Can anybody recommend a cheap 7" tablet that works well with the mavic pro?

TerryJ · Sep 9, 2017

I need a larger screen because I'm blind but refuse to pay big bucks for a tablet. I know there are a few lower priced tablets that work perfect with the go4 app and mavic. Recommendations PLEASE!!

cderoche · Sep 9, 2017

TerryJ said:
I need a larger screen because I'm blind but refuse to pay big bucks for a tablet. I know there are a few lower priced tablets that work perfect with the go4 app and mavic. Recommendations PLEASE!!

I bought an Acer Iconia 8" tablet refurb for $62 on Amazon a few months back, and while it technically "worked" with DJI Go 4 and Litchi, I dealt with lag, many app crashes, and aircraft disconnects when far out with my Mavic. It is good to be able to fly with a bigger screen than a smartphone so you can see more, but the lag and slow tablet finally got enough of me. I have all Android stuff and am not a big Apple fan due mainly because of how locked down their products are, if you can get your hands on an Nvidia Shield tablet I hear that one works very well, since it's a gamer tablet and it's fast. DJI Go 4 and Litchi are pretty processor intensive apps with all the things going on simultaneously in them. I even tried my kids brand new Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet, it was even worse than the Acer. I'd suggest spending a few dollars on a good tablet, maybe a newer Samsung Tab 3 or something similar. You want something with a decent amount of RAM and good fast processor. I think also you may have to go to apkmirror and find an older version of DJI Go 4 in some cases if you do find a cheap Android tablet that can run the app.

And for me, I came across a deal I couldn't pass up on a ipad Air 2 10", a $500 tablet for $100 new in the box unopened. I haven't suffered a single app crash in dozens of flights, many long distance. And no more disconnects. With DJI Go 4 for some reason the app works flawless on Apple products and hit or miss on Android. My phone is an Android based LG V20 which is really fast, yet I have app crashes with it, and its a supported device on DJI's list. Also, if you buy a tablet and its not on the list DJI put out, you get 0 technical support from them. (My v20 is supported and I got barely 0.1 technical support so lol) After going to the ipad there's no going back to that Acer, night and day difference. My Mavic is too expensive to fly with all that lag and app crashing for me. And I only use it as a dedicated device to fly my Mavic. Still much cheaper than the Crystal Sky display, although no where near as bright a screen. If money is no object I would think this is the best way to go.

Here is from their website for supported devices:
Mavic – Specs, FAQ, Tutorials and Downloads

APP / LIVE VIEW

iOS Version v4.1.5.
Requires iOS 9.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone 5s, iPhone SE, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPad Air, iPad Air Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 2 Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 2, iPad Air 2 Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 3 Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini 4 and iPad mini 4 Wi-Fi + Cellular. This app is optimized for iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus.
Android Version v4.1.5.
Android version 4.4.0 or later. Compatible with Samsung S8 ,Samsung S7 edge, Samsung S7, Samsung S6, Samsung S5, Samsung NOTE4, Samsung NOTE3, Samsung tabs 705c, Ascend Mate 9, Ascend Mate 7, Huawei P10 Plus, Huawei Honor 8, Huawei P8 Max, Vivo X7, Xiaomi 5, Google Nexus 6p, Nexus 9, Google Nexus 7 II, LG V20.

*Support for additional devices available as testing and development continues.

TerryJ · Sep 9, 2017

cderoche said:
I bought an Acer Iconia 8" tablet refurb for $62 on Amazon a few months back, and while it technically "worked" with DJI Go 4 and Litchi, I dealt with lag, many app crashes, and aircraft disconnects when far out with my Mavic. It is good to be able to fly with a bigger screen than a smartphone so you can see more, but the lag and slow tablet finally got enough of me. I have all Android stuff and am not a big Apple Fan due mainly because of how locked down their products are, if you can get your hands on an Nvidia Shield tablet I hear that one works very well, since it's a gamer tablet and its fast. DJI Go 4 and Litchi are pretty processor intensive apps with all the things going on simultaneously in them. I even tried my kids brand new Amazon Fire HD 7 tablet, it was even worse than the Acer. I'd suggest spending a few dollars on a good tablet, maybe a newer Samsung Tab 3 or something similar. You want something with a decent amount of RAM and good fast processor. I think also you may have to go to apkmirror and find an older version of DJI Go 4 in some cases if you do find a cheap Android tablet that can run the app.

And for me, I came across a deal I couldn't pass up on a ipad Air 2 10", a $500 tablet for $100 new in the box unopened. I haven't suffered a single app crash in dozens of flights, many long distance. And no more disconnects. With DJI Go 4 for some reason the app works flawless on Apple products and hit or miss on Android. My phone is an Android based LG V20 which is really fast, yet I have app crashes with it, and its a supported device on DJI's list. Also, if you buy a tablet and its not on the list DJI put out, you get 0 technical support from them. (My v20 is supported and I got barely 0.1 technical support so lol) After going to the ipad there's no going back to that Acer, night and day difference. My Mavic is too expensive to fly with all that lag and app crashing for me.

Here is from their website for supported devices:
Mavic – Specs, FAQ, Tutorials and Downloads

APP / LIVE VIEW

iOS Version v4.1.5.
Requires iOS 9.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone 5s, iPhone SE, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPad Air, iPad Air Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 2 Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 2, iPad Air 2 Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 3 Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini 4 and iPad mini 4 Wi-Fi + Cellular. This app is optimized for iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus.
Android Version v4.1.5.
Android version 4.4.0 or later. Compatible with Samsung S8 ,Samsung S7 edge, Samsung S7, Samsung S6, Samsung S5, Samsung NOTE4, Samsung NOTE3, Samsung tabs 705c, Ascend Mate 9, Ascend Mate 7, Huawei P10 Plus, Huawei Honor 8, Huawei P8 Max, Vivo X7, Xiaomi 5, Google Nexus 6p, Nexus 9, Google Nexus 7 II, LG V20.

*Support for additional devices available as testing and development continues.

Thanks for the info!! My $80 Samsung j3 emerge smartphone has worked perfectly but its only 5.5 inches. A little to small!!

cderoche · Sep 9, 2017

This cheap Samsung tablet looks to be maybe a notch up from my Acer... more RAM at least.

This Lenovo Tab 2 looks like a winner just reading about it. Not sure how it runs DJI Go 4. But I like that it runs on a mostly pure version of Android 5, which I think is what DJI Go 4 was designed for originally. High resolution screen, 1.7GHz quad core, and 2GB of RAM and an SD card slot. If you dedicate it to just flying the Mavic and don't load it up with games and movies and such I'd guess it would work out fine, but you won't know for certain until you use it or someone here that has one chimes in. Its a 10" tablet BTW, which I know is bigger than you mentioned. I was very hesitant to go to that big 10" tablet, its a little more unwieldy but the one I have is pretty thin and light weight and I'm used to it now.

Abbo69 · Sep 9, 2017

I'm successfully using an Acer Iconia One 7" tablet without any issues to date. I bought the B1-780 model on eBay for £34 and it works great! There is a newer B1-790 model available in stores which has the same specs. You just need to ensure it has the Mediatek chipset. Video lag is negligible and it will fit into the arms of the controller.

Masa · Sep 9, 2017

I bought Huawei Mediapad T3 7" for 69€. Works absolutely wonderful and it presses all the way in against the controller. No lag or glitches, no crashing of dji go app or anything else. Just superfun with supersport-settings >80km/h

Here I am testing how it fits the controller in the shop. Recommend.

cderoche · Sep 10, 2017

Abbo69 said:
I'm successfully using an Acer Iconia One 7" tablet without any issues to date. I bought the B1-780 model on eBay for £34 and it works great! There is a newer B1-790 model available in stores which has the same specs. You just need to ensure it has the Mediatek chipset. Video lag is negligible and it will fit into the arms of the controller.

I have Mediatek processor on mine the B1-850 model. Maybe I got a lemon or they didn't do a good job refurbishing it. That much faster ipad air 2 blows my Acer Iconia away. The best version I found to run half way good on that Acer was I think 4.0.7 BTW

Abbo69 · Sep 10, 2017

cderoche said:
I have Mediatek processor on mine the B1-850 model. Maybe I got a lemon or they didn't do a good job refurbishing it. That much faster ipad air 2 blows my Acer Iconia away. The best version I found to run half way good on that Acer was I think 4.0.7 BTW

I'm running Go4 v4.1.3 with FW.1000. Not sure why you've encountered problems. What have been the issues?

cderoche · Sep 10, 2017

Abbo69 said:
I'm running Go4 v4.1.3 with FW.1000. Not sure why you've encountered problems. What have been the issues?

I have tried it with all stock firmware and app, 4.07 all the way to 4.1.3, and tried it with a patched Go 4 and roll back to firmware 700. The issues are what I described, laggy video, app crashing every single time, on both Litchi and Go 4. I find the tablet to be quite slow in general. I only have drone related stuff on it, and even disabled some of the kiddy apps that were included. I used it in airplane mode even, no better. And turn it off after use, boot it up, and have a clean start, still doesn't work for me.
If I had nothing else and my Mavic cost me $100 I'd live with my issues on that, but I've got too much invested in this to let a $62 refurb tablet wreck my weekend

If you have one like it that works correctly that is awesome. The only reason I bought that exact model tablet is because many people in the forum recommended it said it works good enough for a cheapo tablet. Maybe I should have returned it, but being a refurb 90 day warranty already up. Gave it to my kid and went to the ipad. Even the Nvidia Shields are all used now, 2 years old already and apparently that's the newest you can get. And even a 2 year old used one goes for $300.

ziceman · Sep 28, 2017

i was running ipad min 2 for a while and had awful problems with seeing screen on sunny day and bought hoods modify hoods but still hard to cut out light, i did research di not want to spent a fortune and read that many mavic users prefer the nexus7 2013 model, i bought one of ebay for £30 and as i was only using it for mavic only i uninstalled everything except google apps and dji go 4, runs fantastic and screen is bright without the need of hood on sunny days.

Masa · May 9, 2018

Masa said:
I bought Huawei Mediapad T3 7" for 69€. Works absolutely wonderful and it presses all the way in against the controller. No lag or glitches, no crashing of dji go app or anything else. Just superfun with supersport-settings >80km/h

Here I am testing how it fits the controller in the shop. Recommend.

Updated my screen to 9,6" Huawei T3 10. Cost 159€. Use only for dronestuff.

JoostGT3 · May 9, 2018

cderoche said:
...And for me, I came across a deal I couldn't pass up on a ipad Air 2 10", a $500 tablet for $100 new in the box unopened...

Wow! Where did you find that deal on the iPad Air2?!?

z28lt1 · May 9, 2018

A handful of people have tried out the Fire Tablets with good luck. They are cheap and seem to do the job.

One note, you need to sideload the Google Play store so you can get DJI go. It's easy to do, but an extra step as DJI Go isn't in the Amazon fire app store.

eightnine · May 10, 2018

I picked up a Lenovo TB-8504F from Walmart for under $100. It's an Android 8" tablet. It's bright, runs the app well, has expandable storage and fits in the controller and if you have the fly more combo with the carrying case, it fits in that case also.