Any suggestions for online shops for Android tablets.

wizardofid

wizardofid

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I am still waiting on a reply for my wanted thread for a tablet.

In the mean time I am shopping around for one. Found a few shops, but there is likely some hidden gems I haves missed.


Spotted this looks decent enough, while 3G isn't a must, I prefer it this time around.
https://www.takealot.com/mobicel-neo-8gb-3g-tablet-black/PLID44705632

Still have my Lenovo A1000, stunning little tabby that keeps on going, usb data circuity is busted so only able to charge it and the port is loose, other wise pretty perfect
https://www.takealot.com/lenovo-tab-3-essential-7-8gb-wifi-tablet-black/PLID42523319


Also spotted the mecer 10.1" but from reviews that seems to be a no no, got my mother a proline tablet around the time I got the lenovo, the proline would freeze the wifi barely worked at all, BT disconnected without reason, so I am a bit concerned with other brands exhibiting the same issues as the cheap brands.

I also spotted the Telkom Netsurfer Flash tablet, but not sure of the specs, which means I would need to go to pep and confirm the specs, but it seems it only has 512mb ram, which then a no no.


The battery is a bit weak on this one expected a bit more, looks pretty decent
https://www.takealot.com/lenovo-tab3-710-7-16gb-tablet-black/PLID42523320


On paper the mecer looks good, just not sure it's worth it.
http://www.loot.co.za/product/mecer-xpress-smartlife-a1013r-10-1-quad-core-tablet-wi/jztj-4409-g270

Any other online stores, I don't know about.

Other wise I am likely going with the wifi version of the lenovo
 
Android tablets with weak hardware can be really awful to use. If your budget is under R2k I recommend browsing Gumtree and Carbonite for a good deal. Maybe an older iPad.
 
Bryn said:
Android tablets with weak hardware can be really awful to use. If your budget is under R2k I recommend browsing Gumtree and Carbonite for a good deal. Maybe an older iPad.
Click to expand...

Going to try and avoid secondhand now, unless it's a good deal.

I think I might be giving the mecer 10 inch a try, doing a bit of research on it, but the chipset is pretty good, my only concern is how reliable the wifi is going to be, the rest I spotted were still firmly stuck on android kitkat so not even worth considering.

Definitely carefully checking out specs of each. I wouldn't mind an older ipad, but by now the battery performance on those tablets probably suck, perhaps a second thought on those.

Right now I don't see any significant reason not to get the mecer, other then it being a mecer :D Battery is good, space is okayish, chipset is good, 3G bonus, screen res okayish, perhaps a bit low, but it is a budget tablet.
 
That's a really good price on the Lenovo Tab 3 Essential. I doubt that you will find anything else in that price range with an IPS screen that compares. Most of the cheap tablets have cheap TFT screens with bad viewing angles while the Lenovo has a decent IPS screen. I have compared the screen quality of the Lenovo T3 against a Vodacom Smart Tab 2 (Marshmallow) which costs roughly the same (ST2 includes 3G) and it looks much better. I have also looked at most of the other cheap devices in this price range and all of the ones that I have tested have had lower quality TFT screens. I think that the Lenovo T3 also has OTG support which is not available on the ST2.

I have also looked at many of the cheap 10" tablets and would recommend the Vodacom Power Tab 2 (Lollipop) over the other devices. The screen quality on this tablet is much better than on most of the other devices in this price range. The PT2 also supports OTG but not Miracast. The PT2 is apparently a rebranded Alcatel Pixi 3(10). I would personally try to avoid Intel based android tablets as some apps may not be compatible.

Manual
https://support.alcatelonetouch.us/hc/en-us/article_attachments/115004518447/manual.pixi3-10.pdf
PT2 Reviews
https://www.tesco.com/direct/alcate...-with-keyboardcase/500-9190.prd?source=others
 
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@Jake45

Thanks mate yeah I have been all over the show, and finally found some thing I can live with, decent battery life, the CPU is a bit old battery is great, screen is great, Bonus is it has HDMI some thing that I have wanted in a tablet in a while, and are generally like hens teeth.

https://www.parrot.co.za/Parrot-Detailed-Product-View/sku/TB1000#

Any objections ? I don't think there is any thing wrong with this tablet bar the CPU and OS, for the price it's spectacular
 
If you're still looking around here are a few other suggestions.

The cheap tablets that are currently available or launching in September in China are so much better than anything that you can buy locally that I would definitely take a look at them. They have octacore processors, 10.1" 1920X1200 IPS OGS screens, 2/32GB memory, Android Nougat, dual LTE SIMs, front facing speakers, metal body construction etc. They cost around R1600 and you would need to spend another ~R600 on courier (Aramex) and customs charges, but I would guess that they would compete well against the really high end Samsung devices. Multitasking on such devices would also be very useful.
https://www.banggood.com/New-Versio...oid-6_0-Tablet-PC-p-1185439.html?rmmds=search
https://www.banggood.com/Cube-T12-1...p-1118723.html?rmmds=detail-bottom-alsobought
https://www.banggood.com/Original-B...p-1151588.html?rmmds=detail-bottom-alsobought
https://www.banggood.com/Cube-iPlay...p-1141533.html?rmmds=detail-bottom-alsobought
https://www.banggood.com/Onda-V10-3...p-1162474.html?rmmds=detail-bottom-alsobought

Here are some other local offers.
http://www.game.co.za/catalogsearch/result/index/?dir=desc&order=price&p=1&q=tablet
Cheaper Parrot (the RK3188 which is very dated may not support HEVC/H.265 videos)
https://www.beyondrevelation.co.za/product/tablet-android-10-1-16gb-wifi-only/

This is the replacement for the PT2 which will hopefully be available over here quite soon.
http://www.vodafone.com/content/devices-index/smarttabn8.html
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/vodafone-smart-tab-n8
 
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@Jake45

Thanks mate, i don't want the hassle of importing, nor do I want to wait ages for new stuff to arrive.The parrot is the best of the lot, I won't be doing high quality vids any ways.Basically a stop gap tabby to tie me over till year end, thanks for the suggestions, so one might find it useful ;)
 
Sigh can't get local stock of the parrot I want, I settled for the mecer, saw a deal on takealot for R1358 plus a 150 voucher(normal price R1699), so went with the mecer @ R1208.00, reviews seemed mixed, not all people are tech savy so I take it with a pinch of salt never let me down before, got a 24 inch telefunken HD monitor, and not in the least bit disappointed.Worse come to worse I can always send it back :D

Only thing it needs to run and why I am getting a 10 inch, is Sketchbook Express and mx player, with have to wait and see how responsive it is with my stylus pen, I specially got a 1.9mm adonit dash stylus which worked fine on the old tablet, specially doing texture matte painting work, that needs to precision of a pen, no mouse I have tested today, provides the amount of accuracy needed, so have to wait and see how it response to layers and such.

This is why I needed a stop gap tabby, while a save up to get the wacom tabby I want to be honest it's pricey as hell but worth it
https://www.takealot.com/wacom-cintiq-pro-13-3-fhd-creative-pen-tablet/PLID45243377


Mecer doesn't list it on their website so it's likely old stock they trying to flog to make way for the newer gen tabbys,
 
So the mecer arrived today.Well I am chuffed, Screen quality is pretty great, nice and clear views angles are good as well, the 3G is great, haven't gotten around to testing the wifi yet will likely do so over the weekend, additionally the edge signal is also pretty good, considering I stay in a rural area with a tin roof.

The flip folder really nice addition, the usb port and audio port is close to the one corner and the volume and power button on the top corner that is quite nice meaning no issues for me as being right handed.Sound is not exactly of the same quality as my levono A1000F was which had dolby sound, slight metal can sound, but not distorted or too soft.The takealot information page showed it has android OS 5.0 on it but actually comes with 6.0 which is a pleasant surprise.

It is quite heavy but nice and thin, would have liked a bit or space around the screen.Still need to see how the screen does in sunlight and 25%, 50% and a 100% screen brightness however the res for the IPS screen is decent for the price at 1280 x 800

There is surprisingly very little bloatware on it, comes with an office suite and one drive and a couple of other things.Responsiveness of the screen is good no issues there, as to the OS, there is a little delay between launching a larger app an it opening, nothing terribly annoying.Played a quick round of prime defenders which sees quite a lot happening on screen and it coped well better then my levono did, now and then there is a little lag when there is a lot going on, on the screen.

Menu sliding isn't as smooth as I would like but it doesn't pose a significant issue or delay, File copy testing via the usb 2 port is slower then compared to my hisense phone, which can do 8gig in little over 9 minutes, for the mecer it took nearly double that, so that is definitely an issue that I have seen before on mecer tablets and sad to see they haven't address yet, I assume it's due to the storage hardware used.

I have no feedback on the battery yet, but I need to download a system info app to confirm the exact capacity of the battery, and check the CPU and GPU matches up to the specs, according to the system page it shows a Li-Polymer Battery (5500mAh) 6 hours operating which all things considered is decent, but I assume the larger screen is going to take a decent chunk of the battery and I am not sure if that 6 hours is at full screen brightness, but it's more likely at 50%. Considering I will be using it in doors, in fairly lit areas I could likely get away with screen brightness at 30% odd, I don't leave mobile data on permanently either so hopefully be able to extent the battery even further.
( Loaded CPUZ specs are pretty spot with the exception of the OS version)

My only complaint is why all tablet makers don't ship a screen protector, it does come with a factory screen protector that you need to peel off, I have left mine on it does have some writing on the bottom corner were you need to peel of the cover, and it has a slightly sluggish response, I may need to delve in a bit into the setting and see what can be tweaked a little and look at CPU throlling, may improve things a bit.

Overall I am pretty happy for the bargain price I scored it at as well a measly 1.2K, that is close to R500 off retail price on takealot, R700 else where selling the tablet, not a bad bet placed overall. :P

Geekbench give some indication, of being with in spitting distance of an Samsung S3 for the price not too shabby ;)

Update 1
Minor annoyance :) At least it's sorted, Couldn't send USSD codes, so after searching the web figured out that adding a wait pause and possibly booting into recovery exiting and then booting up, and then doing a pause wait fixed the issue of USSD codes, all is working well now.

Watched a few high bitrate vids via MX player and runs smoothly, additionally vid seeking is immediate, which perfect.

I see it has screen casting build it, will definitely need to give that a go.Now to check the Wifi and test reliability and video streaming, the levono had some issues with higher bit rate vids, but the connection was stable any where in the house ;)
 
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So after some proper testing I noticed the tablet has two dead pixels, bottom middle and left side middle-ish.So fired off an email to takealot to find out what their policy is regarding dead pixels.Bottom edge one isn't an issue the left middle-ish shows up now and then pending the background, it's black so it is a dead pixel, the bottom middle is greenish which means it's more likely a stuck then dead pixel

Sigh, FFS just my luck.! Back you go then, I don't think I will be getting a replacement tablet(likely no stock) in case of a return, so pretty much be a case of a refund and then I will have to hunt all over again for a new tablet.

Considering the 2 pixels already present what are the odds more are likely to appear in future.
 
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Meh phoned takealot, they only willing to do a refund, being an unboxed deal, so I said I can live with the odd pixel, it isn't in the middle of the screen which would annoy the heck out of me.Call center agent mentioned he made a system note that a fault has been reported, should it get worse they will gladly do a refund, I am not going to get another tablet like this at that price.Tested the wifi and was able to stream a 8gig X264 MKV file on hardware rendering, with very little buffering.MX player does support the format but not the DTS audio codec so the file played without sound, so had to load, 321 media player, which worked spiffy, as well as being able to pick up the router signal, from 35 meters away, which was actually outside the house.

I can't download or get 3G signal in my room but was able to get it with the tablet and managed to stream without buffering issue, So honestly, the two biggest issues was addressed, wifi works 100% and the 3G is perfect, I can live with the 2 pixels, the pixels don't show up on a white back ground but do much darker colours.So just maybe they are stuck, will run an app to try and unstuck them, so not dead at least. :D

So yay happy chappy otherwise. !! :p
 
Decided pixels or no pixel, this tablet is a heap of junk they came and collected it today. As a quick test I loaded GTA on my old lenovo tablet loaded with in 30 seconds and I was running around, with the mecer it took well on 3 or 4 minutes to load a game and then the lag was terrible, as the week progress, every thing on the tablet got worse.

Also the CPU heat was terrible, 54 degrees just with the screen on. Looks like I am going with my first instinct and getting the lenovo tab 3 16 gig wifi, will teach me to get mecer again......piece of junk !!. Saw a dixon 10' with 2 gig ram for a decent price, CPU and GPU is slightly older but it isn't intel, so will still be good, the battery is also only 5k but that will do....

Go ahead, reprimand me for the stupid mistake, I am waiting :P
 
So I thought my woes were over, apparently my parcel was delivered to god knows who, not only didn't I take possession of the parcel, takealot "escalates" things which never get resolved after having escalated some thing yesterday I am still awaiting feedback.Their response was to send the courier to collect the parcel, from whoever they delivered to, and then deliver it to me, I said that will be the day, under no circumstance am I accepting that parcel opened or sealed, you will either refund me or send a new one period overnight at your expense. I know a bit demanding on my part I didn't stuff up the order in the first place.

Had three good orders with them, even thought the mecer was delivered early and collected the very next day after having reported the dead pixels, they still sucked at the quality control part of the unboxed deal, by not noticing the dead pixels in the first place.

Is the courier driver illiterate to see the signed name does match up with the who it's address to, pretty pissed to say the least.
https://www.supaswift.com/fx/tabid/94/waybill/MDX11471659/Default.aspx
 
The next tablet I get will be one of the new ones that have both Windows 10 and also Android on it. Now that would be useful.
 
FFS !!!

Fdex is daft, says it was delivered, and that means it was delivered come hell or high water if it's says delivered then it must be so, checked the surname on google and in the phone book, It doesn't exists, additionally, there is like 30 odd people who stay in town considering I know every one in town, it's definitely a fake name.

Seriously just how &$^$^ is that some one else accepted some thing that doesn't belong to them
 
Since reporting the matter Yesterday, I have not received a single call or apology, I had to investigate the matter my self, get the necessary contact info which took less then 10 minutes, the courier dropped of the parcel at the local church for whatever reason 2.5km further the street. The 3rd party courier was the only one who phoned me about 10 minutes ago, still investigating the matter and insisting the parcel was dropped at my address, NO tow ways.......useless mother truckers. !!!
 
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