7" Tablets

Blind_Io

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I am strongly considering a 7" tablet that would serve double duty doing the things you expect in a tablet and also handling navigation in the XTerra. My current GPS unit is pretty old and Garmin isn't updating the maps for it anymore. With the new generation of online mapping, a tablet simply seems like a more functional option - plus I can download all the USGS maps I want for less than $20.

Requirements:
  • I'd like to stick to 7", just because of space in the cabin.
  • MicroSD memory. The more storage it can handle, the better.
  • GPS is a must. I can't navigate off-grid without GPS.
  • I'd like it to be able to connect to the Verizon network, but I can always link it to my phone via WiFi if I really need to.

I plan to use a RAM mount, so this won't be connected permanently to the car. It will also have a charging cable to keep the battery topped up while I'm driving. I was looking at the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 7.0 today, which seems like it checks most the boxes and can handle up to 200Gb on the SDCard; but I'm wondering if there is anything else I should consider?

EDIT: Oh, I forgot to mention, I'm not interested in the iPad. I don't have anything else from Apple except my old iPod Classic and I'd rather stick with Android so I can use all the apps I've already purchased.
 
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Admittedly it is nearly twice the size of what you would prefer, but what about a Surface Pro? The LTE version has GPS I believe (and a third party solution can use any Windows compatible unit). My department loans these out to faculty and they love them. It has a fully functional Windows installed so applications shouldn't be an issue.
 
One option would be the Shield K1. It's not 7" but 8", with a negligible difference in size from the venerable ASUS Nexus 7:
2016-11-02%2008.58.04.jpg

It's got an SD slot, GPS built in, and the older Shield tablets also came with a wireless modem.
 
The current state of android tablets is very sad indeed, it seems like all of the development resources moved towards phones as the tablet market plateau'd. Nvidia has actually cancelled a successor to the Shield. Also working against your requirements, none of the best non-chinesium tablets on the market are 7".

If you want a tablet with current-ish specs you'll have to go up to 8.0", where your options seem to be either the aforementioned Shield K1 and the Samsung Galaxy tab S2. (links go to the GSMArena page for each device) if you simply must have a 7" tablet, you're locked in to things like the Huawei MediaPad X2, which seems to fit all your criteria but in personal experience Huawei devices have kinda been hit-or-miss (other people may have additional feedback on this.) , or older devices such as the Nexus 7 2013.
 
Looks like 8" is what it will have to be. I guess 7" tablets have been pushed out by the larger phones.

I'm sure I can make an 8" work, it will just be a little larger than I would like. I can get used to it, and I'm sure that I will be more than happy with that extra inch of screen size when I'm watching movies on a plane or trying to read a topo map around the camp.

Thanks for the help, I'm going to try to get my hands on some of these you recommended and see how they feel in person. I also realized that I can get a bluetooth OBDII port and link the tablet to it so I can monitor the car more closely when I'm traveling.
 
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The current state of android tablets is very sad indeed, it seems like all of the development resources moved towards phones as the tablet market plateau'd. Nvidia has actually cancelled a successor to the Shield. Also working against your requirements, none of the best non-chinesium tablets on the market are 7".

This. All the tablets here under 250 euros still have 1280x800 resolution and 1GB of RAM. So I picked up a 2012 Nexus 7 from a friend that wasn't using it anymore. It's not super fast but it's good for watching shows and browsing reddit at night.
 
I was going to suggest maybe a Android Auto headunit but I don't know if the special GPS apps and BT OBD II apps you'd use would support it - if you didn't need those two things, it'd be a good compromise. But it's expensive.

I will say that good luck finding a budget wi-fi Android tablet with GPS - your best bet may be to go after the 4G enabled ones - they'll always have a GPS just due to the radio chipset.
 
Yeah, I'm learning that. I will probably do an LTE one so I can also get live traffic on it and swap out maps on the road if needed.
 
Don't forget with android that you can use a USB hub and thumb drives. I was given a nexus 7 2012 recently. I use sygic with downloadable maps for street navigation, and use it for music and podcasts. I just mounted it with a cheap magnetic mount from autozone. I rooted it with cyanogenmod so it wouldn't have so mych bloatware on it. Not a fast tablet, but you can get them online for fairly reasonable and they do the above well enough.
 
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