Thinking of buying a tablet for viewing Hikvision

[jasauders]

Wouldn't you know it, I came across a cheap 10" tablet today. Supported 5 GHz wifi, more RAM, faster processor, and much better pixel density than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2.0 7" I had. Outstandingly better than before. Streams are far better (still using substreams) than they were before.

For my uses (something that'll sit on the night stand next to my bed plugged in 24/7), a 10" tablet is clearly king if you pair it with something like TinyCam Pro -- an app I cannot speak highly enough of. I did try a laptop on my night stand, but even a better designed laptop will spin the fan now and then, which can be irritating when it's next to your bed. That being said... in literally every other possible scenario I would certainly prefer a laptop. I've used the Dell Latitude series as zythros mentions above. I rock an E7440 for work (love it) and have used the E5500 and E6420 pretty heavily in mass deployments. Good hardware. I'd have a hard time passing one up if the opportunity came about.

So... consider your use case. I really don't like tablets (anti-bias alert), but I felt a tablet fit my needs better for that one-off type of situation. Everywhere else, I want my full OS and a built in keyboard. But hey, everyone has different needs.

 

[bguy]

I just remembered I had a Lumia 520 Windows phone laying around. It's only 4 inch. VLC sucks on it, it takes forever to type in the long rtsp URL. So I tried IP Centcom. Seems to work ok if you don't touch it. It rebooted a few times when I was setting it up. It's really just for testing, as it's pretty small. I got it for $20 last year.

For just viewing streams, I think a cheap tablet is ideal. Ya got any more deals on cheap 10" tablets?

 

[zythros]

What I figure it really comes down to is how good your eyes are/how much you plan on using it on my Smartphone I still have young eyes and don't wear glasses so I can make out the details on my smartphone's low res picture as well as my computer screen. Mind you I have to hold it fairly close to my face but that's normal for smart phones small screens, I do sometimes wish that I had a ''Phablet''(6 inch smartphones) for that extra inch of screen and a larger width to reduce eye strain.

If i was using it a lot then a tablet would be a lot easier on the eyes but I just use it to see what the dogs are barking at when I'm asleep and am not getting out of bed/when I'm in the bathroom or if I'm away from home I can still access Wifi and view remote streams.

For OP's usage I'd have to lean towards ....tablets (washes out mouth) :sick:

Make sure you get a 30 day return period though even on a smartphone. Android can be a nightmare new software updates can render App's unusable until they update it to say Marshmellow which can be never...