Are ‘Snapdragon Tablets’ Better For Gaming

Most serious gamers will look towards high-end consoles and PC builds powered by the latest processors, graphics cards and memory for the biggest and best gaming experience. The more processing power that can be thrown at the unit, the stronger the return of smooth, uninterrupted gameplay will be. 

However, not everyone is in that serious gamer mode. The middle ground option between gaming PCs and cell phones is gaming tablets.

These devices, which most people interpret as being equivalent to phones with a much larger screen, are much more than that, and the continuous evolution of Snapdragon is improving gaming quality on them all the time.

Tablets for Gaming

The best tablet is always a personal choice and will rely on many factors, such as cost, size, battery life and the type of gaming that the device will be used for. For example, if you’re looking to use your tablet to play online slots at Skycity online casino, you won’t require as high a spec GPU as if you’re going to be playing in the lanes of League of Legends: Wild Rift.

You should tailor your choice of tablet towards what you’ll be using it for most often. This analogy can carry over when selecting a tablet for any number of specifications; an hour of playing LoL will drain a battery quicker than if you spend an hour at a live dealer casino.

The tablet world

Gaming tablets and regular tablets are essentially the same thing. As is true with any type of electronic device, ranging from a Chromebook to a DSLR or smartwatch, there are scales of entry-level, mid-range and high-end models.

Lower-quality tablets still provide some kind of access to lightweight games and are typically more compact for convenience and mobility. Gaming tablets simply boast higher-quality displays and more processing power.

A larger display provides improved viewing comfort for gaming, and elite gaming tablets such as the Samsung S9 and the newest iPad Pro are some of the best options available. 

Snapdragon

One of the most highly recommended processors for gaming tablets is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon. Snapdragon is a line of semiconductor products that are known as a system-on-a-chip (SoC).

It’s an efficient, all-in-one mobile chip that uses ARM architecture for its CPU and controls all aspects of a tablet, from Bluetooth audio to photo captures and graphic accelerators.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is the latest iteration of this chip, which was released at the end of 2022. It boasts highly accelerated performance over its predecessors, and it hit the scene as one of the fastest mobile processors on the market. It also managed to hammer out a 40% improved battery efficiency.

Snapdragon gaming tablets

So, is Snapdragon the better option for gaming tablets? It is one of the better options available for certain, with proven speed and reliability. Considering that Samsung’s latest Galaxy Tab range is powered by Snapdragon and is a high-end device ideal for mobile gaming, Snapdragon-powered devices are right up there in quality.

The Tab for example, is essentially the powerhouse of Android tablets and stands in direct competition to Apple iPads. But is a Snapdragon device better than an iPad Pro or a 10th-Gen iPad for gaming? That remains up for serious debate, as Apple’s devices are wickedly capable tablets. 

Thanks to their fantastic M1 Processor, iPads can pretty much handle anything that’s thrown at them when it comes to a gaming experience, and they feature beautiful Liquid Retina displays. The downside is that the top devices like the iPad Pro typically have a premium cost attached compared to Android devices.

Common specs

Tablets for gaming should be equipped with a bare minimum of 4GB of RAM and boast a minimum resolution of at least 1800×1200 pixels across a 7-inch screen. Naturally, higher-end devices will far surpass these basics. 

Storage should be at least 32GB and if running larger, more demanding games, then increasing this up to 64GB or 128GB makes sense. The battery should provide at least 10 hours of normal use. Everything is all down to the functionality that the user is seeking, regardless of whether playing strategy, RPG or casino games.

Does Snapdragon win?

Not outright. It’s sort of like trying to pick between a Samsung AMOLED or Apple Liquid Retina display when your eyes can’t tell the difference, and you can only see beautiful, crisp displays. Snapdragon has pushed the quality of mobile chip systems with its second generation. 

It’s in the implementation where things start to separate, as the tricky thing for Snapdragon doesn’t come from an issue with it, but its supporting actors. The processors used alongside Snapdragon just don’t deliver the same kind of customized, dedicated performance level that Apple’s processors do.

Android devices run much more generic systems across a broad range of manufacturers for functionality and never really get the focused, dedicated attention to make more gaming-specific models. This means that Apple’s dedication in this area provides far greater performance levels that win the day.