Android Tablet Upgrade Suggestions?

[Nathan Truhan]

All,
I currently have a Nexus 7 2012 WiFi Edition which has shown it age. I tried to upgrade to Marshmallow via unofficial AOSP ROM since it is long past support and it just falls flat. It takes 10+ minutes to boot then isn't stable enough to make a connection on WiFi , so it is time to replace it. In this time, my wife has gone through a Nexus 7 2012, Samsung Tab S and now Samsung Tab S2 8.0. I have been holding out to find a good replacement.

What I am looking for is something that is a little future proof. I know the Nexus 7 only had 1GB of RAM and that worked with Android 4, but in 6, it consumed the majority of it leaving nothing for apps. Most tablets I see today only carry 2 or 3GB or RAM which in 4 years doesn't seem like that large of an upgrade and I thought that was one of the main reasons for going 64bit was to be able to access > 4GB of RAM. So I am worried in 3 years, Android 8 will consume 2GB of RAM and will be back in the same boat. So something with a good chunk of RAM would be advisable.

Also with the processor, pretty much any of the 64-bit SoC processors out there like the NVIDIA X1 or Snapdragon 85x series would be a good place and would be good going forward, that isn't the main bottleneck.

Finally Storage, the MicroSD card would be nice to have since I would like to watch movies play games.

I do a lot of Travel for work and enjoyed using the Nexus 7 while it worked on the plane for a quick video or game or something I didn't feel like getting the laptop out for. I really don't want to deal with iOS, and everyone I talk to tells me to get a Surface Pro instead but not sure I want to go that route, would rather stick to Android since it is faster.

I know there is the Pixel C which is the high-end, but it is not expandable with MicroSD and only has 3GB of RAM which I am not sure will be good in a few years, and the cost is almost that of a Surface Pro 3 once the keyboard is factored in, and the fact that Google now only seems to support their newer tablets for a couple years is a little disheartening, the Nexus 9 is already End of Life.

The Shield Tablet K1 was another option, but it is only 32bit, only has 2GB of RAM and seems to have been discontinued with no upgrade in sight, so it is a dead-end.

Finally there is the Tab S2 which is what my wife has, although from what I read there are 2 revisions of this as well with the newer one getting a new processor, I think she has the 1st revision, but she just got Marshmallow and probably slim chance of it getting Nougat officially.

Sorry for the long post, but can anyone shed some light on some options that will be supported for a few years and has a good set of specs to last as well?

Thanks.

 

[supremedalek]

Wish I knew. My beloved Iconia tablet was just killed by Android's planned obsolescence, and I'm hoping to find something that will last more than 2 years before they slow it to a crawl.

 

[bs03]

I had been hoping for a new Nexus7 but now it looks like that is unlikely.

I am on my Nexus7(2013). It and my phone are my main devices but my phone is more powerful.

The Nexus7(2013) is noticeably better than the Nexus7(2012). I hate the Nexus9. Other Android tablets need rooting and a lot of modding to compare to the Nexus tablets IMHO. I am wondering if modding my Nexus tablets (which are vanilla), will make me not notice Google having abandoned us.

For the OP,
Manufacturers aren't worried about longevity. They want us buying new devices every year or two. Even app programmers are getting lazy and apps are much larger than they need to be and using more resources than they should.
If you put in some effort you can improve your device's performance. There are good people here and on XDA-developers who can help.
Backing up, wiping, and restarting an old device surprised me at the improvement. Also think about the apps you load and what they do. My sister loads every app with all of its permissions and constantly has problems. I go to web sites for a lot of things and ignore the recommended app and mine runs fine.


Ok. off the soapbox now.

 

[Migi2015]

What I want in a new Android tablet:

* Snapdragon 820 or better
* USB-C port
* 8" 4:3 ratio, retina display
* 32GB storage minimum
* fingerprint sensor
* Android 7.0

yet I can't find anything on the market! Isn't that sad?

Yet I have to keep using my Nexus 7(2013) because there literally is nothing in late 2016 that can replace it without feeling I've severely compromised something. So I mainly end up using my iPad Mini 4.

Perfect opportunity for a Google Pixel 8" tablet with all those specs and they dropped the ball again! Google is not serious about hardware.

 

[omegajb]

Sadly Android tablets seemed to plateau over the last few years. I've owned owned a couple of the Acer T's with the detachable keyboards which were barely supported update wise. The next tablet was the Note 10.1 2014 edition which Samsung basically ignored and my current one the Tab S.
This is a decent tablet the big issue is it came with 16GB of built in storage, I've moved most of what I can to the SD card but still at 85% of my total storage. The Tab S2 is an upgrade in storage but a downgrade in many other areas.

The Pixel C is the only thing that looks like they've considered the specs for actual use but starting at $500, not being able to hold it before buying and the fact it's a year old is keeping me from shelling out the money right now.

 

[marysfx]

Good question about future options and specs. I think we will see 4K displays, 4 GB RAM minimum, and powerful CPUs and graphic processors. Frankly speaking, latest Android tablets like Samsung Tab S2 model should be a good choice for a couple of years at least.