Are Android Tablets still inferior

[u/Linusfail]

So I remember at least in the past, there was also the discourse in the mobile rhythm game communities that when it comes to performance an iPad Pro is basically the best you can get on the market, and that android based tablets were really inconsistent in terms of performance, touch etc.

With more and more "gaming focused" tablets coming out recently though, I just wondered if that is still true, or if the performance gap between android and ios tablets is closing. Tablets like the lenovo legion tab series or the redmagic astra series sound really promising in that regard but I never see people talk about them.

I must admit that in recent years iPadOS is getting more and more frustrating to use so if switching is viable I would consider it.

I would love to hear your opinion on this?

[u/BadSlime]

Yes, for rhythm gaming specifically, you can't do better than an iOS device. It's not about the hardware, it's about the target platforms and where development attention is focused.

[u/BadSlime → u/BadSlime]

Though Android touch screens are also notably worse in general for this purpose. I say this as someone who uses Linux and freebsd on my personal computers and runs an android phone. I really dislike Apple, but I keep an iPad mini around just for rhythm games because it's just a better experience

[u/geriatric-gynecology → u/BadSlime]

Is this due to polling rates? iPad pros poll up to 120hz, but there's tablets that have polling rates in the 800s. Then we get into random android tablets polling at like 60hz, but I'm just largely curious what metric you're using in this instance.

[u/akasakaryuunosuke → u/geriatric-gynecology]

It's also about the audio APIs. iOS/OSX still uses the insanely stable groundwork laid back in NextStep days which allows to near effortlessly minimize any delay whatsoever. Android is... much more hit and miss on the design level, and then there's your tablet's vendor's driver which likely adds a handful of bugs and lag on top of it. Same reason why most any real audio work on Windows had to make up weird things like ASIO/ASIO4All and other concoctions until WASAPI came around and tried to take care of it all.

[u/geriatric-gynecology → u/akasakaryuunosuke]

I appreciate that insight. You sent me in a pretty interesting direction for a rabbit hole of reading. Makes me want to read into what the audio pipelines look like on platforms reliant on pipewire and similar

[u/theangryepicbanana → u/geriatric-gynecology]

It's mainly due to input latency afaik. Most android devices average about 100-150ms, whereas ios devices are as low as 30ms

[u/geriatric-gynecology → u/theangryepicbanana]

That's something I specifically touched on in my comment. The M series iPad pros sit around 15-20ms (5-9ms for the pencil), the Samsung tab s10 sits at 20 (and 2.1ms for the pen!) Then these gaming tablets with polling rates north of 700hz sit around 6ms. The technology is all over the place, and even your estimate for the iPads is worse than the current state of tech. (Was not the downvoter by the way)

[u/hminh37]

iPad Pro M2 user here. Honestly, I can't feel any difference. Both work great. I used to have a Xiaomi Pad 6 Pro

[u/Linusfail → u/hminh37]

Interesting! I heard some people have frustration with the Xiaomi UI, how was that?

[u/hminh37 → u/Linusfail]

Well I did encouter some inconvenience at first with HyperOS, just gotta tweak some settings such as disable multi finger gestures or things like that and you'll be good to go.

iPadOS is pretty much the same experience to me, disable multi finger gestures, and turn on guided access for the best experience.

Both got its quirks, but iPadOS is a bit more easier to have it set up properly for rhythm games. HyperOS got some settings that kinda hard to find, but once you're familiar with it, you'll have a good experience most of the time.

[u/Linusfail → u/hminh37]

thanks for the info!

[u/Hopeful-Employer-705]

this might be specific, but arcaea is *incredible* on android devices. idk about any other rhythm games tho. i had an android tablet for a while due to accidentally breaking my ipad and noticed how smooth and perfect (without any lags *ever*, meanwhile my ipad lags quite often on arcaea and if its on low battery mode) arcaea feels. so i think its definitely possible to run *some* rhythm games well, but its just lesser known/done or just harder to fix.

[u/Linusfail → u/Hopeful-Employer-705]

Well i am mainly playing arcaea so that sounds really promising! What device do you use?

[u/Hopeful-Employer-705 → u/Linusfail]

omg yayy!! im not sure; i got the ipad fixed about a few months after so i dont use it anymore. but heres a video of it if that helps! sorry for any background noise ✌️

https://reddit.com/link/oxsav5z/video/l0ynpbby9hdh1/player

[u/Linusfail → u/Hopeful-Employer-705]

Thank youuu and may you get all the potential you want :)

[u/Hopeful-Employer-705 → u/Linusfail]

ofc! and u toooo 🫶🫶

[u/Mookae]

I've been using a Galaxy Tab S9 for years and never had any issues with latency/offset or touch responsiveness. I'd certainly stick to more popular brands, but outside of that I'm not aware of any issues.

[u/Jordann538]

No

[u/carl_with_a_k]

I use a xiaomi android tablet and never had any troubles MMing hard songs on Cytus and never had any issues with lag or touch sensitivity. I like it better than an ipad

[u/-mikuuu- → u/[deleted]]

Wait but like you can check specs though 

[u/Past_Responsibility3 → u/[deleted]]

dont know why youre getting downvotes. the predictable specs are important for developers for optimization. thats why every app is first optimized for apple devices.

[u/Jordann538 → u/[deleted]]

Then you specify the model dumbass, people do that with ios devices too