Low Priced Tablet Recommendations

[Big Dave2]

I'm thinking of buying an android type tablet for my wife for mother's day. She doesn't like computers or technology very much so she won't use it very often. She will mostly use it to check her emails, pay an occasional bill online, check my son's grades on the school HSOforum and maybe stream Pandora. She does like to read a little but I think because she is a notorious cheapskate, she doesn't like to buy books. I'm thinking if I set her up with an Amazon or Barnes and Noble account and she sees that she can download books for a couple of bucks and read them on the tablet, she may enjoy it more.

Because she probably won't use it much, I really don't want to spend very much on it. I only spent $349 on my new laptop and I use that every day.

We do have a 1st generation IPad that she has used a little bit but it is so old none of the new apps will work on it and it freezes up a lot. IMO it is unusable. I will not buy another Ipad. I am not a fan of Apple and we have all android phones anyway. She just got her first smartphone less than a year ago and just got a new samsung s4 about a month ago.

I have looked at Samsung tablets, the Kindle Fire HD 7 and the Nook Tablet. My wife's eyesight isn't what it used to be so I'm thinking a 10" tablet may be a better choice for her than a 7 or 8 inch?

Anyone have any suggestions? I guess I would pay up to $200 if I need to but I prefer the price of the Kindle at $139. There are some off brand 10" tablets on Amazon or hsolist that are in the $100 range but I'm afraid they will be junk.

[LightningBG]

I received a cheap one for free from one of my suppliers. Some random weird name. Total junk. My 8yo daughter wont even use it. She'd rather stare at the wall. One of my coworkers bought a RCA for about $100 on sale at wally world and she's been very happy with it.

[delcecchi]

You might look at some of the 8-8.5 inch tablets. There is a galaxy tab 4 8 inch on best buy site for 199.

Put a kindle app on it. B&N has a nook that is an android tablet also. It uses the nook app which uses epub format. Amazon uses mobi format. Many libraries have free loans of ebooks. Just get on the library web site and get free use of ebooks and magazines.

Since you live in Minnesota you can get a card at any library in the state, so you have multiple selections to choose from.

There are also many other sources of ebooks, depending on how you feel about that.

[BartmanMN]

I paid $200 for my daughters Ipad mini. Nice device.

[MN Shutterbug]

I paid under $100 for my 7 inch Toshiba Excite and it does everything I need it for. I've had it for over a year and use it daily for email, gin rummy, reading free books, checking the weather, mapping out destinations, listening to music, etc. and so forth.

[MN Mike]

Amazon has some HP Stream 8" Tablets with Windows 8 and 32 GB memory that might fit your price range very well, you can get your Kindle / Nook apps installed on them too.

Mike

[Big Dave2]

Do you think a 7 or 8 inch tablet is a good size? I'm not sure if I should be looking for that size or 10" tablets? The 7" looks like it would be a good size for carrying it around places. Is it a good size for reading and web surfing or should I look more at 10" tablets.

[aanderud]

I think 7 can be a bit on the small side. I like small and I can read small text, so I don't have a problem.... and if given a choice between 7 or 10, I'd take 7 every day of the week. But, I do think most people prefer slightly more room. In that case I'd go with something between 8 and 9 inches. There's a reason the ipad mini is 7.9 inches, rather than 7 -- that extra room does make a difference. There are 8 inchers out there, 8.4 and 8.9 and whatnot, anything in that range is more portable and usable than the 10 inchers and more readable than the 7 inchers.

In my opinion, the problem with the 10 inchers is that it's a basically a two-handed operation just to hold it while reading on it, due to the size. Holding it for any period of time with one hand gets tiring. Granted, an 8 incher is often still a 2 handed thing as far as navigating and opening new apps and whatnot, but reading using a kindle app and even simple scrolling on web pages or news apps using your thumb can be done with one hand, at least much more easily than a 10 incher.

My son got an 8.4 inch lenovo for around $130 and he's been really happy with it. I'd skip the no-name units -- they're likely stipped down in some way or another (lower power CPU, less memory, less storage), a worse screen, flimsier construction, lack of some component or poor quality components (front facing cameras that have crummy resolution, etc). Plenty of good units out there from Asus, Samsumg, Lenovo, Amazon, etc.

[Big Dave2]

My son got an 8.4 inch lenovo for around $130 and he's been really happy with it.

http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaTab-A8-50-8-Inch-Tablet/dp/B00JAIEAU4

Is this the one?

[delcecchi]

I have a kindle paperwhite and a nexus 7 and either of them are fine for reading. Maybe a little small for web surfing. Hard to hit the little buttons on FM for example. That's why I was thinking 8 inch. A 10 inch looks like it would be awkward to carry around.

I can put my 7 inch kindle in a jacket pocket or inside my shirt.

[aanderud]

My son got an 8.4 inch lenovo for around $130 and he's been really happy with it.

[Sandmannd]

We've had a Toshiba Thrive for a couple of years and love it. It does a lot. For me I like the larger 10" screen. I'm older and like having the larger screen to look at. It's got HDMI out so when we go out of town we can connect to the hotel's wifi, get on netflix and plug it right into their TV to watch movies if we want. It also has a USB port so you can plug in a thumb drive or external hard drive for storage. It's really nice. Pretty cheap now too.

http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Thrive-10-...hrive+10+tablet

Though I would spring the extra and go with the 32 GB one.

[delcecchi]

If you can get to Costco they have the Galaxy Tab 4 on sale in the 8 and 10 inch sizes for 189 and 279 (after rebate at register). Also have tab S and Pro on sale.

These have the advantage of having a micro-SD slot for adding storage.

[Big Dave2]

If you can get to Costco they have the Galaxy Tab 4 on sale in the 8 and 10 inch sizes for 189 and 279 (after rebate at register). Also have tab S and Pro on sale.

These have the advantage of having a micro-SD slot for adding storage.

Thanks for the tip, I might have to check that out.

[delcecchi]

Thanks for the tip, I might have to check that out.

Costco deal is only good for a few more days, 11th I think. I sort of got in on the tail end. Although they might have another deal since Amazon seems to have like the same price.

You can add 64GB microSD from Amazon for 30 bucks, cheaper than the costco one which is like 45. Watch out for the cheap high capacity SD cards even from Amazon. Seems like folks are selling 8G cards with the controllers hacked to pretend to be 64 or 128 cards.

[Shack]

It's not low price but I sure like this iPod Air 2 with the 128gb storage. First tablet. Not a huge fan of them but it's really growing on me.