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[Sappho]

I've been persuaded that, despite my hatred of touch screens, I need to get a tablet. It will primarily be used for video calls on Skype (video only - sign language conversations - so audio doesn't matter but video quality does) and some games. I know that I want Android, and I know I don't want anything super expensive. I'm hoping not to go over 2500 or maybe 3000 kc - I give you the price in local currency because I already know where to buy it, and they have everything online:

https://www.alza.cz/tablets-google-android/18852425.htm

(It should be in English - if not, click the flag in the upper-right corner and change it.)

I really don't know what I should be looking for. I suppose the most important thing is a decent-quality camera, though I suspect that will cost me. I have no idea how to judge the quality of cameras though. I know cheap cameras have a really blurry picture when you move quickly, and that would be really annoying for sign-language video calls. Can anyone make any recommendations? On instinct (never having owned and hardly ever having even touched a tablet or smartphone), I'd probably buy an Acer, since my computer is an Acer and it's been excellent with zero problems since I bought it. But I have no idea if their tablets are such high quality.

I hope to buy one within the next couple of days. Any and all advice is most welcome. Thanks guys!

EDIT: Okay, I think I'm giving up on it being cheap. It looks like to have a decent camera, I need to pay more like 6000. It's worth that to me if it's really good quality and will last me, though I'll have to watch my expenses for a while... This one is looking promising. Any thoughts? https://www.alza.cz/EN/nvidia-shield-tablet-k1-d3810310.htm?catid=18852425

[helmacon]

kc = Czech Koruna?

[Sappho]

kc = Czech Koruna?

Koruná Česká, indeed. Czech crowns.

[Sappho]

No one, huh? Shucks. I thought for sure someone here would have some suggestions. Well, I've ordered the NVIDIA one. It has pretty stellar reviews. It's not cheap (along with case, stylus and charger it'll cost almost as much as my Xbox) but hopefully it will be worth the money. Just waiting for it to be shipped to the store where I can pay and pick it up... Should be ready tomorrow. I'm excited but terrified. I've avoided buying one of these for ages in no small part because I know I'll end up playing games every second of every day... But it'll be worth it for the ease of video calls without needing my computer, and also the higher quality camera, since the one I've been using to record sign language videos isn't very good...

Wish me luck, everyone!

[Tellemurius]

Honestly that is probably the best tablet you can get your hands on these days. Google doesn't sell a 200 dollar tablet anymore and their 9in is very bland. Nvidia has been pushing hard for their android line (even though they do not have a phone anymore) and its very great for portable gaming.

[ChairmanPoo]

You mean a Nexus?

I have one. I'd advise avoiding because they have no external microsd card slot... which makes it a pain if you want to switch your data around..

[BigD145]

China is coming out with some decent Android and hybrid Android/Windows tablets. Banggood has some good prices. https://www.youtube.com/user/hendrickson/videos

[Sappho]

I got the tablet, it's been working great, but today it updated itself and suddenly the Wifi stopped working. Well, the Wifi still seems to work, but it no longer sees my network. At all. It doesn't show up in the list. Everything else nearby still shows up, and I can still see my home Wifi network using my laptop's Wifi. But my tablet simply refuses to see it. I've tried restarting everything several times - no luck. What the HELL is going on here? It saw the network fine right before it updated - that's how it downloaded the frigging update. Any ideas on how to fix this?

EDIT: Okay, I finally managed to get it working. I had to change the channel selection from 12 to 6, for whatever frigging reason. Anyway it seems to be working now. Hooray for technology, making our lives easier...

[wierd]

ewww.. your wifi router is sitting on default channel 6?

So many people do that. It is a terrible idea. The Wifi spec has channel assignments in the 2.4ghz band for a reason-- to help keep devices and networks from shouting over each other and bringing them to a crawl.

Grab something like netstumbler or inSSIDer, and see how many wifi networks are typicallly fighting over channel 6 some time. Once you see it, you will want to put your router's network on a less busy channel, I guarantee it.

[Sappho]

ewww.. your wifi router is sitting on default channel 6?

So many people do that. It is a terrible idea. The Wifi spec has channel assignments in the 2.4ghz band for a reason-- to help keep devices and networks from shouting over each other and bringing them to a crawl.

Grab something like netstumbler or inSSIDer, and see how many wifi networks are typicallly fighting over channel 6 some time. Once you see it, you will want to put your router's network on a less busy channel, I guarantee it.

I have no idea what any of that means. By default, the router was set at 12, and my tablet wouldn't see the network at all. After hours of googling I finally found a suggestion to switch to channel 6. Tried it, and the network showed up instantly. Works fine now. There isn't much wifi traffic around here, so I doubt it will make a difference if other networks are using the same channel.

[Thief^]

Wifi channels in the 2.4 GHz band are horrible, they all overlap each other. The general recommendation is to only use 1, 6, and 11 (they don't overlap)*.
12 is a channel not available in all countries, did you install a USA update on a tablet from another country? That would have blocked use of channel 12 by the tablet.

* that recommendation actually dates from 802.11b, for wifi G and N it's actually better to use channels 1, 5, 9, and 13. This gives 4 usable channels instead of three, if you're outside of the USA (where channel 13 is disallowed). In the US there's no point changing the recommendation, as it's 3 channels either way.

[Tellemurius]

Yea you must have installed an US update or Nvidia were idiots and didn't built a separate driver. 

[Sappho]

I have no idea where the update came from, all I know is when I turned on my tablet for the first time (here in Prague), it started downloading an update to Android, and after it installed and rebooted, it could no longer see the wifi on channel 12. It didn't say anything about it being US. So I dunno, maybe it's one of the things you guys are talking about. But in any case, it works now, fortunately. And I haven't had any problems so far finding networks in public places or at work. Here's hoping it stays that way. Especially since I really don't know anything whatsoever about how this stuff works - all I know how to do is log into my router and change the precise settings people tell me to, but I don't know what they mean. The last time I learned anything about networking was an introduction to Cisco systems course I took in high school... 13 years ago.

The tablet was bought in Prague and offered all standard European languages including Czech when I first booted it up, and all the reviews I've found for it are European. And during my Googling I didn't find any references to people in Europe having problems finding the wifi after updating. So... No idea.