I'm looking into buying a tablet.


I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 (from 3 years ago). I find that opening an app up (calendar, tasklist, amazon kindle, etc) takes quite some time before it's ready for use. I really dislike this "friction" (wasting time waiting), and so I'm looking into buying another tablet that is has enough power and speed to avoid unnecessary waiting.


I watched a Wired UK magazine video called "Shenzhen: The Silicon Valley of Hardware (Full Documentary) | Future Cities".

It made me consider buying a tablet from a Chinese manafucturer. My working theory is that you can get a tablet with the specs of an iPad Pro or a Samsung S3 for a fraction of the price for a non-branded tablet.


So I went to AliExpress (where I believe many of these Shenzhen manufacturers try to sell to the world). I typed “tablet”, and the refinement bar shows several names:

• onda
• cube
• teclast
• chuwi

Does anybody have experience buying a tablet directly from a Chinese manufacturer? How is the quality of the tablet you bought?


Here’s a list of things I want my tablet to have:

• Power/Speed (I don’t want to wait for apps to fully load. Please note I don't play games, so it doesn't have to have the top-of-the-line processor or whatever.)
  
• Size: 10 inches or more. 12 inches is better.
• Capacious storage, either in the form of an internal ROM, or an SD/microSD slot. (A tablet with just 5 GB ROM and no SD slot is no good for me. A tablet with 5GB ROM but has a microSD slot is okay.)
• WiFi
• GPS
• high-resolution camera (My Tab 4's cameras are so poor I don't take any pics with them. Instead I use my Samsung Galaxy S3's back camera, which is 8MP. In this "dream" tablet, hopefully it have a camera as good as, if not better than, the S3's 8MP camera.)

I have no concerns about:

• Bulk: it doesn’t have to be as thin as an iPad Air. It can be half an inch thick and it’s okay with me.
• Weight: It could be 3 pounds or more, it doesn’t matter.
• Brand name: I believe the company’s label on a tablet may jack up the price. I don’t mind getting a brandless tablet, as long as it’s high quality
• Front-facing camera
  
• Shipping time (if it takes 6 weeks to get to North America, I'll wait patiently.)

Things I don’t need:

• Cellular ability (e.g. 4G/3G)
• Bluetooth
• Built-in speakers (I listen to audio through an earphone jack)\
• Windows OS or iOS (Android is just fine with me. Or even Linux. Lol)

 

I bought one from "the cube" - it came already 'rooted' so it can never be trusted with anything important like passords or account information.

 

I bought one from "the cube" - it came already 'rooted' so it can never be trusted with anything important like passords or account information.

Hmmmm.. a complete reformat won't wipe away any potential malware?

 

Howdy.....I tried to buy a chuwi about 8 months ago. It never arrived. Contacted seller......he re-sent....never arrived. They could never get it to me......they refunded.

So I bought an Amazon Fire on sale during the holidays.

Had it in 2 days.

 

Hmmmm.. a complete reformat won't wipe away any potential malware?

No. It is effectivly in the BIOS. I could reflash it, but the BIOS file comes from the same guys who rooted it

 

Howdy.....I tried to buy a chuwi about 8 months ago. It never arrived. Contacted seller......he re-sent....never arrived. They could never get it to me......they refunded.

Where did you buy? AliExpress?

 

No....the chuwi was on ebay.

 

Where did you buy? AliExpress?

Yes

 

if it takes 6 weeks.... I'll wait patiently.)

No you won't.. You can't even wait the 2 seconds it takes to open an app...
Have you tried any other tablets?
I don't know what "quite some time" to you means but any tablet I've ever used opens that stuff in 2-3 seconds normally..

There is an app too that will allow you to "autostart" specific programs on bootup also so its all ready up/running..

 

No, my husband does not allow us to get one from them because of some bad reviews in terms of a poor tablet performance.