Because of reasons I will be the owner of a T-Mobile Revvl Tab 2 relatively soon. If you want to know the specs of this thing it's got a 1280 x 800 screen, MediaTek Dimensity 6300 processor, and 4GB of RAM. I've primarily only used iOS and only messed around with Android in BlueStacks so I've never had to actually use Android in a serious way outside of loading up games to play them.

I've had to make use of it the past few days for said reasons so I've gotten used to the UI, but something I'm finding hard to find on various websites is how you should set up an Android device for serious "first use" cases. I'm going to factory reset it but then I don't really know where to go from there in terms of setup. I'm primarily only using this thing to read ebooks, comics, manga, maybe use Youtube, doomscroll Twitter, and play some low-end games like The Battle Cats or PvZ on it.

Years ago (Maybe like four or five years ago) I went down a small rabbit hole of trying to find this out since I was going to buy an Android phone until reasons also came up making me go for iPhone at the time and I came upon F-Droid and a few apps and what I could figure out were the following:
>Fennec
>NetGuard
>AnySoftKeyboard
>Blokada
>Newpipe
>Tachiyomi
Blokada and Tachiyomi don't seem to exist anymore and I'm not sure if the others are even worth using so I'd like some input.

Am I supposed to download any sort of antivirus app? I sometimes see people bring this up as a point of discussion but no one really ever goes into if this is necessary. I know cleaner apps are 100% pointless but people seemed serious on this.
What is the best Youtube app now?
What are the best e-book, manga, and comic apps?
Should I even bother to root the thing based on my use cases since I am not looking to emulate or tinker as much with this thing? Wouldn't that mean I also definitely need an antivirus and to change things like the default password?

netguard can be configured to be a content blocker
fennec, ironfox my favorite iceraven
i prefer heliboard but either is fine

>>105855528
oh and install lineage if u want. lineage is going to b better than an ancient stock android

>>105854923 (OP)
>Am I supposed to download any sort of antivirus app?
nope
>What is the best Youtube app now?
PipePipe, it's a fork of NewPipe that includes features like SponsorBlock.
>What are the best e-book, manga, and comic apps?
e-book reader: KOReader
manga/comic reader: KOReader if you're using local cbz/cbr files, Mihon if you want to read directly from Mangadex/etc
>Should I even bother to root the thing based on my use cases since I am not looking to emulate or tinker as much with this thing?
nope unless you want to remove bloatware, but you should be able to remove most of it using adb (no root necessary)
>Wouldn't that mean I also definitely need an antivirus and to change things like the default password?
nope if you aren't installing untrusted APKs
>>105855536
>>install lineage
>t-mobile device (read as: locked bootloader)
>mediatek
>tablet
I use LineageOS too but there is no way that OP can use it on that tablet.

>>105855602
older tablets and smartphones sometimes have an unlockable bootloader. it has become commonplace to sell only locked bootloaders in usa only in the past 5 years or so. i didnt look at the specifics tho its easy enough to find out

>>105855620
nevermind i just realized this is a newer tablet lol nope no chance of installing custom rom use adb to remove crap

>>105854923 (OP)
>stopped reading at mediatek

MediaTek, more like MediaWreck. If it has a mediatek in it, you know to avoid poverty processors.

>>105854923 (OP)
I don't see any LineageOS support, and GSMArena doesn't even have the Revvl Tab 2 listed. So you'll probably have to stick with unrooted stock ROM, but that's fine. F-Droid is a good start for lightweight apps, I use the Droid-ify client. Some good apps to check out:

Fennec/Mullvad/Firefox
OSS Weather
OsmAnd+
Loop Habit Tracker
Fossify Gallery
ProtonVPN/Mullvad
VLC/mpv-android
KDE Connect
KOReader
Termux
Material Files
AnySoftKeyboard/FUTO Keyboard/FlorisBoard
RethinkDNS (also does firewall)

KOReader might serve all your reading needs but it's worth trying other apps, especially for comics and manga. There's no good open source Twitter app, so just run it in a secure browser. I've never bothered with anti-virus and never had any problems, even when downloading random apks.

Thanks for the recommendations everyone, really appreciate it. As I said, I've already used the thing for the past few days and didn't buy it or anything, it ultimately ended up as a gift to me for one reason or another but it's currently bouncing around a few people before it gets back to me as they had to do some personal stuff and then they're factory wiping it. I wouldn't personally buy the thing myself, it's so low end that even reviews I found after handling the thing said it was okay at best specifically for watching stuff and I'm treating it more like an upgrade to my first gen Kindle than anything.

The amount of effort you've put into researching how to optimize this ewaste tablet, you could have done a few hours of physical labor and purchased a much better tablet

>>105856068
>Effort
I spent like 30 minutes looking through Google and various threads for a first time Android setup and everything prior to that was for an initial phone I was planning to buy. I also was not in the market for a tablet at all, it just sort of fell into my lap due to things happening in my life so I might as well make use of it. I genuinely have no reason for a tablet until this specific thing reached my hands and even at this point I'm mainly just using it for a Kindle replacement.

>>105856113
>Kindle replacement
A shitty LCD Android tablet will be a downgrade from an eink Kindle.
If you will be using it primarily for reading I suggest that you buy a Kobo and put KOReader on it.

>>105856163
It may be a downgrade for books but at least I can read manga and comics now without the small screen or it taking a year to refresh pages. I've been using a Kindle 4 this whole time.

>>105856185
You can put KOReader on the Kindle 4, it will refresh pages faster and will probably run faster in general.
If you run KOReader on multiple devices (like on your Kindle and T-Mobile tablet) it can sync reading progress between them. I read on both my Kobo and my phone using KOReader and it is so convenient being able to pick up where I left off.

>>105854923 (OP)
>Blokada and Tachiyomi don't seem to exist anymore and I'm not sure if the others are even worth using so I'd like some input.
I use Neko. Seems good enough but probably has less content than Tachiyomi.

>4gb of ram
didnt read the rest.

>>105856503
Why would I need more than 4GB of RAM to watch movies and read books?

>>105854923 (OP)
>1280 x 800 screen and 4GB of RAM
So basically the Dell D830 laptop I had in high school running glorious Windows XP

>>105856535
because of lag and it will be noticeable

>>105856545
nope

Hope you have a comfy experience with this tablet in spite of its obscurity and low specs. There is no need to get in the hamster wheel of consumerism, free is free. And having some constraints on your consumption often leads to higher satisfaction, either through moderation or problem solving.

>>105856636
i could literarily run nothing other than the google suite on my chromebook with 4gb of ram and its cpu was probably way better than your tablet.

>>105856920
Android works better with low amounts of RAM. My old Android phone has 2GB of RAM and is running Android 11 and can easily handle 1080p video playback and reading.
Forget multitasking though, the OOM killer will kill it. It was annoying trying to listen to music and use Firefox at the same time, the music kept getting killed.
Even a computer with only 2GB of RAM could handle HD video playback without stuttering if you were using a lightweight Linux distribution and mpv or VLC.

>169.99

or for 129.99 i could get
>iplay 60 pro
>7000mah
>1920x1200
>6gb ram
>G99
>90hz
>LTE+wifi
>128gb

or the regular iplay 60
>2000x1200
>t606
>60hz
>128gb
>4gb ram
>lte+wifi
>89.99