The computer and electronics super geek thread

[Test_Pilot_2]

On 11/5/2024 at 6:26 PM, Test_Pilot_2 said:

So I built an external GPU to work with my ROG Ally X and I think it came out pretty awesome....

Box moves between my office (3440x1440), home theater (1920x1080), and living room (4k). Performance has been stellar with the office sitting at 70-90 FPS ultra, home theater at 140+ FPS ultra, and living room between 30-60 FPS ultra. Temps are always great even at load. Drivers were a pain at first, but that was due to a bad PCIE extension cable and a PCIE cable to the GPU that wasn't fully seated. Had to tweak the case a hair, but the PCIE board sits nice and flat in the base of the enclosure.

For specific games:
Plague Tale Requiem: Running 4K Ultra across the board getting 45-60 FPS.
Space Marines 2: Running 4K Ultra across the board getting 35-45 FPS.
Dying Light Stay Human: Running 4K Ultra across the board getting 35-60FPS.
Starfield: Running 4K Ultra in the busiest cities and getting 30-60FPS.

Going to the office and projector - runs even better... On the projector I can get stupid and turn on Raytracing and the FPS are still great.

Enclosure:
Mechanicmaster IF-11 (90 Bucks Open Box)

Dock/Board 1:
Aliexpress v1.6 UT3G @ $130

Dock/Board 2:
Dock for peripherals and power

GPU:
Reference AMD RX7900 XT (Got it for $569 refurbished)

PSU:
Corsair SF850L (Refurb for 90 bucks)

Air Cooling:
Silverstone Shark Force 160 Intake Attached Magnetically to the Case
2 x Arctice P12s Exhausting Out the Top

Fan Controller:
Fan Controller I Snagged for 10 Bucks

L-Shaped Thunderbolt 4 Cable:
TBolt 4 Cable Built Like a Tank

Odds and Ends:
3D Printed I/O Cover
Tiny, Adhesive Rare Earth Magnets for the Fan
Replacing all the PSU cables with sleeved ones soon... The ones that came with the PSU are, well, awful.
Some decals to pimp the exterior of the case.

Delightfully, this setup was put together because of STALKER 2. When I saw the system requirements for it initially my heart sank because I was afraid I missed the mark. However, it runs beautifully. I have to use FSR and frame generation, but the game runs awesome with 70-80 FPS, all epic settings, on a 4k TV.

I know not everyone has been having an easy time with STALKER 2 and I hope those issues get resolved so more people can enjoy this fantastic game. It's been years and years waiting on a new STALKER and this one delivers (in good ways and bad ways) the original STALKER experience.

The system requirements aren't really as crazy as listed, but you do need alot of ram to run it.

 

[mikeszekely]

I installed STALKER 2 but I haven't started it yet. I'll be playing at 5120 x 1440, which is a bit fewer pixels than your typical 4K setup.  I think my RTX 4070 should be up to the task, but my i7-9700K is getting a bit long in the tooth.  I'm planning on replacing my PC, but I'm waiting until the RTX 5070 is a reality.

[Test_Pilot_2]

22 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

I installed STALKER 2 but I haven't started it yet. I'll be playing at 5120 x 1440, which is a bit fewer pixels than your typical 4K setup.  I think my RTX 4070 should be up to the task, but my i7-9700K is getting a bit long in the tooth.  I'm planning on replacing my PC, but I'm waiting until the RTX 5070 is a reality.

That is really wide! 3 monitors or maybe that Samsung curved ultra wide?

What are you on? I think the 4070 should work well, too, although your mileage may vary. I hope it ultimately works well.

[mikeszekely]

3 hours ago, Test_Pilot_2 said:

That is really wide! 3 monitors or maybe that Samsung curved ultra wide?

Yeah, the G9 OLED. I love it, it's the same height as my old monitor but the way it curves into my peripheral vision is so much more immersive, especially in racing games. Turns out to be better than I though for productivity, too... I finally get all those dual monitor people.

[Test_Pilot_2]

40 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Yeah, the G9 OLED. I love it, it's the same height as my old monitor but the way it curves into my peripheral vision is so much more immersive, especially in racing games. Turns out to be better than I though for productivity, too... I finally get all those dual monitor people.

Yeah, that's awesome... It's also like this version of the monitors:

[mikeszekely]

I'm thinking about buying an ROG Ally X during the Black Friday sale.  A part of me thinks it's hard to justify, since I have the regular Z1 Extreme Ally and the X uses the same chip and the same screen.  But there's some real nice quality-of-life improvements... extra RAM leaves enough for the system and the GPU, plus the RAM is faster, you can use full-sized NVME drives, two USB-C ports means I can use my Virture XRs while it's charging without an adapter, and double the battery means I might get through my daughter's two-hour Monday dance classes without needing a battery bank or an outlet.

[Test_Pilot_2]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

I'm thinking about buying an ROG Ally X during the Black Friday sale.  A part of me thinks it's hard to justify, since I have the regular Z1 Extreme Ally and the X uses the same chip and the same screen.  But there's some real nice quality-of-life improvements... extra RAM leaves enough for the system and the GPU, plus the RAM is faster, you can use full-sized NVME drives, two USB-C ports means I can use my Virture XRs while it's charging without an adapter, and double the battery means I might get through my daughter's two-hour Monday dance classes without needing a battery bank or an outlet.

Very much so. The extra 8 gigs of ram is worth it. I also have the Z1 Extreme and turned that into my video pinball machine's PC for Pinball FX... nice and small so it even fits inside the cabinet.

The move off the proprietary adapter is huge, too. I bought the 6850xt gpu for my Ally X and it was crazy expensive. I built that much more powerful egpu for a fraction of that cost.

Although, where we are right now... I would say wait for the next generation of handhelds... word is the new ai-based chips perform much better.

[azrael]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

I'm thinking about buying an ROG Ally X during the Black Friday sale.  A part of me thinks it's hard to justify, since I have the regular Z1 Extreme Ally and the X uses the same chip and the same screen.  But there's some real nice quality-of-life improvements... extra RAM leaves enough for the system and the GPU, plus the RAM is faster, you can use full-sized NVME drives, two USB-C ports means I can use my Virture XRs while it's charging without an adapter, and double the battery means I might get through my daughter's two-hour Monday dance classes without needing a battery bank or an outlet.

Outside of those weekly 2 hours, do you use it in other longer sessions? Or just burst playing when bored? Like you said, it's quality-of-life improvements. Otherwise, it's the same device (same APU, same screen).

Also, how much of a Black Friday deal will it be? The base unit is on sale for $700 right now at Best Buy. If a Black Friday deal can beat that, sure.

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, Test_Pilot_2 said:

Although, where we are right now... I would say wait for the next generation of handhelds... word is the new ai-based chips perform much better.

Yeah, I don't mind turning stuff down to low settings, or even using 720p, but if I'm going to turn the settings down all the way I'd at least like to hit 60fps.  I think if had confirmation of a release date, specs, and a price I'd be more inclined to wait.

1 hour ago, Test_Pilot_2 said:

I also have the Z1 Extreme and turned that into my video pinball machine's PC for Pinball FX... nice and small so it even fits inside the cabinet.

If I buy the X I was thinking I might replace Windows with Batocera.  I'd been thinking about building a Batocera box; I'd already built one on a Beelink mini PC for a buddy, and re-using the Ally instead of buying a similar mini PC helps justify the cost.

36 minutes ago, azrael said:

Outside of those weekly 2 hours, do you use it in other longer sessions? Or just burst playing when bored?

No, the majority of my use is while my kid's at dance.  In addition to Monday, she has another two 45 minute days.  Sometimes I take her to piano classes, too, but usually my wife handles that one.  Other than that, in the summer I'll take her to visit her grandparents.  Sometimes when she gets involved in an activity like baking cookies or something that doesn't really involve me I'll bust it out.  On super rare occasions I might use it to play on the couch if I have free time during the day, but that's rare.  The bulk of my gaming is after she goes to bed on my much more powerful desktop.

36 minutes ago, azrael said:

Also, how much of a Black Friday deal will it be? The base unit is on sale for $700 right now at Best Buy. If a Black Friday deal can beat that, sure.

I was thinking that $700 is the Black Friday deal.

EDIT: Thinking about what @Test_Pilot_2 was saying about the non-proprietary egpu connection... that's actually another good point.  I was already thinking about replacing my desktop sometime next year, after the RTX 5000 series hits, since my 9th-gen i7 is getting a bit old.  A basic enclosure and PSU would allow me to re-use my RTX 4070 and make a Switch-style "dock" if I want to play on my living room TV...🤔

Edited November 25 by mikeszekely

[azrael]

2 hours ago, Test_Pilot_2 said:

Although, where we are right now... I would say wait for the next generation of handhelds... word is the new ai-based chips perform much better.

AI hardware is nice and all, but game developers are still a couple of years away from actually taking advantage of said hardware. Much like ray-tracing and DLSS, game developers have to implement the coding on their side. Stuff in production now probably won't use too much AI. Stuff in the pipeline to be released a few years for now will probably be able to use the AI hardware (in something besides frame gen, which is handled by the GPU).

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

I was thinking that $700 is the Black Friday deal.

Probably. The lowest I would expect it to go would be 15% ($694) but that might require patience to get closer to Christmas when retailers drop prices to increase their year-end sales numbers.

[Test_Pilot_2]

4 hours ago, azrael said:

AI hardware is nice and all, but game developers are still a couple of years away from actually taking advantage of said hardware. Much like ray-tracing and DLSS, game developers have to implement the coding on their side. Stuff in production now probably won't use too much AI. Stuff in the pipeline to be released a few years for now will probably be able to use the AI hardware (in something besides frame gen, which is handled by the GPU).

Probably. The lowest I would expect it to go would be 15% ($694) but that might require patience to get closer to Christmas when retailers drop prices to increase their year-end sales numbers.

They're already here though...

https://gamerant.com/ayaneo-teases-latest-flagship-handheld-gaming-device-amd-ai-9-cpu/

AMD's new chips are already hitting the market. The new Deck 2 is signaling a meaningful performance jump on new Nvidia chips.

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-ryzen-ai-365-hx370-gaming-handhelds-outperform-rog-ally-x-with-z1-extreme-by-15-20

6 hours ago, azrael said:

Outside of those weekly 2 hours, do you use it in other longer sessions? Or just burst playing when bored? Like you said, it's quality-of-life improvements. Otherwise, it's the same device (same APU, same screen).

Also, how much of a Black Friday deal will it be? The base unit is on sale for $700 right now at Best Buy. If a Black Friday deal can beat that, sure.

My Allies have quickly replaced all of my other gaming devices, including my gaming PCs... Now that my EGPU enclosure works so well, I can enjoy this performance anywhere... I will never be tied to my desk again.

Playing from a recliner in my living room or from my home theater recliners in the theater > everything else anymore lol.

My current gen consoles collect dust, but I am upgrading my son's pc for grins. We'll see how it goes.

AMD 7600x3d, Asus Mobo, 32 gigs of ram, nvidia 4070 super, phantom 120 cooler, etc. This combo is fantastic right now if you're near a MC and if you're curious about the processor, new reviews have been going out. Stealth-released... this processor is fantastic.

https://www.microcenter.com/product/5006834/amd-ryzen-5-7600x3d,-asus-tuf-gaming-b650-plus-wifi,-gskill-flare-x5-series-32gb-ddr5-6000-kit,-computer-build-bundle

Well, shoot the discount is gone... Back up to 600-ish. Sorry guys =/. It was $400.00 for a long while.

Edited November 25 by Test_Pilot_2

[mikeszekely]

I gave it some thought, and with my other planned 2025 PC upgrades even if a super affordable, way better Z2 Ally 2 comes out I can't see myself buying in until next Black Friday at the earliest.  While none of the Ally X's features are probably enough to sell me on their own (though that battery upgrade is huge), combined they add up to make the Ally X a lot more convenient for me... as huge as the battery is, not needing an extra dongle to use a charger and XR glasses at the same time is also a big plus for me.  More and faster RAM and improved buttons, sticks, and ergonomics is icing on the cake, plus I realized that the screen might actually be an upgrade for me, since I got the original original Ally and apparently it's only rated for 400 nits vs 500 on later models and the X.  I've heard the speakers on the X are better, too.  Using my OG Ally as a dedicated retro gaming platform, a platform I was going to invest in sooner or later anyway, and cashing in some credit card points for a gift card also helps justify/offset the $700 price tag.  I'm biting the bullet.

[Test_Pilot_2]

3 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

I gave it some thought, and with my other planned 2025 PC upgrades even if a super affordable, way better Z2 Ally 2 comes out I can't see myself buying in until next Black Friday at the earliest.  While none of the Ally X's features are probably enough to sell me on their own (though that battery upgrade is huge), combined they add up to make the Ally X a lot more convenient for me... as huge as the battery is, not needing an extra dongle to use a charger and XR glasses at the same time is also a big plus for me.  More and faster RAM and improved buttons, sticks, and ergonomics is icing on the cake, plus I realized that the screen might actually be an upgrade for me, since I got the original original Ally and apparently it's only rated for 400 nits vs 500 on later models and the X.  I've heard the speakers on the X are better, too.  Using my OG Ally as a dedicated retro gaming platform, a platform I was going to invest in sooner or later anyway, and cashing in some credit card points for a gift card also helps justify/offset the $700 price tag.  I'm biting the bullet.

I ended up buying another Ally X for my other son - one got the desktop upgrade, the other got a handheld upgrade. He bought Space Marine 2 and tried it on his Steam Deck and it was just awful... The Ally X runs it much better. I'm also building him an EGPU with the spare parts from his brother's build. So win-win. I just wanted to be fully transparent as I think next year will be transformative for these handheld PCs. My Ally X also replaced my personal laptop I travel with when I'm on TDY.

[mikeszekely]

9 minutes ago, Test_Pilot_2 said:

My Ally X also replaced my personal laptop I travel with when I'm on TDY.

Also easier to do since you can plug in an external monitor and power without a dongle.😉

Partly since COVID, partly since my daughter's getting older and more involved with activities and it's just harder to make time for it, but I don't really travel that much anymore, so I'm not super concerned with having a good laptop or whether I'd prefer it or an Ally when I travel (but I'm not lugging a laptop, even a small one like my currently Zephyrus G14, to a dance class).  But I definitely don't want/need it to replace my desktop for gaming.  I've gotten to a point where I actually prefer not to couch game on the living room TV- I prefer the solitude of gaming after everyone else goes to bed on a 32:9 OLED, and I still prefer a mouse and keyboard for a lot of games anyway.

14 minutes ago, Test_Pilot_2 said:

I just wanted to be fully transparent as I think next year will be transformative for these handheld PCs.

I'm not sure if everything I think is happening will happen entirely in 2025, but yeah, it's going to get a lot better with better chipsets, better upscaling, and better Windows support.  But I think my priority for 2025 is a better desktop with at least an RTX 5070.

[azrael]

8 hours ago, Test_Pilot_2 said:

They're already here though...

Yes I know. They came out back in August/September. Besides the performance and efficiency improvements, the main selling point was the AI features (it's in the name), which don't have a true definitive benchmark test nor have feature that's taking advantage of it at the moment.

3 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

way better Z2 Ally 2 comes out I can't see myself buying in until next Black Friday at the earliest. 

I don't see an upgrade to the Ally X coming out before Spring 2025. Unless Asus wants to sunset the the original Ally ASAP. Maybe in 2026. Compute-wise, there isn't any real generational leap in the forecast.

 

3 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I'm not sure if everything I think is happening will happen entirely in 2025, but yeah, it's going to get a lot better with better chipsets, better upscaling, and better Windows support. 

Me neither. Which is, honestly, to be expected. Right now, we need software to play catch-up. It will be transformative in that AI workloads may finally see some fruition in everyday compute but hardware? Probably not except for generational uplifts. Nothing revolutionary. Only evolutionary.

[mikeszekely]

So I said I was biting the bullet, and I did.  Sorry I didn't report back sooner.  It's pretty much exactly as expected... marginal improvements, but nothing amazing; if you couldn't run the game well on an Ally plugged into the wall an Ally X probably isn't running it either.  That said, some of those minor bumps do help.  Like, I can actually take advantage of the 120hz display on a few games now.  But the extended battery life is absolutely worth the upgrade, at least in my particular use case.  At the 15w "performance" power profile on the original Ally I'd fall a little short of getting through my daughter's two-hour dance classes, forcing me to bring a power brick and hope to sit near an outlet in the waiting room or hope to get a playable 30fps at 10w.  On the Ally X at 17w we're leaving and I've still got around 50% left.  It makes the Ally X feel truly portable in a way the original Ally didn't quite live up to.

The other main advantage for me is that there's two USB-C ports on the top now.  It's a minor thing, but it does allow me to plug the Ally X in while I use the Asus 15" portable monitor I have kicking around, or more importantly, my Viture XR glasses.

Speaking of, I had the Viture One XR glasses.  They're basically like sunglasses with thick frames that have mirrors and little OLED displays.  You plug them into a laptop or phone or whatever and it projects a virtual screen in your field of view.  They've been a great match with the Ally- a virtual 1080p, 60hz, 120" display is a lot easier for my old eyes to see than the 7" display on the Ally itself, and I like that I can use for more privacy when I'm out and about.  I like them enough that I offered to get a pair for my wife.  Her response was that I should upgrade and she'd just use my old ones, so yeah, I bought the Viture Pro XR glasses.

Honestly, I wasn't sure I needed the upgrade.  They're still 1080p, but they upped the refresh rate to 120hz, and they increased the FOV so the virtual screen is 135".  So far, nice-to-haves, but nothing earth-shattering.  The display is brighter, but I thought the One XRs were bright enough.  They also improved the electrochromatic lenses so that they get much darker, but the One XRs already had a clip-on cover if you needed to block out more light.

Then I got the Pro XRs in hand.  And I was right about one thing... I don't really notice a huge difference on the screen size.  But the rest is apparently a bigger deal than I thought.  It's not just brighter, it's noticeably brighter.  Combined with the darker lenses you definitely don't have to worry about seeing through the virtual screen, even in a bright environment.  But best of all, whatever they did to increase the FOV fixed the single biggest issue I had with the One XRs- blurry corners.  The entire virtual screen is nice and crisp.  The Pro XRs aren't cheap, but if you game on the go I'd say they're a must-have accessory for the ROG Ally/Ally X/Steam Deck.

[Test_Pilot_2]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

So I said I was biting the bullet, and I did.  Sorry I didn't report back sooner.  It's pretty much exactly as expected... marginal improvements, but nothing amazing; if you couldn't run the game well on an Ally plugged into the wall an Ally X probably isn't running it either.  That said, some of those minor bumps do help.  Like, I can actually take advantage of the 120hz display on a few games now.  But the extended battery life is absolutely worth the upgrade, at least in my particular use case.  At the 15w "performance" power profile on the original Ally I'd fall a little short of getting through my daughter's two-hour dance classes, forcing me to bring a power brick and hope to sit near an outlet in the waiting room or hope to get a playable 30fps at 10w.  On the Ally X at 17w we're leaving and I've still got around 50% left.  It makes the Ally X feel truly portable in a way the original Ally didn't quite live up to.

The other main advantage for me is that there's two USB-C ports on the top now.  It's a minor thing, but it does allow me to plug the Ally X in while I use the Asus 15" portable monitor I have kicking around, or more importantly, my Viture XR glasses.

Speaking of, I had the Viture One XR glasses.  They're basically like sunglasses with thick frames that have mirrors and little OLED displays.  You plug them into a laptop or phone or whatever and it projects a virtual screen in your field of view.  They've been a great match with the Ally- a virtual 1080p, 60hz, 120" display is a lot easier for my old eyes to see than the 7" display on the Ally itself, and I like that I can use for more privacy when I'm out and about.  I like them enough that I offered to get a pair for my wife.  Her response was that I should upgrade and she'd just use my old ones, so yeah, I bought the Viture Pro XR glasses.

Honestly, I wasn't sure I needed the upgrade.  They're still 1080p, but they upped the refresh rate to 120hz, and they increased the FOV so the virtual screen is 135".  So far, nice-to-haves, but nothing earth-shattering.  The display is brighter, but I thought the One XRs were bright enough.  They also improved the electrochromatic lenses so that they get much darker, but the One XRs already had a clip-on cover if you needed to block out more light.

Then I got the Pro XRs in hand.  And I was right about one thing... I don't really notice a huge difference on the screen size.  But the rest is apparently a bigger deal than I thought.  It's not just brighter, it's noticeably brighter.  Combined with the darker lenses you definitely don't have to worry about seeing through the virtual screen, even in a bright environment.  But best of all, whatever they did to increase the FOV fixed the single biggest issue I had with the One XRs- blurry corners.  The entire virtual screen is nice and crisp.  The Pro XRs aren't cheap, but if you game on the go I'd say they're a must-have accessory for the ROG Ally/Ally X/Steam Deck.

XR glasses are the best way to get some bedtime gaming in before racking out...

The biggest benefit of the Ally X is unmarrying the handheld from proprietary overpriced eGPUs.

Snag yourself a dock, a decent GPU, and a powersupply and your Ally X is now a desktop replacement. I would recommend the ADT-UT3G - almost all the performance and very little loss.

My setup destroys Stalker 2 and Indiana Jones.

[mikeszekely]

2 minutes ago, Test_Pilot_2 said:

The biggest benefit of the Ally X is unmarrying the handheld from proprietary overpriced eGPUs.

Snag yourself a dock, a decent GPU, and a powersupply and your Ally X is now a desktop replacement. I would recommend the ADT-UT3G - almost all the performance and very little loss.

My i7-9700k is getting a little long in the tooth, but with 32GB of RAM, 6 and a half TB of storage, and an RTX 4070 in my tower I don't need the Ally X to be a desktop replacement.  Maybe after the RTX 5000-series launches I'll upgrade my desktop and save the 4070 for a dock on the off-chance I decide to game in the living room instead of my computer room, but for now the Ally is 85% for keeping me entertained while taking my kid to her various classes, and 10% gaming in bed, and 5% Netflix/Hulu/Youtube/etc in bed or when my girls are watching TV and I want to be close to them without actually watching their crap.

[azrael]

LG stops making Blu-ray players, marking the end of an era — limited units remain while inventory lasts (Tom's Hardware)

Seeing how people are grabbing physical copies because shows disappear from streaming on a routine basis, it's kinda sad another vendor is leaving that market. But alas....

[TangledThorns]

49 minutes ago, azrael said:

LG stops making Blu-ray players, marking the end of an era — limited units remain while inventory lasts (Tom's Hardware)

Seeing how people are grabbing physical copies because shows disappear from streaming on a routine basis, it's kinda sad another vendor is leaving that market. But alas....

 

No surprise. Its been years since I bought a blu-ray. If there is a movie I truly love I'll buy a digital copy, which I hadn't done in years too. However not every movie is on digital.

[azrael]

Also today,

Intel Arc B580 - "Battlemage" GPU reviews are out. Consensus is; It's not bad. Overall, it's actually worth the $250 price tag...if you are in the budget-build realm. Almost RTX 4060 performance overall at a RX7600 price tag. And with 12GB of VRAM to boot. Yah Intel (?). Drivers still need some work but it might actually be a good budget GPU.

[mikeszekely]

If I were building a cheap 1080p rig for someone just getting into PC gaming I'd probably go with Battlemage.  Doesn't do much for me, though.  Still, I sincerely hope Battlemage is a success- rumors are going around that Celestial could have a few more skus, and Nvidia really needs more competition in the mid-tiers... right now the price and performance difference between the RTX 4060 and RTX 4070 is huge.

[davidwhangchoi]

 

[mikeszekely]

So, uh... kind of a dumb question.  While my wife has been solidly in the iPhone camp, the last iOS device I personally used was so long ago that I can't remember if it was a 3rd-gen iPad or the original iPad Air (I think it was the Air).  That being said, my daughter wanted an iPad for Christmas, and I got her the 10th-gen iPad.  Like a responsible parent, I'm taking the time to set up parental controls from my wife's Apple ID and make sure it's charged and updated and all that.

Now, here's my dilemma... I think I'm in love with this hardware.  My post-iPad experience with tablets has been Surface devices, currently a Surface Pro 8+ with a keyboard cover that I really use more as very portable laptop at my TTRPG table.  The 10th-gen iPad is wonderfully thin and light compared to my Surface, but the aluminum chassis feels suitably high quality.  I'd love to have a tablet like it for myself, except for one major paint point... I loathe iOS.  Now, I'm NOT trying to start an iOS vs Android vs whatever debate here.  If you use an iOS device or devices and you like it that's great, but Apple's walled garden isn't for me personally.

And on that note... does anyone hear have much experience with Android tablets?  What I want out of life would be as close to the 10th-gen iPad as possible in terms of dimensions and materials, just running Android instead of iOS.  Seems like a lot of what's out there that has the nicer builds like the OnePlus Pad and the Galaxy Tab S10 are larger, like the iPad Pro, or else they're made out of cheaper materials.  Maybe a Pixel Tab?  I'm open to suggestions.

[azrael]

3 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

And on that note... does anyone hear have much experience with Android tablets?  What I want out of life would be as close to the 10th-gen iPad as possible in terms of dimensions and materials, just running Android instead of iOS.  Seems like a lot of what's out there that has the nicer builds like the OnePlus Pad and the Galaxy Tab S10 are larger, like the iPad Pro, or else they're made out of cheaper materials.  Maybe a Pixel Tab?  I'm open to suggestions.

Sorry. iPad user.
That being said, The Galaxy Tab S10 seems too big (14"/12"). I've handled the larger iPads and always came back to the 11" form factor. That size, for me, balances the screen size with weight without feeling over bulky. So maybe the Galaxy Tab S9? Or the Pixel Tab. I don't treat my iPad as a laptop replacement. It's a consumption device that I do some work on. So I guess it defining your use case will define if you want to get a larger or smaller screen. Is it a laptop replacement or a supplemental device?

[mikeszekely]

8 hours ago, azrael said:

Sorry. iPad user.
That being said, The Galaxy Tab S10 seems too big (14"/12"). I've handled the larger iPads and always came back to the 11" form factor. That size, for me, balances the screen size with weight without feeling over bulky. So maybe the Galaxy Tab S9? Or the Pixel Tab. I don't treat my iPad as a laptop replacement. It's a consumption device that I do some work on. So I guess it defining your use case will define if you want to get a larger or smaller screen. Is it a laptop replacement or a supplemental device?

Purely supplemental. Some light couch surfing, streaming video when my wife is using the TV for Chinese dramas, and reading comic books and other stuff that that does better on a larger screen than my phone. If I'm doing anything that's going to start requiring multitasking or a keyboard I have more laptops than one person technically needs (a Windows laptop for gaming, a Surface Pro for taking to DnD because it's smaller and lighter and fits in the bag with my TTRPG stuff, a 15” Vivobook so I can stay current on Linux, and an M1 MacBook so I can stay current on MacOS), or I'll go upstairs and use my desktop with my surprisingly useful 32:9 monitor.

[TangledThorns]

We have Samsung Android Galaxy Tab A7 tablets  for our children. Its good enough for them to watch Youtube, play games on and such. Much more affordable ($100) than iPads but can't compare tech wise since we're an Android house.

 

Recommend checking out local tech hardware stores to compare.

 

[jenius]

We've used super cheap Amazon tablets for the kids and other than some busier Roblox games, it was never an issue. Then a relative gifted my son an iPad and it has been the most infuriating experience. It's the only apple product in our house but it needs to be tethered to an iPhone for parental controls (which we obviously don't have). Since we're on Google Fi, Apple wouldn't even let us register for Apple accounts refusing to accept our phone numbers but they never explained that with every failed attempt. I hate Apple's ecosystem so much.

[azrael]

I'd probably stick to the 8"<screen size>11" range if it's just a supplemental device. Going to a Best Buy or Microcenter to look at them in-person might be worth it to feel it in your hands. Maybe the Galaxy A9 Tab?

[mikeszekely]

2 hours ago, azrael said:

I'd probably stick to the 8"<screen size>11" range if it's just a supplemental device. Going to a Best Buy or Microcenter to look at them in-person might be worth it to feel it in your hands. Maybe the Galaxy A9 Tab?

Yeah, going to best buy after the holiday is probably a good idea.

...I wish there was a Microcenter around here. Closest ones for me are Columbus Ohio and Fairfax Virginia. I've been to the one in Fairfax, it struck me as kind of like Best Buy, if Best Buy catered less average people and more toward enthusiasts. I dug it a lot.

[kajnrig]

The timing here is eerie. I don't know that you specified a price range, but the ones covered here are all $350 or less. Comments have some recc's as well. Navigating the tablet market is like walking through a minefield, I don't envy you.

Tl;dr:

• Walmart ONN if budget is thin.
• ALLDOCUBE iPlay 50 Pro Mini if you're tech-savvy.
• Lenovo Tab Plus/iPad 10 good all around.
• Galaxy Tab A9 comes in "last," but only because something has to.

 

Walmart ONN 10.1, $99 - Nice materials, pretty clean OS, decent speakers. Low-res/low-brightness screen, sluggish 3GB ram. Good for the price if $100 is all you can spend. Best battery life, ~7.5 hours.

ALLDOCUBE iPlay 50 Pro Mini, $140 - Surprisingly good all around - good screen, good processor, 8GB ram, metal chassis, etc. Single low-quality speaker, some build quality issues. ~6 hours.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+, $280 - If getting, get the 8GB version. 90Hz screen, lightweight, tons of bloat, good camera and speakers. ~7 hours.

Lenovo Tab Plus, $290 - Worth its price, great speaker setup (8!), has integrated kickstand, pen support. Heavy, tons of bloatware. ~7 hours.

Apple iPad 10, $320 - Out of consideration. Surprisingly had the weakest battery life, ~4 hours.

 

 

[mikeszekely]

40 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

The timing here is eerie.

Right?  I sub LTT, but I was thinking that this was pretty timely.

41 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

ALLDOCUBE iPlay 50 Pro Mini, $140 - Surprisingly good all around - good screen, good processor, 8GB ram, metal chassis, etc. Single low-quality speaker, some build quality issues. ~6 hours.

I actually have an iPlay 60 Mini Pro.  As near as I can tell, it's the same CPU/RAM/storage/display, but they ditched the headphone jack for a second speaker, added face unlock, and updated the OS to Android 14.  I got it recently to replace a Samsung Galaxy A7 Lite.  Both of those are not what I'm looking for in a tablet, they're what I'm looking for in an e-reader (yeah, I know, but I'm that guy that uses Google Play Books and not Amazon so the Kindle's a non-starter for me).  I'd still be using the A7 Lite if it didn't take a good 30 seconds to open a browser window when I want to look something up while reading.

I think they're too small for the kind of consumption I'd actually want to do on a tablet, which brings me back around to the iPad.  The hardware is darn near perfect.  The aluminum and glass feels like quality, the screen is big enough for consumption yet overall it's light and very thin, and the 4:3 aspect ratio might leave some black bands on a lot of video content, but it's seems ideal for web pages and comic books.  I think my question is less "what's a good Android tablet" and more "what Android tablet is the closest in form to an iPad?"

Like Az said, I think I'll have to go to a store and see if they have some on display.  I think Google's Pixel Tab might be a good choice; it's $279 right now and my last two phones are Pixels.  Of course, the iPad I bought for my kid is still on sale for $250; I could just suck it up and use iOS... I can still download a lot of the Google stuff I'd use on it anyway (but can you drag and drop files from PC to iPads yet? It's been so long since I used an iPad you still had to manage them through iTunes).

I'd like to look at Samsung's lineup, but like Linus says, it's a bit of a mess.  Like the S6 Lite he mentioned as being refreshed just this year doesn't come up on the "compare" section of the tablets page and isn't listed when you click to shop "all tablets."  To find Samsung's page for it I had to Google it.  It looks to have about the size and form factor I want, and it's priced around the same as the Pixel Tab and iPad.  But then again, the S9 FE is only a little more right now, and it's a bit bigger and faster.

[azrael]

5 hours ago, kajnrig said:

The timing here is eerie. I don't know that you specified a price range, but the ones covered here are all $350 or less. Comments have some recc's as well. Navigating the tablet market is like walking through a minefield, I don't envy you.

Yeah I saw that pop up in my feed this morning and .

3 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I think I'll have to go to a store and see if they have some on display.  I think Google's Pixel Tab might be a good choice; it's $279 right now and my last two phones are Pixels.

... but like Linus says, it's a bit of a mess. 

Android tablets are a minefield if you don't know what you're looking for and even when you do know, it's all over the place.

3 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

(but can you drag and drop files from PC to iPads yet? It's been so long since I used an iPad you still had to manage them through iTunes)

With iCloud. Or the Apple Devices app. As I found out the hard way when migrating to Windows 11, iTunes on Windows 11 is kind of a mess. It still "works" but thanks to MS (and Apple essentially stopping development), it's not as usable anymore. The easiest way to transfer files is using a NAS/file share or a good olde USB-C stick.