This year Walmart launched a line of cheap Android tablets that sell for $50 to $100.

While Walmart’s Onn tablets aren’t exactly high-performance devices, they do have one thing that helps set them apart from Amazon’s cheap line of Fire tablets — the Onn tablets run near-stock Android software with the Google Play Store and other Google services.

One thing they seem to have in common with Fire tablets though? They’re hackable.

Members of the xda-developers forum have begun playing with Walmart’s cheap tablets and recently they’ve figured out how to:

You can find other Onn tablet hacks and info in the Walmart Onn Tablets section of the xda-developers forum.

There are no custom ROMs yet, but by installing TWRP and/or Magisk, you can modify the behavior of the stock Android 9 Pie software that comes with the tablets (or Android 9 Go Edition, in the case of the smallest, cheapest model).

As for the tablets, they come in 3 sizes/4 versions:

via xda-developers

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15 replies on “Walmart’s cheap Onn tablets are hackable (root, recovery & more)”

  1. Too bad they don’t have 32GB. Even if they cost a bit more, it would probably be worth it. Storage isn’t very expensive any more but running out of space for updates and apps will always get old. It’s almost the year 2020 and 16GB for any device is just too anemic any more.

    1. Agreed, but with newer versions of Android, you can store apps and files on an SD card, which is even cheaper (but slower) storage. For me, 16GB plus a 128GB card has been fine for most things.

      1. Good point, I’m glad that’s working for you. Note that not all apps support running from SD cards. Also, I prefer to use SD cards for media and swap them out, loading them with music, shows, or movies on a computer. That effectively prevents me from putting apps on the SD card.

        1. True, there are a few apps that don’t support running from adopted storage. Although most that don’t support it can still be forced to do so without issue. sm commands to partition SD Card natively on the device performs well after a few permission changes. You can use any percentage for mixed storage with sm but 25, 50 and 100 have seemed to work best from my experience. TWRP for the Onn Tablets has full support for adopted storage also. They are project treble compatible and run most Android 9 GSI’s no problem effectively giving numerous custom rom options such as Havoc OS, LiquidRemix, BEAST ROM, Lineage OS just to name a few. Not a performance powerhouse by any means but can be extremely enjoyable platform for modders and tweakers with a price point that can’t be beat.

      1. You and I are more biodegradable. Think of it this way though:
        We’re banking lithium, copper, titanium dioxide, and other materials as a puzzle for future generations. Eventually it’ll be cost-effective to strip vapor-deposition coatings for resources…

        1. speaking of vapor-deposition, 1 big asteroid is tall needed for this tall task.

          1. Either that asteroid is there to kill us all, or you’re talking about Space Mining.

            If the latter, that takes decades of funding and research before any revenue is generated. Sure the outlook is good, but I am not so sure the people are patient enough for that, not to mention the dozens of government/politician change-over that will happen within that time.

            Unless Earth gets lucky with one small rich asteroid that happens to come close, I’m afraid the motivation for Space Mining will pitter out.

    1. Given that many of these are simply used for Kindle type book reading or watching videos, they are more than adequate. I doubt the environmental impact is that much greater with these than if you spent 3-4 times as much to get better performance you don’t need.

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