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[Q] Best hackable sub-$300 Android tablet?

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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Click to collapse
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.

Please use the Q&A Forum for questions &
Read the Forum Rules Ref Posting
Moving to Q&A

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

Hannspree Quad Core 10.1" Model SN1AT71BUE

As as the title states. I bought a Hannspree tab and wanted everyones opinion of this. From my own research this thing is a good tab just based off the cpu and ips panel.
What are your thoughts?
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Hannspree...0-point-touchscreen-with-16GB-memory/28504762
Specs:
Platform: Android
Primary Color: Black
Processor Brand: Specialty
Processor Type: Quad-Core Actions ATM7029 Processor
System Ram: 1 GB
Hard Drive Size: 16 GB
Laptop Screen Size: N/A
Screen Type: Capacitive Touch Display
Battery Life: 5 hours
Battery Type: Lithium Ion
Network Connection: 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN
Connector Type: 1 x Headphone, 1 x MicroUSB 2.0, 1 x MiniHDMI
Operating System: Google Android
Accessories Included: AC Adapter, Micro USB Cable
Operating System Version: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
Model No.:SN1AT71BUE
Shipping Weight (in pounds): 1.6
Product in Inches (L x W x H): 7.2 x 0.4 x 10.3
1/5/2014 Updated:
Root Instructions: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=48307550 thank ou2mame

z3r0t0l0rEnCe said:
As as the title states. I bought a Hannspree tab and wanted everyones opinion of this. From my own research this thing is a good tab just based off the cpu and ips panel.
What are your thoughts?
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Hannspree-Quad-Core-10.1-Tablet-1280x800-10-point-touchscreen-with-16GB-memory/28504762
Just ordered this exact tablet and am also wondering the same thing. I hope someone has some dev experience with this tablet.
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I ordered this exact tablet last week and it just came in the mail. It's an impressive piece of hardware with very little bloatware out of the box, but Jellybean takes up a lot of RAM by default (1/2 is being used just by the thing being turned on). I'd like to figure out the best method to root it at least, though my ideal goal is to put a ROM of an earlier release of the Android OS on it, I'm quite partial to Gingerbread to be entirely honest since it tends to use a lot less RAM and CPU power to run on similar hardware I've used before.
EDIT: Hopefully someone with actual experience can look into rooting this tablet, I tried using some typical "generic Android tablet root" techniques and nothing is working.

How to root Hannspree Quad Core 10.1" Model SN1AT71BUE
Hi. Could anyone tell me how to root Hannspree Quad Core 10.1" Model SN1AT71BUE ? I just bought it for several days. There is something wrong for restart after I installed some Apps from Google play and play some of them to change the default settings. Better provide me with ROM of this tablet, My email is [email protected]. Thanks! Jeff

I got kinda suckered into buying one of you too. They were so cheap so I figured why not. My main complaints are that the operating system seems to be the part that's making it so laggy. When it's actually performing a task it works fairly well. I use NHL GameCenter and for the life of me I can't figure out how to get the streaming for work. SwiftKey keyboard is really laggy and unusable entirely. Also, Chrome seems to be impossible to use because of the lag. Other than that though everything else seems to run fairly smooth so I think it's more of an operating system issue than power issue. The battery is good it sounds good the screen is OK touch screen works...but if I can't use chrome or watch NHL games,I might have to return it.
Sent from my HSG1279 using Tapatalk 2

ou2mame said:
I got kinda suckered into buying one of you too. They were so cheap so I figured why not. My main complaints are that the operating system seems to be the part that's making it so laggy. When it's actually performing a task it works fairly well. I use NHL GameCenter and for the life of me I can't figure out how to get the streaming for work. SwiftKey keyboard is really laggy and unusable entirely. Also, Chrome seems to be impossible to use because of the lag. Other than that though everything else seems to run fairly smooth so I think it's more of an operating system issue than power issue. The battery is good it sounds good the screen is OK touch screen works...but if I can't use chrome or watch NHL games,I might have to return it.
Sent from my HSG1279 using Tapatalk 2
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Tablet seems to perform fairly well in games but is laggy at times on web surfing. As the previous poster noted Chrome is almost unusable it is so laggy. Video apps seem to perform well after they load up. If an item is being downloaded in the background tablet is very laggy. I tend to agree with the previous poster that the main problem is the operating system. Maybe an update to 4.3 will come soon and improve performance.

perseusbobby said:
Tablet seems to perform fairly well in games but is laggy at times on web surfing. As the previous poster noted Chrome is almost unusable it is so laggy. Video apps seem to perform well after they load up. If an item is being downloaded in the background tablet is very laggy. I tend to agree with the previous poster that the main problem is the operating system. Maybe an update to 4.3 will come soon and improve performance.
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Click to collapse
Yeah I noticed the background downloading slowing it to a crawl. I think that's an issue with the kernel or memory read speed. There are some tweaks that we will be able to do once a working recovery is available that will fix that. Network speed too. I speed checked it and im getting 35mbs so the issue isn't the WiFi unit itself, its just software. I'm hoping somebody will make a nice custom ROM for us
Sent from my HSG1279 using Tapatalk 2

Jeffking0402 said:
Hi. Could anyone tell me how to root Hannspree Quad Core 10.1" Model SN1AT71BUE ? I just bought it for several days. There is something wrong for restart after I installed some Apps from Google play and play some of them to change the default settings. Better provide me with ROM of this tablet, My email is [email protected]. Thanks! Jeff
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want to restore it to factory settings you can do that in the current recovery.
Sent from my HSG1279 using Tapatalk 2

Can't root
I bought one of these and I still can find a successful rooting procedure. I can't even get into the recovery. Can anyone help?

peterc18042 said:
I bought one of these and I still can find a successful rooting procedure. I can't even get into the recovery. Can anyone help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Root instructions are here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2554384
As for recovery, volume down and power button
Sent from my HSG1279 using Tapatalk 2

hannspree 10.1
Hi, I have the hannspree 10.1, its OK if you limit your apps which shouldn't be the case considering the spec, does anyone know how to root, would really appreciate any help, thanks

You should read the rest of the thread
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

hansspree 10.1
nothing out yet...it's just the os on it that sucks...just upgraded to 4.2.2 and it even slower...once theres a rom it will eliminate all the bloat in it...just hold on to it and wait...you will not get a quad core for that price...

Its a really terrible a5 based quad-core.. A dual core a9 would run circles around it. There isn't really any bloat in the rom, they didn't do much of anything to it. No custom rom is gonna upgrade the cpu or craptastic generic gpu. If you can return it, go do that. If you can't, I'm sorry, but it's never going to respond like an a9. It sucks that actions is full of lies, and Hannspree bought them, and retailers don't care what they are selling you.
Sent from my ME301T using Tapatalk

After the update to 4.2.2, this thing is horrid slow. I had high hopes for this tablet. Now I'm kind regretting it. Until a better ROM is built with a custom kernel we are screwed.
Sent from my HSG1279 using XDA Premium HD app

I agree 100%, 4.2. Update is worse than original. Try downloading CPU tuner and pimp my ROM from play store it will help, until custom ROM is built.
Sent from my SN1AT71W(B) using xda app-developers app

Appears to have had memory issues. In process of RMA.
Sent from my EVO using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

So I just found out that the UK variant is running KitKat. If some can find anyone in the UK that can pull the rom for it, we can get this running much better than it currently is.

Can anyone point me into a direction where I could find the operation system and how to install

[q] nvidia shield poor emulator performance

I have just purchased the NVIDIA SHIELD (running kitkat) I am very shocked and disappointed at the poor emulator performance as compared with the jxd s7800b.
I originally bought it maily for emulation however when running the NES.emu emulator purchased from Google play there is a lot of frame skips and poor performance. Things get even worse when setting the frame skip to 0, the shield just cannot cope, however this is not an issue on the jxd s7800b.
I would have imagined that since the shield is supposed to be more powerful, emulators would run without a hitch but obviously not even epse runs no better on the shield than it does on the jxd s7800b
Has anyone come across this issue? Is it possible that my shield is faulty (I am really thinking on returning the damn thing, waste of money)

You should try downgrading to Jellybean. Maybe that could help? (If its possible even)
I don't have a shield, literally I'll be buying it today. I've seen videos of PPSSPP running perfectly fine on it, and if im not mistaking that emulator is more demanding than NES.
Also what antutu scores are you getting?
Sent from my Evo 3D CDMA using XDA Free mobile app

Kite-G said:
You should try downgrading to Jellybean. Maybe that could help? (If its possible even)
I don't have a shield, literally I'll be buying it today. I've seen videos of PPSSPP running perfectly fine on it, and if im not mistaking that emulator is more demanding than NES.
Also what antutu scores are you getting?
Sent from my Evo 3D CDMA using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got an antutu score of 38470, the shield should be able to handle the nes emulator without any issues (jsx s7800b which is inferior has no problems at all). going to try and see if I can put jelly bean back

[email protected] said:
I got an antutu score of 38470, the should de able to handle the nes emulator without any issues (jsx s7800b which is inferior has no problems at all). going to try and see Iif I can put jelly bean back
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Click to collapse
Those benchmarks are fine, the average Shield scores. Well, just thinking, maybe you should tweak the emulator settings or the performance settings. But maybe its due to the KitKat update. If you do downgrade to jellybean, let me know how it runs afterwards.
Sent from my Evo 3D CDMA using XDA Free mobile app

Kit Kat is the problem, I can confirm this because im a user from the beginning of the Shields life cycle. i went through with the Kit Kat update and regretted it badly! not only are there slowdowns in emulation but some apps can no longer be moved or ran from SD. Downgrading is quite easy if you CWM installed though.

uoykcuf86 said:
Kit Kat is the problem, I can confirm this because im a user from the beginning of the Shields life cycle. i went through with the Kit Kat update and regretted it badly! not only are there slowdowns in emulation but some apps can no longer be moved or ran from SD. Downgrading is quite easy if you CWM installed though.
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Click to collapse
Yeah thanks I have now successfully downgraded back to Jelly Bean OTA 68. Following the steps below (very useful):
https://forums.geforce.com/default/...ield-kitkat-ota-77-poor-performance/?offset=2
The performance issues seems to have gone, additionally I have just performed an Antutu benchmark test i got a higher score of 3912 which is now higher when compared to KitKat where I got 38470 before. So it looks like KitKat is definitely having an impact on performance.

I'd downgrade if there is a way to run Half Life 2 or Portal on Jelly Bean.
But right now, I don't want to miss those games on Shield.

Is there a way to stop the shield from bugging me about updates? I have downgraded to Jelly Bean for this peformance reason but don't want to be bugged about updating or forced to update.

are roms worth it ??

i recently bought a nvidia shield k1 . i think the performance is pretty good.
what are the benefits of switching over to cm13 ?
are there any performance benefits ?
which is the best rom for this tablet ?

The NVIDIA stock ROM is pretty lightweight and has few issues. Only flash CyanogenMod if you need the extra features (like the theme engine) are willing to tolerate bugs (I had issues with memory leaks).

I tried Bliss and CM. I would have weird issues playing games. Found stock was better for gaming unfortunately. I love ROMs and flashing. I found GtrCraft's ROM here and it works very well. Nothing extra, but it is optimized a bit.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/shi...rom-optimized-stock-shield-tablet-k1-t3437791

I'm a noob and I'm happy with Nvidia stock ROM. Besides, the Mediaserver bug that I recently encountered. Though, that's apparently common even with custom ROMs.

Moto G (falcon) Lags, slow speed, stutters.

I own my moto g from more than 3 years. The official update that we got for this device till lollipop, the device used to run fine for the hardware it had but compared to how it performs these days on these custom roms, especially the nougat ones, the performance has gone down so bad that it's pretty much struggling to perform even basic functions without the stutters or lags.
Now all that is understandable that it's an over 3 year old mid ranger but my questions are, 1) does everyone experience the same with their moto g, 2) what exactly has reduced the device's performance over time because it used to run fine on older android versions. So is it that the new android updates and apps etc aren't optimized for this old hardware or did the performance of these hardware components like the SoC just got reduced over time?
I'd be glad to read everyone's opinions below.

Personally, I don't experience any lag, decrease in performance, not even poor battery life running nougat (latest commotio), zero byte r4 kernel..
Could you be 'more specific' regarding your setup?

Ænimal said:
Personally, I don't experience any lag, decrease in performance, not even poor battery life running nougat (latest commotio), zero byte r4 kernel..
Could you be 'more specific' regarding your setup?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since when do you own the device?

hsn97 said:
Since when do you own the device?
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Click to collapse
All the way from jelly bean