To use native whatsapp, the device must able to use call and SMS, ipad cannot do both
Even wifi samsung tab cannot search whatsapp

I didn't think of that! Now its worth considering although still leaning on Android. Have Goodreader and some other apps purchased way back then I wonder if its still there... have to recover my apple ID lol

Teclast has been around for some time already. Just that it fly's under most people's radar because they avoid cheap Chinese tablets which is understandable since most of them are pretty crap.

However , there are decent Chinese brands like teclast that have been around a while. But most of them are running lower powered CPUs. But if you just want light use, it's fine.

You can try tech tablets you tube channel, he reviews a lot of the cheap Chinese phones/tablets/gadgets.

It's certainly cheap, but buying online only have its own set of problems.

The Honor X9 looks good, with free keyboard. Leaning towards that now especially since can get from a physical shop.

You want to get a tablet that have high PPI (pixel per-inch) to have better viewing experience. At least 250ppi and above. If OLED and high refresh rate will be better.

iPad is good for reading text but for watching video because it's screen ratio is 3:2 the video display will be a lot smaller.

Android tablet mostly 16:9 or 16:10 so it's perfect for video, for reading it is still good. But the downside is most tablet have slow CPU and low RAM. The OS update is also questionable unless it is from Samsung but the price is a lot higher than other similar specced Android tablet, most other tablet usually get update for first year then it was abandoned.

Build quality wise iPad is a lot better than most Android tablet. iPad also have longer software support.

Your RM1,000 budget will be hard to get a better quality tablet. If up to RM2,000 then you can find more choices.
Long time never heard Teclast. Last time I have it's tablet with Intel powered CPU that dual boot Win 10 and Android. That purchase really worth my money.
X9 CPU is slow. I had a tablet with SD 870 and feel less responsiveness when compare to Y700 2023, X9 SD 685 will be even slower. I suggest you get a tablet with at least 800k Antutu score and 8GB RAM

Teclast not bad

If want physical can go Harvey Norman.
Samsung tablets not bad also at about rm1k

You want to get a tablet that have high PPI (pixel per-inch) to have better viewing experience. At least 250ppi and above. If OLED and high refresh rate will be better.

iPad is good for reading text but for watching video because it's screen ratio is 3:2 the video display will be a lot smaller.

Android tablet mostly 16:9 or 16:10 so it's perfect for video, for reading it is still good. But the downside is most tablet have slow CPU and low RAM. The OS update is also questionable unless it is from Samsung but the price is a lot higher than other similar specced Android tablet, most other tablet usually get update for first year then it was abandoned.

Build quality wise iPad is a lot better than most Android tablet. iPad also have longer software support.

Your RM1,000 budget will be hard to get a better quality tablet. If up to RM2,000 then you can find more choices.
Long time never heard Teclast. Last time I have it's tablet with Intel powered CPU that dual boot Win 10 and Android. That purchase really worth my money.
X9 CPU is slow. I had a tablet with SD 870 and feel less responsiveness when compare to Y700 2023, X9 SD 685 will be even slower. I suggest you get a tablet with at least 800k Antutu score and 8GB RAM

But around 1k Samsung tablets all 4GB ram only...
For the intended use, might be ok since no gaming. Bear in mind, my dad is using about 5+ year old Samsung (bought before Covid) and its still ok for him. Slow at times but he did complain the screen is a bit small nowadays, so I'm exploring for him.

In the end he might not want to change anyway since he's so thrifty lol. But I want to have an answer ready in case he's prepared to change. For me its slow sometimes when I update stuff for him the Play Store is so slow... 2GB ram!

So what I'm looking for is actually long lasting. 4GB is a bit short in my opinion which kind of rule out Samsung within the budget. Realme I heard a lot about the bloatware and advertisement crap, so a bit concerned as well. I saw Teclast reviews and they come almost stock Android, but buying online and the chance of getting a dodgy unit is not really worth it. Which is why I'm hovering on X9. I doubt I can convince him to go back to Apple...

But around 1k Samsung tablets all 4GB ram only...
For the intended use, might be ok since no gaming. Bear in mind, my dad is using about 5+ year old Samsung (bought before Covid) and its still ok for him. Slow at times but he did complain the screen is a bit small nowadays, so I'm exploring for him.

In the end he might not want to change anyway since he's so thrifty lol. But I want to have an answer ready in case he's prepared to change. For me its slow sometimes when I update stuff for him the Play Store is so slow... 2GB ram!

So what I'm looking for is actually long lasting. 4GB is a bit short in my opinion which kind of rule out Samsung within the budget. Realme I heard a lot about the bloatware and advertisement crap, so a bit concerned as well. I saw Teclast reviews and they come almost stock Android, but buying online and the chance of getting a dodgy unit is not really worth it. Which is why I'm hovering on X9. I doubt I can convince him to go back to Apple...

What brand is good for a sub RM1000 tablet? Mainly used for reading PDF files and surfing. Maybe some netflix and  youtube. My dad is currently using a Samsung Tab A7 (or something, I forget the model) but the screen is small and 2GB ram means even the interface is not smooth

Based on my research, Samsung seems to be good for long lasting and also gives updates for a long time. But the Tab A9 is 4gb ram. Even if I bump up the budget a bit for the Tab S6 Lite, its still 4gb ram. I'm doubtful 4gb ram will be usable for the next 5 years or so.

So I looked at Redmi, they have some budget models with 6gb and even 8gb but I saw some posts about poor quality, made in India and melting cpu? And the worst thing I saw was about ads. I'm not sure how the ads appear, since whoever mentioned it on reddit wasn't specific... does it pop up when doing random stuff with your wi-fi on? Or just via browsers? Or just via their bloatware? Is it hard to uninstall the bloatware?

And then I looked at Honor Pad X8a, RM749 with 8GB ram. How is it? Anyone have any knowledge or experience with this brand? I only know its a Huawei sub-brand.

I didn't check any other brands, because my head was starting to throb...

Appreciate any comments and suggestions

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Fyi, you can add up to 4GB of virtual memory (taken from the 64GB internal storage = called swap space in Linux) to the Samsung Galaxy Tab A9, for a total of 8GB of memory/RAM. .......

- Samsung Galaxy Tab A9/A9+ Extend RAM Memory - 23 Nov 2023
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For casual use eg movies YouTube angry bird newspaper 4gb is more than sufficient.
If you use it for heavy gaming then different

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Fyi, you can add up to 4GB of virtual memory (taken from the 64GB internal storage = called swap space in Linux) to the Samsung Galaxy Tab A9, for a total of 8GB of memory/RAM. .......

Wbat i can say this function is slow down device, i turn off on all my samsung device

That's interesting. Honor Pad X8a which I mentioned in the first post actually does this with 4+4gb which I mistakenly thought was 8gb until I saw a review that said this feature doesn't really work that well and can't be turned off. Its like Windows virtual RAM  And the X9 has two versions, the cheaper one being 4+3gb at RM899 and the 8+5gb at RM1099

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Note that the Honor Pad X9 does not come with the headphone jack whereas the Samsung Tab  A9/A9+ does.
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I think the caveat to use RAM Plus is that you have ample free internal storage space and avoid very heavy workloads (eg open >10 browser tabs) = no to little slow down of device, eg 30GB free/unused storage out of 64GB for the Samsung Galaxy Tab A9. .......

https://phoenixnap.com/kb/swap-space - Swap Space in Linux: What It Is & How It Works - 31 Aug 2023
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That's interesting. Honor Pad X8a which I mentioned in the first post actually does this with 4+4gb which I mistakenly thought was 8gb until I saw a review that said this feature doesn't really work that well and can't be turned off. Its like Windows virtual RAM  And the X9 has two versions, the cheaper one being 4+3gb at RM899 and the 8+5gb at RM1099

.
I think the caveat to use RAM Plus is that you have ample free internal storage space and avoid very heavy workloads (eg open >10 browser tabs) = no to little slow down of device, eg 30GB free/unused storage out of 64GB for the Samsung Galaxy Tab A9. .......

https://phoenixnap.com/kb/swap-space - Swap Space in Linux: What It Is & How It Works - 31 Aug 2023
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Swap file is slow isnt because of free space. It's mostly down to the wait time swapping content between ram and swap file before it can be accessed by the cpu. Swap file is pre allocated thus there is no concern about free space.

Do SSDs get slower when full? The answer is yes. SSD will run slower if you fill it up. According to a survey, the write speed of an SSD will obviously slow down when the used space accounts for more than 75%. What’s worse, your PC may slow down and get stuck when you’re playing games or running some boot applications. [/color]
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Dont use pc as comparison for phone as they are quite different in how they manage their resources.

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Fyi, .......

https://www.howtogeek.com/why-freeing-up-st...d-phone-faster/ - Why Freeing Up Storage Space Makes Your Android Phone Faster - 5 Jan 2024
SUMMARY

- Flash memory slows down as it fills, causing your phone's performance to suffer.
- Keep at least 10–15% of your phone's storage space free for optimal speeds.
- Easy ways to free up storage space include deleting duplicate files, compressing videos, and uninstalling unused apps.
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