i'm seriously considering permanently abandoning laptops in favor of tablets. i spent a day working on my wife's tablet today and it was fine enough for when you're on the go that the small screen isn't too much of an issue. plus, you get an extended battery life, no noise, more comfort carrying it around, and the best of all, for much less money
the biggest downside is that, since tablets are technically embedded devices, they're much more locked up and you basically have no access to the system with the stock rom
so im looking for a cheap tablet ($100-$200), around 10 inches, that i can easily (or at least reliably) install linux to. any recommendations?
pine stuff has excellent cost/benefit, but...
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FWIW I do use a PineTab2 on a daily basis and... it works. I can warmly recommend it but some caveats :
- WiFi didn't work for a while, it's good now though (mostly stable, AFAICT no instability for me)
- BT still does not work (not ideal if you need a mouse)
- USB-C is a single port for charging, single port for devices, iirc usb-C hubs don't work, only usb-C to A single converters
- it's... not fast, so if your workflow is a bit of Web browser or a text editor great, if it's Blender or Gimp or anything that can be a bit demanding, it might test your patience
- WebCam does not work, problematic if you have to do video calls
Overall while keeping such limitations in mind, still recommended! (if you can get it shipped somehow)
thanks for the review
honestly that wouldn't be reliable enough for me to daily drive at work, but i'm definitely getting one to play with once i have a little money to throw away
check out dell latitude 5285/5290 2-in-1. they are Surface Pro lookalikes with detachable keyboards, but with way service-friendlier interior - easy to open and SSD, comms, battery can be easily replaced, whereas RAM is soldered. the screens (12" 1920x1200 IPS mutlitouch) are gorgeous and the hardware isn't too shabby, kabylake (7xxxu) and kabylake-r (8xxxu), with standard UEFI BIOS so you can install Linux and have SecureBoot even. I can get them locally for $100-150, dependent on config and equipment (even less if they're without battery and keyboard).
edit: yeah, I misunderstood your idea, I thought you wanted a cheap linux tablet. what you actually want is a fantasy - an ultra-portable device with huge battery autonomy running linux and such a thing doesn't exist, for any kind of money.
namely, the mentioned dells are twice the heft of a normal android tablet and the battery autonomy is laughable; not only is it not an improvement over a normal laptop, it's likely to be worse, as that thing's essentially a laptop with extras, like touch, gyros, etc.
then comes the real hammer - touching the thing. Gnome and Plasma (and their derivatives) have touch support but if you're coming from an android or iOS tablet, that support is in its infancy. it's crude, inconsistent, flaky, and not very well propagated throughout the system. it's way better than it was a few years ago, but this is not something you'll want to hang your career or education on.
you can tweak the thing into something semi-usable, and for the price (around $100) that's a worthwhile endeavour and cute hobby project. it bears repeating, it is not daily driver material, and that includes way pricier solutions - saw a Ryzen 6-series the other day for like $700; everything I've written applies to it as well.
You are making a mistake. You are comparing an Android or iOS tablet, that have a user interface that makes sense for these devices, and you're trying to shoehorn Linux in them, and expect the same "fine enough". It won't be, because while it might work, it won't be ideal. Linux was optimized to be used as a desktop OS, with a mouse or touchpad. You'd have to install something like LineageOS to get it working properly, but then you will lose the cool abilities of a linux desktop for the most part. Conclusion: get a tablet if you want, but don't throw away your laptop.
Edit: Also, this was posted just an hour ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H669Fwtv-3o
maybe you're right. that's something i've been thinking about too, which is why i said a rooted android tablet with lineageos would also be an acceptable option.
but considering i have a desktop already and having a tablet for mobile computing, a laptop feels more and more like an awkward intermediate. laptops, i think, make more sense when you only have the laptop, but i really don't see a situation where a laptop offers me something a desktop+table combo wouldn't.
I think any Linux device with out a proper keyboard is a pain to use. Mini laptops are better choices.
im gonna have a physical bt keyboard to take along with it. last time i tried one, it worked pretty well
Honestly i do not think your gonna like doing this. If you whole thing is having a tablet with its battery life etc then de-googled android is probably gonna be better for you. Android is based on linux anyway and custom ROMs exist to give you a more privacy focused and in your control OS. Like Graphene OS for example.
If you want linux and a tablet id instead recommend a really slim thin and light 2 in 1. Maybe with detachable keyboard. These are typically made with x86 Chips instead of ARM tho so the battery life wont be as good.
