anthonyw
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United States
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I have been searching the forums as well looking for answers and unfortunately its proven difficult to find a straight answer. Anyhow, figured I would share my experiences thus far and hope it benefits someone somehow.
So far I have tried the following tablets and here are my experiences:
Nestbook 8" ($80 walmart):
Not wanting to bust the bank I started my attempts of an adequate display with the cheapest tablets with decent specs I could find. Surprisingly the nextbook, although cheap($) and lagging operation at times performed buttery smooth with minimal lag while flying my inspire. It actually had the best streaming from any of the following devices below right off the bat. I knew it was too good to be true though. The "up to" 1.83GHz is most likely a built in overclocking feature to help the tablet keep up with heavy processing. For the first week or so it performed excellent, but I only flew one flight at a time. I took it to the shooting range to capture media for some online tactical business and thats when I found the overheating issue. It was hot outside. The tablet started out as expected and about half way through my first flight started to get choppy. End of the first flight pretty bad displaying jitters and lags stalls up to a few seconds. I turned off the tablet and put it in a cooled ice bag while letting the inspire battery recharge. About an hour after my first flight, I started it up again and went to capture more footage. This time it was super choppy from the get go and about mid flight started freezing, sometimes for 5 or more seconds. The tablet got extremely hot, really fast. Needless to say, it was unusable. Despite turning it off, ending bloated processes and letting it cool off for more than an hour didn't seem to help much. This would be a great option given the price if able to overcome the heating issue. Ive seen some people using ice packs behind the tablets to keep them cool during operation. Would be interesting seeing the nextbook tested this way.
Nexus 7 (second Gen):
Love this tablet. Worked great with the DJI pilot app but there was noticeable lag while flying and an annoying quick but consistent choppiness. Even when I disabled all extra apps and put the device in airplane mode the choppiness existed. Like I said though, the choppiness was "consistent" and I could definitely live with it considering the price at Fry's Electronics $150. Decent specs on this device and I am sure if Rooted or more dialed in the performance would be more tolerable or even really good.
Insignia Flex Elite 7.85":
I had a really good feeling about this tablet. A Best Buy Specialty brand for $150 with a 1.8GHz quad core processor and 2G RAM. It is also relatively new I think and sports a nice display and H265 4k playback potential. Tablet seemed like it would work really well considering the "nextbook" experience and this had higher stats. But it didn't want to play nice with the DJI app and I was never able to get it to connect to the inspire. The app would open but the darn thing would just never ask for permissions to allow the controller to be connected. All debug settings were set up proper and I even took it to Geek Squad with my inspire to have them trouble shoot. Unknown why it wouldn't connect. Its a shame. I would have loved to see the results as this looked like a solid tablet for the price.
Nexus 9:
Awesome tablet. In my opinion a little too large. I experienced the same "constant" skipping or choppiness as in the Nexus 7. But the lag time was a bit better than the nexus 7. At nearly $350 open box from Best Buy I would revert back to the nexus 7 in a heartbeat over the 9. I still have this tablet though and running more tests with closing bloatware and running task killers and such that I have found in other areas of this forum. But as far as stock use with bloatware just disabled, I was a bit disappointed at its performance.
Samsung Galaxy PRO 8.4":
I have not been testing this device long. I actually only have 1 flight on it as of now. I will update. By far the best option I have seen from all tablets listed above considering the price (may change after more testing). Best Buy is selling them online new for $190 right now. I was able to get the display at my local best buy for $164. The one flight I have done on it so far was pretty freaking smooth. The map briefly flashed full screen a few times even though I had the video stream enlarged and map minimized but it didn't seem to affect performance at all. Over all for the first flight the galaxy pro had very little chop and minimal lag while flying. Definitely better than the nexus 7 or the nexus 9 right out of the box. And at a price tag that in my opinion is reasonable for its stats (2.3GHz Quad Core - 2G RAM Snapdragon 800).
Summary:
In my experience testing these devices it has been a crap shoot. Its obvious the DJI app pushes the capabilities of any connected tablet, however it also seems to be very picky with its compatibility and performance with different tablets. Im thinking of Rooting and removing the garbage to get the best performance from the tablet, but in the long run I figure its the app itself and how it likes / dislikes the tablet being used. Anyhow, hope this helps someone in eliminating options if your currently in my position. Im no expert with tablets or nerd-isms but I thought my experience could be helpful. |
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