I’ve talked before about Lenovo’s “Kaitian D10” tablet, which works as a dedicated Galgame machine. It’s great value for the price and totally fine at that price point, but there were still a few things about it that bugged me. Performance is too weak, it can only run Win10 Screen colors are good, but still not good enough The Secure Boot certificate expired, so it throws an error at boot None of these are huge problems, but they’re still a bit annoying. Then, by pure coincidence, I saw someone on eBay selling the upgraded version of this thing: the “Kaitian D11”, codename IdeaPad Duet 3 11IAN8.

I’ve been playing Galgames again lately, so I started looking for a new device. The reason I didn’t just keep using the Rog Ally X handheld is mainly that it’s inconvenient for slacking off — one look and it’s obviously a game console, way too conspicuous. So I started shopping around. My budget is really limited, so I unexpectedly found that a batch of these has recently shown up on the secondhand market: the Lenovo Kaitian D10. Plenty are advertised as being in great condition, but I figure they were probably recycled from somewhere too.

Years back, Cube put out an 8-inch tablet called the Palm Play Mini. The whole point was that it was dirt cheap, and it took a SIM card. Only 4GB of RAM, weak CPU, but cheap. At a price that low, every other flaw stops mattering. Then the product started listening to users. “Upgrade X and I’ll buy one,” they said, so it upgraded, and upgraded, and upgraded. Fewer people bought it, the price climbed, and the series felt like it was on its deathbed. Cube’s He Mengnan disappeared from view, and the thing lost its entire selling point. So I’m scrolling Pinduoduo and see a tablet, brand new, 350-odd yuan shipped. It arrives and the box says “Suishengting” — sealed, never opened. But apart from the brand name, the specs and a few details told me everything: this is Cube’s 8-inch Palm Play Mini.

I think I bought this tablet around November 2024, from everyone’s favorite OK shop. The reason was simple: I wanted a tablet, and the only goal was watching videos. Ideally stock Android, able to install GMS, and not a Chinese brand… The price at OK at the time was hard to refuse — a bit over 300, under 400, and the condition was decent, so I grabbed it.

Preface: I’ve never really had any particular need for a tablet, but it’s not like I have zero use for one either. I do want a tablet. My needs are simple: use it as a reader, browse the web, watch videos, read PDFs, listen to something to fall asleep to at night. That’s it. The tablet I’d been using was a cheap used LG I picked up from OK’s place. I don’t think I ever wrote about it, but for 300 yuan it’s worth the price — it does fine as a video machine. Its biggest problem is the system. It’s an Android tablet, and a Japanese Android tablet at that, packed with all sorts of junk that causes all sorts of problems, whether it’s system updates or app compatibility. For example, I ran into a situation where my proxy app wouldn’t work. If my home network didn’t have a global proxy, this thing really wouldn’t be able to watch YouTube. So I had an idea: why not try using Linux as a tablet? GNOME, for instance, has been criticized for years for having a UI that’s too “touch-oriented” — so if you actually use it as a touch tablet, wouldn’t it be more suitable? Once the idea was there, I got to work.

I keep seeing posts like this online: “Looking for a device to play Gal.” “Which tablet is good for eroge?” “This handheld is great, a perfect eroge-dedicated machine.” … Sometimes I’m confused too. The “Galgame” category has been a dying industry for ages, so why does it look like there are still so many fans online, willing to spend real money on a pricey dedicated device just for it? Actually, long-time readers of my blog probably know that about 10+ years ago I wrote a similar article. I briefly laid out some of my own views back then; some hold up now, some were incomplete. After all these years I’ve built up a fair amount of galgame experience and cycled through a lot of devices for playing them. Maybe we should sit down and talk about this again, and share some of my experience.

Not long after I sold off my HP Chromebook X2 11, I regretted it badly. I couldn’t find a tablet that met my needs anymore. Sure, that knockoff Surface from HP had all sorts of crappy problems, but compared to Android tablets that can only play games and watch videos, its advantages were pretty obvious. Then I saw this thing on eBay: Lenovo Chromebook 10e Another Chromebook tablet. Performance-wise it’s about the same as the Duet, but the difference is it actually has a 3.5 mm headphone jack, and it comes with a keyboard cover that looks pretty solid. The only catch is it has no trackpad, but who cares—it’s a tablet, it has a touchscreen!

I’ve said before that ChromeOS tablets might be the future of “productivity”. But the Duet’s performance and RAM were just too weak, so I eventually sold it. Not long after, I saw this new product: HP Chromebook X2 11 A 3:2 screen, 8GB of RAM, a Snapdragon 7c processor, a detachable keyboard, a magnetic charging stylus… This was exactly what perfect “productivity” looked like. Doesn’t that seem cool… I forgot the rest.

A while back, I got this sudden itch to buy a tablet, but my requirements were a bit unusual: Cheap enough Has a Type-C port Screen preferably 4:3 — I don’t game, just reading and videos Speakers have to sound good As few ads as possible, ideally none or stock Android 8 inches It’s not like tablets meeting these specs don’t exist. The Xiaomi Pad 2 and 3 series are all over Xianyu, for instance — but those are e-waste that’s been hacked to hell and back… Then I stumbled on something magical: the JD Tab, the tablet JD.com put out back in the day: 4:3 high-quality screen Flyme OS, no ads 8-inch size Harman Kardon speakers Type-C charging Going for just over 200 yuan on Xianyu, brand new Holy crap, brand new? That’s gotta beat all that e-waste, right? So I got carried away and bought one. Little did I know that was the start of a whole series of adventures.

The reason for buying this is simple: to replace the old Surface Pro 4. That Surface Pro 4 would overheat badly the moment I opened DingTalk to teach a class, and on top of that the screen would start shaking. Turns out that screen shake is a known defect — “Zhang-chan” actually had to swap machines because of it, while I probably never hit it since I’d never thrown anything “heavy” at the tablet. Anyway, the Surface Pro 4 just couldn’t keep up anymore, so I bought a Surface Pro 8. Spec is i5 + 256GB + 16GB RAM, with the standard keyboard/pen/cover bundle. Double 12 sale, 9998 RMB for the lot. Not a bad price, eh.