Hi! I’m looking for a privacy respecting Android tablet.
I ruled out the google tablet due to it being too expensive with an LCD screen
I would prefer a nice OLED screen if possible (or similar), and preferably cheap. Must be able to stream HEVC encoded videos (not 10 years old hardware), and preferably more (VP9, AV1, for future proofing)
The main use will be to watch content (movies, series, videos) from YouTube and Jellyfin, and sometimes some other apps if they’re not enforcing the Play Integrity API
So far I’ve searched some OS and I’m considering LineageOS or /e/OS, with /e/OS looking better in terms of privacy. Don’t want google to track everywhere I go and everything I do.
Any recommendations for good cheap hardware with bootloader unlocking, and recommendations for a good Android ROM?
I’m getting on very well with the Samsung Galaxy Tab A7, on which I run LineageOS; although a later model or something from the S-series may be more performant. I wrote this blog post about it.
I love LineageOS, but on this machine the bootloader cannot be re-locked and there will probably be someone about to reply to this comment explaining why LineageOS is insecure or whatever. Also, Samsung devices require that you have a Windows PC in order to flash ROMs, as you have to use Odin instead of fastboot.
Also, it’s worth noting that, while /e/ is slightly superior from a privacy perspective, it is potentially less secure, as it sometimes takes months for the team to apply patches from upstream. Lineage, meanwhile, only takes a few days or weeks.
It possibly does work under Wine, but I didn’t want to risk soft-bricking my tablet (which happened anyway, but that was because I didn’t let the download finish before flashing).
How do you do with Play Services? Did you install the proprietary stuff or installed MicroG (or just don’t run GPServices at all)? is it easy?
I was also worried a bit about the updates. They seem to take time and most of the stuff is community releases only. Coming from GrapheneOS, so that shocks me a bit
I used to use MicroG, which was quite easy, but I don’t actually have any Play Services implementation installed nowadays. I use my phone for GPS and things that would require it, so I just keep my tablet clean.
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I’m getting on very well with the Samsung Galaxy Tab A7, on which I run LineageOS; although a later model or something from the S-series may be more performant. I wrote this blog post about it.
I love LineageOS, but on this machine the bootloader cannot be re-locked and there will probably be someone about to reply to this comment explaining why LineageOS is insecure or whatever. Also, Samsung devices require that you have a Windows PC in order to flash ROMs, as you have to use Odin instead of
fastboot.Also, it’s worth noting that, while /e/ is slightly superior from a privacy perspective, it is potentially less secure, as it sometimes takes months for the team to apply patches from upstream. Lineage, meanwhile, only takes a few days or weeks.
I am also running Lineage on Tab 7, but iirc, I flashed it using Linux only.
Edit - i just checked and yes it does require Odin. I don’t remember using windows for this. Does it work using wine?
It possibly does work under Wine, but I didn’t want to risk soft-bricking my tablet (which happened anyway, but that was because I didn’t let the download finish before flashing).
You might have used Heimdall, https://github.com/Benjamin-Dobell/Heimdall, the open source Odin alternative 😉.
How do you do with Play Services? Did you install the proprietary stuff or installed MicroG (or just don’t run GPServices at all)? is it easy?
I was also worried a bit about the updates. They seem to take time and most of the stuff is community releases only. Coming from GrapheneOS, so that shocks me a bit
I used to use MicroG, which was quite easy, but I don’t actually have any Play Services implementation installed nowadays. I use my phone for GPS and things that would require it, so I just keep my tablet clean.