Looking for a smaller tablet - Mavic Mini -Suggestions?

[mraroid]

Hi folks....

My Samsung Galaxy S9+ cell phone is too small for my eye balls. I have seen after market products that let you attach a tablet to the MM controller.

I am not looking for a huge tablet. I am looking for something that is a size or two up from the screen of my cell phone (about 6 inches X 3 inches - 15 cm X 7.5 cm).

Do I need to buy a tablet (or what ever) that has cell phone access? I really do not want to spend extra on my cell phone account, but I will if I have to.

I have never gotten into tablets so I do not know that world very well. I do not mind if it is a android or Apple device. But because I want to keep my costs down, I would rather not pay for a apple tablet.

I do not mind buying a used tablet, but if I buy something used, I would want it to be able to run the current OS, and be up gradable for a few more years.

Any suggestions welcome.

Thanks

mrroid

 

[Starz]

Cell capable is not needed. iPad mini4 or 5 is probably most popular.
Or this?

Asus Zenpad Z8s works great with Mavic Mini and M2P

I just bought this Asus Zenpad Z8s wifi+ verizon cellular from Ebay for $100.00. It works great with both drones. I'm super happy with it. It has 3 GB of ram and 8 GB of storage, but it will sync with the micro sd card you installed. I installed 32 GB so now I have almost 40 GB of storage. I...

mavicpilots.com

 

[mraroid]

Thank you Starz. A few good options. I will check them out.

So, I am confused. I guess it is the controller that is sending out the WiFi signal and is able to send and receive data from the drone, right? So is the cell phone (or tablet) just used to display the video and other data that the controller sends to it?

Thank again..

mraroid

 

[Starz]

Yes, tablet is what will hold the go fly app and the controller is the signal tool.

 

[midi459]

Hi folks....

My Samsung Galaxy S9+ cell phone is too small for my eye balls. I have seen after market products that let you attach a tablet to the MM controller.

I am not looking for a huge tablet. I am looking for something that is a size or two up from the screen of my cell phone (about 6 inches X 3 inches - 15 cm X 7.5 cm).

Do I need to buy a tablet (or what ever) that has cell phone access? I really do not want to spend extra on my cell phone account, but I will if I have to.

I have never gotten into tablets so I do not know that world very well. I do not mind if it is a android or Apple device. But because I want to keep my costs down, I would rather not pay for a apple tablet.

I do not mind buying a used tablet, but if I buy something used, I would want it to be able to run the current OS, and be up gradable for a few more years.

Any suggestions welcome.

Thanks

mrroid

i got a tablet from tmobil the alcatel think its 8x bit bigger then a phone but nice screen size you dont need cell service but data service for some software to be installed and use tethering from ur phone for the most ...some software just wont install thru tethering ...other then that ///dji check in will work thru tethering .....tmobile is 10 a month ...for 2 gig data enjoy

 

[Jet skier]

Hi folks....

My Samsung Galaxy S9+ cell phone is too small for my eye balls. I have seen after market products that let you attach a tablet to the MM controller.

I am not looking for a huge tablet. I am looking for something that is a size or two up from the screen of my cell phone (about 6 inches X 3 inches - 15 cm X 7.5 cm).

Do I need to buy a tablet (or what ever) that has cell phone access? I really do not want to spend extra on my cell phone account, but I will if I have to.

I have never gotten into tablets so I do not know that world very well. I do not mind if it is a android or Apple device. But because I want to keep my costs down, I would rather not pay for a apple tablet.

I do not mind buying a used tablet, but if I buy something used, I would want it to be able to run the current OS, and be up gradable for a few more years.

Any suggestions welcome.

Thanks

mrroid

iPad 4 mini. Works great got mine on eBay but you got a really be careful with Ebay

 

[Klersch]

iPad 4 mini. Works great got mine on eBay but you got a really be careful with Ebay

I also picked up a refurbished iPad 4 mini WiFi only. It works great. I bought mine directly from Apple because of the horror stories about buying from other venues. I would shop around a bit as the mini 5s are out. Happy flying!!!

 

[DanMan32]

So many get confused about the term WiFi because it's most common use is to provide internet from a central location.

Wi-Fi is a data protocol using radio signals. You don't even need an access point for it to work. In the case of drones, the Wi-Fi is between the RC and AC.

 

[mraroid]

Thanks everyone for the many suggestions and help. I also noticed that the ipads have a higher resolution than many other devices. It may be that the retina display or some other thing in the ipads makes for a brighter display.

The display in my phone is OK in the house, but washed out when I am outside. Might try to turn off the auto brightness, then turn brightness up all the way. If I am going to drop $100 to $400 on a tablet display, I need to do more reading. I sure appreciate all the help. Thanks everyone.

mraroid

 

[Grand Mavic Villain/GMV]

How about this product? Hwawei P8 max...? 6.8inch 16:9 screen, cheap and android.

Or

Sony Xperia z ultra 6.3inch(?) 16:9, android.

 

[mraroid]

Thanks DIY My Mavic for the suggestions.

While I do have my eyes check every 2 years, and have good glasses, the screen on my Samsung Galaxy S9+ seems small to me. Part of the problem is that I am looking into the sky and then back at the screen again and loosing my place. My 9+ screen is 5 and 5/8th of a inch long and just a whisker under 2 and 3/4s of a inches wide.

I have been looking at low cost solutions for a larger screen. I found a Fire hd 10 tablet. The actual screen size is 8 and 1/4 inch X 4 and 1/4 inch. New on Amazon it cost $109.99 plus free prime shipping. But the big rip off with that price, is that Amazon will only bundle the slow charger for it. To buy the normal (fast) charger, you have to pay another $14.00 or so. The $109.99 model of the Fire comes with 32 GBs. The 64 GB model sells for $140 and free prime shipping (but you can add a micro SD card to it for more memory).

I am still looking for a larger screen than my Samsung Galaxy S9+. But I do not know anything about tablets. I think my minimum requirement is that the screen needs to support at least 1920 X 1080 (which the Fire will do).

Any suggestions welcome.

Thanks every one for all the help.

mraroid

 

[Ninjaman]

I saw recommended on the forum a couple of weeks ago the ASUS Zenpad Z8s (ZT582KL).

I found on Amazon some "renewed" (used) ones. I got one for $99. The cheapest one now is $119, but I noticed the prices fluctuate. The screen resolution is 1536 x 2048.

I have a Fire HD 10 tablet from 2017 but I could not get the FLY app to load no matter how I tried.

The Asus has cell capability through Verison, but I don't use that and didn't want to sign up for a Verizon account.

It's been working great for me.

 

[MotionCamera]

I just bought an iPad mini 5 non cellular for my Mavic Mini. My understanding now is that due to the fact it is not cellular I will not have GPS and that I should purchase a Dual Electronics XGPS150A bluetooth GPS receiver. My hope was that I could get GPS into the iPad by tethering it to my iPhone 7 but now I gather this would not work.
As some may have read, I have had a previous experience where the GPS has at least told me where my Mavic Mini might be found, though it was in very deep water with heavy boat traffic.
So just wanted to ask if someone could clarify this since this thread is about a tablet choice. I also read that if I had bought a cellular tablet and not activated it I would still have gotten GPS, which if true is very frustrating.
Great to be a member and thanks for any light you might be able to shed on this.

 

[lannes]

I just bought an iPad mini 5 non cellular for my Mavic Mini. My understanding now is that due to the fact it is not cellular I will not have GPS and that I should purchase a Dual Electronics XGPS150A bluetooth GPS receiver. My hope was that I could get GPS into the iPad by tethering it to my iPhone 7 but now I gather this would not work.
As some may have read, I have had a previous experience where the GPS has at least told me where my Mavic Mini might be found, though it was in very deep water with heavy boat traffic.
So just wanted to ask if someone could clarify this since this thread is about a tablet choice. I also read that if I had bought a cellular tablet and not activated it I would still have gotten GPS, which if true is very frustrating.
Great to be a member and thanks for any light you might be able to shed on this.

The home point which relies on the AC gps and is set initially when turning on the AC and the remote, if you subsequently want to reset/ update the home point to a new location when the AC is in the air, the tablet/ phone will need it's own gps so that the DJI Fly can use this for the new location.

So if you don't plan to reset the home point while flying, you won't need the cellular/gps version of the Ipad mini 5.
Another way you could reset/ update the home point, would be to bring the AC back to the RC and then update the home point, in this scenario it will again use the AC gps for it's location.

The other thing to note is without cellular you will need hotspot off your phone for the map to dynamically update when in the field.

 

[MotionCamera]

The home point which relies on the AC gps and is set initially when turning on the AC and the remote, if you subsequently want to reset/ update the home point to a new location when the AC is in the air, the tablet/ phone will need it's own gps so that the DJI Fly can use this for the new location.

So if you don't plan to reset the home point while flying, you won't need the cellular/gps version of the Ipad mini 5.
Another way you could reset/ update the home point, would be to bring the AC back to the RC and then update the home point, in this scenario it will again use the AC gps for it's location.

The other thing to note is without cellular you will need hotspot off your phone for the map to dynamically update when in the field.

Thanks so much for the comprehensive reply! I get it now. I still will probably invest in the GPS receiver because I travel for work a great deal and the Mini will travel with me. I try to avoid using my cell service if possible when in some areas since it is often sketchy, always expensive and often annoying when I am working/shooting. My colleague and I will normally hire a local drone operator if we can since we can rely on them knowing their area and air-space much better than I could in a couple of days. But for those time when we can't or there is none available it will be me and the mini (I hope) or at least for survey purposes as well when we need 4K. All the best to you in OZ!

 

[Hammerhead]

IPad mini works flawlessly. I also use a iPad Air with adapter. It works well for these tired old eyes

 

[Jeff A]

I just went from a Galaxy S9 to a Apple refurbished iPad Mini 4. 128 GB of RAM, no cellular. It's great. It was $309 direct from Apple.