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What are best 7"-8" tablets for displaying photos ?

Started 4 months ago | Discussions
Flycoop Regular Member • Posts: 279
What are best 7"-8" tablets for displaying photos ?

No text.

jan pawlak Contributing Member • Posts: 732
Re: What are best 7"-8" tablets for displaying photos ?

A tablet from the same company as your smartphone would be best

jp

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OP Flycoop Regular Member • Posts: 279
Re: What are best 7"-8" tablets for displaying photos ?

Thanks. I take pictures with a Olympus camera and post process on a PC. What I'm really looking for is a small (7-8") tablet with a good screen with reasonably accurate color rendition on which I can view and show folks my shots. I'm looking for a real tablet, not a digital picture frame. Also, good storage capacity is helpful.

I2K4
I2K4 Senior Member • Posts: 1,441
Re: What are best 7"-8" tablets for displaying photos ?

Sadly the 8" format is getting rare but there is still a range of choices. The information about your use case is helpful - the question about phone brand is very relevant if you're in Apple versus Android ecosystems. Nice that Apple seems to have issued a new 8"er this year, and maybe that will goose the industry.

For Android, my inexpensive and rock solid but aging Lenovo works for travel display and light editing (mainly Snapseed and the very good Photo Mate R3), mainly with phone shots, leaving anything ambitious for PC. For dealing with large RAWs and more demanding apps like Photo Mate or Adobe products that will import proprietary camera formats, I'd be comparing specs and checking user forums. I personally avoid MediaTek processors (sluggish regardless of paper stats) with much better experience of Qualcomm 6 series, but understand Samsung's chips also work well. Would want 4GB of RAM at minimum - again the smaller tablets tend to be underpowered for serious work. You might want to just try out app editing on a phone to work out how things are done and whether you're up for it.

I blame the advent of profitable folding phones (sell for 3x the price with a crease across the screen) for poor selection of small tablets. Have to admit I'm reluctantly looking at living with an unwanted 10" tablet when I replace the Lenovo.

OP Flycoop Regular Member • Posts: 279
Re: What are best 7"-8" tablets for displaying photos ?

Thanks. I got a Galaxy Tab A7 Lite 8.7 to use mainly for travel. I'm currently using a 2nd Gen Nexus 7 which barely meets my needs but is getting pretty old and quirky. I figured the Galaxy would be a nice upgrade and it was $100. I really plan to do minimal editing (I'm pretty happy with the prehistoric editing on my Nexus) and I do post stuff on lightroom when I get home. However, I do need software (an app?) to facilitate viewing and organizing (and minor editing). What do you recommend given the limitations of this tablet?

I also want to add a micro sd card for more storage. How big a card should I get? They're pretty cheap. I was thinking 128 or 256 GB (512?). Is there a downside to having too large a card? Does the storage on the card work similarly to the internal storage?

Thanks for all your help.

Ken Gosden Veteran Member • Posts: 3,025
Re: What are best 7"-8" tablets for displaying photos ?

The standard photos app sold be fine for viewing.  I would suggest snapseed for fairly capable editing.

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I2K4
I2K4 Senior Member • Posts: 1,441
Re: What are best 7"-8" tablets for displaying photos ?

Flycoop wrote:

Thanks. I got a Galaxy Tab A7 Lite 8.7 to use mainly for travel. I'm currently using a 2nd Gen Nexus 7 which barely meets my needs but is getting pretty old and quirky. I figured the Galaxy would be a nice upgrade and it was $100. I really plan to do minimal editing (I'm pretty happy with the prehistoric editing on my Nexus) and I do post stuff on lightroom when I get home. However, I do need software (an app?) to facilitate viewing and organizing (and minor editing). What do you recommend given the limitations of this tablet?

I'd agree with above that the Samsung gallery app might be fine for viewing, and Google's Snapseed app is pretty powerful for DNGs and JPEG editing. If you plan to import and process the proprietary RAWs from your Olympus, you might look at either Photo Mate R3 or Adobe - both offer free trials with limited functionality, but would allow you to test out on your tablet. With Adobe Lightroom on desktop it seems logical to try on the tablet, and cloud service etc. could simplify workflow.

A simple free viewer I use for RAW and other unusual files without editing is File Viewer for Android , which says it supports *.orf RAWs among others.

I also want to add a micro sd card for more storage. How big a card should I get? They're pretty cheap. I was thinking 128 or 256 GB (512?). Is there a downside to having too large a card? Does the storage on the card work similarly to the internal storage?

There's no downside to a larger microSD card aside from price relative to quality - be sure to get a Class 10 card from a reputable manufacturer - I'm not up to date on all the extra high speed card specifications, but your tablet is limited anyway- I haven't had trouble with Lexar, Kingston, or Sandisk brand cards, and Samsung makes good ones.

I don't know about Samsung, but I found my Lenovo works pretty well with Android "adoptable storage" that unifies the card storage with internal storage- if supported Android should prompt on new card insertion or there will be a Settings / Storage option to format that way. You should web search before deciding to do it. The main upside is not having to fool around with separate "internal" and "external" storage locations and that you can install apps as well as data using the expanded card storage. But the downside is it encrypts the microSD card so it is not removable or usable outside the tablet, and any data on it will be lost if the tablet is broken. There can be a performance hit reading the unified adoptable storage on some devices - if it doesn't work well you'd have to factory reset the tablet as well as reformat the microSD to get them back to normal. With ordinary separate storage the card can be popped out any time and read on other devices.

Thanks for all your help.

Good luck with the new tablet, and have fun.

OP Flycoop Regular Member • Posts: 279
Re: What are best 7"-8" tablets for displaying photos ?

Thanks folks. I really appreciate your help.

yanisha Senior Member • Posts: 2,630
Re: What are best 7"-8" tablets for displaying photos ?
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Patrick T. Kelly Veteran Member • Posts: 4,629
Re: What are best 7"-8" tablets for displaying photos ?

I had a Lenovo Duet with a 10.1 screen and got an HP X2 with an 11" screen. Both worked fine and I liked having the attachable keyboard.

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Patrick T. Kelly
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The Point and Shoot Pro
The Point and Shoot Pro Veteran Member • Posts: 3,029
Re: What are best 7"-8" tablets for displaying photos ?
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I have both the Samsung A7 lite and the fire HD. The two screens could not be more different. The Samsung has a bright vibrant screen whereas the Fire HD has a dull screen that is "ok" for consumption. Samsung just makes images look that much better. The Samsung is a great tablet for doing most things and I enjoy it alot.

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