Android device compatibility question?

The developers made it that way. The different installs of Android have different features and the hardware platforms have different features and capabilities so the developers only spend time to build for the hardware and users they think will make them money. Could be related to display resolution, security environment features, or just that they didn't bother to build it to allow the other hardware out of laziness or ignorance.

Could also be about not wanting the support headaches.

I'm not an Android user, but it sounds very similar to how in the Apple universe, with the switch to Apple Silicon, any Mac can now (in theory) run most iPad or iPhone apps (in addition to apps written specifically for MacOS, of course). Yet, many developers do not enable this capability within the App Store or within their own code, and the reason often given is they do not want to deal with any associated support requests—they built the app for iPhone (or iPad, or for in your case a specific combination of Android + Device) and aren't interested in supporting it beyond that, even if it should "just work."

The watch app likely does some background data syncing between the watch and whatever device the app the installed on. Google figures the phone is going to be around you more during the day, and restricts the app to phones only.

As for Alien Isolation, it could just be the Galaxy Tab 9+'s GPU is too weak. The Adreno 619 is also used in the Snapdragon 480 5G, which is definitely not a gaming powerhouse.

Funny, I hadn't even guessed that the Tab 9 would have that old a GPU but I guess so. It doesn't seem all that bad on paper until you realize (assuming I saw the right info) the memory bus on the 619 is 32bit vs 128bit on the 750 you get in an S24 phone. They are like 3x different in actual performance on some benchmarks, I think. Crazy when you consider the Tab s9 is a $1000 tablet. My Tab s5e was under $200 when I got it and it has an adreno 615. I guess they just see the tablets as a dumping ground for old GPU parts.

The A9 and S9 are at very different points in the lineup-- the A-series is mostly for consumption, the S-series is at least close to smartphone tier performance.

I hate that about Samsung. I don't want to pay for a $1000 tablet and I don't really want to limit myself to a $200 tablet tier of performance either with an A-series. There's nothing in the middle.

That is the part that shocked me a bit, I had assumed the Tab S9 would have a GPU at least on par with the S22 or S23 phone. The Adreno 619 seems unusually low powered for a $1000 device.

Paladin said:

That is the part that shocked me a bit, I had assumed the Tab S9 would have a GPU at least on par with the S22 or S23 phone. The Adreno 619 seems unusually low powered for a $1000 device.

Click to expand...

???

The S9, S9+ and S9 Ultra all have an Adreno 740 as part of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. They're basically last year's flagship smartphone in terms of performance. They're not using the Adreno 619

The S9FE model uses the Exynos 1380 with a Mali GPU, so basically a Galaxy A54 mid-tier phone.

The A9+ DOES use the Adreno 619, but the A-series is the budget tablet. It's not $1000. On Amazon right now, it's $170, down from its $220 list price for the base model. It uses the old Snapdragon 695 -- so on par with a Galaxy A04 or A23 or a bunch of other old entry level phones. It's also worth noting that the A9 and A9+ both use different SoCs. The A9 is a MediaTek Helio G99, which is just slightly slower than the Qualcomm 695.

That's what I mean-- I can get a $200 tablet that has performance on par with the absolute shittiest phone Samsung sells in 2024 or I can buy a tablet with what would have been specs equivalent to the fastest phone Samsung sold in 2023. The midrange is confusing because that's the S9FE. It's not readily apparent why there's such a massive price difference between the A-, FE and S- tablets, but there are big performance differences. Honestly even the S9 series gets a little overpriced when the fastest SoC is "only" last year's flagship. M2 iPad Pros are faster than an iPhone 15 Pro.

Wow... that's what I get for believing the gsmarena results I saw for it. I searched for Tab s9+ and it must have taken the '+' to mean 'or whatever else seems similar'.

Makes me feel a lot better about the S9 models then. That makes a lot more sense. Thanks!