Tablet Help

[Jethro]

My daughter, (turning 6 years old) wants a tablet for her birthday. She wants an IPAD, but I'm not paying that much.

What would be a good, cheap tablet to buy for a 6 year old to dink around on and play angry birds, nickjr games, surf the net, etc...



Thanks for the help... I was checking out the HP 16/32 GB wi-fi tablets and they seemed like what I would end up getting without the advice of someone who knows their stuff.

What is the Kindle Fire and is it a tablet?

[madpoet]

The Kindle Fire is an android tablet, and an ok one. For simple games and browsing it's more than enough. The HPs were decent devices and made me a lot of money when they went on clearance :) But they are kind of heavy and I wouldn't buy it unless you are willing to support it.

March 6th the iPad 3 is announced. You can already get an iPad 1 and a good price online and they will just go lower.

[Jethro]

What would you buy with $300 or less? I don't care where I get it from or if it's a refurb/etc...

Thanks

[madpoet]

Kindle Fire unless you need a larger screen.

[HopefulFred]

I just bought a Fire this weekend. I wanted to be able to play video away from the home computer and TV, and I wanted to read ebooks, so it was the obvious choice. It is not, however, without it's drawbacks.

It's great at playing video, and pretty good at surfing the web - way better than my cheap android phone (Samsung Intercept). No 3G, which is fine by me, and the WiFi performance seems average to good. The touch screen is large enough for video, but not great size for web - a little small. The browser has options for loading mobile versions of websites or the full version - you can get your choice.

The real "gotcha" is the way Amazon wants to lock you into their services - app store, ebook store, VOD. Other sources are harder to get to. For instance, Hulu blocks you (as a mobile device, they insist on Hulu Plus, for which there is an app). The app store is pretty limited - and since the Fire has no camera, no GPS, and no 3G, the sorts of apps you can run is limited as well - note that there is no facebook or G+ app in the Amazon store. You can get around the Amazon store by "sideloading" apps, which is easy enough if you have access to another android device or can locate the apk directly. You can load your own videos on it, but with some caveats. First, there's only about 5GB storage available. Second, I've read (haven't tried yet) that the only videos it will play outside of Amazon's content are MP4. I don't know about ultraviolet.

I haven't done enough normal web surfing to notice the way the Amazon cloud works to speed it up, but the reviews say it works.

The other drawback, IMO, is not having an eInk display. I prefer to read on eInk, but the brightness controls are easy to adjust, so I'll take what I can get.

For $200 you don't get all the features, but you do get a reliable piece of hardware. If you're happy with amazon VOD and a smallish screen, it's great for video. Better than a phone for web, but not as nice as a netbook. At that price point I don't think you can beat it, but you need to know the trade-offs up front.

If I had been willing to spend a couple hundred extra, I would have gone with a larger device without the Amazon restrictions.

Fred

[Jethro]

Thanks for the good help. We'll probably pick up a Kindle Fire, 1st Gen iPad, or the cheapest 10" screen android tablet I can score on amazon/newegg.

Appreciate it,
Jethro

[cburbs]

Don't forget about the Nook tablet - Here is a comparison of the fire/nook

http://www.pcworld.com/article/244282/kindle_fire_vs_nook_tablet_which_should_you_buy.html

I have the old Nook Color Hacked running android and the kids use it just as much as I do...mostly for games.

There is also the 7" Acer - Iconia Tablet

http://tabletreviews2012.com/

[fitzwaddle]

I frequently see 7" Android tablets in buy.com e-mail flyers that are tempting, $150 or so. Haven't pulled the trigger though, so can't comment on a specific unit.

[auge.dog]

We picked up a Refurb 10" Acer for under $300 just before the holidays. It has a micro HDMI out, which is nice, as you can just buy a cheap adaptor from Monoprice to hook it up to the TV. It also has a mini SD port and USB ports to increase storage, though I believe it came w/ 16 GB. Kids and wife use it all the time.

It can basically do all the Kindle can do, plus has the bigger screen, more storage, and more outputs/inputs. Just a thought.

[cburbs]

Here you go -

http://dealnews.com/Refurb-Acer-NVIDIA-1-GHz-10-16-GB-Android-Tablet-for-250-free-shipping/554239.html

Ooops the deal is sold out but this is what you need to look for.
Check daily at dealnews.com or slickdeals.net

[Jethro]

Here you go -

http://dealnews.com/Refurb-Acer-NVIDIA-1-GHz-10-16-GB-Android-Tablet-for-250-free-shipping/554239.html

Ooops the deal is sold out but this is what you need to look for.
Check daily at dealnews.com or slickdeals.net

Wow... I'm just a bit late on that, but at the price its' just what I'm looking for.

[auge.dog]

Jethro, that is the one we got, and we are very happy with it.

[slemmon]

I bought the Asus Transformer Android Tablet about a month ago on sale for 299(refurbished) and I love it. We also spent 12 extra dollars to get 16 extra gigs of space (total of 32 and can be expanded up to 48):woo:. The great thing about this tablet is that its light weight, slim, great looking and has a 10’ screen. It runs on the android market, where most of the app’s are free and you can multitask very well with this thing. Such as play music, games, movies (Netflix or on the YouTube) and surf the web all at the same time. The other great thing is it plays flash unlike Ipad. For the price it can’t be beat, I bet you can find it for close to the same price just do some looking around. I bet you will like it so much you might buy one for yourself :D.

Good luck
Scott

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1404522&SRCCODE=GOOGLEBASE&cm_mmc_o=VRqCjC7BBTkwCjCECjCE

[Sandbagger]

I have a Viewsonic G-Tag I could let go for a good price, with new screen protector and dock....

[Jethro]

Still looking to hit that $250 mark for a 10 inch w/ 16gb and android OS.

My daughters birthday has come and gone, but am still going to get her one of these when the price is right and it feels like I'm getting a great deal.

Part of me thinks that when the IPAD3 or IPAD HD hits the market, it will set the bar for tablets, and the other companies will scramble to follow suit as Apples marketing team will make it seem as if the 1080P is the cats meow. Hopefully this will bring the price down and a dude like me gets a cool new toy (for my daughter of course... :peeping:)