Cheapy Tablets...

[Talyn]

I don't read enough.

So, to combat this, to try and reduce my gaming/intenet use (which is anytime I'm not at work) I figured I'd look out for a cheapy tablet to be mainly used for books. I considered the Kindle, but there are a few tablets out there a bit cheaper than the cheapest Kindle.

So, this is what I've found, and yes, I expect the touchscreens to be fairly rubbish, but I was hoping one of you good (and weird) folks might have a bit more knowledge than I, in what is total tosh compared to 'for the price, it'll do the job'.

Anyway, here's the ones I've been looking at -

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/7-st...android-23-hdmi-usb-20-wifi-webcam-bestseller - this is the one at the top of the list so far, but there is also:

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/27057318/-/Product.html
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Version-Che...1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1335204819&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/NATPC-M009S...1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1335204819&sr=1-2
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ployer-Momo...12?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1335204819&sr=1-12

So, any advice on tablets for no more than the price of the Kindle?

 

[Ch3tan]

the kindle is far easier to read on. So for reading, get a kindle.

 

[Bahumat]

I doubt anything you posted (on phone so only clicked the first link) has a battery life of the kindle? Also buy the non 3G kindle and it's minimal price difference.

Also cheap tablets will have an awful screen, even worse in the summer with screen glare

 

[Tilda]

Kindle is good.

For emails and net and reading too my mum just bought a Scroll Extreme tablet from ebuyer. Its pretty good, has an IPS screen which looks brilliant and runs well. Although obviously its not the swizzyist fastest android tablet out there, its pretty damn good for £179!
http://www.ebuyer.com/344245-scroll-extreme-tablet-pc-54242

 

[Cyradix]

I have a tablet AND a kindle.... nuff said...

 

[Zenith.UK]

There are a number of things to watch for with cheap tablets.

Avoid a resistive screen. They have a habit of losing their calibration in corners after a few months of use. Archos tablets are particularly bad for this.
Pay attention to the CPU. If Flash is a big thing for you, then avoid anything less than than Cortex-A8 CPUs because Flash simply won't work on them. That counts out most CPUs by Telechip, Infotmic and a fair number of VIA chips.
Android Market / Google Play. If the tablet doesn't have this, don't bother looking. Archos for example have their own (run down) market which is useless for most things.

So out of those that you provided links for, only the Ployer Momo9 should be considered. The rest are really underpowered for even everyday tasks like browsing, video playback and multitasking

 

[Tilda]

The Scroll Extreme does have access to the market onboard, its just not officially recognised yet. It also runs flash fine.

 

[cHodAX]

Have a Hannspad and Kindle which I use numerous times daily. Love my Hannspad dearly, fantastic little media and browsing machine.

 

[Rubber Bullets]

Sorry to dig this up, but I thought it was better than starting a new thread.

My dad wants a tablet for his 86th birthday. Given that we can't really afford an iPad I was wondering if anything much had changed since this thread was last used. I reckon a bigger screen would be best for his old eyes, and our budget will be around £200 perhaps the odd few quid more for something really worthwhile.

I think he will probably be mostly browsing and e-mail, video/music is not a priority, he just want to be doing this stuff in the living room rather than his office.

In terms of wireless connection he will struggle a bit to get a signal to where he sits currently, what will be the best way to overcome this, a power line extender with a wifi access point?

Thanks in advance,

RB

 

[Zenith.UK]

No contest.

Google Nexus 7.
£159 direct from Google.
http://www.google.co.uk/nexus/#/7

 

[Cyradix]

Cheap and a big screen is not easy to find
Maybe the Acer Iconia A200 series?
It doesn't have a high end IPS panel, but if it is just for indoor browsing it might be fine
http://www.acer.co.uk/ac/en/GB/content/group/tablets
Should be able to find it online for 240-250...

 

[soze]

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/motorola-xoom-wi-fi-hmv-199-99-1265591

Good timing. I have not used one myself but they seem to get OK reviews are a known Manufacture and they seem to be offering an update to the current OS.

 

[Rubber Bullets]

Thanks guys.

Zenith, that does indeed look fantastic, and may well be the answer, just need to think whether 7" screen will be enough.

Cyradix, that does look interesting, and may be worth stretching the budget for. The reviews are mixed, but the shortcomings mostly stuff that won't bother my dad, so thank you for that.

RB

 

[Rubber Bullets]

Thanks Soze, that seems to fall nicely between the two others. Any of the three would probably be just fine.

Any ideas on improving the wifi?

RB

 

[soze]

I have done exactly what you said in my house. Power Line Adapter up stairs to a Wireless N Access Point which is set up on the same SSID and WPA key so devices switch between the two and stick to the best AP.

 

[Rubber Bullets]

I have done exactly what you said in my house. Power Line Adapter up stairs to a Wireless N Access Point which is set up on the same SSID and WPA key so devices switch between the two and stick to the best AP.

And is this easy to set up, are they plug and play, or would it need a bit of fiddling? Also what brand are yours?

RB

 

[soze]

Power Line are Plug and Play yes.

The Access Points do take setting up. Mine is an TP-Link WA901N v2. It is fairly cheap and cheerful but the web setup joined up with and extended my Sky Router Wireless with no problems what so ever.

 

[caLLous]

For what it's worth my mum's just bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 because she didn't think the 7" screen would be large enough for her and she loves it. Whack the font size up a couple of notches and it's ideal, also the increased keyboard size helps the typing no end. It's outside the budget you suggested but it would be worth pursuing the larger screen for his comfort if you think he will struggle with the smaller screen.

 

[Rubber Bullets]

Thanks caLL, it is useful to know. At the moment I'm leaning towards the Iconia A200 partly for the larger screen.

RB

 

[wolfeeh]

I've got a New iPad. For what I do with it absolutely nothing else will do (mostly due to the insane resolution on the screen - I read a LOT of research paper PDF's, policy documents etc, laws, etc... we're talking documents that run into the hundreds of pages and invariably small print, laden with tables, graphs, diagrams, photos, and a lot of it in colour. the iPad was the only tablet I could find where I could comfortably read an A4 sized PDF fully zoomed out (i.e. page edge-to-edge filling the screen)... everything else required zooming in and out constantly which is crap... and that was 10" tablets... I couldn't even touch a 7".

Considering how I originally bought it purely for reading I'm quite surprised that I've branched out with it quite a bit... it's great for laying in bed and browsing the net... it is THE go-to device for reading my emails (5-6 accounts that all receive heavy mail daily )... it's got some nifty games that I have found myself absorbed in for hours... it's actually shockingly good for note taking (I personally use Pages) and you can get up to a blistering typing pace just using the on screen keyboard... connect a bluetooth keyboard... and well... Nom.

The absolute killer feature? Porn, in bed, without the weight, heat and encumbrance of a laptop, easy to hold in one hand or prop up on a blanket, or buy a case/cover and stand it up on the bedside table.... Wipe Clean Screen. that is all.

Having established that the iPad is THE go to tablet for well... everyone... I now recognise that yes they ARE fucking expensive... (but in my opinion worth it)... that aside, if you absolutely cannot stretch to it... my second choice would be GOOGLE NEXUS 7 - accept no substitute...

But if you have to.... the second link (play.com) would be the one to go for. avoid resistive touch screens like the plague.

 

[caLLous]

Not wanting to sound anti-Apple (perish the thought!) but everything you mentioned above (except for the high-dpi screen) is something all tablets can do.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Got offered a deal on an iPad... Quickest no ever. Tablets have no purpose for me at all

 

[soze]

I saw no point in a tablet. The my mate offered me a iPad 1 cheap so I though I would try it. And I have not looked back since. The majority of the things I do on a nightly basis, post here, browse the web, check Facebook and the like are all done instantly without the heat of a Laptop or the boot time. And yes you could leave the thing on the whole day but when the iPad is instant on why bother. I now don't own a personal Laptop I just use my Work Laptop should I need to do anything that my tablet can't do. This is mostly joining video files and converting video files everything else can be done easily and normally faster on my tablet. The reason I have an iPad 3 is simply applications XBMC Commander is miles above and beyond anything similar I have tried on my Androids.

I would never like to force one down anyone's throat but most people I know who buy a tablet do not regret it at all they are an exceptional Coffee Table device.

 

[wolfeeh]

I beg to differ on your point that the only thing an iPad has going for it over an android tablet is the screen.

Three points I could make without spending any time thinking about the issue :
Apps. No issues with compatibility of apps with your chosen tablet. Approx 20 people I know in Uni have android tablets of some kind. Never a day goes by without someone complaining that an app won't work on their tablet.

Apps part two. In the particular field I work in, there are more apps and of better quality available on the iOS platform. Additionally there are many apps that integrate with hardware and software that we use and vendors have specifically stated that they have no plans ever to provide android functionality. Deal breaker really....

And lastly... Ecosystem of compatible hardware... Range of cases, audio, video, car integration etc etc.

 

[dysfunction]

Vendors who actively avoid android obviously are getting a great deal with apple otherwise they would complete and utter moronic fools to cut out such a large market.

iPad works for you great.

It's not the best tablet out there though...

 

[soze]

Vendors who actively avoid android obviously are getting a great deal with apple otherwise they would complete and utter moronic fools to cut out such a large market.

iPad works for you great.

It's not the best tablet out there though...

Actually i would think the single hardware platform makes iOS very attractive for developers. You don't need to test and support your app on 50 different devices with 50 different sets of drivers and 50 sets of manufacture tweaks. The same diversity that makes Android good for users can be a pain for applications.

 

[cHodAX]

Actually i would think the single hardware platform makes iOS very attractive for developers. You don't need to test and support your app on 50 different devices with 50 different sets of drivers and 50 sets of manufacture tweaks. The same diversity that makes Android good for users can be a pain for applications.

That will change over time, the next generation iPad is quite likely to break compatibility with generation 1 to some degree, hardware is rapidly progessing and to stay leading edge Apple are going to have to make choices than break older apps developed for generation 1.

 

[soze]

That will change over time, the next generation iPad is quite likely to break compatibility with generation 1 to some degree, hardware is rapidly progessing and to stay leading edge Apple are going to have to make choices than break older apps developed for generation 1.

They are already doing that mate with "Retina Apps" (which sometimes mention the new res multi CPU support and multi tasking support when released) but it is still only two hardware revisions to worry about. And it lets apple offer you only the right app. 1 and 2 get the old app. 3 and beyond will get the Retina app. So while it might get more difficult it will be a long long time before making an iOS app is as difficult as making and supporting one for Android. *I assume all of this I have no idea if how hard writing an app is.

 

[cHodAX]

They are already doing that mate with "Retina Apps" but it is still only two hardware revisions to worry about. And it lets apple offer you only the right app. 1 and 2 get the old app. 3 and beyond will get the Retina app. So while it might get more difficult it will be a long long time before making an iOS app is as difficult as making and supporting one for Android. *I assume all of this I have no idea if how hard writing an app is.

Android is much the same in some ways but not others, for different cpu architectures such as ARM and x86 they do very well as Marketplace will just download the apk and run the relevant executable. Android's main problem is the fragmentation of O/S releases and developers not updating software releases for their own hardware that often hasn't been out for even a year. It's google's fault though, as part of the licence they should include a mandate for 2 years of software support and upgrades with any new Android hardware.

 

[MYstIC G]

It's not the best tablet out there though...

In your opinion.

Personally I'd quite like to see Android running on Apple's hardware as I have no preference for iOS over Android or vice versa but frankly the iPad3 is a very well put together piece of kit which I don't think anything else out there matches at the moment so the real shame is that the hardware is so locked down.