After arriving a while ago at the conclusion that the best option for reading comics/manga is a full-sized tablet instead of e-ink based devices, got an 8’ Samsung tablet for not much. It serves the purpose but even with Blokada in it blocking everything it can, and every “privacy” option tuned to as closed as possible, i suspect it’s still leaking TONS of data, and would like to root it if there’s good choices for it. Do we have at least decent choices for Android tablets now in 2025? I search for this and people focus on phones with little to no attention to tablets
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The Pixel Tablet with GrapheneOS is the gold standard, but there’s even more than just the tablets with LineageOS support if you are adventurous.
I was gifted a Samsung Tab A7 Lite, which is without LineageOS support. However, I’ve been able to flash TrebleDroid Generic System Images (GSI), which are vanilla AOSP images modified to support as many devices as possible. They come with no Google apps or services.
Nearly everything works as expected, performance is much better, and battery life is unchanged. I can even run Android 15 smoothly when Samsung will end support for my tablet with Android 14. If anyone wants a writeup to the best of my memory, feel free to reply.
keep your data turned off. you load the tablet with books or whatevers, you don’t need no comms, hence nothing can leak.
second, you should get the device based on LineageOS support, so check their devices page first. there’s but a handful of those, I was lucky to find a Tab S6 Lite for cheap and it’s hella supported. if you have money to burn then look into Pixel tablets and such.
finally, when you eventually flash them, the battery life isn’t great. even just having them lying around not doing anything in standby requires you to connect it to power every other day or so. had an iPad like 10 years prior, that thing could be left for weeks and still be available when you need it. sadly, no such thing exists here.
p.s.: not what you asked for, but take a look at old 2-in-1 tablets in the vein of Dell Latitude 5285/5290/7290 etc. those are fully featured i5/i7 machines, tons of RAM, expandable storage, you can install Linux on them with all the benefits and drawbacks that brings; battery longevity also ain’t a thing here, but at least you can tweak everything (limit frequencies, hibernate, etc.)
There are android e ink tablets with good battery life. I haven’t had the chance to flash one though
I really tried to find a good 8” one but they just don’t exist. The S5e or Pixel Tablet with Lineage OS is probably the best privacy friendly android tablet you’ll find. I wanted something smaller than my S5e, I gave up and got an iPad mini 6.
Is LineageOS available for it? I have a Samsung tablet I reflashed and I’ve been quite happy with it. Battery life isn’t great, but it mostly lives in my bedroom, so not much of a problem.
The Google Pixel Tab with GrapheneOS. I got the most recently produced tablet that supports Lineage and it’s very slow.
What are you using to read comics, and is it available for Linux?
On Android i use Perfect Viewer, and on Linux i use Mcomix straight off the APT repositories. Quite willing to switch if better alternatives appear though.
Yeah unfortunately most Android devices come with locked bootloaders, especially Samsung, so I think you’d have to consider different hardware.
You could consider a PineTab? Or a JingPad, if you can find a used one (the company went under). Or if you really wanna dig deep and get a badass tablet, the MinisForum V3 seems to work well with Linux.
I recommend MComix for reading on Linux. I only use it on the PC, but nonetheless it’s great.
AFAIK, GrapheneOS supports the Pixel Tablet, which is probably the only truly secure android tablet on the market.
If you’re willing to sacrifice some UX, there are some Linux tablets. A cheaper option could be a 2-in-1 chromebook that allows installing Linux.
Otherwise, you could try to degoogle your Samsung tablet by installing LineageOS on it, if it’s supported.
Graphene on a Pixel Tablet is great, and Orion Viewer on FDroid is a passable, albeit not ideal comic reader (it does tend to not do certain cbz’s at random for some reason tho)
