It would seem that everything is fine with us. We survived Covid, and the country is not in any danger. Prices for electronics are slowly creeping up, but within the bounds of decency. It would seem that it is high time to buy a new planShet for children and parents. Choosing electronics for your family is always a very interesting and responsible moment. Especially since the market two or three years ago was “enriched” with goods, legal and illegal, from China. People still believe that for 5,000 rubles you can buy an official Samsung Galaxy S20, but I’m not like that. The same is true in the world of tablets. Those who have studied the market at least a little note that it is now very fashionable to use the old mt6582 platform and, on its basis, produce fakes of famous brands of varying quality. This will not please even for 5,000 rubles, because it will not work. Fortunately, online stores have begun to obey federal laws and the goods can be returned directly at the pick-up point if the phone or tablet starts to slow down and freezes immediately after switching on. This is still far from a normal purchase and sale procedure, but at least something. I would like online stores to have no products at all that do not match the description. In general, I set myself a goal – to buy the best tablet for my mother for up to 20,000 rubles. I approached the matter thoroughly and drew a table with key points so that the product could start working immediately after unpacking:
Let me say right away that the selection criteria are specified in the title of the table sections, and the ideal tablet would be one that would be marked with all “yes” in the table. But since they are all flawed in their own way, we will have to consider the options in a little more detail. And I will start democratically, with the Doogi and Digma tablets, they at least have a reputation as “poor” but decent companies. Despite this, they practically repeated the maneuver that led to the success of Infinix and Vivo in the Russian Federation. Namely, they installed a large amount of RAM and disk “storage” in the products. At the same time, the combination of high performance in one tablet (which is indicated in the number of Antutu points for comparison) with a large-capacity battery and good sound turned out to be too expensive, going beyond the limit of 20,000 rubles. The choice requires an answer to the question of what the user needs more, games (chipset), sound (more and better speakers) or battery life. This is a very strange choice framework for a tablet. Manufacturers seem to have forgotten about bright screens, and the screen brightness of all tablets in the low-mid price segment does not exceed 300 nits. In the evening and indoors everything will be visible, but outside in sunny weather – no longer.
Performance
The Antutu scores in the table are based on the results of a large number of video reviews of specific tablets, then the arithmetic mean is calculated. Among other things, it follows from them that the superiority of one chipset over another of the same price group depends more on the read/write speed of RAM, the main drive (storage) and the cooling system. For this reason, the frankly weak Qualcomm 695 chipset in the Samsung Tab A9 + allegedly beats the HELIO G99 in the DOOGE T30 Pro. Blackview also adds a bit of its own chaos, having released two almost identical tablets with the same screens and sound, the same name, but with chipsets, the only difference between which is 5-10% in Antutu and price. Now figure it out for yourself, as they say.
Most likely, the tablet manufacturer used the platform that was in stock at the factory. There is no conspiracy or innovation here, just a normal tablet. It is also worth mentioning that the best chipsets in this price segment, Helio G99 and comm 695, which are constantly competing and go “neck and neck”, do not cost the same. I “blame” Qualcomm for paying customs duties twice or three times. The chipsets are the same in performance, Genshin Impact works great on them at low-medium graphics settings. And at high/maximum settings, for example, in NFS Most Wanted, there is nothing to say about casual runners (such as Subway Surfers), they do not heat the chipset at all.
Nutrition
The presence of a charger is probably a critical condition when choosing a budget tablet. Most people, with all due respect to them, will not even think of trying to charge a tablet from their smartphone charger. Therefore, pay attention – chargers are not included in the sales kits for tablets of famous brands for this kind of money. Maximum one cable. And it would be fine if the tablet had a capacious battery installed inside, costing as much as half of the entire tablet. The manufacturer should be ashamed to install a battery with a capacity of less than 5,000 mAh and without “fast charging” in the kit in a 10-inch tablet. At the same time, we have no right to call 10 W a regular charger, because the first tablets were generally charged from 5 W of any USB cable and came from multiplying 1 A of current by 5 V of voltage (USB 2.0 standard). But Chinese manufacturers easily step over their conscience and write whatever and wherever. They will write “fast charging”, but the manufacturer does not care that such a charger will charge the tablet in 4-8 hours.
Sound
Experience with tablets shows that it is better to have 2 high-quality speakers, but with sound processing according to the Dolby Atmos profile (and similar), than 4-10 speakers without it.
And in general (instead of a conclusion)
The presence of chaos in the market of tablets up to 20,000 rubles only confirmed that in every chaos you can find a rare and high-quality secret prize. It does not violate the chaos theory, it only confirms it. A long search in online stores that hide conditionally “stale” goods from the buyer as far as possible, like physical stores, led to the discovery of an officially Russified AGM PAD P1 tablet for sale in Russia for 16,000 rubles with 8/256 GB memory, Helio G99, excellent stereo sound, a 3.5 mm music jack, as well as protection from external threats according to IP68, IP69K and “military” MIL-STD-810H standards.
That is, the tablet can be washed in the kitchen sink with soap and running water. Or you can use it to launch pancakes on a lake/river/pond. For a person of any age, this is a huge plus. On the other hand, in early firmware there were problems with setting up the tablet to start up immediately in landscape orientation. Lying on its side, the tablet turned on with a phone-oriented menu. It is unknown whether the tablet software problem has been fixed in updates, although it is sold in the US in addition to the Russian Federation, it is a pure “Chinese” product.
Unfortunately, a year ago, when the tablet had just gone on sale, the first 1000 buyers were given a branded case, which felt like a mouse pad. A pleasant material made of textile and rubber. After the extremely low sales of the AGM Pad P1, against the background of a complete lack of advertising, it is hypothetically possible to get into the “first wave of buyers”, such offers (case included) are still encountered.
The weak point of the tablet for this money is the mouse-colored paint job on the case, but it can be fixed with third-party covers.
And this is exactly the tablet that I would buy right now with a budget of no more than 75% of 20,000 rubles (15,000 rubles).
But, since the price will still fall before the beginning of autumn, it’s worth waiting, maybe something else cool will appear on sale.
The 11-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ Wi-Fi also looks like an interesting offer. Unfortunately, the budget of 20,000 rubles only includes the version with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of main storage. But the lack of a charger in the kit will spoil your mood. Of course, the tablet will charge from any “slow” USB-C port (from a PC or smart TV), but for a long time. It is better to immediately buy a branded fast charger Samsung EP-TA800 (15W), EP-T1510 (15W), EP-TA220 (33W), EP-T2510 (25W) and similar Samsung chargers from 1,500 rubles per piece. Styluses and covers will also have to be purchased separately. And yet, stable software from Samsung is worth choosing the Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+. Most competitors either lack Google services or, as especially cunning ones, try to mislead everyone by passing off microG as a full-fledged Google Play store and putting a false inscription “Google services” on the box.
In addition, it is the Galaxy Tab A9+ version that supports the function SamsungDexwhich turns the company’s phones and tablets into a workspace with a chair, table and external screen with UCB-C input.
I can’t say anything bad about other tablets, but I personally wouldn’t buy one for myself, considering customer complaints like “I sent it in for repairs two days later because it stopped turning on” or “I sent it in for repairs and have been waiting for parts to arrive at the service center for repairs for the second month already.” The main advantage in favor of budget Samsung Galaxy Tab A9/9+ tablets is that they are serviced in an excellent network of authorized service centers under warranty conditions in accordance with Russian legislation.
Unfortunately, all other manufacturers cannot boast of quality software. Most of them either lack Google services or try to mislead everyone by passing off microG as Google Play and putting the inscription “Google services” on the box. This inclines the owner to involuntarily become a “pirate”, because there will be no software update. Only downloading a new version of the program/game from a torrent portal and manual installation. Of all the current ultra-budget tablets, only Samsung was able to make something that really works and is under warranty.
Which tablet would you choose for this modest price?
Source: mobile-review.com
