Despite the disappointing news that there will be no offline Android version of Skritter (at least for a long time), I still can't bring myself to buy an iPad. What's a good Android tablet for Skritter? I'm planning on using a Stylus to write. Most important features are snappy input response and good battery life. Price is somewhat important, and weight is irrelevant. Thanks!

Don't get a Gemei G9 (from China) as I've tried it with a stylus and it's not great, jagged lines and doesn't always register, but with finger it's fine, so maybe it's just the rubber tip of the stylus isn't good enough or something. Also the stylus produces jagged lines on my Motorola DEFY so maybe it's not just that tablet, but the nature of styli in general. So maybe you should confine yourself to a tablet that comes with a digitizer layer built into the screen, or something that comes with it's own stylus. BTW Do you have Pleco?

I have not used Pleco. From what I understand it's good for review but doesn't let you practice writing like Skritter does.

@smikes Actually there is a handwritten test in Pleco if you pay for both the Flashcard and Handwriting extensions (one time payment), although I think the quality of the tests, both aesthetically and objectively, currently is far short of what Skritter offers.

The only one I've used is the 7" Samsung Galaxy Tab, which is pretty good, although it has the usual Skritter on Android limitations.

P.S. it looks like the recent versions of the 7" have a more recent version of Android than the one I've used. Presumably that means it's better, but try it first to see how it runs. You may need to download the Flash plugin from the Market.

Honestly, if you go with any non-Apple tablet on the market you are going to come up to limitations in the hardware and software that are purposefully there to make the product cheaper and more competitive with the iPad. This will probably annoy you, as it annoys most other consumers (presumably you want to do more than just Skritter as well, so the annoyance will build). Apple is the most expensive, but it's probably the only tablet out there that in my opinion won't leave you feeling like you wasted your money. You could always get a first-gen iPad and save some money, and it will still outperform just about everything else.

Take that with a grain of salt because I don't currently own any tablets, but that's my opinion from using several/reading reviews and a general knowledge of software and hardware.

in Taiwan right now the iPad three (aka The New Ipad, I mean, what? lol) is cheaper than the high end Android tabs, iPad three starts at 15500NT dollars whilst the high end Asus or Samsung will set you back around 17000...

I'm actually thinking of getting an iPod touch to use the app... does look nice in the video...

though looking, actually an iPad two would be a better deal as it's only 12500NT (about 420usd, so slightly more expensive than in the US) right now :D

I don't know how they do it, but actually the iPad has always slightly undercut the best Android tabs, and it has more tabletized apps on the market too... makes an Android user want to cry...

not sure about the out performing everything else part, as the latest Android tabs pack some beef and the battery life of the iPad3 when playing videos is somewhat lackluster right now...

@russell359 They can undercut competitors because they expect their demand to be guaranteed, and thus can make very aggressive long term, high volume contracts with suppliers, which in turn helps lower cost per unit (even while they maintain massive profit margins).

Moreover, uniform design decisions further help - i.e. they only need to cut Gorilla Glass in two sizes (iPhone/iOS, iPad) and thus can negotiate on two very high volume orders as a single buyer, while dozens of Android phone producers with dozens of different screen variations each are negotiating on smaller custom orders.

No comment on whether or not iOS devices outperform others on raw power and battery life, but I think its clear they offer a superior overall experience for the majority of consumers. And for-profit app developers.

@icebear thank you for the info. that does seem to explain it!

I agree that right now, iOS does offer a better tablet experience out of the box as far as tablet app availability goes. Android developers just aren't making tablet apps...

icebear, Android does seem to continue to increase its market share. I believe 72% in the U.S. and 68% in Germany now? But I imagine that market share to be so incredibly fragmented (many different versions of Android, hardware, screen sizes, etc.) that it is simply not a very attractive proposition for a developer, unless you write something that requires only minimal screen real estate and processing power (Pleco Chinese being a case in point). Something like the Skritter app would probably not work on the majority of Android devices (half of which or more are probably those el cheapo 7" VIA WonderMedia devices or variants thereof, included for free with your choice of laundry detergent these days), but they can be 100% sure that it will work on all current iOS devices.
I have never been a big Apple fan, but a discounted or used iPad 2 seems like a no-brainer if you want something that will run both Skritter, Pleco Chinese and Anki. It may cost twice as much as an el cheapo 9.7" Android tablet, but both build quality and run time are at least twice as good, too.

@smikes: to paraphrase Monty Python: "Run away, run away!". I bought a cheap ($79) Chinese tablet and it died on me the next day. While I did get it to work again without its battery and update its firmware with a much faster ROM, its performance still left a lot to be desired. And never, at any point, was I able to properly open the Skritter website, nevermind to attempt to write. Like you, I was very hesitant to buy anything Apple but sometimes you just have to be real and purchase something that fits your needs. The iPhone and iPad are both rock solid platforms and if you find one cheap enough you should scoop it up. I do not use my iPhone to make calls - except for the occasional Skype call. I mainly use it for Pleco Chinese, to check my mail and websites while on the road. That and Google Translate, QQ, Baidu Maps and the built-in GPS for directions while in China. Soon, I will also use it to listen to podcasts and read the transcripts. In September or so, Skritter will be added to the mix. In hindsight, I should probably have bought an iPod Touch at less than half the cost, but I have no idea if it would have performed just as admirably.

I think sometimes iOS users have misconceptions about Android in the same way OSX users have misconceptions about Windows. To start with, iOS doesn't even have support Flash... Anyway, I won't discuss that.

I still don't understand why Skritter Team will not even try to make an Android App. Seems to me a very wrong business decision. Maybe they are Apple-fan-boys? (just joking)

Anyway, I still have hope that we will soon have a dedicated Android App for Skritter, or maybe a miracle will happen and the flash version of Skritter will work properly on Android.

@MingRui See 范博涵 post above, as well as mine. At the moment there is just too much fragmentation in the Android Market - plenty of articles and testimonials to read about this, which I'm sure you're aware of if you follow the whole Android-iOS spat even from a distance.

In my opinion the biggest sticking point that many developers have stated is a preference for the Apple AppStore due to the better financial situation there; customers actually WILLING to pay for apps instead of pirating them. This (closed system, DRM'ed) model is taking hold in desktop software (see Steam, Diablo 3, MS Office, etc) as well and I think Android might be noble for trying to hold out but in the end it only helps Apple.

@MingRui: if Android 4 could become more widespread (i.e. present in all devices, both low and high end) then perhaps the Skritter team could create a layout that works well for the 9.7"/10" devices, using Chrome and Flash. Someone could send the Skritter team a development tablet to make that happen. But for obvious reasons, they are focussing everything on the iOS app, and will continue to do so for some time after its release.

EDIT: Nevermind. From https://developers.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/faq:

"What version of Flash is supported on Chrome for Android?

Chrome for Android will not be supporting Flash. As you may have seen in November, 2011, Adobe announced it has stopped investing in Flash for mobile browsing. Google has long been committed to making the web platform more powerful through open web technologies like HTML5 and is working with Adobe and other partners to further advance the web standard."

All: I would point out that the original question was not "which is better, iOS or Android" but, and I quote, "what's a good Android tablet for Skritter?"

James

James, see my edit above. Mobile Flash is going the way of the dinosaur, so sooner or later there will be no way to Skritter on an Android device, unless the Skritter team comes up with an HTML5-centric solution, which will be a long way off, given that they have stated elsewhere that they will have to fully dedicate themselves to the iOS app for some time, even after its release. Hence, at this point, while there may be an Android tablet that offers acceptable Skritter performance, that performance cannot be guaranteed throughout the Skritter lifecycle. Everyone who is not willing to buy an iPod/iPhone/iPad for mobile skrittering should hold off on their decision to purchase an alternative until there is more clarity regarding the future direction of Skritter on the Android platform.

Sure, eventually. However, the original Adobe announcement said "We will continue to support the current Android and PlayBook configurations with critical bug fixes and security updates." http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/9/2548802/adobe-killing-mobile-flash-plugin-android-playbook

So it's not as if the Flash plugin is going to simply vanish off of devices where it's already installed, Adobe's just going to stop working on development and on supporting new platforms.

That means that, if he buys a current Android tablet with Flash support, it should continue to have Flash support for at least the next couple of years, which is an eternity in computer time. Eventually some bleeding-edge Android tablets probably won't run the current Skritter app, at which point the Skritter guys will need to make a decision as to whether they want to support those new tablets, but even that date is probably some ways into the indefinite future as the newest Android tablets do still support Flash. See for example

http://www.adobe.com/flashplatform/certified_devices/tablets.html#samsung

As for your negative experience with "a cheap Chinese tablet", well, that has not been my experience with the Samsung tablets or even the (intentionally-crippled) Kindle Fire.

James

@范博涵 Agreed. Alternatively, they can purchase a tablet with good performance now (probably only safe to check in person with a demo!) and plan on never upgrading that tablet to a new OS version for fear of invalidating their flash player. I personally find that alternative fairly repugnant. Especially when a used iPad 1 or iPod Touch can be had relatively cheaply.

James,

What do you use your Samsung tablet for, besides Skritter?

Well, I tried it again recently and the cheap Android tablet (Gemei G9) now supports the full flash skritter input page, which it didn't before, so I put that down to some work put in by the devs..? or maybe because I tried a different firmware. It's actually quite snappy in terms of performance and has a nice 9.7inch IPS screen. The main problem is a lack of development support for the firmware, they really only provide a very lightly modified ICS 4.3 (that is it only barely supports the device). Lots of people have had trouble with it. It takes a lot of tinkering to get it to function satisfactorily. So rather than saving money I guess I would have preferred saving time with getting something that just worked.

I authored a post that compared some Android tablets for use with Skritter http://www.skritter.com/forum/topic?id=163021627 Though as a disclaimer, I'm not using an Android tablet now and have switched over to the beta Skritter iOS app.

russel359, the G9 is just another A10 based tablet which can be had for less than 1000 RMB right now:

http://www.amazon.cn/gp/product/B007BIDO3O/ref=s9_simh_gw_p147_d0_g147_i1?pf_rd_m=A1AJ19PSB66TGU&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0D5N15X89QH65PM8DQ63&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=58223152&pf_rd_i=899254051

Last time I checked, there are plenty of third-party firmwares for these devices. If you managed to get Skritter working and its quite snappy then it might be worth considering. Although many people end up buying more than one of these due to bad quality control and whatnot. If you need to buy a more expensive device (Samsung, Asus, etc.) to get reliable quality, you may as well buy the cheaper (in that range, at least) Apple tablet if your main goal is to use it for studying Chinese. No headaches, nothing to worry about. Everything just works.

@范博涵 it's actually my wife's tablet. She uses it for all sorts of things - web browsing, playing games, playing music, various personal-data-tracking apps, etc.

I used to occasionally use the tablet as well as my Nexus One to Skritter, but as I'm on a hiatus from studying Chinese characters I haven't been doing it recently. It was nice to be able to Skritter away from home, but the lack of offline support made it somewhat limited, and in any event the Flash interface left a lot to be desired.

By the way, I found that using my finger to Skritter on the mobile devices was bad for my carpal tunnel - something about the motion was irritatng. I didn't try a stylus but imagine it would probably be more comfortable.

James

EXEC SUMMARY: Android is a no go at this time.

Like I've said above I've got the DEFY by motorola and a Gemei G9 9.7 inch tablet. They both run flash and work with the flash/mobile page for skritter. But it's a less than satisfying experience, as it's a bit slow to register strokes and just doesn't have the slickness that I've seen possible with the native app on iOS. I don't know about other devices and the mobile flash page on those, but I doubt the experience is much improved. So until a native app is on the way I personally can't recommend getting an Android tablet for skritter use at this time.

Since weight is irrelevant (see first post, and iOS is a definite no go) then why not get an 11.6 inch mini-notebook and connect it up to a bamboo?

App works awesome on iPod touch. Buy last year's model on eBay to save some $ - that's the one I'm using to test the app on. It is awesome, and you'll get it cheaper than a tablet.

I also use a stylus.