GrapheneOS Tablet: 1 Year Update and All the Apps I Use

published 2024-09-02 · updated 2024-09-02 #how_to #android #grapheneos #tablet #apps
I've really enjoyed using the Google Pixel Tablet with GrapheneOS installed over the past year. In this video, I cover what I primarily use it for and all the apps I have installed on it.

Transcript

Please excuse any grammatical errors. I used a tool to generate the transcript and haven't had a chance to read through it yet.

So after a year, I figured it was finally time to put out an update on my Pixel Tablet experience running GrapheneOS. Spoiler alert: my original video had some high ambitions of replacing my laptop and taking this with me when I travel, along with a keyboard and things like that. None of that happened—it didn't work out. But if you're curious as to why, keep watching. If all you wanted was that quick answer, there you go, and I'll see you next time.

Before I get into the apps that I'm using and things like that, I first want to talk about the physical aspects of the tablet that I really like. To begin, let's start with the case. This is the official case from Google, and if you end up buying the tablet after watching this video, or have bought the tablet, I highly suggest you buy this case. It's probably one of the best-designed cases I've ever used—not that I've used many cases, but to start off, it's a nice rubbery, grippy texture that helps with holding onto it. Besides that, you have this circle thing on the back—or oval, I should say—and that's great for a kickstand, holding it up in the landscape position. It also works in the portrait position, so it can lean back like that. When you're just kind of walking around or laying on your couch, it works great for holding it just like this.

You might be wondering why it's that shape. You see those four pins on the bottom? Those correspond to the dock. When this goes on the dock, the handhold—or whatever that metal thing is—helps align the dock so that it locks into those pins, giving you a good connection. It's all magnetic, so the dock just snaps on. This is the only way I charge it—I've never actually plugged a USB cable into this, except for during installation. So, the case—I highly recommend it.

Now, back to the dock. The dock is included in the box. I'm not going to say that the dock is free because, of course, I'm sure that's baked into the price somewhere, but the dock has exceeded my expectations, mostly from an audio standpoint. When you set the tablet on the dock, this then turns into the main speaker; the internal speakers on the tablet are disabled, and the audio comes out of this. For listening to music or podcasts, things like that, you're not getting room-filling booming audio, but it is pretty impressive for the form factor. I like using this when I'm listening to podcasts or audiobooks on the tablet. It just works really great for that.

Speaking of podcasts, I wanted to let you know that I just published the first episode of my podcast, which is called In the Shell. You can check that out at intheshellpodcast.com to find out where you can listen to it, and I will also leave a link down below in the description if you want to check it out.

So now, let's get back to the reason why you clicked on this video. One more thing to mention about the physical appearance: I don't use a screen protector on the tablet. They do make them for it; I just never found a need for one. It's not like a cell phone where I'm carrying it around, constantly taking it out of my pocket—this wouldn't fit in my pocket. So, I didn't really see a need to have a screen protector. So far, after a year, it looks good—no chips, cracks, or scrapes. Hope I didn't jinx myself, but so far, so good.

On the actual tablet, I have two user profiles set up. I have my main owner/admin user profile that you can see here, and I have my daily "Josh" user profile. On my main owner profile, I have the Google Play Store installed along with Obum. On that profile, I do all the installation of apps, and then I use the "install available apps" feature from the main owner profile to push the apps to my daily profile. It was suggested to me a while ago to test out that method, and I've been using it ever since on my phone and tablet. I'm not going to cover it in this video, but I will make a dedicated video specifically for that topic because I think it's a really useful way to configure your GrapheneOS device.

As I mentioned, I have two user profiles set up. We're currently in my daily profile that I use, named "Josh." You can see that in the top right-hand corner up there. On the main home screen, I have two Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) installed: one is for Miniflux, a self-hosted RSS reader that I use, and the other is Wallabag, which is kind of a bookmarking tool—another self-hosted app that I use.

So let's now swipe up and get to the app drawer. I'm not going to explain the default apps installed, like the camera, gallery, etc. If you have GrapheneOS, you're already familiar with those.

To start off, I have AntennaPod, which I use for listening to podcasts. Like I said, that goes really well with the dock—you get really good audio quality, and it works well for listening to those. The next app is Audiobookshelf, a self-hosted app I use to listen to my audiobooks. Then there's Bitwarden, a password manager. I also have a calendar app and EteSync, which is a contacts, calendar, and task sync app—another self-hosted app that I use. They also offer a cloud service, so if you're looking for an encrypted way to store your calendar, contacts, and tasks, I would suggest checking out EteSync. You don't have to self-host it; you can just sign up and use their service.

Following that, I have Jellyfin. I run a Jellyfin server at my house for my movies and TV shows that I want to watch. The Jellyfin app lets me access and watch those on the tablet, which, with the 11-inch screen, works perfectly—much nicer than trying to watch on my phone. Material Files is a third-party file explorer I use to connect to some network shares I have in my house. I don't have it installed on my phone because I don't access my network shares on my phone, but on the tablet with a larger screen, it works great for that.

Mullvad is my VPN of choice—it's running on here all the time. NewPipe is the next app, which is a third-party client for YouTube that helps you avoid the ads, which is nice. Notify is an app that provides push notifications to my device when it receives a webhook notification from the uptime services that monitor my site and different services. It works without Google Play Services, which is why I have it installed on here, since I don't have Google Play installed on this user profile.

ProtonMail is my email provider. I have their paid plan, so I use it for my sideofburritos.com domain. If you're looking for a decent email provider that's privacy- and security-focused, I would recommend them. The next app is Standard Notes, which I use for all my note-taking. I have a couple of files stored in there, but primarily just text files. I self-host the Standard Notes server at my house, so it syncs locally to a Raspberry Pi where I have that running. They do have a cloud offering, so if you're looking for an encrypted notes service, I would suggest checking them out.

Next is Tasks, which syncs with EteSync, as I mentioned earlier, for contacts, calendar, and tasks. Tutanota is another privacy-focused email provider that supports end-to-end encryption, just like Proton does, which means they have no access to your emails or the content of them. I've always wanted to test them out, so when I set up the email for (https://yellowball.fm), the podcast hosting provider that I recently launched, I decided to go with them. So far, so good—I like their product and interface. As a company, I kind of prefer them over Proton. Proton's kind of turning into a commodity; it seems like they're just launching more products and everyone’s using them. While I appreciate that because it means they're more accessible to the masses, at the same time, it's kind of nice to support companies that are more niche in privacy and security, and Tutanota seems to be that.

The last app is VLC, which I use to play any files that the default gallery app can't play. VLC basically plays any file you throw at it—sometimes I think it'll even play a text file. It's just one of those solid apps to have.

As I mentioned in the intro, I had high ambitions for this—plugging it into an external monitor, plugging it into a keyboard, possibly using it as my full-time device. But it's just not going to replace a laptop, especially for someone like me doing programming, editing, recording videos, and things like that. The interface just isn't meant—at least at this point—for a mouse and keyboard to be as productive, or even close to it, as a laptop, at least from my perspective. Again, your results may vary.

But that being said, would I recommend this to someone? If you want to use it like me, where 99% of the time I use it as an entertainment device—watching YouTube videos, watching Jellyfin, checking my email, or browsing the web—then absolutely, I think this is a great device to purchase. But other than that, I don't really use it for much else.

So I hope I didn't disappoint you too much, and if you have any questions about the tablet, feel free to leave those down below, and I will see you next time.