I need some advice, and the amount of marketing spam had made sorting the wheat from the chaff annoyingly difficult. Hopefully you can help.
I’ve a young daughter, who uses an old tablet of mine to watch netflix etc. unfortunately, it was old in the tooth when she was born, and it’s now become extremely annoying to use.
She currently has a Samsung Galaxy Tab A (2016). The size (10") works well, but it’s gotten slow as sin, and only has 16Gb of internal memory.
Preferences wise:
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10" screen (±2")
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64Gb+ storage.
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Long expected lifespan (inc security updates).
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Headphone socket (adapters are asking to get broken, Bluetooth go flat)
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Decent WiFi (more than just 2.4Ghz).
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USB C charging preferred.
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Wireless charging would be very helpful but not required.
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Lower budget preferred (£200 range).
What would people recommend?
Budget android is a crapshoot.
While you can get a fire tablet with Netflix, or an Old Samsung. The OS and software feels so slow that its hard to use compared to an iPad.
I have an old Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e and a current gen Amazon fire tablet. Out of the two I’d recommend getting an old Samsung tablet.
My advice would be a model or two newer than the Tab S5e though double check for headphone jacks as Samsung has a tendency to drop those on their “premium” tablets.
Another option is to see if you can install LineageOS as most of the lag comes from the bloat from Samsung and Amazon. Like Kindle Book recommendations and Samsung Game mode.
Now if I was to buy a tablet for my kid. It would be a 5/6th gen iPad, or a 3rd gen air. The 5th gen just stopped getting the newest iPadOS but is still supported while the 6th gen and air is on the latest OS. They all have a headphone jack, and if they are anything like my first gen mini, will have better performance than any cheap tablet you’ll get from Amazon.
I’m familiar with android and it’s ecosystem, as is my daughter. I’ve a personal dislike of apple, so would rather not have to deal with their systems.
As for her current tablet, it’s still working remarkably well. Unfortunately, 16Gb of storage is extremely limiting, when it comes to installing modern apps. I don’t think LineageOS will help much with a lack of physical memory, and modern software bloat.
I am in the same boat for Apple, don’t like their practices and the inability to install what I want like a web browser outside of Safari. But last year I got myself an iPad Pro for myself and it’s been the best tablet experience I’ve had in terms of app, and support for a large screen device. If you are reading books, and streaming paid subscription services I’ve not seen an Android tablet which can compete.
Now with that said the locked in ecosystem, proprietary hardware, lack of headphone jack on newer tablets which totally has the space for one, does drive me up a wall, and I usually use my Android Phone (Poco X3 Pro with LineageOS installed) for everything else.
Now here is my goto for finding new phones/tablets. GSM Arena has a wonderful database which an easily searchable option, that helps me narrow down option based on specs. Won’t tell me if it’s any good but it’s a nice starting point especially if you know what specs it needs to have.
From my experience, you want to buy a Flagship, or flagship spec deceive, hence the iPad suggestion. LTT Did a roundup a few years ago going over this very issue with their conclusion that an older flagship will still outperform a new device, and be cheaper to buy.
For my two cents based on the devices I have, and Mr.Mobile’s many reviews on Android Smart Watches, Google OS’s love to have more RAM and perform better with it. I’d suggest a min amount of RAM should be 4GB though I’d recommend 6GB if you want a good time. I can see a few Tablets with the specs you want, but I can’t speak for their quality myself.