I'm looking to get my first Android tablet. I've always rooted and run custom firmware on my Android phones, so I need a "cheap" Android tablet with a healthy developer community and a lot of support.
My first thought was to go for the $250 Nook Tablet, spec for spec it's better than the Kindle Fire; but didn't an update come out for it recently that made rooting it near impossible or so highly difficult that it hasn't been done yet?
Then the $200 Kindle Fire came to mind, very popular tablet must mean a very healthy/active hacking/dev community right? But isn't it also locked down in such a way it can't be rooted or modified anymore?
Then I see a $189 Lenovo A1 Tablet at Best Buy with decent specs. It's running Android 2.3 which I'd normally prefer over Android 3.0/Honeycomb but now that ICS/Android 4.0 is out, I'd definately want to run that on my tablet. So is ICS running very good/stable on any sub $300 Android tablet?
I wonder when the $250 Tegra3 based tablet from Asus (or is it Acer...) comes out. Suggestions on which route to go?
My friend has a Kindle Fire, and it's too slow to be called a tablet. It's an E-Reader that can run Apps.
Even the web browser - scrolling and loading pages - is laggy.
Colton127 said:
My friend has a Kindle Fire, and it's too slow to be called a tablet. It's an E-Reader that can run Apps.
Even the web browser - scrolling and loading pages - is laggy.
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Does it run any custom firmware? Or is it 100% stock? The first thing I plan to do is run a custom ROM on it. Even if it's to remove the bloatware and put in a few tweaks, at least it'd be better than stock. My Galaxy S II right now runs a custom ROM based on the factory ROM, so it has full hardware support and such but it's got a lot of tweaks put into it and bloatware removed, etc. the end result is it's got better battery life and runs faster/smoother than any stock Galaxy S II ROM. I'm hoping to get ICS/Android 4.0 onto a tablet, as that's the way to go, but if the dev community isn't quite there yet, then I'm hoping for a custom/tweaked out ROM as a tide-me-over.
glitchsys said:
Does it run any custom firmware? Or is it 100% stock? The first thing I plan to do is run a custom ROM on it. Even if it's to remove the bloatware and put in a few tweaks, at least it'd be better than stock. My Galaxy S II right now runs a custom ROM based on the factory ROM, so it has full hardware support and such but it's got a lot of tweaks put into it and bloatware removed, etc. the end result is it's got better battery life and runs faster/smoother than any stock Galaxy S II ROM. I'm hoping to get ICS/Android 4.0 onto a tablet, as that's the way to go, but if the dev community isn't quite there yet, then I'm hoping for a custom/tweaked out ROM as a tide-me-over.
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He runs stock rooted with Android Market and a custom launcher.
I tested Opera Mobile on it - which uses full hardware acceleration. It was the smoothest browser I tested on the device, but it was still jittery and lagged while scrolling. The GPU and CPU are obviously not that great.
Colton127 said:
He runs stock rooted with Android Market and a custom launcher.
I tested Opera Mobile on it - which uses full hardware acceleration. It was the smoothest browser I tested on the device, but it was still jittery and lagged while scrolling. The GPU and CPU are obviously not that great.
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Well it is a cheap tablet new, but I thought it was dual core. Kind of disappointing it's sluggish even with HW acceleration. I just checked the Kindle Fire Android Development forum and it looks like they have ICS/Android 4.0 ROM's for it but the 3 main issues are no HW UI Acceleration; 720p and HD video in general; No bluetooth. I don't care too much for Bluetooth and the 720p video thing isn't that important at the moment (I think), but the no HW UI Acceleration could pose a problem, especially if the CPU is as sluggish as you say.
glitchsys said:
Well it is a cheap tablet new, but I thought it was dual core. Kind of disappointing it's sluggish even with HW acceleration. I just checked the Kindle Fire Android Development forum and it looks like they have ICS/Android 4.0 ROM's for it but the 3 main issues are no HW UI Acceleration; 720p and HD video in general; No bluetooth. I don't care too much for Bluetooth and the 720p video thing isn't that important at the moment (I think), but the no HW UI Acceleration could pose a problem, especially if the CPU is as sluggish as you say.
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It is Dual-Core, but it was still laggy when I had tested it. I guess it really bothered me because I was so use to the extremely smooth and fluid iPad 2 & Galaxy S II I own and use day-to-day.
I never tested any custom ROMs, but wish I was able to. It seems to have a lot of popular ROMs and a good developer community.
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Sorry about that. Thanks for moving this thread/keeping things organized, I really appreciate what you guys do.
Right now I'm leaning toward the HP Touchpad or the Kindle Fire. Seems CM7 is the better option for both devices and good enough as a daily driver; but CM9 is further along on the Fire than it is on the Touchpad.
I'm in about the same situation.
I vastly prefer the 7" form factor, although I could probably be persuaded to a 10" for the same price range...
Currently, I'm leaning towards the 16G Nook Tablet, mostly because of the RAM advantage it has vs the Kindle Fire.
The fire seems to have a more active dev community, but, once it is rooted & has a working ROM (ICS preferred), isn't that the main thing to be looking for?
However, I am not set on any specific tablet, and am very open to suggestions...
I'm still rocking the original Nook Color. Runs CM7 like a champ, and CM9 builds are showing great progress.
For a thread revival, I figured I would state my final decision & reasons for it, just in case anyone else is looking for similar information...
I ended up going with a Nook Tablet...
I considered the Kindle Fire, but it has 512MB vs the 1G of RAM that the Nook has.
Checking the dev status for the Nook, there is a CM7 running (fairly well, now that I've given it a shot). Once that is 100% (and, in my opinion, it is very nearly there), there really isn't much of a reason to avoid it.
In the day I've had it, I have to say that it has ended up being much better than I was expecting.
check out this tablet
/watch?v=JUhiQZE4_VE&feature=g-u-u&context=G2a75f87FUAAAAAAAHAA
it's a youtube link to a NCIX review on a new tablet seems nice for the price I can't post full link cause I don't have enough posts maybe someone can help me out and post it for me? thanks
Hello,
I have recently got the Xoom and flashed a JB rom as soon as I unboxed it, I have noticed 3D performance is not great on some games. Can anyone suggest a rom with good 3D performance or if it performed better in HC/ICS.
Just get TeamEOS or CM roms and overclock the XOOM. You should get better performance, keep in mind the XOOM is 2 years old now so all the games won't run smoothly.
I have installed a 4.1.2 Rom and it has made a massive difference.
So I had to sell sell my current phone and I am going to use my sensation again for the next 2 months. I have tried the unofficial CM12.1 ROM and it is running surprisingly well, however CPU and RAM are constantly at 100%, rendering some simple tasks like Web browsing impossible (phone crashes).
l was thinking that the older ICS-based ROMs like ViperS or Elegancia may be better in terms of performance. Maybe the hardware of our favourite phone just isn't built for the software me have now...
Maybe there is a third alternative? What would be the best ROM for the Sensation in terms of performance?
ViperS is JB-based (4.1.2). Experiences can vary on a per-device basis, I personally find CM12.1 sufficient and issue-less, save the RIL bugs.
I'm currently using DirtyUnicorn ROM on my 16GB Shield (Wifi) model. I only use this ROM because of how stable and smooth it is.
I've never used the original factory ROM by Nvidia but as the recent Nougat release, I'm thinking of moving to Nouagt Original ROM. So I want to ask you guys who are using the 5.0/5.1 update on Shield Tab.
How have your experience been so far? Is it running smoothly for a light use (no gaming just media stuff)
How's the battery life compared to Marshmallow? Is it better than Xposed with Greenify+Amplify?
and above all, is there any Nvidia bloatware on original ROM and do they affect battery life?
gullkhan0 said:
I'm currently using DirtyUnicorn ROM on my 16GB Shield (Wifi) model. I only use this ROM because of how stable and smooth it is.
I've never used the original factory ROM by Nvidia but as the recent Nougat release, I'm thinking of moving to Nouagt Original ROM. So I want to ask you guys who are using the 5.0/5.1 update on Shield Tab.
How have your experience been so far? Is it running smoothly for a light use (no gaming just media stuff)
How's the battery life compared to Marshmallow? Is it better than Xposed with Greenify+Amplify?
and above all, is there any Nvidia bloatware on original ROM and do they affect battery life?
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I'll say this, I haven't rooted my k1 just yet because the dev support isn't quite want I'm used too. Before the android 7 updates I was beginning to regret my purchase (I've only had this thing maybe a month) but can now say I genuinely enjoy using my k1. I also don't game a whole lot. When I do game it's things like adventure capitalist and I can get a solid 3 1\2 hours sot. Sometimes 5 hours with no gaming. Also I never go above ~%60 screen brightness, that makes a sizable difference
I'm using 5.1 update on the Shield K1 tablet. First of all, if you're moving to Nougat, don't get the 5.0. That version has got many crashing issues and Nvidia have to withdraw the release, and they came back with 5.1.
So far, 5.1 is the smoothest stock rom on Shield tablet I've ever used. (I never root nor use any custom roms on my tablet). Android 7.0 has improved a lot. Even though you can't see directly on the surface, there are many improvements underneath (ask Google if you want to know what are those improvements).
For me, yes, it worth to move to Nougat. I'm not aware of any bloatware that hog the system. But it's always good to uninstall or disable any apps that you're not going to use.
I love the 5.1 update I have set the power plan to battery saver, and have brightness low, I gamed a lot especially GeForce now and half life 2 and borderlands 2 I get 5 hours screen on time also watching man UTD game also
Also I have set up apps I use a lot outside of games to be using 50 percent of cpu and it works fantastically
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Okay so basically what I have found out is it seems that on all custom roms the Android system is using like 1gb of ram just by itsself after about maybe 2 to 3 hours on every rom. And stock only uses like 770 or lower in that time. So based off your guys personal opinions which has better performance. That's all that matters to me.
Performance is great on both but, since stock is well optimized, it gives it the lead
Stock ROM got more inbuilt features then custom ROMs. If you want more UI customization, then custom ROMs are best. Also as much as I realised it's faster too. Moreover custom ROMs camera is nothing compared to stock EMUI.
For now, stock remains the better option if you care about camera and battery