Google quits selling tablets • Hacker News Board

Re: Google quits selling tablets

#151

Post by chimeracoder » Sat, Jun 02, 2018, 6:32 AM UTC

shasheene wrote: post #20

sliken wrote: post #4

I loved my nexus-7, and the 2nd gen nexus-7 even more. Inexpensive, pure android, decent hardware spec, and a usefully larger display than a phone. Anyone know of a current table that avoids the adware, crapware, and 3d contact managers where each card flies around in 3D? I just want android with the current security updates and 7-9" display.

Samsung Chromebook Plus satisfies my needs for a tablet: mainly media consumption (web browsing, YouTube, reading long articles, and watching movies). 1. Incredibly nice screen 2. Gets security updates (ChromeOS devices are great for this compared to the dumpster fire that is Android security) 3. Haven't had any issues with Android support (I use mainly apps like RBDigital, Instapaper, Wikipedia) 4. Works well for mo…

> Samsung Chromebook Plus satisfies my needs for a tablet: mainly media consumption (web browsing, YouTube, reading long articles, and watching movies).

I have a Samsung Chromebook Plus, and I absolutely despise it as a tablet. Compared to my Nexus 9 (which is still kicking), it's a far inferior device. My primary uses for my tablet are watching video and reading comics. It manages to fail at both of those two things.

1. No system-wide support for red-tint (aka "night mode", Flux, Twilight, etc.)[0]

2. Buggy rotation lock - this works very inconsistently across apps.

3. Heavy (compared to keyboard-less tablets)

4. Buggy soft keyboard (sometimes the soft keyboard just straight-up doesn't work in certain apps, so I have to unfold the device from tablet mode just to use the hardware keyboard to type).

I still use my Nexus 9 over the Chromebook Plus every time I can. When my Nexus 9 dies, I'll probably end up getting a Surface to replace it.

[0] There is finally support for it on a per-user basis, but it took years for them to introduce this. And even now, if you close your tablet and have to unlock it again, you'll be blinded by the unlock screen.

Re: Google quits selling tablets

#152

Post by oblong » Sat, Jun 02, 2018, 6:32 AM UTC

makecheck wrote: post #148

For me the tablet form factor was killed not by apps but ironically the non-apps: web browsing went from perfection to trash once sites tried to detect touch screens and “improve their experiences”. Pinch-and-zoom with normal sites goes a long way and should have been the preferred tablet web model.

You know you can get back that behavior through accessible settings?

Re: Google quits selling tablets

#153

Post by erikb » Sat, Jun 02, 2018, 6:36 AM UTC

Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 (the latter one being a mini tablet) were the best mobile devices I ever had. They worked well together and on their own. Combined with a real laptop and smart tv I really had all the sizes I could ever want to have.

The problem, I think, is not that nobody wants tablets but that there simply isn't a good one to buy anymore.

Re: Google quits selling tablets

#154

Post by bitmapbrother » Sat, Jun 02, 2018, 6:45 AM UTC

eric-hu wrote: post #99

bitmapbrother wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft understands tablets? According to this chart their tablets don't even register. https://www.statista.com/statistics/276635/market-share-held...

Am I missing something? The table for that chat shows only 3 companies and Microsoft isn't among them. That doesn't mean Microsoft tablet sales are insignificant in comparison.

The chart shows 10+ companies of which only 6 are visible on the graph.

Re: Google quits selling tablets

#155

Post by sunstone » Sat, Jun 02, 2018, 6:58 AM UTC

A lot of tablet opinions on here. Mine is not yet represented (after 6 hours) so here it is.

Yes I had the Nexus 7's, too slow and too small. The tablet you want is an 8 inch tablet for reading books, storing music and play lists (VLC of course), and browsing the web or reading books lying on your sofa.

The best tablet at the moment that fits the bill is the ASUS ZenPad S 8.0 Z580C-B1-BK for $275 USD (newegg.com). Why? The screen is excellent at 2048x1536 pixels. Speed is fast enough to keep you happy. 2G of RAM and 32G of storage with option of SD card to max out for your music and movies. (Asus has a lot of cheaper tablets with low resolution screens so be careful to get the right one.)

If you go for this tablet be sure to google to find out how to increase the Android version. It's a bit tricky but doable and worth it.

Re: Google quits selling tablets

#156

Post by purrcat259 » Sat, Jun 02, 2018, 7:00 AM UTC

jotux wrote: post #62

kbd wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still use my Nexus 7 (2nd gen) as my main tablet. That thing is a trooper. It's my book reader, Chromecast runner, Sonos controller, etc. It's big enough to comfortably watch Twitch on. It fits in my back jeans pocket so I can easily bring it with me, which lots of tablets including the ipad mini don't. I'd love to find a modern replacement for it, ideally just a little bit bigger.

I still use my Nexus 10 when traveling to watch movies. The screen looks amazing and even after ~5 years I can watch 6+ hours of video on it without a recharge.

Same here. N10 is the perfect travel tablet. I even have a POGO charging cable which soon enough could be worth more than the N10. :)

Re: Google quits selling tablets

#157

Post by dawnerd » Sat, Jun 02, 2018, 7:01 AM UTC

djrogers wrote: post #64

akhilcacharya wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree completely! I've been thinking about why the rise of the ultra-cheap Fire tablets haven't created a new maker revolution so to speak. They can be had for cheaper than the RPi for Black Friday with a built in screen!

Well it’s not as if Amazon lets you hack around around on them or side load apps - you’re stuck with the Amazon store unless you try a dodgy exploit based unlocking method - which leaves you with a questionable tablet.

Exactly. And they sneakily auto update before you realize it. My older one apparently can’t be rooted now and because they pump new ones out there’s no one really caring about the old ones. Hard to complain for the price but ya know still sucks. They make great gifts at least.

Re: Google quits selling tablets

#158

Post by izacus » Sat, Jun 02, 2018, 7:15 AM UTC

wepple wrote: post #68

mortdeus wrote: post #55

Im just happy that tablets are finally dead. You have a super supped up desktop computer at home sitting on your desk, and you have a relatively supped up smart phone sitting in your pocket when you cant be sitting at your desk. Where does tablets fit into this scenario? It doesn't. All tablets do is make app developers think they can somehow make app experiences you can only achieve on the desktop, somehow attainabl…

I don’t want to read a book or watch a few YouTube clips or browse twitter whilst sitting at my desk in my office, nor do I want to poke at a tiny screen. Tablets are thriving, just not android tablets.

Even Android tablets are still selling very well. Just not the 500$ models competing with iPads. People buy 200$ Chinese models because they provide the same experience for most tablet use cases.

Re: Google quits selling tablets

#159

Post by yason » Sat, Jun 02, 2018, 7:19 AM UTC

To me it makes sense. Tablets don't seem so hugely popular and they've become a commodity ages ago. Anecdotally, I've had a few and they all were left sitting in a drawer somewhere pretty soon. While I have my phone for quick lookups, a Chromebook for lightweight web browsing and long battery life, and laptops for "serious" computing (i.e. work, other programming, some gaming), I've never found much use for a tablet. And whatever use I had I could easily have done with one of the earliest tablets I had. No reason to buy a new tablet really, and not much of a reason to buy a tablet at all.

Re: Google quits selling tablets

#160

Post by hajderr » Sat, Jun 02, 2018, 7:21 AM UTC

gleenn wrote: post #104

euyyn wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I admit that I haven't paid much attention. But the whole revamp of the UI framework into Fragments was precisely to let app developers support both phones and tablets. Why do you say older versions of Android had better support for tablets?

Fragments were way over engineered. Many people completely ignored them because you basically had to rewrite a significant portion of your app to support the type of flexibility they were supposed to give you. The lifecycle of apps is already complicated enough, and fragments added even more complexity. Like another poster mentions, completely ignoring fragments is a pretty reasonable choice.

Sorry just got stuck and smiled over your first sentence "Fragments were way over engineered." and couldn't restrain myself of thinking about all Googlers that passed the whiteboard tests