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Android tablets?

Achillias

Achillias

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 1, 2011
720
996
I'm in the running on buying an Android tablet but I want to know how the apps are. Are they just blown out unscaled phone apps or are most of the apps in Google play store good scaled. Because if it is the first I might pay just 200 euros more and get an iPad.
 
hovscorpion12 said:
Unlike iOS, AndroidOS auto scales apps to fit the screen perfectly.

if your looking for an ideal android tablet, the upcoming Samsung Tab S7 is looking to be an iPad Pro competitor.
Click to expand...
So it doesn't look bad upscaled?
 
Achillias said:
So it doesn't look bad upscaled?
Click to expand...

Android does not upscale. The OS knows the devise your using and scales it according. The system performs basic scaling and resizing to adapt to your screen size. Granted, a developer can optimize the app for a specific android device, but 99.9% of the apps automatically look amazing.

for example, facebook on a 5.5” android phone will look the same on 6.9” android phone if not better
 
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There's some items to watch for with Android tablets:
1) How important are updates? - You may get what you get and no security patches/updates/fixes.
2) Ensure that the brand/type you get includes the play store - some cheaper/lower-end ones may use alternative play store systems.
3) Check the CPU, RAM, and Storage - anymore 64GB of Storage may work, but I keep seeing something about Android doing a system volume or backup volume separate from the main volume. So 64GB, half may be for the other volume and the other half is the OS + installed apps? (Need to verify this). RAM, I would ensure at least 2GB for a tablet - especially if you want a screen with 1920x1080 or higher resolution. Even with a good CPU if you're lacking RAM, you'll notice.
4) Research the pre-installed apps on devices. I'm not sure what your use-case is, but sometimes the pre-installed apps can't be removed + may create security risks on the device.
 
hovscorpion12 said:
Unlike iOS, AndroidOS auto scales apps to fit the screen perfectly.

if your looking for an ideal android tablet, the upcoming Samsung Tab S7 is looking to be an iPad Pro competitor.
Click to expand...

Meanwhile iPadOS have apps that use the real estate in the most efficient way possible.
 
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Achillias said:
It's going to be the new Samsung Galaxy S7 tab which is going to be released soon. Just never had an Android tablet before.
Click to expand...
It's going to be a great tablet. I have a few Android-based tablets, among them a Galaxy A 10.1 (2019). As I transition off of iOS-based devices, I work my way up the Android food chain to see how high (price-wise) I need to go to get a comfortable experience.

I think that I'll probably go to a Galaxy S6 Lite soon.

In most areas, there is parity between iOS and Android for the apps of major services. But there is quite a bit of difference when it comes to more specialized apps... in particular, digital notebooks. There isn't really anything like GoodNotes and Notability for Android. That's the thing that prevents me from fully replacing my iPad with an Android tablet.

If you are patient and take the time to learn/re-learn how to do things on Android you may be pleasantly surprised at just how much you can do with it.
 
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Achillias said:
I'm in the running on buying an Android tablet but I want to know how the apps are. Are they just blown out unscaled phone apps or are most of the apps in Google play store good scaled. Because if it is the first I might pay just 200 euros more and get an iPad.
Click to expand...
Yes to the first part.
 
sracer said:
It's going to be a great tablet. I have a few Android-based tablets, among them a Galaxy A 10.1 (2019). As I transition off of iOS-based devices, I work my way up the Android food chain to see how high (price-wise) I need to go to get a comfortable experience.

I think that I'll probably go to a Galaxy S6 Lite soon.

In most areas, there is parity between iOS and Android for the apps of major services. But there is quite a bit of difference when it comes to more specialized apps... in particular, digital notebooks. There isn't really anything like GoodNotes and Notability for Android. That's the thing that prevents me from fully replacing my iPad with an Android tablet.

If you are patient and take the time to learn/re-learn how to do things on Android you may be pleasantly surprised at just how much you can do with it.
Click to expand...
I've used Android phones many many years, especially with customizing it with KLWP, Nova launcher etc. Only never bought an Android tablet. And didn't heard good things app wise about it.
 
I have a Samsung Tab S2 which is 5 years old. I do not get OS updates anymore but I still get app updates and my last security patch was August 2019 so i got those for 4 years.
If I were to get a new one , I'd probably get the Tab S6 since it will be cheaper than the new S7. I'm not one for needing the newest thing and the Tablet is secondary use for me.
 
Achillias said:
I've used Android phones many many years, especially with customizing it with KLWP, Nova launcher etc. Only never bought an Android tablet. And didn't heard good things app wise about it.
Click to expand...
In the end, it depends on what you're going to do with the tablet. If you expect tablet specific apps, forget about it. Like previous posters stated, since Android scaled up phone apps, you'll be pretty much having a larger android "phone." Not that it's a bad thing, but since most Android developers pretty much never think about their UI on a tablet, the experience is not as "pretty" compared to the iPad.

Functionality wise, imo Android tablets are better, especially cellular ones, as they have phone functionality. Meaning Ic an use the tablet as a phone, and thus not needing a phone. Many people here use the 7" Samsung tablets as their phones, and it works. All apps work as expected. This is in contrast to the iPad where it cannot be a phone (thus you still need a phone).
 
Vegastouch said:
I have a Samsung Tab S2 which is 5 years old. I do not get OS updates anymore but I still get app updates and my last security patch was August 2019 so i got those for 4 years.
If I were to get a new one , I'd probably get the Tab S6 since it will be cheaper than the new S7. I'm not one for needing the newest thing and the Tablet is secondary use for me.
Click to expand...
I just bought a Tab 2 to replace my old Nexus 7. It's still a great tablet, especially if you don't want one bigger than 10 inches.
 
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I have a Tab S3 and anticipate upgrading to the S7 this year. The S3 has been an awesome device, though recently the one quirk of the device lagging during app syncs after it's been inactive for a while can be frustrating if you're not expecting it to happen. While it's in use, it's good though.

I'm anxiously awaiting the official announcement of the S7, though the speculation of regular LCD for the non-+ version is giving me some pause.
 
One main reason I moved from my lovely Galaxy Note Pro 12 (both phone and tablet) to iPad is that at least few years ago, one could not backup the entire Android device using the Samsung app. How about now?
 
hallux said:
I have a Tab S3 and anticipate upgrading to the S7 this year. The S3 has been an awesome device, though recently the one quirk of the device lagging during app syncs after it's been inactive for a while can be frustrating if you're not expecting it to happen. While it's in use, it's good though.

I'm anxiously awaiting the official announcement of the S7, though the speculation of regular LCD for the non-+ version is giving me some pause.
Click to expand...
But least it will run 120hz.
 
hajime said:
How about now?
Click to expand...
Android is still not at the same level as iOS when it comes to device backup/restore. That being said - I did a device restore on my Pixel 2 XL and it restored my phone history, texts (because I'm on Fi and still use Hangouts so it's synced through the web) and most or all of my apps and just required signing back in to them. The ones that the developer has chosen to allow to back up to Google Drive will have their data recovered, and ones that sync through some other process (FaceBook? Google Play Games?) will as well once they're configured and sync.

Backup and restore on Android, as a whole, is very much left up to the device manufacturers and the app developers. I used SmartSwitch on my Tab S3 to move from my Galaxy Note 10.1 and it seemed to do a decent job, though I don't have a lot of pictures or images on that device.
 
hallux said:
Android is still not at the same level as iOS when it comes to device backup/restore. That being said - I did a device restore on my Pixel 2 XL and it restored my phone history, texts (because I'm on Fi and still use Hangouts so it's synced through the web) and most or all of my apps and just required signing back in to them. The ones that the developer has chosen to allow to back up to Google Drive will have their data recovered, and ones that sync through some other process (FaceBook? Google Play Games?) will as well once they're configured and sync.

Backup and restore on Android, as a whole, is very much left up to the device manufacturers and the app developers. I used SmartSwitch on my Tab S3 to move from my Galaxy Note 10.1 and it seemed to do a decent job, though I don't have a lot of pictures or images on that device.
Click to expand...

When it comes to photos I would always say say go for google photos anyway though
 
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I have the Galaxy A 10.1 (2019) and have no complaints. A great product which i picked up for 160 Euros. My needs are quite basic so you will probably want something higher in the Samsung lineup but if my Tab A is an indication of the quality in general, you won't go wrong.
 
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hallux said:
Android is still not at the same level as iOS when it comes to device backup/restore. That being said - I did a device restore on my Pixel 2 XL and it restored my phone history, texts (because I'm on Fi and still use Hangouts so it's synced through the web) and most or all of my apps and just required signing back in to them. The ones that the developer has chosen to allow to back up to Google Drive will have their data recovered, and ones that sync through some other process (FaceBook? Google Play Games?) will as well once they're configured and sync.

Backup and restore on Android, as a whole, is very much left up to the device manufacturers and the app developers. I used SmartSwitch on my Tab S3 to move from my Galaxy Note 10.1 and it seemed to do a decent job, though I don't have a lot of pictures or images on that device.
Click to expand...

If I recall correctly, I had to use the Samsung app to back-up the photos. I think I could not backup the system settings and something else that I don't recall.

If I backup to google photos, it means I give google permissions to use the images?
 
hajime said:
If I recall correctly, I had to use the Samsung app to back-up the photos. I think I could not backup the system settings and something else that I don't recall.

If I backup to google photos, it means I give google permissions to use the images?
Click to expand...
Every photo you take with phone or tablet will go in Google Photos. I don't know about permissions,.. And don't really care. What would they use them for?
 
I don't believe you're giving Google permission to PUBLISH your photos. What Google MIGHT do is use the photos (and the tags you applied) to help improve the AI for automatic tagging or searching, but your information would not be visible or available to other individuals. Kind of like Google already does with email for spam filtering.
 
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