What tablet to play EE games?

Franskvinna

Hi all! After a long break, I'd like to get back to playing the Extended Editions and finally get into Siege of Dragonspear - on tablet. So far I've played on my trusty second-hand Lenovo IdeaPad, but the meager 16 Gb storage is nearly full and the battery doesn't really last more than a few hours anymore. Also, it gets really hot after a few hours (what? you're not supposed to play for several hours?).
I'm considering upgrading in case I cannot get an extra SD card in there, just so I could even think of installing SoD and PST:EE. I'd like to stay on Android and I'm considering the two tablets in the poll. Would love to hear if anyone has been playing Beamdog games on either of those, if the games run smoothly, if there are know playability issues with either, and if you'd recommend one over the other. Thanks!

JuliusBorisov

Hello, @Franskvinna , and welcome to the forum.

Our CTO would pick the Samsung.

Franskvinna

Well, if I'd be taking advice from someone, then that definitely would be the CTO's advice. Samsung it is! Or will be, whenever I retire the good ole Ideapad. It seems I can fit an extra SD card in there, so it might buy it some time. Thank you!

Franskvinna

I'll be damned! Got myself a SD card, happily fit it in, went to the Play Store, and... no Siege of Dragonspear, because my tablet is not compatible with OpenGL ES 3.0.

Just out of curiosity, I read a little about it and 3.0 is apparently supported on Android only from 4.3 onwards, but the requirements on the SoD website mention "4.1 or newer" - wouldn't anything between 4.1 and 4.3 not work anyway?

Gusinda

Hi @Franskvinna, did the other BG games work?

What is the model number for your tablet and what version of Android are you running. If you aren't sitting on the latest, I would update. Hopefully you aren't on 4.1 as I would have thought somewhere around 8.x for the current models.

If it is the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.5 SM-T590N and has the Qualcomm Adreno 506 Graphics adapter, then according to the specs, it should support up to OpenGL ES 3.2 (or at least 3.1 depending on which document you read).

Gus

Franskvinna

Hi!

I'm still using my old tablet, not the Galaxy Tab that I'm considering purchasing sometime soon.

The old tablet is a Lenovo IdeaTab S6000L-F from 2013, Android version 4.2.2, so I assume this is where it falls short of the system requirements for SoD, because OpenGL ES 3.0 is only compatible with Android from 4.3 onwards - which makes me wonder why the SoD website indicates that SoD runs on "Android 4.1 and newer", even though 4.1 (or 4.2 for that matter) are not supposed to be compatible (as far as I've understood, but I might be wrong?) with OpenGL ES 3.0, which is a requirement as well?
Just curious about the seeming contradiction in the Android requirements on the SoD website.

(On the IdeaTab, BG:EE, BGII:EE and IWD:EE run just fine, and I seem to be able to install and run PST:EE as well, but SoD does not appear in the Play Store app, and via browser the SoD Play Store page indicates "not compatible with your device". Can't get any system updates on it anymore, at least from the tablet's settings page's System upgrade menu, so it'll be for the next tablet.)

Gusinda

@Franskvinna, gottcha. Sorry about that. I thought that you had already bought.

Can't speak to the SOD working on 4.2.x as I didn't get it until recently and I am now on 6.0.1. One thought would be to flash an updated custom ROM onto the Lenovo but I am unsure of any that exist or whiich one to recommend. I have no probs doing the Samsung but have never played with an Android Lenovo.

I would have thought, probably like yourself, that if the other games work fine, then there should be no reason that SOD doesn't. Maybe it was a condition from the past when the BG screen was black screening on 1.3.x?

Prax

I've been using a Samsung Tab S 8.4. Fantastic amoled screen, but they are not really obtainable any more.

My tablet recently broke, so I've ordered a Tab S2 9.7. Its an older tablet now, but still has an amazing amoled screen. Black Friday prices are very good.

Amazon has both the Tab A you listed above and the Tab S 9.7 for the same price right now. Take my advice, the Tab S has a FAR better screen and would be a much better tablet to buy.

What sort of budget range are you looking at?

Franskvinna

@Gusinda, no worries, I think I'll let this old tablet take a break (it's from 2013 and we bought it second-hand already). I'd have also thought that the sysreqs would be the same using the same engine, but apparently not.

@Prax, thank you for the recommendation! (Is your nick a The Expanse reference, btw?)
Isn't the menu button on the screen AND the side a hassle on the Samsung tablet? The Lenovo has it on the top edge and I still manage to turn off the screen once in a while. Budget-wise, eh, around 300€ tops (or dollars, it's about the same for now). I've just seen good sales for the S2, but I might wait until after christmas for good second-hand tablets.