topic Re: Best Tablet for App in ArcGIS Collector Questions

Best Tablet for App

CA_-_ReneGonzalez__GISS_ — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 14:22:19 GMT

Hi guys,

We are getting ready to purchase tablets for our planners to use on the field. I have been using my Samsung galaxy out there and has been working great.

Are there any certain devices that works better than the other? (Android and Apple)

What's all your experiences like using your current device?

We just want to get the best device for the job right the first time, and not waste money a second time around.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated, thank you!

Re: Best Tablet for App

michaelcollins1 — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 14:39:36 GMT

Ipad - can't see the screen in the sunlight. Not sure about others, but this is a serious drawback. Make sure you take any tablet out on a sunny day to test before buying.

Ipads etc are cool at home or sitting in Starbucks but they fall short in the field. I'd stick to something more professional like a Trimble Juno.

Re: Best Tablet for App

CA_-_ReneGonzalez__GISS_ — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 14:44:59 GMT

Ipad - can't see the screen in the sunlight. Not sure about others, but this is a serious draw back. Make sure you take any tablet out on a sunny day to test before buying.

Which IOS is the Pad? Our planners were using their iphones IOS7 and were having issues scrolling to the bottom of the attribute table. This made it especially difficult for them to view their attachments

Re: Best Tablet for App

michaelcollins1 — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 15:19:00 GMT

I'm not sure, but I don't recommend them based on our experience based solely on visibility in the sunlight. Can't see it, can't collect it.

You had no such issue with your Samsung?

Re: Best Tablet for App

CA_-_ReneGonzalez__GISS_ — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 15:55:02 GMT

I'm not sure, but I don't recommend them based on our experience based solely on visibility in the sunlight. Can't see it, can't collect it.

You had no such issue with your Samsung?

So far no issues... but we are going out in the field the second half of the day.

Re: Best Tablet for App

CA_-_ReneGonzalez__GISS_ — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 21:13:31 GMT

Can anyone from ESRI put in their 2 cents?? I know you guys do test runs on devices

Any info Russ Roberts?

Re: Best Tablet for App

PaulBarker — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 22:46:11 GMT

We try to test on a variety of brands and devices. Thats a lot easier to do on iOS. Below are the devices we have on the Collector team that we test with regularly (and it is growing all the time). This doesn't include additional devices on other teams have such as the SDK teams or devices available through cloud testing services. In terms of a recommendation, theres too many factors to really recommend one tablet. With consumer focused tablets generally you're going to get higher end specs (better performance) because of the cost/time investment around developing rugged hardware. However the benefit for certain things like sunlight visibility, barcode scanners and operating temperatures (desert sun) can be really nice even essential.

I would start if you haven't already by listing your requirements (cost,specs,ruggedness,etc. etc.) and then categorize them by essential and nice to have and start seeing what devices make the cut. The question of capability comes up frequently when talking about android. Overall we see less device specific issues come through these days than a year ago.

This is solely my preference but I find the 7-9" device size is really nice in the field, the keyboard is bigger than a phone for typing, easier to hold than a larger device, smaller to shade if sunlight is a problem, bigger map than the phone, and still small enough for some pockets

iOS
We have every device Collector supports

Android
Phones
Galaxy S2
Galaxy Nexus
Galaxy S4
Galaxy S3
Galaxy Note II International
Nexus 4
Droid Razr Maxx HD
HTC One X
HTC DNA
Galaxy Note II US
Sony Xperia Z
Nexus 5

7-9 " Tablets
Nexus 7 - 2013
Nexus 7 - 2012

10" Tablets
Xoom Tablet
Toughpad FZ-A1
Xplore Ranger
Nexus 10 - 2012
Sony Xperia Z
Galaxy Tab 10.1 - 2011
Galaxy Note 10.1 - 2014

Re: Best Tablet for App

CA_-_ReneGonzalez__GISS_ — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 13:43:40 GMT

Thank you for the reply Paul. Price is no issue, and since it will be used by the city planners, the otterbox case will suffice for rugged protection. I agree with you about the 7-9 " tablets but the planners like the big screen. I have done test with Galaxy tab and words great, but had issues with the scrolling on the Ipad. Management wants the latest devices and want one of each. Have you experienced any issues or reported bugs using the Note Tab?

I should add that they will be using collector

Re: Best Tablet for App

RobertBorchert — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 15:52:06 GMT

iPads work good for us. We enclosed them in some pretty good cases.

Re: Best Tablet for App

michaelcollins1 — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 15:53:36 GMT

Russ is out looking for a decent fish n chip place. 😉

Re: Best Tablet for App

michaelcollins1 — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 16:21:08 GMT

iPads work good for us. We enclosed them in some pretty good cases.

How did you overcome the sunlight issue? We have a hard time seeing anything on the screen, even with the brightness on 10 (it won't go to 11, trust me).

Re: Best Tablet for App

PaulBarker — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 16:36:42 GMT

Thank you for the reply Paul. Price is no issue, and since it will be used by the city planners, the otterbox case will suffice for rugged protection. I agree with you about the 7-9 " tablets but the planners like the big screen. I have done test with Galaxy tab and words great, but had issues with the scrolling on the Ipad. Management wants the latest devices and want one of each. Have you experienced any issues or reported bugs using the Note Tab?

I should add that they will be using collector

The Note tab is a pretty recent addition to the testing team, its a bit smaller than your average 10" tablet (less bezel on the sides), and performs well in our testing. We haven't had a really sunny day yet to go outside and test it yet.

Re: Best Tablet for App

RobertBorchert — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 16:37:04 GMT

Our field crews haven't complained about it. We have mounts in the trucks and they are mounted to them.

Normal lcd screens are all going to be difficult to see in direct sunlight.

You need a device that is made to work anywhere such as a SOL 10" Windows Tablet

How did you overcome the sunlight issue? We have a hard time seeing anything on the screen, even with the brightness on 10 (it won't go to 11, trust me).

Re: Best Tablet for App

CA_-_ReneGonzalez__GISS_ — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 17:00:00 GMT

Thanks for everyone's input; I went ahead and put in a request for Galaxy Note Tab 10.1 and the Ipad Air

Will update this thread if find any issues with these devices

Re: Best Tablet for App

DanZylstra — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 03:03:19 GMT

I have a Samsung Galaxy tab and an iPad and I like them both...for personal use that is. I find outdoors, the screens are difficult to see, defeating the purpose of having nicely prepared maps. Also, I'm hesitant to use them in poor weather; battery life is terrible when using wwan and gps in colder temps. 2nd'ly, they are not protected against humidity or rain/snow. You can get otterboxes and protective cases but these are not perfect and do nothing in cold temps. I found what I believe to be a great product, the Xplore RangerX. It's a highly ruggedized Android 4 tab and unlike many rugged tabs, is inexpensive. The screen is fantastic outdoors and battery life and does well in wet/colder environments.

Re: Best Tablet for App

JohnZachariassen — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 08:58:00 GMT

Hi.

We noticed a bug with the app for iOS.
While collecting points, we were not allowed to move a point by tapping the map. The position was locked to the GPS-position. The reason was apparently, that the according service had the 'Allow geometry updates' under Feature access disabled.
On the Samsung tablet the point was not locked to the gps-position.

Re: Best Tablet for App

RobertBorchert — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 11:39:48 GMT

If you still looking take a look at the MSI tablet. WindPad 110W-224US $449

AMD Z-Series APU Processors
�?� Windows 7 Home Premium
�?� 10" 1280x800 wide-view, multi-point touch screen with IPS
�?� AMD Radeon�?� HD 6250 Discrete-Class Graphics
�?� 4GB DDR3 memory with 64GB mSATA SSD storage capacity

I have an MSI Laptop for my personal computer at home and it is a very well built machine.

Windows 7

You don't have to mess around with emulators. you can stick directly with your ESRI Software and tools.

Re: Best Tablet for App

MelissaMorris — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 15:25:40 GMT

I have a new Galaxy Note 10 2014 edition that is not drawing my map layers. The layers appear in the contents tab and when I tap the screen I get the information pop-up, just no features drawn. The layers draw correctly on my Galazy Note II phone, Galaxy Tab 3 7in, older iPad and older yet Motorola Xoom. It doesn't matter if I access them thru applications on my server or thru ArcGIS.com. They just don't draw. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the ESRI app multiple times including rolling back to factory settings. Did I need to enable something when I published my map services that this tablet needs (and the others didn't) ??
Help!

Re: Best Tablet for App

Babcock_Kristen_L — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 12:54:40 GMT

Hi Paul,

Is there an updated list of tablets best suited for field work? This is very helpful, and what are your thoughts on phone chips? Thanks so much.