What tablets to get in 2018?

Every now and then I get a question of what tablets to get for outdoor gaming. Of course, I do not know, but here are the ideas how to choose for the middle of 2018.

What tablets should I get for outdoor gaming?

Short answer is that newer iPads are the best tablets. Do not buy the wifi only solution, as it does not have GPS. And do not buy very old one. How to know what is old? If it cannot run the  newest iOS then it is old and on the way out.

If Android is the choice then it is a harder question -a price and suitability are then main factors.

I would check that:

a) tablets have all the necessary capabilities – (3g, gps, an enough good screen etc). Especially a compass is often missing in android devices. You can play without the compass but it is better to have it.

b) android is as stock as possible – less producer skinning is better than heavy skinning. LG and Huawei are known for heavy skinning and sometimes this produces problems. Samsung is the middle ground, Lenovo is usually less modified.

c) has some kind of a pouch or a cover available that works for outdoor purposes

d) runs newer android – at least 6 or 7, preferably 8 . Do not buy android 5 and definitely do not buy android 4 (even used, these cannot be supported for  long)

e) has standard screens – meaning the screen ratios are somewhat standard. Very specific screens (that no other device has) are not so well supported in an Android scene. There is less of that nowadays, but it occurs sometimes.

f) new for 2019 – preferably the tablet has Galileo support in addition to Navstar (GPS), Glonass and BeiDou. This will improve the location accuracy a lot (especially in Europe) and devices are coming out that support Galileo.

Most importantly, however you need to use the devices you purchase. Because they need updating, that can take a lot of time(for Lenovo there have been occasions where you need to apply 10 or more patches if you have not been using it for some time). If you use it a lot, you will see the performance and we see the feedback and can take care of issues.

So the honest answer is I do not know 🙂