This is an interesting and timely thread.
I just tried to incorporate my tablet (also a Galaxy Tab S7) into my viewing last session! I did not do so for vision - and by the way the “regular” Tab S7 is LCD vice OLED screen (the S7+ is still OLED 😊).
Bottom line, I think it was good having another screen because I was using my phone to control my mount. Yet, even setting it on the table I placed outside, it was too bulky to use a lot.
I was puzzled to read that the tablet may hurt peripheral vision more than a phone. My limited experience in dragging my tablet out for viewing did not seem to show different vision effects for tablet and cell phone. From what I have seen/experienced, it’s the light type and brightness that hurts the night vision. Both can deliver equally light or dimmed displays; but perhaps there is more science to this – on how peripheral vision can be more affected by a tablet than even a small (6.2” display) cell phone?
Either way. . . last time out, I thought that having that larger screen out on the table (because you will need a table of some sort to balance hands, telescopes, and viewing, when adding something like a tablet), might be a plus.
I was trying a telescope camera (svbony 305), and already had a small laptop (Surface Go) out on the table for the camera, anyway. My cell phone was controlling the AZ GTi mount with SyncScan, so I thought it would be easier to display the targets in the table using Stellarium plus. (As mentioned above, Stellarium can control the mount, but not very well – can’t do the follow-up fine-tune adjustments! You still have to go back to the SyncScan app).
Well, the tablet does it job! However, I think it is a bit bulky and big to use as a routine item. If I had not had to set up the table/camera/laptop I would have not had the space to add the tablet. Perhaps balancing it on my eyepieces case, but that is not a solution. So, my two cents is that the phone is the better tool. Just pull it out, point it, confirm what you see, or find what you what, and then put it away! 😊. . .
It is best if one does not even need it. During my planning in the daytime I do use a Planisphere and sometimes pull up the windows Stellarium app to pinpoint what will be in the sky: when and where for the evening. It also helps since I don’t know all 88 constellations and their stars! 😊 Even those I know are constantly moving! 😊 Still, when you plan one set of targets, and the clouds, light pollution, or just the air makes them moot, one needs a backup plan. . .phone (or tablet) to the rescue in the night session.
As to the graphics, designs, or “eye-candy,” well I have several apps (nightshift, star tracker, star walk 2, Stellarium+ and tried a few others as well. For all of them I think the cleaner, less gaudy display the better. . .(and no music! Please!).
That’s the case UNLESS I can’t find exactly what I am looking for, or I unless I don’t know what I am looking at. THEN I turn on the constellation designs/images/art work as well as the constellation lines. In a flash one can see exactly That what’s up there, quickly! It is a fast way to re-orient to the sky.
I then can then reset back to a “clean” interface to compare star asterisms, and look at/for specific patterns; or even to see where other objects are situated nearby.
All this is done on the phone. . . The tablet just seemed too bulky for what I needed.
Of course. . . this is just one approach. . . 😊