It can be hard to decide which Android tablet to use for your booth because there are so many to choose from. And since most Android tablets on the market were made for regular people to use, it can be hard to tell what makes a device good for a booth.
Any Android tablet that is used in “kiosk mode,” which limits the tablet to a few tasks (often just one app), is called a kiosk Android tablet. With the right kiosk control tools, an Android tablet can run self-service kiosks, staff kiosks, and cash kiosks.
Kiosk software design is the process of making self-service tools work well in a variety of settings through keeping their displays simple and easy for people to use.
How much does an Android tablet for a booth cost?
Android kiosk tablets, such as the Lenovo M8 and K10 tablets, can be bought for between $120 and $200. When compared to iPad or Windows PC kiosks, Android tablets can cut booth costs by a large amount.
There are “off the shelf” Android tablets that cost less than $100 that can be used for kiosks, but the companies that make them don’t support them well, so they’re likely to have bugs from the factory and may not work with your apps or otherwise not be suitable. Another risk is that you might not be safe, since these goods don’t get changes very often from the maker.
The price and brand name of Amazon’s Kindle Fires may make them seem like a good choice, but they aren’t good for many basic booth jobs (for example, there is no official way to centrally control a “fleet” of Kindle Fires). If you use an Android tablet option that is ready for a booth, you will get the help and service you need to make your idea come true.
Which Android tablet is best for a shop or kiosk?
It relies on! Do you need a camera on the back? Need NFC? What about speakers or a place to plug in headphones? Does your computer need a battery, or can it work without one? A lot of things need to be thought about before you choose the “best” Android tablet for your business. These are some of the things you need to answer.
Does your Google Play booth computer need Google Play Services (GMS)?
What kind of USB port does your Android tablet for business use have?
Do you need cameras on the front and back of your Android screen, or just the front?
What kind of OS should your Android device have?
This is a question about the hardware that your Android booth tablet should have.
What display should the screen on an Android booth have?
Need NFC? Is it Bluetooth 5.0 or 4.1? How much space? How much RAM? Should I get 4G or 5G?
Should I look around for a custom Android phone? Could someone make one for me?
If your booth tablet has a tablet, should it have GMS?
Find out if your booth Android tablet can run Google Mobile Services. This is one of the most important things you should know about it. It’s likely a GMS device if your tablet asks you to sign in to Google (or Gmail) when it starts up and lets you use apps from the Google Play Store. The Google Play Store is not on your tablet if it doesn’t have it, like Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets.
To learn more about how GMS and non-GMS Android devices are different, check out our GMS vs. non-GMS analysis.
Which type of USB should my booth tablet use?
It might not seem important, but the way your computer connects to power and internet is important! Many of the newest Android laptops for kiosks use the USB-C standard, which is the same port that’s on an iPad or MacBook Pro today. This year, almost all consumer USB gadgets will switch to USB-C if they haven’t already.
MicroUSB, which is one of USB-C’s predecessors, is the major standard that is still competing with it. There are still some store Android screens that use microUSB ports, so you’ll always need microUSB cords even when you’re not using them elsewhere. Getting a computer with USB-C means that all of your gadgets will have the same connections in the future as well. USB-C is used by almost all modern computers, cameras, IoT devices, and smartphones. The connection will continue to lead the way for years, if not decades.
A Windows 10 kiosk mode custom app offers a tailored, locked-down environment that restricts user access to specific functionalities, ensuring a secure and focused experience for specialized applications.
Should my booth computer have a camera?
A lot of computers that are used as kiosks don’t need to have cameras or flashes. Or, if they do, they might mostly be used to record information (like a ticket) and don’t need the high-end parts and processing power of a consumer device.
Some cheap Android tablets don’t have any cameras on the back at all, which could be a good way to save money. If you do need a camera for your task, though, make sure it has an LED flash! A flash is very important if you want to take clear pictures of papers or other data on your booth Android tablet that will then be sent to the cloud or another system.
Another thing a camera flash can do is actually shine a light on the problem by sending clear, bright video back to headquarters so engineers can look at it right away. I bet you never thought of a camera flash as something you could use for work.
What kind of operating system does your booth computer need?
Android is the operating system for kiosks that is the most open, expandable, and flexible. It’s very important to know what version of Android software your kiosk tablet has. As a general rule, newer is better. The most current version that ships on devices is Android 12. Android 12 came out at the end of 2021, and by early 2022, a lot of devices were already running it.
It’s not necessary to have the newest version of Android to use a booth every day, but there are some important perks to think about. First, the more up-to-date a device is, the fewer security holes it will have that haven’t been fixed. This means that your data on those devices is safer. For the second reason, it can show how seriously the company behind the gadget takes servicing it.
No one “best” version of Android, but if you see a device that runs Android 10 or an older version (which came out in 2019), you might want to give it another look. That thing could be old and not supported, or even worse, brand new and not supported.
In terms of chips, what kind should your booth computer have?
When picking out a tablet, features like screen size and storage space are important, but the processor (also called SoC or CPU, but they’re mostly used interchangeably) is what really makes the device work.
A more affordable processor might only let one sensor output at a time, while a more powerful one might let you use both cameras at the same time, like to record video from both the front and back cameras. This part of your tablet is also responsible for things like Wi-Fi speed, screen image support, camera features, and 3D graphics.
It might be hard to “choose” the exact chipset or processor that will work best for your use case, but you should figure out what the lowest speed level is that will still let you use your software features. It doesn’t matter how well your person detection algorithm “works” if it takes too long for your tablet to wake up because it’s running too slowly on your hardware. Similarly, if your touchscreen latency is too high, no one will want to use your big, beautiful, high-resolution screen.
Most of the time, a newer chip will give you better speed for your money than an older one, but the math isn’t always clear. Some companies, like Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Amlogic, may keep making older processors for years after they were first released because they work well in “commodity” applications. This is because people are expecting more advanced features like 5G, high-end 3D gaming, multi-camera arrays, and even secondary displays.
What brand of processor you choose will rely on your budget and the features you need. MediaTek and Qualcomm make the majority of chipsets for Android tablets. Their processors come in a range of prices and can do a number of different tasks.
How big should the screen be on a booth tablet?
When it comes to screen quality, “more is better, until it isn’t” is usually true. The quality of the material you want to show on that screen is more important. If you show something static, like a picture or a movie that plays over and over, the device can only handle material with a certain quality. That means a computer with a 1080p screen won’t make your 720p movie look “better.”
In terms of overall clarity, 1080p is usually the best number to stay above. Any kiosk tablets with a screen resolution lower than this are probably already not very good, and the screen panel itself probably won’t be very good either (bad colors, low peak brightness).
Not every show is the same, either. Some high-end Android tablets have OLED screens that improve color and picture clarity. In this case, the worth in a business setting would rely on the type of content shown and whether that content’s quality is the most important thing. Tablets with OLED screens can cost over $500, so you’ll want to make sure that a high-end screen is something you really need.
Does my booth computer need NFC?
Near Field signaling, or NFC, is a standard for radio signaling that makes “tap to pay” services like Apple Pay and Google Pay possible. A lot of credit and debit cards also use NFC to let you pay without touching the card reader.
NFC can be used for a few important things on an Android computer. One thing that NFC can do is send payment information without touching it. But just because a device has NFC doesn’t mean it can accept wireless payments. For that, it needs a different set of technologies, which is why companies like Square, Toast, and others make their own products that can take payments. You can’t use a smart credit card on any Android tablet (or iPad) on the market without a device that is connected or paired.
NFC can also be used to quickly pair devices like speakers, headphones, and smartwatches, but this isn’t really important to a work setting. NFC could be useful in situations where customers can use NFC-enabled cards to get personalized content or services. For example, in a hotel, tapping your card on the tablet in your room could load your loyalty information and give you suggestions like your favorite room service items.
When it comes to business Android tablets, NFC isn’t a “must have” unless you know for sure that you’ll need it.
Kiosk management software makes it easy to keep an eye on and handle many self-service kiosks from one place. This makes it possible to quickly make changes, do maintenance, and get analytics to make sure the best performance and user experience.
Does my booth tablet need Bluetooth 4.0, 4.1, or 5.0?
All new Android phones come with Bluetooth built in, so they can connect to other Bluetooth devices (like IoT devices, monitors, music systems, cars, and more) and send and receive data. Most of the time, the type of Bluetooth your Android tablet uses doesn’t matter unless you have a special use case for Bluetooth.
You might have to do a lot of research to find an Android tablet that has been tested to work with certain Bluetooth features, such as playing music from multiple devices at the same time or doing certain tasks using the Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) stack. Unfortunately, the approved Bluetooth version might not tell you everything you need to know. Usually, the only way to be sure that the maker has properly applied special features is to test on a real device.
How much space does my computer for the booth need?
As an operating system, Android doesn’t need a lot of room on a device—usually less than 10GB. However, as system and app files and data build up over time, you don’t want to be controlling storage.
In the general market, 32GB of storage is usually thought to be the bare minimum. However, a 16GB tablet might work fine in a business setting if it makes good use of its room and follows best practices. That being said, there isn’t much of a price difference between 16GB and 32GB of flash storage unless you’re working with hundreds of thousands of devices.
In general, having more storage room is better, but there comes a point where the space you don’t use isn’t worth anything. It’s possible for devices with more storage to use better storage, which makes them faster under some conditions. In a work setting, the speed of your storage is more likely to be important than the largest amount of space you have access to.
You can usually get an Android tablet with 16, 32, 64, or 128GB of storage. In the vast majority of cases, 32GB should be more than enough room for apps and content (unless you are offering very big movie files, for example).
Does my booth tablet need a microSD card slot?
Most Android tablets do have a built-in microSD card slot that can be used to add more storage. You can usually find this hole on the side or top of the device with a SIM removal tool. But Android doesn’t let you use a lot of extra storage, and microSD cards won’t work nearly as well as your tablet’s built-in flash storage.
Putting a microSD card in a 16GB Android tablet to “extend” its storage to 128GB does not give you the same experience or usefulness as getting an Android tablet that already has 128GB of storage built in. With the customizable storage option added in Android 9, users can put apps on a microSD card of their choice. This feature may not work at all with some apps, though, as many device makers turn it off.
There is a microSD spot on your Android tablet that lets you store big files like videos, but it’s not a good idea to use it to “expand” the room that the operating system can use to run apps. This may seem like a no-brainer, but anyone who can get to the card slot can take out the microSD card, which could make it susceptible to theft.
Which is better: a 4G or 5G store tablet?
With mobile data, also known as 4G and 5G, your Android tablet can connect to data services when Wi-Fi or Ethernet isn’t available or when you need to connect to cellular data for some reason.
If you plan to leave your computer in a place with always-on Wi-Fi (as long as the power is on), you probably won’t need 4G or 5G access unless you need a backup connection in case the primary connection goes down. Especially if you plan to use your device outside, you will need to think about how much the value of mobile access is worth.
As of right now, it probably doesn’t matter if your Android tablet has 4G or 5G or both. It is expected that 4G networks will be around for a long time and offer good service in general.
Finally, it’s time to talk about 4G and 5G computers that were bought in other parts of the world. It is always risky to buy a cell phone from outside the country where it is meant to work, but it is especially dangerous when it comes to cellular connection.
Kiosk software functions as an intuitive layout for self-service terminals, facilitating seamless interaction and transactions while administering and securing an abundance of applications and functions.
