I have been using the wonderful OBDeleven app and dongle to take care of various things on my Mk7 GTI. The device I had been using was a 2011 Samsung phone of some kind that I got for free; it could only handle up to Android 4.7.
Recently the app was updated to require Android 5.0 or greater. The 2011 Samsung was slow as molasses, had crappy Wi-Fi, etc anyway, but now I NEED to replace it. Since I'd also like to avoid getting my grubby mitts all over my nice iPhone XS in the garage when possible, I'm thinking this might be a good opportunity to grab an Android tablet of some kind specifically for use in the garage.
Given the use case, the most important things are strong Wi-Fi (preferably ac or ax) and Bluetooth (preferably 4.0 or better), a strong battery, and decent processing power (OBDeleven REALLY churned on the old Samsung). I don't need a fancy OLED screen, strong GPU, high-end camera, etc. The ability to run relatively modern versions of Android would be nice, however.
I'm capping my budget at $100 and would like to stay as far under that as possible. The Android device ecosystem is a lot more complicated than Apple's...what should I look for?
As far as cheap, I use a Fire HD 10 with the app store loaded. It works fine for my browsing and stuff but I can't find any specs on wifi or bluetooth for it.
My Fire 8 has bluetooth ,
can a android phone work ? You can get cheap android phones that are locked to Tracfone etc but still work great on Wifi and bluetooth and are better specs than the Amazon fire tablets.
After a Facebook post, a buddy of mine ended up helping me out with an older-but-not-that-old LG phablet he had kicking around, but I did a bunch of research and this is where I ended up:
- The Amazon tablets have a lot of bang for the buck if you're willing to live with the compromises
- If you don't want to contribute to Jeff Bezos' empire, the Samsung Galaxy Tab A line is about as good as it gets for a quality no-frills tablet
- The no-name Chinese tablets are temptingly cheap, but are really pretty crappy all things considered
The answer is the amazon tablet. quick and easy to root (removes all Amazon crap)
Can you de Amazon the fire and use it as a good ole tablet? My Amazon electronics expertise ends at the original Kindle.
The Amazon tablet does not have Google Play store so you cannot put on Google apps ,
BUT you can sideload the Google Play store and get it all ,
they are cheap and often on sale , do not worry about the Amazon ads , its just one at start up , they do not pop up after that ,
the 7 inch tablets are $30 when onsale
Another cheap option for future people looking for cheap Android to run a car app...
Go to the prepaid phone section of Walmart. There you will find new Android handsets starting at $29.99 for a low spec but NEW handset. These handsets are subsidized by the phone companies that have them locked to work only on their service. But, if you never buy the cell service, these handsets will still work like a tiny tablet that requires wifi to connect to the internet.
If your app does require internet just turn on the Hotspot function of your daily driver handset and this newly acquired handset can wifi in via the service on your daily driver handset.
Look here for Amazon Fire ROMS (turn it into a pure android device)
https://forum.xda-developers.com/kindle-fire/development
CAinCA
Reader
6/1/20 10:30 a.m.
I have a Galaxy Tab A. I've mainly used it for a rocket tracking system that uses GPS and a radio downlink. For a $125 (2 years ago) its a decent tablet.
californiamilleghia said:
The Amazon tablet does not have Google Play store so you cannot put on Google apps ,
BUT you can sideload the Google Play store and get it all ,
they are cheap and often on sale , do not worry about the Amazon ads , its just one at start up , they do not pop up after that ,
the 7 inch tablets are $30 when onsale
You can pay Amazon to remove the ads (if they bother you)
Most Tablets do not have GPS ,
If it has a sim card it must have GPS,
Amazon fires do NOT have GPS
I bought an older 7 inch tablet AT+T tablet just to use as a large GPS , you do not need cell service for the GPS to work.
stay safe
I dont use a tablet often but have a Samsung Galaxy Note 2014 Edition (SM-P600 32GB). Use it a couple times out in the field for pdf's but mostly my kids watch youtube on it.
Seems to work great. Had a refurb unit for years which my better half may or may not have left out in the rain. I replaced it with a $71 unit from ebay. Works great and plenty available on the bay.
EDIT: Just checked and I'm running Android 5.1.1 on the tablet with no update available as of today.
