10”+ Android tablet that is fast with good drawing touchscreen?

March 27, 2022 6:44 AM

Recommend me a 10”+ Android tablet that is fast with a good drawing touchscreen?

I have a 2012 iPad which has got slow at running Miro (which i use as an online whiteboard that I use to annotate PDFs in group-work) ....despite a clean install of the latest version of MacOS . I want a no-bells-and-whistles iPad replacement. Miro works on android so…..

The tablet must have a FAST processor, a reasonable amount of memory (8GB+), a good touchscreen that works WELL as a drawing surface, is at least 10” in size, be up-to-date with the latest version of android, and significantly cheaper than the iPad air (M1 64GB - $600).

I don’t need cell (wifi is fine), don't need much storage space (32GB is prob fine), don’t care about camera or software or latest display tech.

To calibrate you, my Samsung Galaxy S20 phone (Snapdragon 865, 12GB memory) runs Miro without a hitch.

posted by lalochezia to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Best answer: Unfortunately, you're not likely to find something that is both "significantly cheaper than the iPad Air" and "has a fast processor and the latest version of Android". Cheap tablets are basically always one or two major versions of Android behind, and the flagship Android devices from Samsung, Lenovo, and I think even Xiaomi cost that much or more. The Xiaomi Pad 5, for example, is one major version of Android back and still isn't significantly cheaper, if at all; Lenovo's P11 is two back and cheaper, but not very performant.
posted by mhoye at 8:04 AM on March 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Is there a reason for wanting Android other than maybe thinking it would be cheaper? Because the basic iPad (not the Air) fits your requirements fine and is $329.
posted by parm at 11:53 AM on March 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I looked at my iPad It's actually a 2017 with an A9 SoC and 2GB ram.

The new ipad (2021 from apple, the one you linked) is an A13 with 3GB RAM. And we're looking at a 1 month wait (none in stock anywhere)

I have no idea what these benchmarks mean in the real world.... I know that the M1 I run on my computer is blazing fast. Is the vanilla iPad enough improvement going from 2017-2021?
posted by lalochezia at 1:17 PM on March 27, 2022

Response by poster: Although apple doesn't have any in stock for a month, satan has your iPad suggestion on 2 day delivery.
posted by lalochezia at 1:30 PM on March 27, 2022

Best answer: Basically any iPad running an A13 or later is going to run rings around your older model, at least 300% faster in real world performance. iPads still don’t need the crazy amounts of ram to offer better performance compared to Android tablets, which have to deal with a lot more overhead being Java based and still are at best equivalent to an A13 even with their top models.
posted by rambling wanderlust at 4:28 PM on March 27, 2022 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: OK. 2021 A13 vanilla iPad it is!
posted by lalochezia at 6:43 PM on March 27, 2022

Response by poster: And that does it. Works much better and quicker - and thus functional for annotation - than the "old" 2017 iPad. Thanks people!
posted by lalochezia at 9:49 AM on March 29, 2022