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Comment by anyfactor | Hacker News Reader

Tangential rant.

Has tablet computer really improved since the last Google Nexus 7 tablet, which was released in 2013?

Seriously, I was in the market for an affordable tablet, and quite bizarrely the tablet computers today have significantly underwhelming spec compared to a phone of the same price point.

There is no budget tab from known manufacturers. Even at IPad level prices, the android counterpart is quite underwhelming. I don't how it happened by it seems like IPad is the only tablet computer to get. For people on a budget there is no other viable option then to get a used IPad and news like this makes me kinda mad.

What the heck is even going on? Like in 2012-15 era there was bunch of variations of tablet computer of different price points. These days everyone from toddlers with their padded covers and graphics designers with an apple pencil is using an IPad.

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The pencil is the differentiator. I would not get an iPad today if I could not use it for art. And it is amazing for art.

I did have a Nexus 7 and it was great. I used it to hold my cached maps on motorcycle adventures. But these days you can get a "phone" that's practically as large as a Nexus 7 was, has way more storage, better battery life, and better performance. A Pixel 7 Pro has a display 80% as large as the Nexus 7, but in 40% of the volume.

This is my assessment as well. iPad with Apple Pencil, mirrored screen for photoshop, and you have a seriously good and portable wacom centiq. Just, smaller, and can play games.

How is the pressure sensitivity compared with a "real" drawing tablet?

It's as good in an app that lets you adjust the curve to fit your hand (like Procreate, which is an industry standard at this point.) A Cintiq's curve is a little better out of the box, in my opinion.

I’m not a pro artist but I do it as a hobby and own a Wacom and iPad. I can’t tell the difference in sensitivity. The iPad is a much more convenient and cheap package though.

Identical. Bluetooth introduces a little bit of lag 2-5ms but it’s only noticeable if you are working on really large canvases of 40MP or more.

77.8% as large, if you include the curved edges. But considering the format of content, the useful area difference is larger. If you're watching a 16:9 youtube video, the Pixel 7 Pro only has 64% the screen area of the Nexus 7, and that's with treating the couple millimeters wrapped around the edges as valid surface.

I was not impressed by the pencil. Apple can't make a battery-less stylus? Even Huions don't have batteries anymore.

I’ve been using the Apple Pencil for years and never encountered the thing getting anywhere near flat. The thing lasts 12 hours on one charge and regains 30 minutes use in 15 seconds charging.

If the UI didn’t tell me it had a battery I might not even know.

Not exactly a budget tab, but I've found the S8 Ultra (and the S7 FE before that) to be pretty great. The S8U managing to make having a laptop entirely unnecessary (since I'd only need a laptop away from home and I mainly WFH).

With Android there has been a long period of stagnation with only Samsung doing custom stuff like DeX, multi-tasking stuff and striking deals with various productivity apps for Android ports to make Android viable for tablets, otherwise they're only very recently starting to come out of it with Google working on a Pixel Tab.

> only Samsung doing custom stuff like DeX,

Motorola has phones that do the same and without a proprietary dock.

You don't need a dock, proprietary or not for DeX on the tab at least, it's just a button there, and I've been able to just use a regular old random dock for external display, external keyboard etc.

Haven't tried with phone though.

But you need a computer to receive Miracast for you. Motorola just has a DP video output to a dumb screen.

Samsung's works with DP over USB-C video output too. A computer to receive is just an additional option.

No? I have an older s7+ and it has a standard usb c port and you can just connect any screen. Nothing proprietary or complicated.

Huawei too! Just plug your phone into your TV. But behind the scenes it’s built on AOSP code (assuming DeX and Motorola are the same)

No dock required. With Samsung DeX you just need a cheap USB-C to HDMI cable. Plug the phone into the monitor and you can switch to desktop mode.

It only works on Samsung models that have USB-C video though. My mid-range Samsung phone doesn't have either feature.

You can do this on completely stock Android, Android already supports multi-window completely natively if you enable it in the debugging options and use a launcher such as Sentio Desktop.

Though I used to use this on phones with a dedicated micro-HDMI port so I'm not sure if just any phone can be hooked up to an external display (maybe most of the ones with USB-C?) but it's definitely not OEM-specific.

It's pretty great but it also costs a lot more than than a basic laptop :)

Oh yeah, for sure. I got the S7FE for the S pen and battery life and upgraded to the S8U when it launched a few months later due to a pretty good trade-in deal. So it cost me a lot less than retail.

I hadn't intended for it to be much more than a portable drawing, reading and note taking device when I bought it, it just sort of fell into the laptop replacement role.

It has a much better screen than basic laptop.

We have a stack of non iPad tablets for playing music to patients. I think there are 4 or 5 there now.

They are so unresponsive that each has been abandoned, then Siemens buy us a new, higher spec one. They all behave the same. Laggy, unresponsive and actual junk.

It's because Google dropped the ball on Android smartphone app sizing for phones vs tablets.

This IS changing now that Google has a pixel foldable smartphone.

Couldn't you say the same thing for iOS/iPadOS though? It's up to the developers to manually support iPads. To date, very well known and popular apps like Instagram still run as iPhone-sized. Which is especially perplexing because there are seriously good photographers on Instagram whose work should be enjoyed on a bigger screen.

Google picks up and drops tablets semi frequently. It wouldn’t surprise me if the manager who came up with the idea of doing tablets again gets promoted and then the idea gets abandoned shortly after.

One good development is that if you buy a Microsoft Surface Go 2/3, you can easily install Linux with Gnome, it works great and you can get rid of both Windows/iOS dependencies at the same time. It's also easy to glue a metal Linux sticker over the Windows logo so you won't even notice MS underneath. PineTab2 is impossible to use due to a missing WiFi driver (!?)

> it works great

How is performance? Mind recording a video of average browser/application speed?

It's pretty snappy for a media consumption device (I use it mainly to watch videos from my NAS), don't expect great coding experience though. Here is a video about Surface Pro 7 but it's similar with Go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79Jj0jWXyWo

I have a Samsung an android tablet with their pencil. Using Krita for drawing I think it’s pretty amazing. The UI is kinda desktop but the brushes are amazing.

Samsung Galaxy Tabs have OLED screens and fresh Snapdragons. While I don't have a tablet (yet? let's see the S9) both my laptop and phone have OLED screens and I am never going back.

So yeah, budget tablets are not great but there's certainly some improvement on the higher end.

> Has tablet computer really improved since the last Google Nexus 7 tablet, which was released in 2013?

I wouldn't know, I'm still using my second N7 with Lineage OS.

Chromebooks seem to have replaced Android tablets, eg the Lenovo Duet.

I mostly blame the CPU manufacturers. There just aren't great, competitive options at price points that support good low end tablets.

At the higher end, things like the Pixel tablet and Galaxy Tab are pretty good, but IMO they are hard to justify vs the ipad at the same price point.

The tablet market is indeed very disappointing. I have somewhat high hopes for the PineTab 2 being good (eventually, as drivers improve). I don't see much appeal for Android or iOS tablets. I see the form factor as being a bit like a laptop without the crummy keyboard/mouse attached, but it gets treated more like a giant low quality smartphone in practice.

Biggest issue for me and why I stick with ipads is the 4:3(ish) aspect ratio. 16:10/16:9 is a terrible aspect ratio for tablets IMO.

16:9 is a terrible ratio for a computer, but a good one for a movie tablet.

While I understand for many people that may be a positive, I spend very little time watching shows on such a small screen. Thats what my TV is for! A 16:10/16:9 ratio on a tablet makes the balance in the hands quiet bad in portrait mode.

The budget tab from a known manufacturer is the Amazon Fire 7 for $59.

A used iPad is a really good deal. I bought an iPad Air 2 years ago for $200AUD. The thing is from 2014 and works flawlessly while still receiving security updates.

I've been very happy with my Nokia T10

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