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Good China tablets?

P

Phantomaniac

Senior member
I'm looking to get a 10" tablet on the cheap. For the most part I'm only going to be using it while traveling, so I really didn't want to sink $300-400+ into it. Anyone have any experience or recommendations for 10" China tablets?
 
Phantomaniac said:
I'm looking to get a 10" tablet on the cheap. For the most part I'm only going to be using it while traveling, so I really didn't want to sink $300-400+ into it. Anyone have any experience or recommendations for 10" China tablets?
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Don't.

You want to travel with it. Most of them have shitty battery life.
 
Nexus 10s are pretty cheap now, but you should probably just wait for the next one.

Don't get a cheap tablet. It might be fun, but once you get a good model, you won't ever look back. I had a TouchPad and for $99 it was fun, but in the end all the effort I spent updating it, finding hacks, fixes, ugh. It was only useful as a movie platform but I dreaded using it. When I got the iPad 2, it was worlds better. Same with the Nexus 10. I actually use my tablet for daily reading now. I don't have to worry about the battery dying in 3 days in idle anymore.
 
s44 said:
Nook HD+
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This.

It's a great tablet for the price ($150 16GB, $180 32GB) It's not bad out of the box but even better with CM10. I've done a lot of travel with mine and it's perfect for it; quality enough to get the job done, affordable enough you wouldn't completely lose your mind if it got stolen or banged up during a trip.

In comparison, most of the Chinese tablets cut corners somewhere in order to be so cheap, mostly with crappy batteries that self-drain even when the device is off. Probably the worst choice for travel.
 
Another vote for the Nook HD+. It's pointless to get a no-name tablet when Nook HD+ is so cheap.
 
Zaap said:
This.

It's a great tablet for the price ($150 16GB, $180 32GB) It's not bad out of the box but even better with CM10. I've done a lot of travel with mine and it's perfect for it; quality enough to get the job done, affordable enough you wouldn't completely lose your mind if it got stolen or banged up during a trip.

In comparison, most of the Chinese tablets cut corners somewhere in order to be so cheap, mostly with crappy batteries that self-drain even when the device is off. Probably the worst choice for travel.
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Oh wow, it has a CM10 port? I wasn't too crazy about the default UI but if CM10 is relatively painless I'm sold.
 
Yup, and it now has official CM support. http://download.cyanogenmod.com/?device=ovation

xda-developers site is disorganized and puts a lot of people off, but really all the info you need to ROM the Nook HD+ with CM10 is in this one thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2263553

There are unofficial ROMs too like Slimbean and Carbon, but I've found CM10.1 (currently 10.1.3 RC3) to be stable and fast. (It was even before it was official). I haven't yet tried CM10.2 as it used to be buggy, but I think it's come a long way.
 
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Seems like some of the newer Nooks HD+ tablets though have a different touch screen. And as a result touch sensitivity is really bad when running CM10.1. So I'd probably try the SD card install first to see if the sensitivity issue is a problem on your tablet.
 
^ Yup, no harm in running the SD method first to make sure.

I will say, I've never heard of this problem except here. (Not doubting it, just never seen where its widespread). I've seen no mention of it at xda.

I just helped set up a friend's Nook HD+ last month (and several before that) and didn't see that problem. I'm guessing it must be a small percentage.
 
I caved and went over to my local B&N to pick one up. Software wise the stock UI is pretty terrible IMO. Within the hour I downloaded nova launcher and google keyboard from the play store. Much better, and I can assume that CM 10.1 will only improve things. Hardware wise this thing is awesome! The screen and battery life are both fantastic, and the lack of a camera is a plus to me. Can't wait to show this $150 tablet to my dad, who paid $500 for his Moto Xoom a while back. Thanks guys!
 
Phantomaniac said:
I caved and went over to my local B&N to pick one up. Software wise the stock UI is pretty terrible IMO. Within the hour I downloaded nova launcher and google keyboard from the play store. Much better, and I can assume that CM 10.1 will only improve things. Hardware wise this thing is awesome! The screen and battery life are both fantastic, and the lack of a camera is a plus to me. Can't wait to show this $150 tablet to my dad, who paid $500 for his Moto Xoom a while back. Thanks guys!
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CM is pretty nice. But what I like about staying on stock is the battery life is MUCH better, particularly standby battery life. My Nook HD+ isn't my primary tablet so it sits around for days sometimes without being touched. And I'm just amazed at how great the idle battery life is on idle. Also, as I mentioned earlier, stock is much better at recognizing taps and swipes than CM has been for me, YMMV one that issue depending on the hardware I believe.
 
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