Database Users

Should I get this, or another tablet?

Considering picking one up used for $120 or less (BTW, any deals better than the $135 certified pre-owned on B&N's site would be appreciated). I've considered loads of other tablets (mostly 7"), but fact is, I don't want to spend much, at least not on the tablet itself.
Anyway, at $120 or less, is it worth picking up, or should I look at something else? The things that draw me to the Nook Color are price (obviously), screen type/quality (not super glossy = awesome), USB OTG (considering plugging in a keyboard and using it for notes), Bluetooth (for headphones), and support/dev community.
My main uses would be reading books/comics, watching videos (nothing high-res), and possibly taking notes as mentioned earlier; there'd be very light gaming, as anything more serious would be reserved to an Xperia Play when I get one later. I doubt I'd install much just to try and keep it running as smooth as possible.
Expandable memory is nice, but not necessary, and I could live without either USB OTG or Bluetooth if the other was present. Camera/GPS/etc. definitely isn't necessary. Don't care for dual-core and whatnot as I know I won't really use/need the power.
Also, quick question about the Nook Color - are there any major issues left with CM7 for it, or is it basically complete? And how is CM9 in comparison (at the moment)?

nookcolor is a great tablet for $130 (give or take in price) but im ruuning cm7.1 for months now with no bugs or problems at all, it is a very stable rom. Screen is very nice, not to bright or to dull.

I got mine new for around $120 too. It is a great value although it does not have camera or other peripheral options.

tourist2 said:
I got mine new for around $120 too. It is a great value although it does not have camera or other peripheral options.
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You get what you pay for
Sent from my HTC Wildfire S using xda premium

Android311 said:
You get what you pay for
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Sometimes, you just pay more because you're an idiot.

The Nook Color has an exquisite screen, and it's better than the Kindle Fire (which I also own). Also, the Nook Tablet screen is exactly the same. It's the right resolution and sharpness. The iPad 3 is probably too much, especially since it runs very hot and eats the battery.
Even if you don't want to root or replace the ROM on your Nook Color, it's still a great tablet with a screen that is better than any other.

I love the color Nook. I f only it had a microphone , it could do everything I need

DigitalMD said:
I love the color Nook. I f only it had a microphone , it could do everything I need
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Some success in that area. Check out this thread:
http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/nook-color-technical/15172-headset-microphone-nc.html

Money
vote Kindle Fire

Forgot to update, ended up getting one for $100 in great condition on Craigslist. Immediately popped in a 32GB microSD and loaded CM7.2, lowered the screen density to 120, and I love it.

Definitely go with the Nook Color
I bought it when it was originally priced at $250. I live in Canada and drove down to the States to pick it up since BN doesn't ship to Canada. Even with the release of newer tablets, I'd buy another Nook Color over the others simply because it's the best bang for the buck.
I use it for my commute -- reading PDF books, listening to MP3s, watching videos, and the occasional game.
FWIW, I've owned an Ipad, Ipad2, and Blackberry Playbook. However, I couldn't justify the $400-600 price tag and sold them.

CM 7.2 is very functional, assuming you can live with the fact that apps won't recognize it as a full-on tablet. Within that limitation, it does everything just fine that you'd expect. The only shortcoming on your list is bluetooth support, as ranges can be limited.
At anything below $150, I'd says it's definitely worth a buy. You can blow that much with a night on the town, and have nothing but a headache and a strange rash to show for it.

Just to let everyone know that for some reason (good or bad), CM7.2-RC1 KANG on my NC is last FOREVER
I don't even know I should smile or not. It has been left idle (with virtually no use, screen off) for a WEEK and still has roughly 65% left in the tank.

Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed my NC for some time and still continue to do so (as I already own it and it's just good enough to still do what I need, namely play around with new OS code ala CM9).
That said, even at $199.00, it's way slow compared to the competitions products at the same price ranges. NT is much better but doesn't even have BlueTooth at all, from my understanding and shown in it's tear down.
This means that if you need BT, albiet with a less than 10 inch range, the NC is probably the only "eReader" with BT using CM7 or CM9 at that range.
If you are thinking of the tape for gaming? Don't, it's opengl is good enough to entice you with some titles running, but it'll be lag city once there is enough onscreen action.
Thinking of it for Video? Semi-don't. Sure it's IPS screen will impress, but 720P video will not be 100% smooth and it doesn't have the video processing to do anything higher. Pretty much 480P res when you use NetFlix.
Can't buy new? While you can get a cheap NC off of Ebay, keep an eye out for several of the top end earlier generation tabs as the new ones entice users to upgrade.

SeaFractor said:
Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed my NC for some time and still continue to do so (as I already own it and it's just good enough to still do what I need, namely play around with new OS code ala CM9).
That said, even at $199.00, it's way slow compared to the competitions products at the same price ranges. NT is much better but doesn't even have BlueTooth at all, from my understanding and shown in it's tear down.
This means that if you need BT, albiet with a less than 10 inch range, the NC is probably the only "eReader" with BT using CM7 or CM9 at that range.
If you are thinking of the tape for gaming? Don't, it's opengl is good enough to entice you with some titles running, but it'll be lag city once there is enough onscreen action.
Thinking of it for Video? Semi-don't. Sure it's IPS screen will impress, but 720P video will not be 100% smooth and it doesn't have the video processing to do anything higher. Pretty much 480P res when you use NetFlix.
Can't buy new? While you can get a cheap NC off of Ebay, keep an eye out for several of the top end earlier generation tabs as the new ones entice users to upgrade.
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Yeah, Bluetooth was one of those things I just can't live without, even with the limited range. I definitely wouldn't have picked it up for any more than $100 (I would have just gotten the new NT if it wasn't much more expensive). Video hasn't disappointed me - standard/non-HD video is good enough for me and plays just fine. As for gaming, I intend to get an Xperia Play to use exclusively as a gaming device and just use that - although I may skip it at this point, as I have plenty of PC games, and the tablet is taking up a lot of the free time I had previously.
And I don't mind the lack of tablet apps on CM7 - I find CM9 a bit too sluggish to consider the switch at least for now.

My Review of the Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition)

I purchased the Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) from amazon two weeks ago with overnight shipping. I received it the next day and was impressed by the build quality, except, the right side speaker is slightly loose. I did not notice it was loose until I read another post here saying they had a loose speaker and many others started to find out that theirs was too. Other than that, everyone was perfectly constructed.
When I turned it on for the first time everything was fast and fluid, even with Samsung's TouchWiz and all the other bloaty widgets and apps they come with. I have to say, Samsung can really make a polished piece of hardware, but that is where they should stop, unless they are going to invest a much larger amount of energy in to developing their software platforms. I have the Galaxy S4 as my phone, and now the Galaxy Note 10.1 Tablet, and I always love everything about the Samsung products except for almost 100% of the software they develop... but I will get in to that a little later.
One of the big reasons that I chose this over other Samsung tablets to be my first tablet since I got an Archos Internet Tablet (in 2008 or 9 ), well besides the obviously beastly processor and RAM, was because it had the physical button on the frame and a software digital button. I know a lot of users here and elsewhere hate the physical button, but I don't understand why when you are just wasting space on your screen when the frame of your device would have been actual wasted space without the button. I've used the Galaxy Tab 2 10inch and one of my biggest annoyances was the on-screen buttons because I use the app Splashtop to remotely control my PC, and those damn software navigation buttons always got in the way.
Anyways, on to other things, this thing is fast and powerful. 20-25 apps running in the background and no slow down of any noticeable amount. After a few days though, TouchWiz started lagging tremendously whether there were any apps running or not. Now I've replaced the stock TouchWiz with Nova Launcher Prime, and the Lock Screen with WidgetLocker, and never have I seen any lag on this device since. Plays large, HD quality games like FIFA 14 perfectly.
The S-Pen is actually really cool and I'm a fanatic about productivity and some of the features related to the S-Pen are really great when trying to be productive. It has a feature that lets you scrap book any video, image, text, area of the screen, etc. that I use often to research certain topics and bring them together. Action memo allows me to write down an address that someone is telling me over the phone, then circle it with S-Pen and it will pull up gMaps to direct me there automatically. It was a little strange getting used to writing on a tablet though but now it feels as fluid as if I were writing with a real pen.
I have to say something about the graphical quality of the screen though. It is beautiful, and I have not seen a better quality screen for such a device ever before. The resolution is higher than my Desktop PCs and it definitely shows. It is definitely better than even the iPad Air that I went to check out a couple days ago. Apparently this factor alone is the reason that this Dual-Quad-Core tablet requires that much processor, but that's fine with me.
The Note came with a host of perks such as a $25 Google Play gift card, a $50 Samsung Hub credit, Hulu+, Newsweek, premium "wifi hotspot" membership for 18 months and more that I won't every use. This brings me back to my biggest downfall with Samsung though. They give me $50 to spend on the Samsung Hub (Their version of the Play Store) and when I go there, everything is either junk, already pre-installed on my device, or just something I'm not interested in. I really wanted to use the Samsung Credit to buy some Tech E-Books through their book store and use the Play Store credit for apps/games, but their store only has about 25 tech-related books! So when I decide I won't be buying any books there and try to get some apps and games, half of the decent games worth buying take me directly to the Play Store instead. I feel like I may have this Samsung Credit for a while..
But getting less free stuff than I wanted is not going to detract even 1 star from this bad ass hog. Overall the thing is more powerful than any tablet in its price range, has the highest quality video capabilities, comes with a unique S-Pen that other tablets just don't have, and is a Droid!
:good: 4.5/5 is what my rating would have to be, because they have created a great tablet, and could have got a full 5/5 if they just polished and worked on their software platforms until completion.
Hopin to get KitKat Soon, came stock with 4.3. Thanks for reading.

Great Review
Awesome post mate.

Nice to read something positive.

Nice review
I must agree too , this is Samsungs most polished Tablet to date ..

ryancstl23 said:
I feel like I may have this Samsung Credit for a while..
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Nice review.
Unlike Google $25, Samsung $50 expires after 90 days. I myself haven't found a book or app worth spending this credit on.

There are some good documentaries in movies
Sent from my SCH-I605 using xda app-developers app

my opinion
.I'm using my note for 1 week now...
I've got the 16g wi fi version.
I ve got the 16 bec ause that was the only one available at the store and since there wo n't be any model available in my country soon and I was travelling in the US I, ve decided to buy this on with a 32g sd card.
So far everything is fine, stock configuration and beginning to do some customizations.
My previous tablet was the asus tf300 wich was stolen.
My first concearn was about the 16g of storage....Yes it's small but since I'm moving all available apps and files to sd card everything is working ok. Can't notice any difference between sd or internal apps running.
The s pen is awesome. the kind of thing that you just know you need it only after you get it. Much easier and accurate navigation through the tablet with it.
The multi screen function is also awesome. no need to exit one browser to see other one again....
The only thing that bothers me , and that's not a only Samsung fault, is the amout of pre installed apps.
I was waiting for the tf701 and the new nexus 10.....wich won't be available here either. ... Since both weren't available I've decided for the Samsung.
I'm a regular user, the main use is for reading aircraft manuals and articles and using some life easing and time saving apps...and so far I'm happy with my choice.the tablet is doing its job.
I read lots of reviews and comparisons and my conclusion is that when premium tablet is the concearn. ..regular every day users like me , any pick is a good pick.....Is pretty much like buying a premium sports car.... some will prefer Ferrari some lamborgini and others Porches but either one will be a great choice.

@luizfpg Nice review and also sounds like your a fellow Aircraft Engineer :good:

Geordie Affy said:
@luizfpg Nice review and also sounds like your a fellow Aircraft Engineer :good:
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Pilot actually cheers. ...

luizfpg said:
Pilot actually cheers. ...
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Oh go away then

How long does the device last between charge? Can you share some lights on your usage too?

nit3hawk said:
How long does the device last between charge? Can you share some lights on your usage too?
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That's a point where I'm not very satisfied. I think that me battery drains faster than it shoud. I use the device basically with wi fi on all the time right now my battery is low but latter after charging I'll reply with time time availability shown with 100%.

I think the battery is one of the few areas of honest disappointment. I don't like Android devices that make you do a lot of discovery to find battery drain culprits, or hold a charge quite as well as you'd expect. That's one area where I blame the TouchWiz skin on this tablet.
You were right to highlight the screen, it's absolutely phenomenal. It's far better than my Nexus 10 which was something. It outclasses my iPad as well, it's not just clear it has beautiful color reproduction. It's a bit heavier than I expected after reviews, and my home button is sticky. Besides that it's well made.
It's funny though, I can't say without a doubt I'd recommend it to people if it weren't for the S-Pen usage. The SPen on this is incredible, it works better than you'd think if you have no experience with it. No lag, good software tied in with it, it's the real deal as far as having a virtual notebook. That's why I bought it and why I love it so far. Take that away and the TouchWiz skin seems so unnecessary in so many ways. As someone who uses a Note 3 everyday, this clearly isn't as fast or slick, but it has the real estate. Interesting device.

nit3hawk said:
How long does the device last between charge? Can you share some lights on your usage too?
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I don't have an precise answer for that but I followed some of the advices from the battery saving thread and the battery is actually lasting longer.

luizfpg said:
I don't have an precise answer for that but I followed some of the advices from the battery saving thread and the battery is actually lasting longer.
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I have had mine for only a couple of days, and it's great except for the battery life. I also followed the advise on the battery saving thread, and seems to help.

nit3hawk said:
How long does the device last between charge? Can you share some lights on your usage too?
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Battery life about 10 hours medium usage with full-brightness. I drain the battery pretty quick though playing games on it and watching hulu..
I feel like my friends older Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 gets better battery life, but then again he always has the brightness to a minimum. I always max the brightness because its just too good looking.
By the way another thing I love about this tablet vs the Galaxy Tabs is that it uses the standard android MicroUSB charger instead of a fat proprietary looking one that doesn't charge any of my other devices.

ddavtian said:
Nice review.
Unlike Google $25, Samsung $50 expires after 90 days. I myself haven't found a book or app worth spending this credit on.
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I believe it can also be used on movies and music.

Is the Shield Tablet still worth buying?

I've been considering new tablets, and honestly the Shield Tablet has the features I want and I'm able to get one for $250, which seems reasonable. But I'm just wondering if it's still worth it as the it is a year old. How does it compare to newer devices?

If you're primarily going to be using it for gaming, there isn't a better tablet out there. The tablet is a steal for $250. The latest official update really makes the tablet shine and the custom rom called "Blisspop" even makes the device that much better in terms of performance. You won't regret getting one.

Well at the moment there are not many tablets that are faster (maybe even no faster) than this tablet.
Antutu scores are one of the highest even compared with the latest phones.
So speedwise it is still top notch and tablets that maybe come close you have to pay double the price for compared to a shield.
The 32Gb with Lte is unbeaten for that price.

I bought the 32GB LTE version in July, because an LTE tablet anywhere close to the Shield in terms of specs/screen etc. would have been ~$150 more.
Despite the battery recall issue, I'm satisfied with it. My (original) unit has been working perfectly and is very smooth with Lillipop 5.1 (the 3.1 OTA).
I should be receiving my replacement tomorrow, according to UPS. Presuming it doesn't have a defect, I'm looking forward to settling in. I never bothered to settle in on the old tablet (automatic actions, power saving stuff, that kind of thing) since I found out about the recall shortly after buying it, and didn't bother to fine tune it.
I recommend the tablet as an LTE device in the US, though if I didn't need the LTE connectivity probably there might be better values in wifi only (I'm not a gamer, so other tablets could meet my needs... but there are relatively few 8" LTE tablets without permanently locked bootloaders here).
Marc

The problem of the tablet is really the processor that is getting old pretty quick (don't know exactly it's true performance), but nowadays everything coming out is already being 8 cores at 2 ghz or more.
Keep Cool

But they are often not faster. Gpu of the shield is very fast maybe the fastest around at the moment. The SOC is still one of the fastest around and it is just on the market for 1 year so not that old.
Sent from my HTC One M9

Where can you even buy one of these? In Canada every single place is sold out and saying they won't stock them again. The used market can't find for under $500 either.

M3drvr said:
Where can you even buy one of these? In Canada every single place is sold out and saying they won't stock them again. The used market can't find for under $500 either.
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Checkout swappa.com

nbollinger said:
Checkout swappa.com
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There is nothing there for it.

M3drvr said:
There is nothing there for it.
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https://swappa.com/buy/nvidia-shield-tablet-wifi
its the non-lte, 16 gb version

nbollinger said:
https://swappa.com/buy/nvidia-shield-tablet-wifi
its the non-lte, 16 gb version
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And there are no listings.... Useless.

M3drvr said:
And there are no listings.... Useless.
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Its something on your end then

nbollinger said:
Its something on your end then
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No. It's just that there are none...

There seem to be two of them for sale at that link when I go to it. One for $290, one for $320, both advertised as new (resale). Probably you're just filtering by Canadian sellers, based on your picture. Lots of folks in US won't ship outside the US, so no big deal that they aren't showing up for you.
Best of luck finding one!

Frankenscript said:
There seem to be two of them for sale at that link when I go to it. One for $290, one for $320, both advertised as new (resale). Probably you're just filtering by Canadian sellers, based on your picture. Lots of folks in US won't ship outside the US, so no big deal that they aren't showing up for you.
Best of luck finding one!
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Yeah my question was basically how to get one to Canada that's under $500. Impossible! Cheapest I've found is on eBay shipped for $530 for 16gb model no accessories.

Snah001 said:
But they are often not faster. Gpu of the shield is very fast maybe the fastest around at the moment. The SOC is still one of the fastest around and it is just on the market for 1 year so not that old.
Sent from my HTC One M9
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The thing is that there aren't much AAA games to play in the shield, it's a good device more for the extra nvidia stuff.
I'm waiting for Borderlands 2 for a damn long time, but it never comes, and I don't even know if it runs on the device with good performance or if it's just for the Shield TV.
More impressive are some cheap windows tablets that for around 350€ can even run Battlefield 3 on low to mid.
Now with DX12 and tons of compatibility tablets might go more for windows again.
In fact I'm not liking much android, not a single game like the good old C&C Red alert 2, boot takes almost 2 times longer than my wind 10 PC, some websites stop working, multitasking is a joke since we can't even play a youtube music while doing anything else...
ps: Also in most performance tests we see other tablets ahead of Shield, so I don't think anything is actually that much optimized for it, not even most tegra games.
Keep Cool

My Shield Tablet LTE topped my Nexus 9's scores on Antutu plus the Shield gaming is great to have. Let's not forget about the SD slot and the mini HDMI port on top either. This tablet still destroys everything else (even most phones) a year later. I really mine because it has a stylus and no dumb Samsung home button like their Tablet S/S2 does. Its hard to find a good tablet these days yet the Shield holds its ground and doesn't seem to lose any performance over time. I like playing Half Life 2 on it or DOOM 3 especially when I travel. Its nice to have a tablet which can play nice games too even though that's not its primary purpose for me.
---------- Post added at 23:39 ---------- Previous post was at 23:32 ----------
guily6669 said:
The thing is that there aren't much AAA games to play in the shield, it's a good device more for the extra nvidia stuff.
I'm waiting for Borderlands 2 for a damn long time, but it never comes, and I don't even know if it runs on the device with good performance or if it's just for the Shield TV.
More impressive are some cheap windows tablets that for around 350â?¬ can even run Battlefield 3 on low to mid.
Now with DX12 and tons of compatibility tablets might go more for windows again.
In fact I'm not liking much android, not a single game like the good old C&C Red alert 2, boot takes almost 2 times longer than my wind 10 PC, some websites stop working, multitasking is a joke since we can't even play a youtube music while doing anything else...
ps: Also in most performance tests we see other tablets ahead of Shield, so I don't think anything is actually that much optimized for it, not even most tegra games.
Keep Cool
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Those cheap windows tablets also use Intel chips in most cases plus Windows an as OS handles things differently than Android does. I agree that there aren't many great games but the ones they do have are fun in my opinion. I have the Shield TV as well and I play all kinds of games including emulators without any issues. My i7 Samsung Ultra book probably can't handle some of the games the Shield can then again I haven't tried. I'm not a big PC gamer but I do know the GPU isn't that great in most Windows tablets/ultrabooks. Android M fixes a lot of the productivity issues and adds multi window and I'm sure Nvidia is working on it now anyway. They tend to lush updates out promptly in most cases unless there's a big issue.
I haven't seen another tablet have better gaming performance than he Shield or Nexus 9 since hwy share a GPU yet use different CPU's. My Nexus 6's SD805 doesn't come close to he 3D score that the tablet does but on Marshmallow it does get a nice ~1500 pt boost likely from the optimization in it. I can imagine the same will occur in the Shield Tablet but we won't know until Nvidia releases it.
I'm not saying the Shield is the best fit everyone but it is a great tablet if you are in the market for a LTE enabled 8in tablet thats fast, runs near stock Android and has nice games for it.

Most of those BEST Nvidia Shield games coming soon are old and I finished them already. (RES5, Half Life, Borderlands, Doom...).
The thing is, you get a good device, but you will probably end playing most games that your phone already can play maxed out.
Other thing is Nvidia blahblahblah says it's more powerful than a X360 GPU, but then most games have a little lag and nothing, but really nothing made to the android yet comes close to most X360\PS3 gameplay\physics (they just look good, but plays like crap).
Then it's my 4th Nvidia shield all are defective and the last one needs to go to RMA again.
I never had an android device, so I wanted to try it, with my experience is just a god damn bugged SO worst than windows.
Also I got sad with the strategy games and how nothing on the android thousand of games even come close to Command and Conquer Red Alert II from like 2000
My opinion:
GOOD:
- hardware Performance;
- Sound;
- has it's own wireless gamepad;
- Nvidia software + remote pc play (button mapping already in the tablet, no need to root 4 that);
- More games than other android devices;
BAD:
- Android is not really optimized;
- Not much AAA games:
- Nothing like C&C, age of empires, Skyrim........ (most games are very cheap copies of good games, but look like a 2003 game);
- In the real world, performance is not as big as nvidia make you think (best phones now probably have better performance, like Samsung S6 which is a lot more little and doesn't come close to having more than a hundred cores like this nvidia);
- Screen quality is not that awesome, it is a High resolution LCD, but nothing special besides that. It doesn't get any close to samsung phone's\tablet amoled screens;
- Battery doesn't last much either;
I actually think that something like that made for DX12 and wind 10 would probably get almost twice the performance than on the actual android OS. At least I saw some people playing BF3 on dell cheap 1 year old tablets that cost basically the same as this nvidia shield. Nowadays with DX12 and Wind 10 soon may be a new era for tablets (it seems windows based hardware have more performance per price than android devices). At least I never seen any 300€ android tablet playing anything close to a BF3 which is years ahead in gameplay + physics than any android game I ever seen\played until now.
ps: If it was today I would buy a ~350€ DELL wind tablet that can even play BF3 (guess what? No need to Root for anything as you own everything already and can update\mod everything).
Keep Cool

Is the Walmart Onn 10.1 worth it?

I see that Onn Waltmart 10.1 tablet is on sale. I happen to have a different 10.1 2GB tablet (Vaykyo Z4) also running Android 9. and its disappointingly slow for routine web browsing.
The Z4 uses a 64-bit 1.5Ghz quad-core CPU (rk30board) with a Mali-G31 GPU.
Would the Onn be an improvement?

kmandel said:
I see that Onn Waltmart 10.1 tablet is on sale. I happen to have a different 10.1 2GB tablet (Vaykyo Z4) also running Android 9. and its disappointingly slow for routine web browsing.
The Z4 uses a 64-bit 1.5Ghz quad-core CPU (rk30board) with a Mali-G31 GPU.
Would the Onn be an improvement?
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As long as you keep in mind that it's a $100 tablet, then YES, well worth it.
I wanted a cheap 10" tablet so I first bought a Chuwi HiPad 10" LTE from Amazon that had far greater specs than the Walmart Onn tablet, but it performed really sluggishly. It had 3 GB RAM, Deca core MT6797X Helio X27 processor, yet still felt like it was being intentionally bottlenecked somehow. I disabled the very little bloat that it had but it still felt like something just wasn't right. I wanted to like it because it felt like a nice piece of hardware (for a cheap chinese product anyway), had a surprisingly beautiful high resolution screen, nice keyboard cover with a trackpad, but I couldn't get past how it performed. I returned it.
Now I have the 007 model Onn 10" tablet from Walmart. The screen is very low resolution so that kind of sucks, but the tablet overall performs as one would expect for basic web browsing and media consumption. It's not blazing fast but it's smooth enough that you don't get aggravated with it.
I rooted it easily with Magisk, installed TWRP, disabled the few Walmart apps that were preinstalled, and it performs just fine. There are occasional lags once you start to use up all the RAM, but overall it performs well for being a $100 tablet. It performs MUCH smoother than the Chuwi tablet that had supposedly better specs.
720p YouTube videos play well. 1080p play well enough, too, but the screen is so low-resolution that there's no point. Nova launcher works well. Chrome seems to do alright browsing the web. It has stereo speakers, but they are very flat. Loud, but flat. Battery life is very short compared to higher end tablets with bigger batteries.
It's no powerhouse, but it does run well for basic needs. Only time will tell if it will last longer than a year. Reviews seem hit and miss as far as overheating and battery issues go. Mine, so far, using it daily for email, web browsing, and watching videos, has never gotten even warm in the past month I've had it.

100% Yes its worth it as long as you get it on black friday when its 55 bucks. The 7 inch seems to lag and run poorly. I've had zero issues with the 10 so far. Only thing I did was make all the animations .5 in Developer Settings to make it feel snappier

For one for black friday
Did anyone else get one of these for $60 on black friday? Struggeling with a couple annoyances.
1. Can't get rid of the dang walmart link in the nav bar even after uninstalling bloatware after gaining root.
2. This is supposed to be pie but where are the gesture navigation options??

thatguyjay said:
Did anyone else get one of these for $60 on black friday? Struggeling with a couple annoyances.
1. Can't get rid of the dang walmart link in the nav bar even after uninstalling bloatware after gaining root.
2. This is supposed to be pie but where are the gesture navigation options??
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I used ADB to reset the navbar to stock.
Code:
adb shell settings put secure sysui_nav_bar "space,back;home;recent,space"

ragtop429 said:
I used ADB to reset the navbar to stock.
Code:
adb shell settings put secure sysui_nav_bar "space,back;home;recent,space"
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Click to collapse
I've been looking for this for like 2 days... Thank you sir!

I bought the one with the keyboard. it's now been rebranded as a Surf and has a different model number lol. Either way great price!

razredge said:
I bought the one with the keyboard. it's now been rebranded as a Surf and has a different model number lol. Either way great price!
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I got 4 of the 7 inch and one 10 inch with the keyboard. 10 inch is gonna be my obd II in car monitoring tablet, the 7 inch tablets are for family members for christmas lol

KaptinBoxxi said:
I got 4 of the 7 inch and one 10 inch with the keyboard. 10 inch is gonna be my obd II in car monitoring tablet, the 7 inch tablets are for family members for christmas lol
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Click to collapse
UM...I might just steal that idea. I'm building my diesel truck and looking into an in dash system my monitor everything. I don't gauges everywhere. I've seen a few in dash systems but I can find other parts to blow $300 on.

razredge said:
UM...I might just steal that idea. I'm building my diesel truck and looking into an in dash system my monitor everything. I don't gauges everywhere. I've seen a few in dash systems but I can find other parts to blow $300 on.
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Click to collapse
Android being Android, I paid for Torque Pro once, ripped the apk and put it on all my devices, including my gf's phone just in case. The OBD II Bluetooth dongle I got was 3 dollars from china off the app Wish. Sure it took a month to get, but was WELL worth it.
Now that I'm thinking about it, maybe I'll release a modified system.img for these devices with all this pre-installed. Idk the exact rules on "paid for APK's in ROMs" but I've done it before with the Galaxy S5, so...... eh?

I'd be into getting it if you decide to make something up. Hell I'll test for you too. I got SPFT so I ain't scared of bricks.
Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

razredge said:
I'd be into getting it if you decide to make something up. Hell I'll test for you too. I got SPFT so I ain't scared of bricks.
Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
I'm probably going to do it the old fashioned way of rip the system.img with TWRP Tool, edit the system.img by just adding the APK's and such, then testing it, and releasing it. It won't be a GSI, but specific to just the 7 and 10 inch tablets until I download the 8 inch image
Or I'll be lazy and just download the img lol
Update on this idea... every time I try to flash a modified system img, it takes it, but it just boots back to fastboot, so I guess I need to just do a TWRP flashable zip which ... I hate making those XD
Update 2, might be the tool i'm using? It extracts just fine, but no modifications at all, convert file system folder back to system img, still doesn't work

I started this thread to ask if the 10" would do better than the 10" Vaykyo Z4 I have with similar specs. Based on the feedback I bought the $60 model, and I'm very pleased! It's incredibly more responsive. Web pages are fast and pinch zoom works well.
There are a couple of issues so far.
kodi works, except for swipe control of the playing stream. No matter what configuration changes I make it doesn't see the swipes (usied for skip forward, and back).
I'm used to printing with the "cups" app. It worked fine on my Pixel3 back when I was on Android 9 and now on 10. On Onn's 9, it complains about security and never successfuly connects to the cups server. The cups server has no restrictions and all 3 are on the same wifi lan. I think it has something to do with https, but why would that be different on Onn's 9?
Finally, do you think we will be getting security patches, or possibly even Android 10 at some point?

ragtop429 said:
As long as you keep in mind that it's a $100 tablet, then YES, well worth it.
I wanted a cheap 10" tablet so I first bought a Chuwi HiPad 10" LTE from Amazon that had far greater specs than the Walmart Onn tablet, but it performed really sluggishly. It had 3 GB RAM, Deca core MT6797X Helio X27 processor, yet still felt like it was being intentionally bottlenecked somehow. I disabled the very little bloat that it had but it still felt like something just wasn't right. I wanted to like it because it felt like a nice piece of hardware (for a cheap chinese product anyway), had a surprisingly beautiful high resolution screen, nice keyboard cover with a trackpad, but I couldn't get past how it performed. I returned it.
Now I have the 007 model Onn 10" tablet from Walmart. The screen is very low resolution so that kind of sucks, but the tablet overall performs as one would expect for basic web browsing and media consumption. It's not blazing fast but it's smooth enough that you don't get aggravated with it.
I rooted it easily with Magisk, installed TWRP, disabled the few Walmart apps that were preinstalled, and it performs just fine. There are occasional lags once you start to use up all the RAM, but overall it performs well for being a $100 tablet. It performs MUCH smoother than the Chuwi tablet that had supposedly better specs.
720p YouTube videos play well. 1080p play well enough, too, but the screen is so low-resolution that there's no point. Nova launcher works well. Chrome seems to do alright browsing the web. It has stereo speakers, but they are very flat. Loud, but flat. Battery life is very short compared to higher end tablets with bigger batteries.
It's no powerhouse, but it does run well for basic needs. Only time will tell if it will last longer than a year. Reviews seem hit and miss as far as overheating and battery issues go. Mine, so far, using it daily for email, web browsing, and watching videos, has never gotten even warm in the past month I've had it.
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Click to collapse
Yeah, too bad Netflix will only stream at 480P as the onn tablets only support Widevine L3 rather than L1. Yet another case of streaming services being Defective By Design.

Brand New Pixel C, had some general questions

Hey Everyone,
I recently purchased a brand new sealed 64GB Pixel C for $275. I have ALWAYS wanted one but never really needed a tablet until recently. My kindle crapped out, and I have been listening to some audiobooks and I wanted a way to combine the 2. I also plan on maybe watching some movies from my Plex server, some Netflix, and that's probably it...oh and some comics as well....
I had some general questions for those of you who have had a Pixel C for some time.
1. I know there are some screen issues, and I believe based on the serial (i'll confirm when it arrives in two days) mine seems to be made in 2016 sometime, and even though I am in the US, it's a EU version.... Do the problems seem to be on all C's or just a specific run of them?
2. If you were me, and only wanted a tablet for ebooks/audio books and of course some media, but no apps that are super intensive, would you just upgrade from the 6.0 to the 8.0 that's official (or 7.0 if it's good?) , or install a custom rom. If the latter, any recommendations from personal experience?
3. Since it's 2020 and this tablet is coming up on almost 5 years....do you feel I overpaid? This is a completely irrelevant question, I just REALLY REALLY wanted one, I hate Samsung and wanted something with as close to a pure google experience like my Pixel phone. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I have seen them selling used in good shape in the upper 100's range, and most are 32GB.....
4. Anything else I should know that I don't see jumping out at me in the forums that you would pass along to a new C owner?
Thanks everyone in advance!
Hank

Hank_Rearden said:
Hey Everyone,
I recently purchased a brand new sealed 64GB Pixel C for $275. I have ALWAYS wanted one but never really needed a tablet until recently. My kindle crapped out, and I have been listening to some audiobooks and I wanted a way to combine the 2. I also plan on maybe watching some movies from my Plex server, some Netflix, and that's probably it...oh and some comics as well....
I had some general questions for those of you who have had a Pixel C for some time.
1. I know there are some screen issues, and I believe based on the serial (i'll confirm when it arrives in two days) mine seems to be made in 2016 sometime, and even though I am in the US, it's a EU version.... Do the problems seem to be on all C's or just a specific run of them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not aware of better or worse serial numbers. I assume later is better? Mine has image retention / ghosting & a purple shift in white balance but I never got the half screen failure or other issues.
2. If you were me, and only wanted a tablet for ebooks/audio books and of course some media, but no apps that are super intensive, would you just upgrade from the 6.0 to the 8.0 that's official (or 7.0 if it's good?) , or install a custom rom. If the latter, any recommendations from personal experience?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I recommend either Pixel Experience 10 or LineageOS 17 if you are at all comfortable with flashing. ROMs are little more work. But they offer the latest patches, some new features, some specific fixes for our aging hardware, and because you have to install TWRP first you have that safety net for when things go wrong. I also happen to really like Android 10 for what that's worth. You might have to use Magisk Hide to get some apps working, and you probably have to sideload Netflix from APKmirror but it should work just fine.
If you don't mind how it works out of the box, and you don't care for fiddling with it, and you aren't concerned with the screen lock bug, then stock is perfectly fine. Some people say 7 was better than 8 because of some video driver bug that broke a few Unity based games. I have zero idea if this was fixed in any of the ROMs.
3. Since it's 2020 and this tablet is coming up on almost 5 years....do you feel I overpaid? This is a completely irrelevant question, I just REALLY REALLY wanted one, I hate Samsung and wanted something with as close to a pure google experience like my Pixel phone. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I have seen them selling used in good shape in the upper 100's range, and most are 32GB.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am considering selling my Galaxy Tab S6, even though it is nicer in so many ways, because I just disagree with so many Samsung UX decisions. So I continue to use the Pixel C and I hope you like yours. I am a little envious you found a good condition 64GB one! There are countless little touches where the Pixel C does what I expect and my Samsung devices do not. Using an USB audio device? Pixel C can use it for music and also to make VoIP calls. Believe it or not many Samsungs cannot route 'phone' type audio over USB. Music only! Using a mouse? Open Chrome, right-click on a link. Notice that beautiful options menu that pops up? Try the same thing on a Samsung and notice it is just Android back function. Back to the Pixel C, try to middle-click on a link and notice it opens in a new tab in the background. Just like on desktop Chrome! Then, try with a Samsung and notice middle-click is the same as Android home function. Samsung just decided to break mousing and I hate it. Even things like display scaling work well on the Pixel C and badly on Samsung devices. Want everything to be very small? That's easy to do, and basically everything scales (except the nav bar, but there is a fix for that). On my Samsungs some parts of the UI scale and other parts don't. You end with comically unmatched icons and other elements like the notification shade. I really thought DeX could fix these issues for me and it didn't, but that is a different story. I like Samsung features but by golly they suck at the basics IMO.
4. Anything else I should know that I don't see jumping out at me in the forums that you would pass along to a new C owner?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not everything in Google-land is good. The Pixel C was never trouble free and still isn't with even the best ROMs. 3GB of RAM was too little for a 'productivity device' in 2015 and obviously still isn't enough (your use-case should be fine however). The storage speed is slow, it is prone to occassional jank (probably combination slow storage & low RAM), and if the battery isn't perfectly healthy you will experience bad CPU throttling (this is fixed in ROMs and in my case was a night and day difference). You are already aware of the screen problems. The headphone jack quality is not good, and the bluetooth range for headsets is about 5 ft (I am not joking, it's astonishingly bad!). There used to be many WiFi reception complaints but I think it was fixed long ago. Reception is on the weak end however. The touch screen is sensitive to interference and you can get ghost touches when using a low quality charger (YMMV on that one, my hardware might be faulty). Last thing that comes to mind is that occassionally, and seemingly randomly, your lock screen PIN will just... stop working. If you are on stock software with a locked bootloader then all you can do is factory reset!! This alone is a great reason to go with ROMs.
Thanks everyone in advance!
Hank
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good luck and welcome to the community!

locuturus said:
I am not aware of better or worse serial numbers. I assume later is better? Mine has image retention / ghosting & a purple shift in white balance but I never got the half screen failure or other issues.
I recommend either Pixel Experience 10 or LineageOS 17 if you are at all comfortable with flashing. ROMs are little more work. But they offer the latest patches, some new features, some specific fixes for our aging hardware, and because you have to install TWRP first you have that safety net for when things go wrong. I also happen to really like Android 10 for what that's worth. You might have to use Magisk Hide to get some apps working, and you probably have to sideload Netflix from APKmirror but it should work just fine.
If you don't mind how it works out of the box, and you don't care for fiddling with it, and you aren't concerned with the screen lock bug, then stock is perfectly fine. Some people say 7 was better than 8 because of some video driver bug that broke a few Unity based games. I have zero idea if this was fixed in any of the ROMs.
I am considering selling my Galaxy Tab S6, even though it is nicer in so many ways, because I just disagree with so many Samsung UX decisions. So I continue to use the Pixel C and I hope you like yours. I am a little envious you found a good condition 64GB one! There are countless little touches where the Pixel C does what I expect and my Samsung devices do not. Using an USB audio device? Pixel C can use it for music and also to make VoIP calls. Believe it or not many Samsungs cannot route 'phone' type audio over USB. Music only! Using a mouse? Open Chrome, right-click on a link. Notice that beautiful options menu that pops up? Try the same thing on a Samsung and notice it is just Android back function. Back to the Pixel C, try to middle-click on a link and notice it opens in a new tab in the background. Just like on desktop Chrome! Then, try with a Samsung and notice middle-click is the same as Android home function. Samsung just decided to break mousing and I hate it. Even things like display scaling work well on the Pixel C and badly on Samsung devices. Want everything to be very small? That's easy to do, and basically everything scales (except the nav bar, but there is a fix for that). On my Samsungs some parts of the UI scale and other parts don't. You end with comically unmatched icons and other elements like the notification shade. I really thought DeX could fix these issues for me and it didn't, but that is a different story. I like Samsung features but by golly they suck at the basics IMO.
Not everything in Google-land is good. The Pixel C was never trouble free and still isn't with even the best ROMs. 3GB of RAM was too little for a 'productivity device' in 2015 and obviously still isn't enough (your use-case should be fine however). The storage speed is slow, it is prone to occassional jank (probably combination slow storage & low RAM), and if the battery isn't perfectly healthy you will experience bad CPU throttling (this is fixed in ROMs and in my case was a night and day difference). You are already aware of the screen problems. The headphone jack quality is not good, and the bluetooth range for headsets is about 5 ft (I am not joking, it's astonishingly bad!). There used to be many WiFi reception complaints but I think it was fixed long ago. Reception is on the weak end however. The touch screen is sensitive to interference and you can get ghost touches when using a low quality charger (YMMV on that one, my hardware might be faulty). Last thing that comes to mind is that occassionally, and seemingly randomly, your lock screen PIN will just... stop working. If you are on stock software with a locked bootloader then all you can do is factory reset!! This alone is a great reason to go with ROMs.
Good luck and welcome to the community!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much for the detailed response. I am glad I am not the only one who feels that way about the Samsung tablets. I ALMOST bought an S4, then I ALMOST bought an S5E, but just don't like the way they do Android. I checked my tracking and the tablet comes today! So I think what I will do is just upgrade to the most recent official, leave the device lock off for now as I don't plan on going anywhere with the C, and see how it goes. I have dabbled in ROMS in the past for a lot of phones I have had through the years, so I assume this is not too far different as far as the process. The Lineage ROM seems to be a little better for the C from reading some of the known issues, but I will take a look at them after I assess the performance of the C. I really don't want to have the unit hit 70% then completely crap the bed on the performance side....
The Bluetooth range is sad to hear considering i JUST ordered the Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones. They will be here either Friday or Saturday. If i need to hear something beyond the range of it sitting close to me I'll just use my phone.
I'll report how things are going once I receive it, and thanks again for the detailed response. It has put me at ease!
Cheers
Hank

It came and was exactly as described. Did the update and now it's charging. Updated some apps and it's moving pretty well. We shall see what happens when I get more stuff loaded on there, but I will say it's better than I expected. Such beautiful hardware.....

1. I know there are some screen issues, and I believe based on the serial (i'll confirm when it arrives in two days) mine seems to be made in 2016 sometime, and even though I am in the US, it's a EU version.... Do the problems seem to be on all C's or just a specific run of them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought an used Pixel C with its keyboard and a pouch and its screen seems still fine. A Youtube video pointed the issue for its cable in the middle behind the screen panel being pressed so I thought keyboard&pouch may have prevented it.
2. If you were me, and only wanted a tablet for ebooks/audio books and of course some media, but no apps that are super intensive, would you just upgrade from the 6.0 to the 8.0 that's official (or 7.0 if it's good?) , or install a custom rom. If the latter, any recommendations from personal experience?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine was on stock 8..1 and now is LineageOS 17 based on Android 10. Stock 8.1 seemed to work fine. I preferred some Android 10's swiping features such as swiping from left or right to go back and swiping up to go to homescreen or other running apps to buttons and black bottom bar previous versions. Netflix HD still works.
On the other hand, unlocking bootloader caused additional 30 seconds to boot with caution message and weird beep noise in boot sequence. As you might know, even when locked in setting, in recovery mode, someone could physically connect your device to another and steal files in the device. Some error messages with security warning pops up in notification so the rom might not fully support Android security features. (I have little knowledge on this.)
When its brightness set close to lowest level, screen seemed to be turned off or brightness seems a bit unstable. (Being able to set close to the mininum is still good.) BTW some of gamepad buttons mapped incorrectly (not sure it was due to LineageOS).
3. Since it's 2020 and this tablet is coming up on almost 5 years....do you feel I overpaid? This is a completely irrelevant question, I just REALLY REALLY wanted one, I hate Samsung and wanted something with as close to a pure google experience like my Pixel phone. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I have seen them selling used in good shape in the upper 100's range, and most are 32GB.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's display ratio is better than 16:10 from other android tablets for e-books, pdf files, comics. Someone wrote its ratio fits for two pages side by side. Among Android tablets as far as I know, there are not many with 3:2 or 4:3. Nexus 9's screen could be great but it has only 2GB ram and other flaws. Xiaomi MiPad doesn't support Netflix HD. iPads would match the need but it seems you didn't want one. What I looked for was an Android tablet which is not Samsung or Huawei and supports Netflix HD. Of course, newer APs have advantages in power consumption, better game support, weight etc. Galaxy Tab S6 lite supports S-pen which is good for pdf notetaking. I tried to write in pdf files with Xodo PDF app and Bamboo Tip stylus and it wasn't so successful. Still, I like mine.
4. Anything else I should know that I don't see jumping out at me in the forums that you would pass along to a new C owner?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its PCB is on the left side so it gets hot when running intensive apps or charging. (The bottom of the display turned a bit yellowish. Because of keyboard attached?)
USB PD laptop chargers works but the left side feels hotter compared to charging with 5V 3A chargers.
With its keyboard is good to use on lap or as a stand but it would be pricey to buy a new one.