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GM Nostr! How are we doing today? Question for tablet owners, big or small?

I have to admit, I’ve never owned a tablet. If I'm being honest, my main use cases would be offloading a lot of the Nostr stuff from my main phone, reading, watching videos, scrolling social media, and gaming in bed or on the couch. I might also take some notes in Obsidian or SSH or use it to remote to some work machines occasionally, but that’s more of a secondary, infrequent use case. Most of the time, after checking what’s going on, I’ll either put it away or reach for my laptop.

So I’m leaning towards a smaller device.

However… my wife has more office-style, laptop-replacement use cases. And to be fair, I’m also a bit excited about running Linux VMs on Android, so I might geek out with that a bit.

As for everything else: coding on it, using the tablet as an extra screen for Linux, or a sidecar for macOS with a stylus as a laser pointer... it’s all interesting, but realistically, I’d use those features very occasionally.

So, let’s say you had to choose between something like the Lenovo Y700 Gen 4 and the OnePlus Pad 3 (very similar performance). Or, if you’re in the Apple ecosystem, imagine choosing between an iPad Mini vs a 13” iPad with Stylus + Magic Keyboard. What would you go for?

#gm #asknostr #tablet #sizeMatters

HERMETICVM 6mo ago

I’ve owned tablets from 7” to 11” (+ a 13” iPad Pro for 2 weeks) and for my usecases and I’m happiest with the 11” of the OnePad Plus I have now. I’ve used most of them as pure consumption devices though I’ve used a Pixel C (from 2016ish) as a laptop replacement for 3 months because my BTO laptop config didn’t get shipped sooner. With a keyboard you can do a lot with them nowadays. The latest iPad OS updates seem very impressive if you’re okay with that ecosystem, though I’m not. If I had to, I’d mostly consider the latest gen OnePlus Pad. No complaints about mine, except for somewhat delayed major Android updates because of their custom skin but the skin itself is nice.

I also own a Daylight Computer DC-1 and I think I could get some work done on it but I use it mainly as an offline reading device since abandoning my Kindle. Their Android is kinda old though and shipping updates takes quite a while because they seem to have a small team.

If my Macbook Air wasn’t as powerful and lightweight, I’d consider paying the tablet with a keyboard again. With Android 16 the desktop mode + external display support will also become much much better.

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Discussion

HERMETICVM 6mo ago

This had me lookup the old Pixel C keyboard again: https://www.anandtech.com/show/9972/the-google-pixel-c-review/7

I miss this thing. :D

Anthony Accioly 6mo ago

Thank you for this! Your answer was very helpful. Yeah, the OnePlus Pad 3 looks quite flexible. The Snapdragon Elite is a powerhouse, so you can get a lot done with it. And if the O+ Connect remote software is even half as good as they're saying, I think this is about as close to iPad/"Apple ecosystem integration" as you can get on Android. I do own an MBP and an iMac, as well as some Linux boxes, but I don't have high expectations there (i.e., these days I use KDE Connect, remote desktop software, and occasionally Parsec, so I'm not looking for full “Apple-level” interconnectivity).

How's your OnePlus for reading and gaming in bed or on the couch (assuming you do this at all)? Do you feel any fatigue from holding the tablet? And was it any different with smaller tablets?

HERMETICVM 6mo ago

Just recently when I was sick I binged a few seasons on it in a week and it never got uncomfortable to hold. Also have a cheap wooden stand that I can place it into.

There's a free app that natively works to extend your macOS desktop to the tablet. Once I'm back home I can share a link. Most alternatives require some shady Mac app's that I don't trust. Unfortunately not open source though.

Before the Daylight Computer I read mostly blog posts and some longreads on it in bed but no books. I seldomly game and if I do it doesn't require performance because it's stuff like Fleet Battle with my roomie: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.smuttlewerk.fleetbattle 😌

Anthony Accioly 6mo ago

Thanks! Yeah, that would be brilliant. And I get it... I have to admit I game more than I should on mobile using Moonlight, Xbox Cloud, etc. But for me, it’s less about performance (aside from low-latency video, encoding and decoding, which the Snapdragon Elite handles quite well), and more about having a 13" tablet in a telescopic controller for longer sessions. The smaller tablets would certainly fit this use case better. But if you’ve marathoned series with it, I assume reading or gaming for an hour or two won’t be the end of the world.

The macOS remotint stuff looks really, really smooth as well. See the video at the end. I can get this sort of performance with Moonlight + Sunshine on Linux, but not on macOS (not even when I was paying a premium for Parsec). Check out the final video playback at:

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxdxK00euf84u-_NoEKrhYqSc3fnTCaED4

HERMETICVM 6mo ago

Ouch, I completely missed the display bump to 13” for Pad 3. There is no smaller option. This increases the weight significantly from my 552g to 675g. Beware of that.

Perhaps check out Pad 2 instead? It’s just a minor size + weight increase that won’t be noticed. For comparison: https://www.smartprix.com/tablets/compare.php?ids=pd17ng9egwr,pd174fz2j3l,pd1v4r1t6h7,pd10gw3u79q&ref=compare_page_add

At least in Germany it’s currently in sale with a free keyboard but with the older design: https://www.oneplus.com/de/buy-oneplus-pad-2