Tablet recommendation

[NightShift]

also in the market for new Tablet
to replace my Asus Nexus 7
7-10 inch sub R4k if possible

Just incredible that an Asus Nexus 7 is still working for you in 2020?? I got mine in 2013 and by 2018 the performance of the hardware seemed to have degraded so badly that even with a reset it's performance was absolutely awful. Your has made it to 2020!?

I ended up being very disappointed in that device, particularly for an ASUS device.

 

[wizardofid]

Oh and to burst your bubble even further, dixon brand cash crusaders is selling, products sold doesn't originate from india, the dixon brand from cash crusaders and dixon technologies India has nothing in common other then the brand name.

Cash Crusaders and KaiOS launch DIXON XK1

Cash Crusaders and KaiOS Technologies announced the DIXON XK1, the first open market KaiOS device in South Africa.

www.kaiostech.com

In other words, cash crusaders's in house brand dixon equals Chinese manufactured goods, so there goes that argument. Dixon is pretty much the same as telefunken, which was an excellent german brand. But in south africa it is only a brand by name, some good some bad.

Actually using a telefunken 24inch PC screen for the last 3 years, which isn't actually bad at all for the 2K I paid for it, pretty much on daily basis for at least 12 hours a day. Where as the dixon brand is just mediocre no matter what you buy, if you were to head over to the av forums, which have even more knowledgeable members then me, would tell you exactly the same thing, give dixon a wide birth.

Now if you wondering why teclast tablets is actually so cheap. Teclast is intentionally selling their devices cheaper then most as the Chinese market is pretty competitive, price, spec and quality wise, there is only 3 companies that actively try and compete with teclast in the mid range and entry bracket, chuwi, and alldocube. Which all have similar devices, build quality and pricing. But chuwi and alldocube don't often match and compete with teclast as they simply outclass them.

Give it another few years and their pricing will start matching the samsungs and the huawei's of the world, same thing happened to goldstar, now you may be asking who ? Goldstar the under preforming tech company from the 90's every one avoided because the brand can't be trusted. After a clever rebranding and name change after a merge they became the giant we now call LG, which most people swear low and high is better then the samsungs and what not of the world's with some of their products. Go figure.

 

[deesef]

Teclast has been around since the late 1990's, one of the top brands in China, they aren't a OEM like Dixon which is essentially a rebranded no name brand tablet made to order in bulk.

They have their M series tablet and T series tablets. Basically m10, m20 ect. They do however like to revisions from time to time so instead of just doing an entirely new model number the stick with the old model number add a pro/4G act that way they don't run out of numbers and is less confusing. Revisions is generally 6 or so months apart and often the revisions come with the latest android version as a bonus.

The build quality, screen quality, and generally hardware quality is a 100% better then what ever this no name brand Dixon could ever hope to get and the performance runs circles around them.Basically all their m series and t series tablets have full metal backings and can with stand an EFF strike in front of the union buildings.Comes with custom cases.Their TPU cases comes with harden corners, and better then most top brands so will take a fair amount of abuse.

I basically used my tablet daily for the past year with the TPU flip cover and both don't look over a day old, it is simply just that good.

Since I got my tablet last year I have encountered two issues.One was a system freeze related to the chrome browser and the other MX player.Android is extremely stable very few app crashes if any. Additionally they don't skimp on the hardware.Replying to this from 30+ meters from my WiFi in another room, no issues.The WiFi is better then some top brands.They use latest emmc tech at the time it was using emmc5.1 which was the latest.
Takes about 15-20 minutes to fill the entire 128rom I have.

Now you could listen to the guys here and get the Dixon which has less ram, less ROM, less powerful hardware and pay R700-900 cheaper, and listen to oh it works fine and I have local warranty, oh I can fix my tablet locally or you can listen to some and others in the Chinese tablet thread that have teclast tablets, who have not complained once about their tablets or reported their tablets breaking with he exception of one person complaining about slow scroll speed on the teclast T30.

Just forget the Dixon get a teclast m40 or wait till next year Jan/Feb get the m30pro which literally beats out any thing else for the price/performance.

You order from either gearbest or banggood, take the duty free shipping gets delivered to your door.The end, 6gig ram/128gig ROM and hardware that can play both pubg and fortnite without issue for a couple bucks more is a no brainer, seriously just do it already. Dixon is a complete waste of time knowing you can get so much more for a couple bucks more and it will last longer hardware wise then the dixon.

Teclast beats dixon period.

Wow. Long detailed messages for a forum! But then again, I agree with you. We bought 2 Teclast tablets last year November. They are dirt cheap and really fantastic machines. Screen is excellent, lots of RAM and ROM, great battery life and a processor that is plenty fast enough for our usage.

I would not hesitate to buy that brand again.

 

[wizardofid]

Wow. Long detailed messages for a forum! But then again, I agree with you. We bought 2 Teclast tablets last year November. They are dirt cheap and really fantastic machines. Screen is excellent, lots of RAM and ROM, great battery life and a processor that is plenty fast enough for our usage.

I would not hesitate to buy that brand again.

Seriously cool tablets, haven't had to do a system clean or system reset since I got mine last year.I do power off the tablet every few weeks or months if I remember just to clear out old files or memory and have a fresh boot running, not that I ever had to as there has been zero slow or bloat, and that is due to the large fast ROM and ram.

No the problem for me is, he said he was you going to watch movies or series or whatever on it and read PDFs which for the most is going to okaykish. PDFs need ram, as much as you can throw at it, 2gig simply isnt enough for a image heavy or large pdf it is going visibly scroll slower and loading lag is going to pretty bad.

As for video HW acceleration is going to be hugely different.It is going to cache very little and take minutes to load a 20 gig mkv file, and video seeking is going to be slow.A better tablet is going to make a huge difference here as well, getting the teclast isnt only for games it is going to make every else better as well.Yeah the Dixon won't even play a 20 gig file as it only has a 32 gig ROM. lol

I mean seriously I am currently using split screen typing and watching a show with zero lag and issues, try that on the Dixon Lol.

 

[backstreetboy]

You seem to be taking something personally.... So save up for a proper samsung it is then. I prefer the west spying on me to the east spying on me.

Teclast paying him by the minute or hour probably lol.

 

[wizardofid]

Teclast paying him by the minute or hour probably lol.

Common sense, south Africa is a dumping ground for entry level and old stock, until recently takealot was was still selling Samsung 7 inch tablets WiFi android 4.4. You likely to pay as much as 1.8k for a 3G tablet with a quad core mediatek 8163 chipset with 1gig ram and 8gig ROM and consider that acceptable, it isnt.

 

[wizardofid]

You seem to be taking something personally.... So save up for a proper samsung it is then. I prefer the west spying on me to the east spying on me.

So cheapest Samsung 10 inch galaxy tab A (T515) in the south African market is 4.4- 5k with 2gig ram and 32gig ROM for a exynox 7904 chipset which has a antutu score on 106k, 6k faster then my tablet released last year for 2.6k with 4 gig ram and 128rom.

Versus the teclast M40 which is 3k+- with 6gig ram 128gig ROM with a unisoc tiger T618 with anutu score of 210k

Just because you have a conspiracy of the Chinese is out to get you.? Well then Lol.You are aware Samsung has Chinese factories as well as south Korean as well as Indian factories. While some are made in China , some in south korea and India, production was done in China for a long time but has since started winding down factories in China due to labor costs and has been shifting to markets with cheaper labor, especially India.

It isnt like they build it them self either, ironically they have been contracting Dixon technologies to make Samsung tvs for them. Ironically Raw PCB and electronic materials are shipped from africa, to China the PCB and components manufactured in China and shipped else where.

So you want to buy samsung well good luck. Also don't buy Apple as that is Chinese as well and is actually considered a 100% Chinese export.

Given a choice on a deserted island spend it with a trump supporter or you, I pick the trump supporter I can use it for a food source at least, it isnt empty on the inside.

 

[rambo919]

As for video HW acceleration is going to be hugely different.It is going to cache very little and take minutes to load a 20 gig mkv file, and video seeking is going to be slow.A better tablet is going to make a huge difference here as well, getting the teclast isnt only for games it is going to make every else better as well.Yeah the Dixon won't even play a 20 gig file as it only has a 32 gig ROM. lol

I mean seriously I am currently using split screen typing and watching a show with zero lag and issues, try that on the Dixon Lol.

Who in his right mind watches a HD file on a 10" screen? At best 720p is justified.... I don't even HAVE a 20GB+ video file in my collection.

 

[rambo919]

Snip

I know that most components are made in China, the major concern that you can actually control for is the software. Also it makes more sense to support non-Chinese assemblers or designers where possible given how corrupt the Chinese OEM industry is with Huawei as example. There is no conspiracy theory, there is just the fact that China is attempting to be the leading global tech octopus which makes sense for them if they can achieve it stably. Another major moral problem is that China is growing it's state supported OEM's supported by stolen designs..... I prefer to not financially support thieves where possible.

And lastly there is China attempting to colonize Africa and having hands in much local corruption..... I find it morally reprehensible to elevate our would be overlords above robber barron status.

 

[wizardofid]

Who in his right mind watches a HD file on a 10" screen? At best 720p is justified.... I don't even HAVE a 20GB+ video file in my collection.

Seriously ? You are joking right, you have a 1920 x1200 or is some cases a 2.5k resolution with teclast even on a 10 inch screen watching full screen video the difference between 720 and 1080p is noticeable as the video needs to upscale to the native resolution or else you have to watch letter box. If you watch 720p not stretched you will have a big fat letter box around your video because of the native resolution being much higher.Besides I don't load 20gig files often, was done as a test, I stream it directly from my HDD connected to my huawei router, I don't do because it offers better quality necessarily but it does offer less frame drops the less the video is compressed, I do because I can and have the hardware to do so. Besides I set a target of a 128gig rom for my tablet, because I was sick and tired of having to copy over substandard content over every 5minutes because of lack of space.Now I copy an entire weeks or more worth of content at 1080p at an average of 650mb a TV episode and 1.6gig ish a movie 1920 x 800 is about 2.8gig or whatever without hassle. The 20gig files I have is like lord of the rings and pirates of the caribbean, stargate stuff, which is lossless quality at 1080p lol

You would think the native resolution of the tablet versus the video resolution wouldn't make an impact on a 10 inch screen it does, seems to me you haven't actually experienced the difference to know any better. But okay lol

 

[rambo919]

Seriously ? You are joking right, you have a 1920 x1200 or is some cases a 2.5k resolution with teclast even on a 10 inch screen watching full screen video the difference between 720 and 1080p is noticeable as the video needs to upscale to the native resolution or else you have to watch letter box. If you watch 720p not stretched you will have a big fat letter box around your video because of the native resolution being much higher.Besides I don't load 20gig files often, was done as a test, I stream it directly from my HDD connected to my huawei router, I don't do because it offers better quality necessarily but it does offer less frame drops the less the video is compressed, I do because I can and have the hardware to do so. Besides I set a target of a 128gig rom for my tablet, because I was sick and tired of having to copy over substandard content over every 5minutes because of lack of space.Now I copy an entire weeks or more worth of content at 1080p at an average of 650mb a TV episode and 1.6gig ish a movie 1920 x 800 is about 2.8gig or whatever without hassle. The 20gig files I have is like lord of the rings and pirates of the caribbean, stargate stuff, which is lossless quality at 1080p lol

You would think the native resolution of the tablet versus the video resolution wouldn't make an impact on a 10 inch screen it does, seems to me you haven't actually experienced the difference to know any better. But okay lol

The difference in quality really is negligible to me. I only notice it on physically larger screens. I also almost never see any tearing that people complain about so I always turn off vsync in games for a speed boost. The first time in my life I ever saw tearing was in the ridiculously bad XIII remake a few weeks back.

But yes it's true I have never had a tablet with an HD screen so maybe I just do not know the difference to a degree.... but then again I mostly never go above 720p for movies even on my PC monitor.... the difference in quality just plain does not bother me unless the rip is low quality.

Besides which if I REALLY wanted to put a large amount of video files on a tablet..... I'd just get a large SD card and store it on that. The only thing you REALLY need a large rom for is apps and 32GB is more than enough for that unless you wanna game.

 

[wizardofid]

I know that most components are made in China, the major concern that you can actually control for is the software. Also it makes more sense to support non-Chinese assemblers or designers where possible given how corrupt the Chinese OEM industry is with Huawei as example. There is no conspiracy theory, there is just the fact that China is attempting to be the leading global tech octopus which makes sense for them if they can achieve it stably. Another major moral problem is that China is growing it's state supported OEM's supported by stolen designs..... I prefer to not financially support thieves where possible.

And lastly there is China attempting to colonize Africa and having hands in much local corruption..... I find it morally reprehensible to elevate our would be overlords above robber barron status.

So what you are saying is you won't support apple either, quick question after smoking weed, how much weed would I need and how long would it take to believe crackpot theories like these. ? Asking for a friend.

Okay let me go around with a hat and collect reasons to not support the Chinese, who has actually made an effort in the last 25 odd years to improve their electronic manufacturing, who previously had tier 3 and lower components, which have since moved up to tier 1 and tier 2.

Remind me to send a thank you note to our benefactors in china.

 

[rambo919]

So what you are saying is you won't support apple either, quick question after smoking weed, how much weed would I need and how long would it take to believe crackpot theories like these. ? Asking for a friend.

Okay let me go around with a hat and collect reasons to not support the Chinese, who has actually made an effort in the last 25 odd years to improve their electronic manufacturing, who previously had tier 3 and lower components, which have since moved up to tier 1 and tier 2.

Remind me to send a thank you note to our benefactors in china.

I don't support iCrap anyway for some of the same reasons. I do not join cults.

 

[wizardofid]

The difference in quality really is negligible to me. I only notice it on physically larger screens. I also almost never see any tearing that people complain about so I always turn off vsync in games for a speed boost. The first time in my life I ever saw tearing was in the ridiculously bad XIII remake a few weeks back.

But yes it's true I have never had a tablet with an HD screen so maybe I just do not know the difference to a degree.... but then again I mostly never go above 720p for movies even on my PC monitor.... the difference in quality just plain does not bother me unless the rip is low quality.

Besides which if I REALLY wanted to put a large amount of video files on a tablet..... I'd just get a large SD card and store it on that. The only thing you REALLY need a large rom for is apps and 32GB is more than enough for that unless you wanna game.

Lol You do know how much a good quality 256gig SD card cost right, about R800 to R1000 and then that speed is still slower then emmmc 5.1 in both write and read speed unless you get an ultra or pro SD card which will set you back double even triple.

So why pay more when you can get some thing that just does what it needs to do right off the bat ?

So you want to argue quality difference between 720p and 1080 on tablet screen having never actually seen the upscale difference. Upscale to full screen does impact image quality pending resolution which is why you do 1080p not 720.With the upscale you lose rendering pixels and that reduces the overall crispness of the image as well as having better aspect ratio and that includes text especially when watching some thing with subs.

So yeah makes a huge huge difference, while anime might not be the best to showcase this but you get the idea of what upscaling does to full screen You simply don't select a tablet these days with less then 1920x 1200 and if you can get 2.5k even better.The overall image quality is just so much better.

Whether 1080 or 720p it is still using a lossy encoder, meaning more compression, which is why I have 20 gig or higher files, the less compression the better. What you will notice is that upscale image is fuzzy that is due to MX player applying blur, it doesn't exactly pop like you expect.But to prove a point I would be happy to load a 20gig 1080p file so you can see the difference, however this should be enough


360p versus upscale full screen




720p versus upscale to full screen.

 

[ItherNiT]

Have you tried loading Lineage OS on the Teclast tablet? I got 2 for my parents in Jan and they both are really happy with them. It just doesn't look like Teclast are updating the software/security patches (just like my 2014 Galaxy note 12 )

I ordered one of amazon earlier this month. According to UPS i'm getting it this week.

 

[wizardofid]

Have you tried loading Lineage OS on the Teclast tablet? I got 2 for my parents in Jan and they both are really happy with them. It just doesn't look like Teclast are updating the software/security patches (just like my 2014 Galaxy note 12 )

I ordered one of amazon earlier this month. According to UPS i'm getting it this week.

Yeah that is a problem with 90% of tablets, even some one like lenovo is quite skimpy on updates.Google was supposedly to force manufactures to offer support, but that ended up doing a whole lot of nothing, simple enough to bypass by installing play services under a different brand or license.Just cheaper and less hassle.While android has malware and nowhere near the extend of windows it doesnt actually have viruses and unless you keep your boot loader unlock and not protect the system when you root, it is entirely your own damn fault.

However apple updates firmware and that includes apps and the os, android on the other hand incrementally update the core OS apps and functions ect, so what you really missing out on is the actual features of the OS upgrade.

Pick up a malware factory reset and job done, can't actually write to the firmware unless you have rooted or have a unlocked boot loader, so nothing much to worry about.Running a antivirus on android should make it mostly a moot point to be honest.

So not getting updates it isnt exactly as a unsecured as windows the impact isnt that great, considering with windows moving more towards a secured unwritable OS format.Overall pretty hard to get malware if you just use the internet normally and not open shyte your not suppose to or visit dodgy areas of the interwebs.

Firmware updates while nice isnt going to make your tablet more or less functional and with reasonable steps you can secure it equally as well as windows.With android you know what you are getting so there really shouldn't be any complaints.

However that said you can build a custom ROM for your self with the correct drivers and plently of research, if you speak Mandarin you can find firmware updates and such.With android you buy knowing you aren't going to get updates so really isnt that huge of deal, guess if you really want updates you can just buy a new table every other year they are cheap enough or buy Samsung or huawei pay a lot more get one or two updates and you are in the same boat as the rest of the android users, which is silly to be honest.

so updates meh Lol

 

[ItherNiT]

iPads are just way to expensive to match specs with teclast. I'll probably try flashing Lineage after a week or so. Just want to enjoy the "new tablet" experience for a bit. (aka reading some books on the sofa

 

[wizardofid]

iPads are just way to expensive to match specs with teclast. I'll probably try flashing Lineage after a week or so. Just want to enjoy the "new tablet" experience for a bit. (aka reading some books on the sofa

Good luck ! Make sure you do your research and make a ROM back up. which is a hassle if a mediatek tablet, as you need the scatter file for that firmware and because the firmware is nearly impossible to get you could end up with issues, mediatek software is iffy and will wipe the firmware for no apparent reason.

Usual way is to root, and then access the android file system copy the scatter file and then make a back up.But I guess if you are going to flash you know your way around the tablet.Just thought I would warn you that there is issues with getting a firmware is case some thing goes wrong and end up with a brick.

Besides the firmware is pretty much stock so you really don't need to flash unless there are specific stuff you want to do, but have fun and good luck

 

[rambo919]

Lol You do know how much a good quality 256gig SD card cost right, about R800 to R1000 and then that speed is still slower then emmmc 5.1 in both write and read speed unless you get an ultra or pro SD card which will set you back double even triple.

Speed does not really matter to me on an android tablet, samsung 90 speed sd cards are fine. Also I won't ever need more than 128GB until years into the future where larger one's are cheaper and even then probably not.

So why pay more when you can get some thing that just does what it needs to do right off the bat ?

It's about what I need now and what I can afford now. Timing is a beetch.

snip


360p versus upscale full screen
720p versus upscale to full screen.

That actually helps prove my point, 720p as 10" HD is perfectly fine.... even on larger monitors I mostly don't bother with 1080p anyway..... chasing quality is needless most of the time with a handful of exceptions.

I have noticed that 480p and lower does tend to show a difference but unless I have a 30+" display..... meh.

The only real bothers for me is RAM and battery capacity.... however beggars can't be choosers. Think I'll just look around for second hand devices over the next few months instead and make do with what I have in mean time.

 

[wizardofid]

Speed does not really matter to me on an android tablet, samsung 90 speed sd cards are fine. Also I won't ever need more than 128GB until years into the future where larger one's are cheaper and even then probably not.


It's about what I need now and what I can afford now. Timing is a beetch.


That actually helps prove my point, 720p as 10" HD is perfectly fine.... even on larger monitors I mostly don't bother with 1080p anyway..... chasing quality is needless most of the time with a handful of exceptions.

I have noticed that 480p and lower does tend to show a difference but unless I have a 30+" display..... meh.

The only real bothers for me is RAM and battery capacity.... however beggars can't be choosers. Think I'll just look around for second hand devices over the next few months instead and make do with what I have in mean time.

You are a stubborn SOB, you know that right ? . 720 is not okay, bad rambo. There really is a difference, you will see the difference.Happy hunting, there is always teclast, lurking in the background ready to offer embracing arms