gabu

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gabu
@gabu

and i think the best for my use case is either an ipad or, has been recommended to me, a samsung galaxy tab.

i'd probably get either an ipad pro 2022 or samsung galaxy tab s9+, a little expensive but i like buying the higher tier stuff so it lasts longer before becoming slow (and also retains its value a little longer) (also i don't buy second hand)

anyone have experience with samsung tablets (and specifically for drawing) to share? i've experienced android tablets in the past and they've always been godawful slow while apple has proven themselves with their ipads. i also generally never liked samsung's android skins and their preinstalled bloatware but they've gotten better about it.

i also don't have a huge faith in android devices getting consistent updates because phones usually stop getting them after 2-3 years, and apple at least keeps updating a liiiiiiittle longer than that.

but on the other hand i also am not deep in the apple ecosystem at all. i have an android phone, because i like being given some modicum of control over my own device.

the biggest thing i think is that what i would really want is a tablet in the style of a steam deck. i want something that's just a linux pc. buuuuut this doesn't exist so i'll have to make do with either an ipad or android tablet....... like. BOTH apple AND samsung AND google all suck in their own ways.

and these devices all suck in exactly the ways the the steam deck doesn't suck: when you buy a steam deck, it's just yours. you can apt get packages and compile code on it all you want, you can even just reformat and install windows if you wanted to...

anyway to get back on topic, i would love to hear people's opinions on both ipads and samsung galaxy tablets (for drawing but also just general use)! lemme know in the comments

EDIT: i think my main concerns can be summed up as like

  • no concerns on the hardware level, either of these options are expensive and top of the line and probably work great
  • i'm not sure if i would find samsung's OR apple's ecosystems more restrictive. ideally i would want literally a linux tablet with full control but that just doesn't exist in the way i would want it
  • i'm not sure if i trust samsung to keep updating as long as i would want. apple seems to keep updating their systems for a bit longer than android manufacturers (also heck, my old wacom bamboo is approaching 10+ years lol... THAT's the kind of longevity you want)
  • the drawing apps. i'm currently using CSP on PC, but i refuse to pay monthly on tablet. on ipad you get to use procreate which has some problems but is generally really good. i've used krita before on PC and i liked it but it was a little clunky so it'd be some getting used to it again on a samsung tab.

gabu
@gabu

a tablet would also serve to replace my old macbook pro, which the screen backlight stopped working and would cost too much to replace because they'd have to replace the entire screen module

i don't think i need a laptop i can program on anymore (ever since i moved out my desktop is right there in the living room, plus, i should not be thinking about programming when away from my desktop anyway lol), so a tablet i can draw on (hobby) would make more sense


gabu
@gabu

i was already thinking, like, i wish there was a tablet that was the "steam deck treatment" but for tablets; top end hardware but running linux. instead of creating a walled garden like apple and other mobile manufacturers, a tablet that you own and control

and

only now i realise that Microsoft Surface Pros exist and have pretty good hardware and wacom pen support with pressure, and with a little research i learn that most features DO work on linux if you use a custom kernel. the main things missing is the webcam which, who cares.

but... i don't know if i want a device that needs tinkering to get everything working properly, a device that's a little bit janky. especially for that price.

the entire thing with the steam deck is that it's linux, but it just works, and this absolutely would not be like that........ something to think about

it WOULD be basically what i was wishing for except the only part it wouldn't be is that it wouldn't require effort on my part


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in reply to @gabu's post:

I've been drawing on a Samsung Galaxy Tab S8+ for nearly 2 years now - I use Krita on it and I find it very nice!

In general I have no troubles with it being slow, it can handle pretty big files and a lot of layers. I find the experience of drawing on the screen and holding the pen pretty good, the pen button could be better, but it hasn't caused me any big inconveniences.

A huge advantage for me is ability to save to nextcloud and be able to almost instantly open the file on my laptop to do text edits, and exporting - you can do these on the tablet but I post to social media from the laptop and I prefer to type on it. So it's important that I can transfer files easily.

The main disadvantage I guess is a little too small screen, the samsung I have is 12" and my dockers get a bit cramped :') but this will depend on what you expect to fit on screen at all times.
Also Krita can take longer saving a file if the file takes too much of RAM allowance, and it can undo the last brushstroke while saving if you use a textured brush that takes longer to render. In that case you must click 'redo' in history and save again. But this may be (at least in some part) because I'm not saving files locally too.

Sooo I hope this is useful to you, I really like this tablet and it's the main tool for drawing for me, I think the number of issues I had with it is comparable to what I dealt with while using wacom tablets. If you have any specific questions I can try to answer :)

thanks for the detailed answer! yeah i don't really doubt that any modern, top of the line tablet is gonna be powerful enough for most situations, the chips have come such a long way

  1. i think the things that annoy me the most, like on my phone, is when for example things aren't customizable enough
    • i.e. my old phone's android version forced light/dark theme depending on your background's average color, you couldn't set it
    • my current oneplus phone has the "1" on the clock on the lockscreen always red and it makes it harder to read because it disappears in the background
    • older samsung phones had pre-installed apps like facebook and the sims games that you couldn't delete or hide

have you noticed any annoyances like that? default apps that randomly spawn annoying notifications, or ads in the menus and stuff?

  1. also, does it have a built-in night mode/blue light filter mode (the screen becoming orange at night to reduce eye strain)? because i can NOT find it online because all their articles talk about just enabling dark theme, and it seems like its not a feature.....?

  2. do you use the default S Pen? have you tried others?

and yeah, being able to just access the file system (i use solid explorer on my phone) and set up your own cloud sync and stuff like that is the kind of things i like about android over ios

  1. So the tablet comes with a bunch of samsung apps, but I think most if not all were just the usual phone, contact, gallery etc. I don't remember if it came with any games or facebook app - if yes then I was able to just uninstall them. I haven't had any randomly appearing useless stuff like on my phone(s). Also no ads in the menu and no 'news feed' screen when you swipe to the left on your home screen (I had it on all my phones and I hate it).

You can choose between light and dark theme in settings, there's a few more customizations in accessibility options, there's a high contrast mode that sets fonts to white with black border. And there is a few styles for the clock on the lock screen, and you can choose any colour for it (and gradients).

  1. It does have a night mode! There's an automatic mode but you can also set your desired yellowness level and hours when the colours change. I have no idea why it's so hard to find this info when it could be a major selling point huh.

The one thing I forgot to mention earlier is that some settings for display and developer settings are only accessible to 'owner of the device'. You can set only one owner, so if you need two accounts the second one will have no access to some setting categories. It doesn't affect any of the customizations and night more that I mentioned here, but I remember there were some colour filters (for movies, gaming, etc) that you can only set as the owner.

  1. I use the default S pen, it lies good in my hand and works well so I didn't look around to try other pens

In 2020 I bought a used 2018 iPad Pro, and I recently replaced it with a refurb 2021 iPad Pro, after I dropped my old one and shattered the screen. I have an Apple Pencil but I don't use it for drawing much beyond stick figures. I never had issues with speed on the old one. The Apple pencil seems responsive enough for what I do with it, and palm rejection is good. Charging it is slightly annoying butbI don't imagine that's a very avoidable issue.

everyone i know that uses an ipad always gushes about how good it is. especially modern ipads with the M1 and M2 processors are just fast with great battery life, but modern android systems are also still pretty powerful so i'm not too worried about performance

all the ipad artists i know say to just get an ipad because its way better, but the galaxy tab users say to get a galaxy tab fdkjfhdhk

i've used my sister's ipad and apple pencil to draw before and it feels nice to use, but its way different when you're just trying it out while being watched and when its your own device that you use for longer periods of time and can set up just the way you like