Lower priced tablet PC's. Any good?

[flobadob]

We are thinking of getting a 10" tablet pc for our son's 8th birthday. I won't be getting an ipad as I don't like Apple stuff. However there are a wide variety of these tablets ranging from £100 up to £500. I'm just wondering are the lower priced ones worth buying, are they value for money or would I regret not just spending the extra and getting a Samsung Galaxy or equivalent?

[ChuckFickens]

You get what you pay for.

The low price ones have much cheaper hardware, are normally only capable of running outdated versions of android, often don't have access to the official android marketplace and the real killer on them is normally the screens will be far lower quality and normally only a resistive touchscreen which are far less responsive to use than the more expensive capacitive screens

[flobadob]

Chuck, so long as he could watch youtube and play angry birds and the like I'd say he'd be happy enough. However it would be very disappointing if it was of very poor quality. At the same time he could get bored of it in a month and it would be £400 odd quid down the swanny.

[gingejbee]

The very latest Which? has a report on tablets (October). The iPad2 gets a test score of 82%, the Galaxy 67% - the best "cheaper" option was the Dell streak at 64% (£250). Other cheapies did very poorly with scores of 33 to 40%.

[Sqad]

Chuck is correct.....Mrs sqad bought me one £100 or so as a surprise, it hooked up to the internet via a router once and then refused any further contact.

It is now in the bin.

[AB Editor]

The new Sony Tablets are very nicely put together. They also play old PS games which can be downloaded (although i think there is only one available currently! more to come I am sure).

I've played with the cheap stuff, it suffers for it. Tablets are, currently, meant to be "cool".

[AB Editor]

Although, reading that he is 8 you should be fine with the GalTab or similar - last year's version is still nice (although only 7"). The new version is 10.1 and they're offering a 8.9 as well I think.

You could also hold out for another HP TouchPad firesale and grab one fo them at a snip (and then put Android on it...)

[AB Editor]

Also, if you want to make sure it retains it's usefulness, why not pick something you could see yourself using if he gets bored of it?

[flobadob]

I bit the bullet and got this one for £85 http://www.ebay.co.uk...s&hash=item27bea8d8ca I'm happy enough cos it's not a major waste of money so long as it works. Does anyone have any knowledge of this type, if it's a piece of proverbial just let me know. But at the end of the day if he really likes it and it's not great perhaps we could move up then.

[AB Editor]

I'd be a bit worried, It probably won't have a nice glass screen as it is resistive (as opposed to capacitive).

Also, anyone know if this is a real thing?:
G-sensor 4-dimensional gravity sensing

But, even if you're not happy with it, it'll still work as a great digital photo-frame. make sure you get some velcro:
.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTSDPKktbUk

[flobadob]

How sticky must the glue be on the back of that velcro strip? Surely the velcro would pull away from certain type of surface.

[cazzz1975]

I would have gone for the galaxy personally, I know a few people who bought zepads and eepads, they ended up trying to sell them on because they were rubbish.

[AB Editor]

"Surely the velcro would pull away from certain type of surface."

Possibly.

In the past I've helped with an art exhibition where the princial artist's work was on HUGE pieces of plywood (i.e. really bloody heavy). We managed with with velcro - one strip at the top and one at the bottom. So I wouldn't worry about it!

Also, these cheaper devices can be quite good when you stop trying to do everything on them. Using it as a simple notice board in the kitchen it pretty useful, especially as you can use it as a timer as well, or just to display recipes from the web - or even AB (as long as you don't mind a burnt dinner).

[flobadob]

He'll be the only one using it and as I say, so long as youtube and a few apps work, it should be okay. If he's really into it and it turn out to be useless I will probably get him a Galaxy or Sony one. I wonder will they still be selling the Galaxy's by Christmas. Not it Apple has its way apparently.

[yhsjgspgjsskoko]

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