on Nougat but it really doesn't matter with vast majority of games and apps being backward compatible.

 

Here's the listing on Amazon

Where I am, the M3 is hardly cheaper than the M5. The M3 lite is much cheaper, but it is starting to cut enough to make me wonder if they cut too much.

[porina]

1 minute ago, huilun02 said:

Really?

If the M5 costs about the same and you don't mind losing the 3.5mm jack, go for it.

Click on those links. The ones I did all go to M3 lite.

[porina]

1 minute ago, huilun02 said:

Ah I see. Whats the best price on the M5 that you found? There's this

Same price at Amazon UK, which I should add I had already ordered. Thanks for looking, but I think we're done.

[porina]

As way of closing this thread, I've been using the Mediapad M5 for about a day now. I'm still setting it up so I'm far from done, but enough to compare against the Shield K1 for gaming.

 

Screen is visibly higher resolution, which is actually a negative now. It shows up image rescaling in lower resolution game assets that wasn't noticeable before. No complaints on performance so far. I hadn't realised how bad the battery was getting in the K1, but it shouldn't be that big a surprise in hindsight as it is years old. The remaining charge dropped much faster on the Shield, and hardly moves at all on the Mediapad. I don't have actual runtimes yet, but combined with the charging problems I had on the Shield, that is a bit of a killer.

 

I suspect in some games there is something a bit odd going on with the display scaling. Some elements seem to be placed slightly outside view on the edges of the screen. I don't know if this is a Huawei problem, an Android general problem, or a software problem. The two tablets are the same aspect ratio so I don't see why there should be any problem at all.

 

I'm also still getting used to the navigation. The fingerprint reader works nicely and quickly, and can also be used for gesture control. Just as well, as I'm struggling to call up the nav bar while in game. On the Shield, and most other android devices I've used with soft buttons, to make them visible it is enough to swipe down from the top which shows both menu and navigation bars. On the Mediapad it only brings up the menu bar and tinkering with settings haven't been able to change that. Actually, that's only half true. There is a swipe up from bottom right to bring up nav buttons, but this only seems to work in portrait mode.

 

I'm getting minor flashbacks to Samsung's android interface with Huawei's EMUI, but it isn't nearly as bad. EMUI also comes with its duplicate set of apps but it is less in your face about it. For a gaming usage case, as opposed to higher intensity usage of a phone, this isn't as much of a problem.