Cheap Tablet

[Ichy]

Advice please.

I'm after a cheap tablet to use as a notepad, preferably with a stylus but with an option of using a bluetooth keyboard. The ability to convert scrawl to text would be help and the ability to deal with microsoft documents and pdfs is a bonus.
Originally I considered a playbook but I noticed this the other day on ebuyer

https://www.ebuyer.com/386278-sumvision-astro-7-tablet-pc-astro-7

Which looks pretty good for £80.

I have absolutely no knowledge of tablets so am I missing something important? Are there better/cheaper options?
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[woodall57]

nexus 7? its actual android and not baked with a skin on top to slow it down like most other manufacturers do?

https://www.google.com/nexus/#/7
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[Ichy]

And only £120 more.

Thanks anyway.
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[woodall57]

[J4mes]

I guess the only thing you can do is read the reviews - 307 of them with an average of 8.4/10.

Seems like a lot of happy customers to me!

[instigator]

If Currys are still selling the bb PlayBook at 120, I'd urge you to get one. They are stunning piece of hardware (and great OS) for 250 quid, let alone half that.

[Ichy]

[Ichy]

[instigator]

[bazza]

[Seb]

Actually he has kind of a point, i've dealt with a pretty big variety of random Chinese android tablets and whilst they have been improving, they are still as a whole pretty shocking and usually a waste of money. Typical failings include hilariously bad WiFi antenna designs that look more like an NFC arrangement than anything appropriate for 11g/n, completely unoptimised Android setups causing even beefy A8s and A9s to crawl like a shitty old Via, and horridly unresponsive, inaccurate and flexible screens.

So yes, whilst some of these ebay tablets have specs that blow last years £350 super pad away, 9 times out of 10 the old super pad will still offer up a better end user experience purely because it's software has been correctly optimised for the hardware and GPU in the device.

On the flipside though, that Ebuyer one is likely worth a punt at that price because it's a pretty safe purchase, if it does indeed turn out to be shit you can just pull the distance sales act and send it straight back

As for the other options, I'm going to +1 the £159 8GB Nexus 7, I think it's the best tablet purchase and frankly, it's decent enough to make me fear for my netbook sales to boot.

A Playbook for £120 doesn't sound like a bad shout either, I'm not a huge fan but that's more because of my dislike of blackberry handsets rather than any fault of the device itself, I will note that the design of it's charging socket is idiotically fragile and on par with that of the original Motorola V3, but beyond that it's a nice tablet for the money.
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2010 Triumph 1050 Sprint ST

[bazza]

I've had my Astro for 4 months now, taking it to work daily in my tank bag. It works just as well as when I got it apart from some of the text/logo rubbing off through much use. Don't expect top-notch performance at that price but it's surprisingly capable and well worth the £80 punt.

I wouldn't recommend random chinese pads from random chinese websites except for that mincing biff with the virago (forgot his name) who has to keep asking asking BCF how to do everything from buying pikey tents to wiping his arse.
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[woodall57]

[WannaBeDude]

Dare one say ipad mini - out soon ish .. circa 200 quid .. est
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[boundy]

First decent rival to the Nexus 7

https://www.ebuyer.com/394008-acer-iconia-a110-tablet-pc-ht-hapek-001?utm_source=google&utm_medium=products

[el_oso]

the playbook was a fantastic piece of hardware and software. It was the one blackberry product that I thought was ahead of the competition. The big problem and the reason why I ended up sending it back was the huge lack of apps.
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Previous: '05 XR125L | '96 XJ600S Diversion |'05 Suzuki GSXR1000 | '05 Honda CBR125-R | '97 YZF 600R Thundercat | '11 Honda CBR250
Car: Jeep Wrangler 4.0L

[Ichy]

[el_oso]

I have no idea. but I'd be willing to bet that it doesn't have anywhere near the same amount of apps as android/iPad.
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Duke 390
Previous: '05 XR125L | '96 XJ600S Diversion |'05 Suzuki GSXR1000 | '05 Honda CBR125-R | '97 YZF 600R Thundercat | '11 Honda CBR250
Car: Jeep Wrangler 4.0L

[herulach]

[boundy]