HACKER Q&A
📣 josefresco

Best cheap tablet for home dashboard


I built a little web application for my home showing today's calendar, weather etc.

I was using an old iPad for display but noticed today the battery swelling.

Any recommendations for a cheap Android tablet (10 inch) that's only purpose will be to show a very simple PWA?

I've found a few in the $40-$60 range but they're all generic brands.

  👤 leakycap Accepted Answer ✓
If this device will be sitting on your home network constantly, I'd be considering another device from a trustworthy brand that gets updates.

If it shows the same thing constantly, I wouldn't want OLED.

An iPad (basic) 8th gen or newer is still supported by the next OS release and likely will last longer than a generic device.

It would likely be worth buying a tablet from a large brand with good battery controls & settings like battery life longevity management. I'd recommend using a smart outlet to cycle the tablet on and off of battery regularly in addition to using the 80% battery rules.

👤 369548684892826
I've found Samsung A9 to be good for this. After enabling developer settings you can make it so the screen never turns off as long as it's plugged in. Plus there's an option to not keep the battery at 100% charge so it's less likely to swell up. Some models come with more RAM than others, it's probably worth paying the extra to get at least 8GB.