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HomeHomeDiscussionsDiscussionsiFly GPS for An...iFly GPS for An...Which Android tablet to buy?Which Android tablet to buy?
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10/17/2016 4:36 PM
 
I had a 2013 Nexus 7 and it worked very well. I liked it a lot. An iPad Mini 2 Wi-Fi only would be a good option for a lower cost IOS device.
 
New Post
10/17/2016 7:12 PM
 

I'm not going to mention a particular model but rather specs to look for.

Bigger screen is better, as is Golden Ratio aspect ratio. I have a 9 inch 3:2 tablet and I think it's the best for iFly presentation. Lots of room to display stuff in Landscape. And, when in Portrait for Plates, its display is 1 for 1. No scrolling Plates up and down.

I have an 8 inch, 4:3 that I also use in Portrait. It's fine, but I wish it were 9 inches for Plates. (A 10 inch would be nicer, but too big for our cockpit.)

Brightness. You need a tablet that you can see in your plane with all the reflections/sunlight/etc. My 9 incher is 525 nits with a polarized screen. I would like it if it were a little brighter, but it's always been readable in the cockpit. My 8 incher is down at 380, non-polarized. It's good most of the time, but I think the old Nexus' are brighter. I read that the new Samsung Tab S2 with its AMOLED is good in sunlight. (But expensive.)

You want to check if your screen is polarized, because if you wear polarized sunglasses, that will limit which way you can use your tablet. (Portrait or Landscape. We can only use my 9 inch in landscape when wearing sun glasses.)

I don't think RAM matters much anymore with most up to 16GB or more. But an external SD slot is nice and there's a free Android app that can put iFly on the ext card if necessary.

Update: Look for a tablet that the xda-developers have already rooted. You might not want to root right away. But even if you don't install a custom ROM, there are a lot of things that you can do rooted that really improve tablet performance. (E.g., on my 8 incher, I'm running OEM ROM but rooted. Root has allowed me to debloat the OS to the point that I can go for days without battery drain in standby. Debloating makes things go faster too.)

Update 2: Price equal or less than $200? That way you can buy two of them for IFR. (Backup and one for Plates and one for Nav.)

 
New Post
10/17/2016 7:25 PM
 
If I was in the market for a new tablet, I would buy an iPad Pro 9.7.
 
New Post
10/17/2016 7:38 PM
 

I second the Nexus 7, it is a great tablet.

 
New Post
10/18/2016 12:57 PM
 

Thanks for the user reports and suggestions. I have a place to start my research now.

My issue wth the iPad Wi-Fi is that when I build a flight plan on it, I can't share it with the Android phone or the iFly 740 (via the Sratux Wi-Fi network), while I can share it from the phone or 740 between those two, but not with the iPad.

The iPad does receive weather and traffic from the Stratux and can monitor the Stratux status via the web page, so it is successfully connected.

After having to de-select airport photos at the last update due to the lack of storage, I'm fed up with it and will be replacing it in the cockpit.

I can't read the iFly with polarized sunglasses, so I don't wear them. I do find that with the tablet in the right front window and the iFly in the left front window, if one has too much sun (not much of an issue now with the 740), the other is readable.

The phone is handy for a quick frequency lookup for alternative airports, etc., as I can remove it from it's mount (center of the panel) and hold it close enough to read.

 
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HomeHomeDiscussionsDiscussionsiFly GPS for An...iFly GPS for An...Which Android tablet to buy?Which Android tablet to buy?