recommend a tablet

WingedWeasel

Wifey has become interested in getting a tablet for herself rather than use my HP touchpad. However outside of an iPad or surface which is well outside our range currently I am unsure what valid options there are. Old threads her brought up the nexus 7 but we were looking at things more in the 10 inch range. The transformer prime was also mentioned but quick Google searches claim it is awful?

Preferably I want something <= $250 but I am not sure if that is mutually exclusive with the size. Any suggestions?

Hewn

I don't think you'll find too many tempting options in the 10 inch size and at $250. The Nexus 10 runs $400 at base, and that's a pretty good value.

Your best bet might be the Kindle Fire HD 8.9" if you don't mind being tied to the Amazon store. That's $270 with "special offers" (ads).

Gaslight

If you want a decent 10" tablet for $250 or less you are basically SOL.

WingedWeasel

That's what I was afraid of (and saw from my own searching). Other than the nexus 10 what other good values are there for the price around 250 or size of 10?

bowen

Kindle Fire or an older gen iPad are your best bets.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_352986662_4/183-9236793-0064022?ie=UTF8&docId=1001069011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=browse&pf_rd_r=14YX8YF1DQD4QC07W0V8&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1533063122&pf_rd_i=1232597011

Djeet

refurb iPad2. iPad mini is real nice too.

mts

Keep an eye on woot.com. They have refurb tablets all the time for pretty cheap

LiamW

as a kindle fire owner I am going to strongly recommend spending a little extra on something better.

ceres

My mom has a 10" ASUS and loves it. She got it at Staples for I think about $350. I don't know if you'll do better than that. I would avoid an iPad myself, but then my recent brush with an iPhone left me pretty unhappy with iOS.

AresProphet

You can get the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 for $399, which drops all the way down to $199 on some specific AT&T data-plan deals. But that's only worth it if you need 4G data and have AT&T.

EggyToast

My girlfriend just bought a Kindle Fire 8.9, for two main reasons:

1) the size and price were what she was looking for. 7 was too small, 10 was too expensive.

2) She's not interested in many apps, and primarily wants it as an internet browsing device and tv-viewing screen, with good support for keyboards and the like if she needs to work while traveling.

Amazon's walled-garden approach to apps isn't for everyone, but for someone who isn't interested in hacking, it does seem to hit a good sweet spot. It's one of the only reasonable devices in the $250-300 range with a good sized screen that still uses gorilla glass and has a solid battery life. Being backed by Amazon is both good and bad, in my view, but they are helping keep the price down.

bowen

From what I recall, the fire tablets are branded androids and can be jailbroken fairly easily. Basically become an Android tablet at that level.

Hevach

If you want a 10 inch Android for that cheap, look at the Flytouch line. Popular with modders since they're supposedly the easiest thing in the world to jailbreak, but unpopular with everyone else because their reliability leaves something to be desired. Still, if you want a 10 inch tablet under $250, I'm not aware of many other options - you can pick up a Flytouch 2 or 3 under $100 easily and the more recent models for maybe $150-175.

WingedWeasel

Thanks everyone. I will talk it over with her. Unfortunately it looks like we may need to go with a pricier option.

I have looked at iPad 2's but haven't seen them go for less than 350 or so. I was considering that for xcom later down the line, but I am not sure if there are system requirement concerns since there isn't much known that I am aware of.

Abracadaniel

It would be pretty unlikely any games would be excluding the iPad 2's specs, as the newer iPad Mini uses similar internals so it's sort of the bar for games. I don't think I've seen any *Must have iPad 3 or greater* games, mostly just requirements for iOS 6 which the iPad 2 is covered under.

MichaelLC

I like our Nexus 7 a lot.

Keep in mind most of the tablets now don't have external storage option - so whatever you get (16, 32GB) is what you got forever. It's only really a problem if you're loading a lot of movies and/or big games on it; or if you have a 10GB music library.

dlinfiniti

you can currently get a nook hd+ for $150/179 (16/32 gb) respectively
it has a beautiful 9" 1920x1200 screen

DeShadowC

Watch groupon as well. I got a 10" Toshiba Android tablet for $249.99 off there earlier this month.

tech_hunter

I just got a 16 GB 7" asus Memo Tablet. It works great plays games I can watch movies and is only $150

LaPuzza

http://tech.woot.com/plus/tablets-accessories-2#

Tablet Sale. I think the Asus Transformer is well reviewed. let us know what you get.

DHS Odium

Like people said, if you're looking for a name brand one you can pick up at retail or Amazon, you'd have to spend a little more.

That said, you can get rather low-cost Android tablets with pretty damn good specs. Most are from China and there's several online places to get them, they come with the latest Android OS (Jelly Bean) and in English as well. Two brands I know of are Freelander and Cube, do a Google search to find stores (I've seen them sold on aliexpress.com and pandawill.com)

Doctor Detroit

No sense starting a new thread, I'm tablet hunting as well. But I'm looking more in the <$200 range.

Any opinions on the Galaxy Tab 2? I was thinking about a Nexus 7, but then everyone said a new version was soon to be announced...only that didn't happen.

Mulletude

My mom got a Galaxy Tab 2, 7 inch screen. It works just fine for her. Basically like a big version of my phone, which isn't a bad thing. Seems like a good inexpensive tablet option.