Android Looking for a Decent Android Tablet

Nathan Drake

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I'm looking for an Android tablet that does it's job well, but the kicker is that I only have $150, total, to spend.

What I'm looking for:
- Access to the Android Marketplace
- At least 8GB of internal storage (preferably expandable, though most cheaper tablets go that route anyways)
- Decent wi-fi
- Capacitive touchscreen, preferably (if I have to, or if the tablet is good, I can always deal with resistive)
- Quick interface, or at least not laggy and slow as dirt
- Flash support would be nice
- Not a tiny display (preferably around the 7 in. mark)
- Not some obscure Chinese knockoff tablet

That's about it. The site I buy from needs to accept PayPal. I know this is a little picky for the price I set, but things have become a bit difficult in various ways. Ultimately, I would like to just get a Nook Color, but am about $30 short towards getting a pre-owned one via Barnes and Noble. If you happen to find a deal for that you would like to share with me, I'll love you forever. In the mean time, I just kind of have to prowl eBay and see what I can find.

Thanks in advance for any help and suggestions.

Just as a note, I absolutely can not pay over $150, though if it's a popular shop, I may be able to find an ecoupon to drop the price some if it's close to $150 already.
 
Your best option is to buy a refurbished nook color by barnes & noble and rooting it.

http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/Nook-...00/product.html

http://www.buy.com/prod/nook-color-by-barn.../221376447.html

I know that's $30 more than you wanted to spend. But you will not find a quality tablet for cheaper than that. Here how I rooted it.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1259974

It's pretty complicated at first but you'll get the hang of it. I like it so far. Right I'm trying to get youtube working.
 
Decent doesn't mean like Transformer or Xoom incredible or something. If I saved enough for that, I would probably pick up a cheap Notebook or something on sale instead. Decent just should mean that it works well, isn't Chinese poo, and has at least some decent memory capacity while being able to run Android. I've seen those cheapy Archos tablets, but the 4.3 inch is just a little too small for my liking (being only a bit bigger than an iPhone/iPod Touch). The bigger Archos tablet for cheaper has pretty bad reviews.

For $150, what I want shouldn't be too difficult to achieve.

And yeah, I would ultimately prefer the Nook Color. I need to earn $30 more though, and I have absolutely no idea how.
 
If anything most tablet right now is on the 180-250 rating, not motorola xoom or asus transformer either, the galaxy tab for instance runs around 250-300 IIRC, Dell Streak 7 is on the same price. You have to be willing to put out with resistive, so unless you want obscure brands.....
 
Dangy said:
Nathan Drake said:
For $150, what I want shouldn't be too difficult to achieve.

Then why are you asking GBATemp?

For some insight. I'm not big with online shopping due to how rarely I spend money, and I really don't want to fuck this up.
 
Nathan Drake said:
Dangy said:
Nathan Drake said:
For $150, what I want shouldn't be too difficult to achieve.

Then why are you asking GBATemp?

For some insight. I'm not big with online shopping due to how rarely I spend money, and I really don't want to fuck this up.

To be honest, finding a decent Android tablet for under $150, is a pretty difficult task. Save another hundred or so, then you might be able to get something decent.
 
Dangy said:
Nathan Drake said:
Dangy said:
Nathan Drake said:
For $150, what I want shouldn't be too difficult to achieve.

Then why are you asking GBATemp?

For some insight. I'm not big with online shopping due to how rarely I spend money, and I really don't want to fuck this up.

To be honest, finding a decent Android tablet for under $150, is a pretty difficult task. Save another hundred or so, then you might be able to get something decent.

Sadly, I have nothing more to sell then what I have already put up. Outside of that, I honestly have no other way to earn money. The job market is very unfriendly in my state towards teens. If I can sell off my two DS games, that would hopefully be about another $30 in my pocket, but it's really hard to move older titles. I do better selling broken electronics more than anything. Regardless, what I have is what I have. Even if it takes months waiting for price drops and the like, I'll make it work out.

If I was patient enough to leave $140 in the hands of some no name company for an item I may or may not get (which I ultimately did not get, refunds are nice though) for a month, I think I can hold out for awhile to find what I'm looking for.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Google-android-VIA86.../ref=pd_cp_pc_2

This tablet gets some good reviews. There are custom ROMs available at the SlateDroid forums (Singularity, Vestinious, Modroid, probably others...) which reportedly make the tablet very usable. It only has 2GB internal memory, and a resistive touch screen, but according to reviews I have read its a good resisitive touch screen, and the memory is of course expandable. 7" screen and Flash support as requested. With the custom ROMs it can apparently access the Android Market as well.

It is a budget tablet, and is marketed as such, it shouldn't be expected to be incredible. But it seems to perform better than one may expect for such a low price. (Which is well within your budget).
 
SifJar said:
http://www.amazon.com/Google-android-VIA86.../ref=pd_cp_pc_2

This tablet gets some good reviews. There are custom ROMs available at the SlateDroid forums (Singularity, Vestinious, Modroid, probably others...) which reportedly make the tablet very usable. It only has 2GB internal memory, and a resistive touch screen, but according to reviews I have read its a good resisitive touch screen, and the memory is of course expandable. 7" screen and Flash support as requested. With the custom ROMs it can apparently access the Android Market as well.

It is a budget tablet, and is marketed as such, it shouldn't be expected to be incredible. But it seems to perform better than one may expect for such a low price. (Which is well within your budget).

Amazon does not accept paypal, which is one of his requirements. Some chinese tablets are good for their price and many do have custom roms so I cannot disagree there.

A decent tablet under 150 that isn't "some obscure Chinese knockoff" is hard to find. Which is why so many prefer the Nook even at the refurb price of $180, since it is rootable and a decent tablet.

I believe there will be some budget tablets being made.
 
Well, my search has gone temporarily on hold due to some severe complications with getting the refund I was supposed to have days ago.

The bulk of Chinese tablets I've seen (I did do a lot of self research beforehand) tend to have reviews that mention them being slow, lacking in hacking features, or both. I'm not going to spend my money on something like that if it isn't my only option.

Just to note, I could spend on Amazon, but it would take a week or so to get my money out of PayPal and moved into a place where I could spend it on Amazon.
 
Posted in your WTB: Nook Color thread with an offer, but also with some advice!
nyanya.gif
 
You should try this tablet. I'm getting this one for the holidays.

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/7-capacitive-touch-screen-android-2-3-tablet-pc-w-wi-fi-hdmi-tf-4gb-vc882-arm-cortex-a8-1ghz-104916
 
Best. Deal. Ever. Well so far, that is. Saw this on Engadget the other day, it's a 7" ICS tablet http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/05/ainol-launches-the-novo7-the-worlds-first-android-4-0-tablet/ Might have to wait a while for this to come out though.
 

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