Tablet recommendations for the PractiScore app for Android

As with many things, there isn’t an ideal Android device. You have to make your own compromises and decide based on your budget, weather conditions in your area, bright sunlight, temperature (extreme hot and cold), heavy rains and length of your matches.

Not recommended anymore. The Nook Simple Touch (NST) e-reader from B&N was a popular option, due to a long-lasting battery, great visibility in a bright sun light and the price. Though some users didn’t like the slow screen refresh and found infra-red Nook’s touch screen harder to use, comparing to capacitive touch screens. NST devices also don’t have access to Google or Amazon app stores and required some manual setup (aka rooting) to get it running, as well as updating PractiScore app installed on device. This 6…8 years old device also runs 9…10 years old Android version 2.1.3 and it become hard to maintain compatibility of PractiScore app with this device.

The PractiScore app 1.6.x is last version working on NST devices.

Many PractiScore users choose to use a more modern tablets. You don’t need a high screen resolution, but a good screen brightness and battery capacity 4000mAh and better are things to look for, as well as Android version 7 or higher, to make sure it will be able to access Google or Amazon app store in the coming years.

Regular tablets don’t have the same visibility in a bright sun light compared to with e-ink display, but you can attach a shade lid to device to help with that.

Our live app stats don’t show exact device model names, but Amazon and Samsung devices are leading in popularity. The current minimum required Android version is 4.2, but you should prefer a newer Android 6…7 to prolong supported lifetime of your devices.

For Amazon Fire tablets the Fire HD 8 tablet is a good choice. If you want cheaper device, you can also try the Fire 7 (not as good screen and battery comparing to Fire HD 8). For your master device you can also check the Fire HD 10 tablet. These devices you could often find on sale during Amazon Prime Day event, as well as on various seasonal sale days (Black Friday, etc).

Note the Amazon tablets have the Amazon Appstore (PractiScore app is available there out of the box), but you can install Google Play Services and the Google Play using these instructions or you can also use the Fire Toolbox to install them.

Samsung TabA 8″ is more money and has somewhat better Screen and battery life. Other models TabA 7, TabE 7, Tab4 7″, Tab3 7″ also worked good. I recommend to stay away from the “Lite” versions of these devices.

Lenovo also has some budget tablets with comparable specs. For example, the Lenovo Tab M8.

Finally, a good alternative to a tablet used for a PractiScore master device is a Chromebook with Google Play support. Full list of Chromebooks with support of Google Play can be found on the Chromium web site. You can run PractiScore app for Android on those devices. All in all this device is attractive for registering competitors, creating stages, entering briefings and managing the match. Admittedly it won’t be a good device to enter scores, because of the attached keyboard getting in a way, even when folded back (on devices that support that).

Most new Chromebooks are using internal network interface that may affecting syncing over wifi for PractiScore app. See more details how to troubleshoot Sync with PractiScore app for Android running on Chromebook.

Here are few examples:

For those running Amazon Fire tablets, Fire Toolbox is a great tool for removing bloatware and greatly extending battery life (doubling in our case). Later generations have much brighter screens.

I’ve been watching various e-ink tablets that run full android get introduced over the last couple years, but so far they’ve all been prohibitively expensive.

Guys any experience with the Samsung TAB A7 Lite?
Since it’s the only 8-9" tablet thats readily available at the moment in Europe.

@randy_verbeeck may depend on the generation/year of those tablets and if they have bunch of non-removable bloatware preinstalled or not.

I’ve seen some slow-ish performance on some of the yearly generations of Samsung Lite tablets (cheaper/slower CPU, smaller RAM memory). But the specs have been bumped up since then. Other users reported that they like them and they work fine with the PraciScore apps. You could also check out the Lenovo’s Idea Pad tablets that reportedly performed well.

In any case I’d suggest to get device and try it out for a week or so before buying multiple tablets. Return it if it doesn’t perform well and look for other alternatives.