Cheapish Tablet for Line and Videos.

[james.d]

Hello All,

 

It is necessary for my wife to attend hospital several times per week for tests and these visits can last several hours with alot of the time waiting. To pass the time she watches a video on youtube and or keeps in touch with friends and family via her phone. 

I think her phone is too small and was looking to get a cheapish tablet ideally around 8 inch screen to fit in the bag that she would tie together with her phone via bluetooth for connectivity. I have read that tieing a tablet and phone does not slow it uses, but do the bluetooth need to be a certain spec? 

Anyone could suggest a decent tablet for this, around 5K THB? and over the counter in BKK (her phone will be the primary tool for photos and voice calls)

 

Thank you very much for any suggestions and whether tieing the bluetooth's together does actually work well.

 

Best Regards.

 

 

 

[evadgib]

This might not help but as a Brit I have purchased several reconditioned tablets from tesco UK and sent to my elderly parents via eBay to enable weekly contact inc with grandchildren.  They're in your price range and have a short warranty. Their (parents) current model is two years old and still works. Even with postal charges you'll be quids-in ?

 

HTH

[giddyup]

I bought the missus a 7" Asus Zenpad from Lazada for around 3000 baht, and that was 3 years ago. It has performed faultlessly ever since and it gets used a lot. There may not be the same model available now, but Lazada has a huge selection of tablets, I'm sure there will be something to suit. You can also pay COD with Lazada.

[sikishrory]

Galaxy tab S LTE version. 

Its an older model but the specs are still competitive with the S2 etc. 

Screen is 10.1 inch. 

I have had mine since 2015 and it has been solid. Can't recommend it enough. 

You would find them in places like top of jungceylon in phuket, tukcom pattaya, mbk or fortune town in bkk. 

I also know an online shop in bkk that sells them i think. Lazada prob got them too. 

Last i saw was 2 months ago in pattaya tukcom for 3750b.

A note about line though. You cannot have 1 line account on 2 devices. 

I had 2 lines, 1 on phone and 1 on tab each must be from seperate sims. 

The tab also allows multiple users. So you and wife can have your own spaces in it completely seperate. 

Also very easy to root. 

[scorecard]

44 minutes ago, sikishrory said:

Galaxy tab S LTE version. 

Its an older model but the specs are still competitive with the S2 etc. 

Screen is 10.1 inch. 

I have had mine since 2015 and it has been solid. Can't recommend it enough. 

You would find them in places like top of jungceylon in phuket, tukcom pattaya, mbk or fortune town in bkk. 

I also know an online shop in bkk that sells them i think. Lazada prob got them too. 

Last i saw was 2 months ago in pattaya tukcom for 3750b.

A note about line though. You cannot have 1 line account on 2 devices. 

I had 2 lines, 1 on phone and 1 on tab each must be from seperate sims. 

The tab also allows multiple users. So you and wife can have your own spaces in it completely seperate. 

Also very easy to root. 

"A note about line though. You cannot have 1 line account on 2 devices. "

 

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you mean, I have Line on my smartphone and my notebook computer, same 'username' and the address books automatically updates across both device. From both devices works like a dream. On the notebook so so easy to use for phone calls.

 

 

 

[sikishrory]

5 minutes ago, scorecard said:

"A note about line though. You cannot have 1 line account on 2 devices. "

 

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you mean, I have Line on my smartphone and my notebook computer, from both devices works like a dream. On the notebook so so easy to use for phone calls.

 

 

 

Yes thats different. I also have the windows version running 1 of my accounts on phone and the windows pc simultaneously. However if for instance i have line on a phone and wish to use that account on a second android device it will tell you the line on your previous device will be deactivated

[Cats4ever]

Have a look at Lenovo and compare.

[PoorSucker]

3 minutes ago, Cats4ever said:

Have a look at Lenovo and compare.

I bought the lenovo tab3, worked flawlessly. 

 

Do not use Bluetooth for connecting phone and tab. 

Set up the phone as WiFi hotspot, works better. 

[buick]

i can't recommend a specific tablet but i've bought several for young thai's that cost about 3k.  i believe ASUS was one brand.    all bought within last 3 years and still working fine.

[BigT73]

I purchased a galaxy Tab A for my misses for exact same reason as I thought her phone was too small. Fantastic for browsing, but yes line app recognises this as a phone so cant share on both devices. Long story short she thought it was too heavy and cumbersome and gave it to me after 2 days, now I prefer this over laptop.  Goodluck!

[wjhall]

I have had my tablet for 18 months now. I use a lot sitting in hospital waiting areas whilst Ma-in-law is being treated.  Here is a link. I can recommend it 100%....and it's cheap!!

 

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/alldocube-cube-iplay8-u78-tablets-785-ips-android-60-mtk8163-quad-core-hdmi-gps-dual-wifi-24g5g-1g16g-i118596240-s123384571.html?spm=a2o4m.searchlist.list.2.6aa11494bLOqxb&search=1%20Quote%20

 

 

[giddyup]

2 minutes ago, wjhall said:

I have had my tablet for 18 months now. I use a lot sitting in hospital waiting areas whilst Ma-in-law is being treated.  Here is a link. I can recommend it 100%....and it's cheap!!

 

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/alldocube-cube-iplay8-u78-tablets-785-ips-android-60-mtk8163-quad-core-hdmi-gps-dual-wifi-24g5g-1g16g-i118596240-s123384571.html?spm=a2o4m.searchlist.list.2.6aa11494bLOqxb&search=1

Never heard of that brand. Price is good though.

[wjhall]

5 minutes ago, giddyup said:

Link doesn't work for me.

Last bit cut off. Have edited it and should work now....fingers crossed

[dddave]

I just bought a Kindle Fire 8" tablet in the US via Amazon ($89) and it is excellent.  If you have anybody who could bring one of these to you from Europe or the US, well worth the trouble, value wise.  

Though it doesn't come with Google apps installed, they are easy to install on your own in 15 minutes...many "How To" videos on You Tube.

 

I've had 10" and 7" tablets in the past and I find 8" ideal.  Easy to read and great for watching videos.  When I flew back from the US last month, I found it more enjoyable to watch movies I had downloaded onto my tablet than the airline offerings.

 

I did a fair amount of research on 8" tablets and clearly Samsung, Asus & Lenovo all offer quality devices but none of them can beat the value of the Amazon Kindle Fire 8.

I should add, holding the Fire 8 for more than an hour can get tiring and your wife just might find her phone is easier in the long run.  I purchased a case that converts to a stand along with the tablet and it is very useful when watching anything for an extended period of time.

[dddave]

I just saw WJHALL's link to the CUBE tablet.  I bought a CUBE 8" tablet for my then GF several years ago.  It worked great for 2 years, then quit. To be fair, she was staying in a house with a lot of kids and they were pretty rough on it.

CUBE is actually pretty well known and is OEM for several companies selling tablets under other names.

The problem with most of these Chinese devices is there are rarely any firmware or o/s updates.  What you get when you buy it is what you will be stuck with.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Part of the question the OP needs to answer here is whether he needs the tablet to have its own mobile data capability (i.e., works with a SIM card), or only wifi capable for use with home wifi, hotspots or connected to a mobile phone. Two entirely different sets of tablets.

 

My wife just bought an LTE tablet for her Mom at Big C for about 5K baht, the Samsung Tab A 7 inch model that uses a SIM for mobile data, as well as having wifi. I think the Android OS was old, 5.0, and the screen not HD, but perfectly fine for casual use. And one of her Mom's main uses for it is making and receiving LINE phone calls.

 

 

[Russell17au]

5 hours ago, sikishrory said:

Galaxy tab S LTE version. 

Its an older model but the specs are still competitive with the S2 etc. 

Screen is 10.1 inch. 

I have had mine since 2015 and it has been solid. Can't recommend it enough. 

You would find them in places like top of jungceylon in phuket, tukcom pattaya, mbk or fortune town in bkk. 

I also know an online shop in bkk that sells them i think. Lazada prob got them too. 

Last i saw was 2 months ago in pattaya tukcom for 3750b.

A note about line though. You cannot have 1 line account on 2 devices. 

I had 2 lines, 1 on phone and 1 on tab each must be from seperate sims. 

The tab also allows multiple users. So you and wife can have your own spaces in it completely seperate. 

Also very easy to root. 

Sorry sikishrory but that is incorrect because I have 1 Line account and it operates on my laptop, my tablet and my phone. It does become annoying when someone tries to do a video call to me as all devices ring

[james.d]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Part of the question the OP needs to answer here is whether he needs the tablet to have its own mobile data capability (i.e., works with a SIM card), or only wifi capable for use with home wifi, hotspots or connected to a mobile phone. Two entirely different sets of tablets.

My wife has an older pre-paid sim with the number she has had for many years, and also an new "unlimited" six month sim both with True. 

I was originally thinking of using the new tablet tied to her unlimited sim via bluetooth. I was going to get a tablet that could take a sim if her phone was lost or damaged.

 

Hope that makes sense.

[james.d]

4 hours ago, PoorSucker said:

Do not use Bluetooth for connecting phone and tab. 

Set up the phone as WiFi hotspot, works better. 

Thank you. I am guessing it is password protected WIFI hotspot.

[james.d]

Thank you each and all for your feedback and advice, I have a lot more tablets to consider and a different connectivity choice.

 

Thank you all again.

[sikishrory]

3 hours ago, Russell17au said:

Sorry sikishrory but that is incorrect because I have 1 Line account and it operates on my laptop, my tablet and my phone. It does become annoying when someone tries to do a video call to me as all devices ring

The only way I can see that working is if your tablet was running a windows OS and also running the pc app. As mentioned below it is not possible to have 2 phone numbers linked to 1 account 

[Russell17au]

3 minutes ago, sikishrory said:

The only way I can see that working is if your tablet was running a windows OS and also running the pc app. As mentioned below it is not possible to have 2 phone numbers linked to 1 account 

Sorry, but I have a laptop with True internet, I have an old Apple iPad 2 with a sim card with True and I have a Samsung S4 with a sim with AIS and I only have 1 Line account and it operates on all 3 devises at the same time.

On the PC it is windows 10, the iPad is IOS and the phone is Android and the same account works on all three. but I only have 1 email address and that is on all 3 devises

[Russell17au]

38 minutes ago, sikishrory said:

The only way I can see that working is if your tablet was running a windows OS and also running the pc app. As mentioned below it is not possible to have 2 phone numbers linked to 1 account 

I just had my laptop, my iPad and my phone all with my only Line account all open on Line at the same time but I had nothing to use to take a photo of it to show that you can operate 1 Line account on more than 1 devise

[Mansell]

I also use LINE on iPhone and iPad, and both are pretty old. Occasionally I have to scan that strange square thing onto the iPad to keep using the LINE on it because the iPhone was the primary user to begin with.

[Mark T]

I just wanna add that to get a decent tablet, a minimum of 2GB of ram is a must! Better if its 3! So paying a little bit more may be worth your while in the long run.

 

as for tablet models, so far both Samsung and Asus (the Nexus 7 (2013) dinosaurs are still in great demand) are pretty reliable if really going for Android version. Huawei Mediapad M3 is also getting a lot of good reviews from what i have heard. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

10 hours ago, james.d said:

 

I was originally thinking of using the new tablet tied to her unlimited sim via bluetooth. I was going to get a tablet that could take a sim if her phone was lost or damaged.

 

 

I think going for an LTE tablet here makes good sense. In the U.S., for whatever reason, LTE tablets command a tremendously higher price than regular wifi tablets. But here in Thailand, there are lot of LTE tablets/models available at pretty reasonable prices and not much higher than regular wifi versions, especially if you're not getting the latest versions.

 

Just stick with the established name brands, and if you find one that works for you at a reasonable price, just make sure to do some online research on it before buying to make sure there's no unpleasant quirks or problems with that particular model.

 

For a general use tablet, I'd suggest nothing less than 16 GB ROM, 2 GB RAM, Android 5 minimum and 6 or better preferably, and an SD card slot for expanded storage. For the mobile data, you'd want to make sure its LTE supports bands 1 and 3, 1800 and 2100 Mhz, which are the predominant ones used here.

 

[sikishrory]

10 hours ago, Mark T said:

I just wanna add that to get a decent tablet, a minimum of 2GB of ram is a must! Better if its 3! So paying a little bit more may be worth your while in the long run.

 

as for tablet models, so far both Samsung and Asus (the Nexus 7 (2013) dinosaurs are still in great demand) are pretty reliable if really going for Android version. Huawei Mediapad M3 is also getting a lot of good reviews from what i have heard. 

I just bought a huawei p20 pro phone after years of using sony xperia. Really great phone.

Huawei is a good option

[guzzi850m2]

Why would anybody buy a tablet below full HD specs (1920X1080)?

Getting full HD or more makes the viewing experience so much better in my opinion.

Looking at a murky screen can't be much fun and must be hard on the eyes?

 

My Lenovo YT-X703F 10" is 2k and very pleasant to look media on

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, guzzi850m2 said:

Why would anybody buy a tablet below full HD specs (1920X1080)?

 

I've never judged my mobile device screens solely by their pixel dimensions. It's also a matter of the quality and brightness of the particular screen, glass or plastic surface, IPS or TFT, etc etc. And the PPI (pixels per inch) density count, which combines the screen size relative to the pixel dimensions. Higher PPI is generally better.

 

I've had and used perfectly fine phone and tablet screens that were less than full HD, and never had any problem with those. I'd say, in general for a tablet, you'd want one with a PPI density above 200, and the higher the number in general the better, subject to the various screen details mentioned above. Let your eyes be the judge.

 

 

 

[BigT73]

18 hours ago, Russell17au said:

I just had my laptop, my iPad and my phone all with my only Line account all open on Line at the same time but I had nothing to use to take a photo of it to show that you can operate 1 Line account on more than 1 devise

It doesnt work on 2 android devices, so if your phone is android you cant get a cheap android tablet with the same line acct.