After arriving a while ago at the conclusion that the best option for reading comics/manga is a full-sized tablet instead of e-ink based devices, got an 8’ Samsung tablet for not much. It serves the purpose but even with Blokada in it blocking everything it can, and every “privacy” option tuned to as closed as possible, i suspect it’s still leaking TONS of data, and would like to root it if there’s good choices for it. Do we have at least decent choices for Android tablets now in 2025? I search for this and people focus on phones with little to no attention to tablets

    • marcie (she/her)
      0•3 months ago

      There are android e ink tablets with good battery life. I haven’t had the chance to flash one though

  • @catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
    0•3 months ago

    Is LineageOS available for it? I have a Samsung tablet I reflashed and I’ve been quite happy with it. Battery life isn’t great, but it mostly lives in my bedroom, so not much of a problem.

  • @jetsetdorito@lemm.ee
    0•3 months ago

    I really tried to find a good 8” one but they just don’t exist. The S5e or Pixel Tablet with Lineage OS is probably the best privacy friendly android tablet you’ll find. I wanted something smaller than my S5e, I gave up and got an iPad mini 6.

  • monovergent 🛠️
    0•3 months ago

    The Pixel Tablet with GrapheneOS is the gold standard, but there’s even more than just the tablets with LineageOS support if you are adventurous.

    I was gifted a Samsung Tab A7 Lite, which is without LineageOS support. However, I’ve been able to flash TrebleDroid Generic System Images (GSI), which are vanilla AOSP images modified to support as many devices as possible. They come with no Google apps or services.

    Nearly everything works as expected, performance is much better, and battery life is unchanged. I can even run Android 15 smoothly when Samsung will end support for my tablet with Android 14. If anyone wants a writeup to the best of my memory, feel free to reply.

  • ProdigalFrogEnglish
    0•3 months ago

    AFAIK, GrapheneOS supports the Pixel Tablet, which is probably the only truly secure android tablet on the market.

    If you’re willing to sacrifice some UX, there are some Linux tablets. A cheaper option could be a 2-in-1 chromebook that allows installing Linux.

    Otherwise, you could try to degoogle your Samsung tablet by installing LineageOS on it, if it’s supported.

    • @bad_news@lemmy.billiam.net
      0•3 months ago

      Graphene on a Pixel Tablet is great, and Orion Viewer on FDroid is a passable, albeit not ideal comic reader (it does tend to not do certain cbz’s at random for some reason tho)

  • UlrichEnglish
    0•3 months ago

    What are you using to read comics, and is it available for Linux?

    • @jherazob@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      0•3 months ago

      On Android i use Perfect Viewer, and on Linux i use Mcomix straight off the APT repositories. Quite willing to switch if better alternatives appear though.

      • UlrichEnglish
        0•3 months ago

        Yeah unfortunately most Android devices come with locked bootloaders, especially Samsung, so I think you’d have to consider different hardware.

        You could consider a PineTab? Or a JingPad, if you can find a used one (the company went under). Or if you really wanna dig deep and get a badass tablet, the MinisForum V3 seems to work well with Linux.