To have an old tablet in a drawer is to waste it, because even if it is a few years old and not the most powerful in the world, you can benefit from it by recycling it. That’s what we did with my mother-in-law’s Huawei MediaPad T5, which we now have transformed into a portable smart TV to take anywhere.
How to turn an old Android tablet into a portable smart TV
the old tablet. The Huawei tablet that we have at home, in addition to being a veteran, is entry-level, with quite modest but sufficient features for this use scenario: only 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage, with the Android operating system. 8.0 with the Chinese firm’s EMUI 8.0 customization layer.
But its screen is not bad at all, and it is the most interesting: It is of the IPS type with a Full HD resolution and a diagonal of 10.1″. The chassis is metallic and its internal battery, 5100 mAh, allows you to watch a film and a few chapters without any problem without going through the socket. The procedure was as easy as installing an app, especially ATV Launcher, although there are other apps that simplify the Android interface to turn it into a launcher similar to that of a smart TV.
Why did I choose ATV Launcher? First because it is the one that most closely resembles the Android TV interface. But I also like the customization options it offers, allowing to change the wallpaper, to organize the distribution of the applications of the tablet to customize the grid, to change the format of the icons or to add widgets. The icing on the cake is that it’s free.
Finally, it is optimized for navigation using the d-pad, for connecting an old gamepad via Bluetooth and use it as a remote control.
After installation I climbed to the upper area streaming service apps we subscribe tosince they are the only ones we will use (to surf the internet, check email or play, we already have a more up-to-date iPad).
Since we got the tablet with a case with stand, we already have everything we need: just one touch on large icons to enter applications such as Netflix, Atresplayer or DAZN to open them and view the content.
ATV Launcher
Free launcher very similar to Android TV
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In Xataka Android | Don’t throw away your old Android tablet: Here are 11 uses to get the most out of it
