That depends, of course. For media consumption you might want a bigger screen. For reading you might want a smaller screen. Many will want a more mainstream OS that plays better with all their apps and various DRM. Some will want a more capable OS, like Linux or Windows. Some will want iOS, for some unfathomable reason…
For me, a big portion of what I want a tablet for will be covered by the Pixel Tablet on Graphene. That is multiple profiles, for work, play, and banking.
Most of my banking apps are available, and most importantly so is YNAB. My phone is kept with a very minimal app footprint, and no Play Store in any capacity, and I don’t particularly like budgeting in my browser either on my phone or laptop.
I don’t let work anywhere near my phone, but occasionally I do want to check Outlook or Teams without jumping into my work laptop. I also need to monitor some things actively for hours on end, so it would be nice to be able to do that from the kitchen, living room, or patio without having to go through the nightmare that is un-docking and re-docking my work laptop that runs Windows. Luckily work lets me Intune join a tablet so long as it’s not rooted, others may have stricter OS limitations though.
Sometimes I just want to chill out on the couch and watch a movie or TV show. I don’t have a TV, and if I’m on my laptop I tend to put the video in PIP and divide my attention. A tablet makes me far less likely to do this.
I prefer Calyx on my phone, for the sake of the extra privacy of Micro-G vs sandboxed Google Play Services. But most of my tablet use case tends more towards mainstream, so I think the compromise is worth it for the more robust multi-profile support in Graphene. But hey, Calyx supports the Pixel Tablet, too.
But… part of me still wants a tablet with a full Linux distro on it, so I’m tempted by stuff like the Starlabs Starlite, and the upcoming Minisforum Ryzen 8000 tablet. But I won’t have a streamlined OS that minimizes distractions, and unless I run Ubuntu LTS I wouldn’t be able to use it for anything work related. There are also a lot more DRM limitations in regards to streaming video.
Point is, everyone is going to have their own special use case. I’m just glad we’re finally getting some FOSS capable tablets into the market, be they running AOSP or Linux.
I both agree and disagree. I definitely want a small phone, and the small size would limit the use case of the phone itself. But some of us artificially limit the capability of their phones in order to minimize distractions, and some use dumb or feature phones to accomplish similar goals.
Then there is further segregation of use case between devices. Just because you can do something on a phone, doesn’t mean you choose to. I want work nowhere near my phone, but I’ll put it in a work profile on my tablet.
One might choose to consume various media on their tablet instead of phone. Sure, you can watch movies on your phone, but it’s a lot better on a 10-12" tablet. Sure you can read ebooks on your phone, but it would be a lot better on a smaller tablet that unfortunately hardly exists in the Android world these days.
Btw, you might want to check out Onyx for some smaller readers. Particularly the Palma and Nova Air 2. There are definitely some privacy questions with them, though.
I feel like Garmin is building their spiritual successor. They don’t try to do too much, but they do quite a lot. And there are so many models, they address most folks use cases in one way or another.
People keep saying this, but it’s pretty reasonable as far as tablets go. Its base is 16GB and 512GB, and it MSRPs for $713 USD with a sale to $655 for quite awhile now (though out of stock). The Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ with 12GB and 256GB is $700 on sale for $650. Considering the nature of the OS, maybe the standard FE is more equivalent with 8GB and 256GB at $520 on sale for $470. But you still have half the storage, and the Starlite is upgradable with standard M.2 NVME drive.
Even then, you’re getting a full Linux OS if that’s what you’re after. That’s a very niche market right now, to get a fully Linux capable tablet, much less one where the manufacturer supports and encourages it. Hell, it uses coreboot firmware. Considering the niche market, I’d say that’s a pretty damned good price. But if you don’t want full Linux support, and are happier with AOSP or Google’s Android, you can get a Pixel tablet for $400, or $500 with 256GB.
Sure you can get tablets for significantly less, like the Fire stuff from Amazon and a last-gen, base model iPad. But all of those have severe disadvantages as far as software and/or privacy. The N200 CPU in the Starlite isn’t going to set any records, but the ability to run full fat Linux puts it in a segment with the Surface and other Windows tablets. That’s something that the iPad Pro can’t even compete with, despite Apple fans begging for MacOS on those models for years.
It’s funny, I switched off Arch… probably 8 or 9 years ago now, and went to Fedora. At that point I just kind of became a Linux user, instead of a Linux enthusiast. I moved to the Apple ecosystem about two years ago, getting sick of Google’s shit and deciding to go all in.
Now I’m coming back to the fold, and getting back to AOSP since I still don’t want to deal with Google’s bullshit. As I get deeper into ROMs, I’m realizing just how uncomfortable I am in Fedora. It’s easy, it works, but there’s a certain lack of control that really makes me uneasy. As I start messing around with Arch again in a VM getting ready to install on my Thinkpad, and in WSL on my work laptop, it’s like I never left. Sure, I have to learn a bunch of new stuff because a lot has changed in almost a decade. But it’s less about Arch, and more about changes in the Linux landscape. I feel so much more comfortable, like coming home after a long time away.
I need to upgrade my laptop and one of the things I’m looking for is repairability/upgradability. I’ve been told thinkpads are good in this respect, how true is that? In terms of replacing batteries and memory, at least. I’m also looking at the frameworks, but those black friday deals are looking alright at lenovo....
The repairability is still good, you can get parts and there’s a manual published by Lenovo that will guide you on everything. But upgradability just isn’t there anymore. I guess in some of the high end P series like P1, but most have soldered RAM now. The AMD models even have soldered wifi cards. I like my P14s g4 AMD, and also my T14s g3 AMD from work, but I’m really looking forward to the progression of Framework, and also System76’s in-house design.
AMD currently tends towards running significantly cooler and quieter, and the graphics in the APU are far better.
Edit: I agree to avoid the E and L series, L is better than E if you absolutely must. But I wouldn’t. I’d also avoid the X1, they sacrifice way too much to be thin. The T series is really the sweet spot. T14s is tuned to run cool and quiet, and is only about 1mm thinner than the T14. The T14 is middle ground, and boosts a little more but sacrifices a bit of noise. I really can’t tell the build quality between the T14s and T14 in this latest design, the T14s used to use significantly better materials. The P14s is simply a T14 that supports more RAM and boosts even further.
The T16 and P16s are the same relationship at the 14 incher, but with a bigger battery and an offset keyboard with a numpad.
The X13 is the same motherboard as the T14s, but in a 13" design. The T14s and X13 also get dual USB4 on the AMD models, while the T14/P14s only get one. I think that carries over to Intel models with Thunderbolt, but I’m not sure.
The Z series is odd. Better touchpads, sleeker design, AMD only. The Z16 doesn’t have an offset keyboard. The Z16 is also the only option for discrete graphics from AMD. But… they’re not really Thinkpads, in a traditional sense. The materials aren’t as robust, and they sacrifice cooling some for thinness. I’d consider one a lot more than the X1 series, and I’m excited for the redesign in a few years.
The P series is really diverse, from the P14s and P16s that are really just rebadges the T series, to the P1 that is a serious workhorse. There’s quite a bit inbetween, but aside from the entry models, they’re going to be quite a lot less portable, more power hungry, be louder, and have worse battery. If they’re what you need, great, if not, eh.
I chose the P14s gen 4 AMD with 64GB of RAM. I’ll run some VMs at times, and the RAM will also help future proof me since I can’t upgrade down the road. I was back and forth between it and the T14s, but when I got my T14s at work I realized that this gen just isn’t any more premium than the T14/P14s. I popped in a 4TB Samsung 990 Pro, which is the only single sided 4TB drive with RAM that I know of.
Originally I ordered an OLED model, but the battery life was horrible. The 400 nit low power LCD is probably what you want. The 500 nit privacy guard has horrible viewing angles by design, and the 300 nit LCD is below average in color reproduction and uniformity. The T14s has a 300 nit low power with slightly higher resolution, I probably would have gotten that if the P14s offered it. I might swap later.
SR-IOV is the keyword you can start with. I know Nvidia only supports it with pro cards. Didn’t used to be the case, but I think AMD followed suit. I’m not sure on that point. I read recently that Intel is working on it for their Arc cards in the new driver, or something, but I’m really not familiar with anything regarding Intel’s discrete cards.
I’m much more worried about the social implications. Namely, the displacement of workers and introduction of new efficiencies to workflows, continuing to benefit only those who are rich and in power, and driving more of us towards poverty.
It’s not an immediate existential threat, but it’s absolutely a serious issue that we aren’t paying enough attention to.
How did the industrial and information revolutions work out for us? Sure we live lives of convenience, but our entire existences have been manipulated into making the rich richer.
Looking at long and short term trends in the wealth gap, I have absolutely no faith that this will go well.
This was something I started wondering about when I was reading a thread about Star Citizen, and about how space combat flight games were much less-common than they had been at one point, how fans of the genre were hungry for new entrants....
This would be great if I could actually use it in AOSP without Google’s own app, and view/reply to RCS conversations on my laptop using a 3rd party application. Open the APIs, Google, or you’re just blowing hot air.
That’s why we need them to open up the APIs in the short term, but the long term goal should be to get the Universal Profile advanced, and move away from a Google-centric implementation.
Which, to be fair, Google really did seem to want carriers implementing their own interoperable RCS solutions. But they needed shit to be done, so they ended up doing it themselves.
Yeah, I have a lot of mixed feelings about it, but I’m tending towards some forced adherence to standards. Or at least interoperability through open federation.
I’m in the market for a Linux friendly ultralight laptop to check web apps and run terminal, nothing fancier then that. Do any cheap systems exits these days? I was looking at a chrome book but apparently the mediatek chip doesn’t play nicely with FOSS....
You would be very very wrong, since I hardly use my phone.
But to your point, a soft keyboard is very different for conversational input that autocorrect and predictive typing excels at, and command entry and scripting where syntax is critical and you aren’t really typing in English or some other language.
Don't waste your money on an awful Android tablet on Black Friday (9to5google.com)
which distro and why do you prefer it over others?
Thinkpads RE: Repairability/upgradability
I need to upgrade my laptop and one of the things I’m looking for is repairability/upgradability. I’ve been told thinkpads are good in this respect, how true is that? In terms of replacing batteries and memory, at least. I’m also looking at the frameworks, but those black friday deals are looking alright at lenovo....
A symptom of linux past traumas
So, I had to reinstall windows as a dualboot, because I need some CAD tools for work. It was painful but it’s not thebaubject...
Safety and Research were Sacrificed for Profit under Altman (www.theatlantic.com)
Article from The Atlantic, archive link: archive.ph/Vqjpr...
Google CEO Pichai advises Android users not to sideload apps (www.phonearena.com)
What game genre would you like to see more entrants in?
This was something I started wondering about when I was reading a thread about Star Citizen, and about how space combat flight games were much less-common than they had been at one point, how fans of the genre were hungry for new entrants....
Apple gets the message, RCS coming to iPhone in 2024 with same Universal Profile as Android (9to5google.com)
It’s happening!!!
Looking for a "couch laptop"
I’m in the market for a Linux friendly ultralight laptop to check web apps and run terminal, nothing fancier then that. Do any cheap systems exits these days? I was looking at a chrome book but apparently the mediatek chip doesn’t play nicely with FOSS....
Is there an easy way to set up an email client so you get system notifications in GNOME once you receive an e-mail?
As simple as the title sounds I’m having huge trouble getting that working....