[psionpete]

I am considering buying an Android tablet for my son. I have several in mind but I have been told that not all devices are able to upgrade the Android OS but how do I know how to find out if it is possible and how it is done.

One tablet I am looking at is currently using 4.2 Jelly Bean and the others have 4.4 Kit Kat and I would really like him to be able to upgrade as and when required.

[hallux]

Official Android OS updates are 100% dependent upon the device manufacturer providing the update. If you want your son to have a device that will get updates for a couple years, get him a Nexus device. Samsung is also expected to bring 5.0 to most/all of its recent tablets.

While the budget-friendly off-brand tablets may be VERY enticing, they lack in several respects - screen resolution, storage capacity, CPU, RAM, build quality, Google compatibility (yes, some don't even have/support Google Play Services as they are not "sanctioned") - and you end up getting what you pay for.

Andrew Martonik wrote a great article on the cheap tablets situation last month.

[psionpete]

Thanks very much for your advice. I was'nt looking at the cheap no brand models, but the three models i have looked at are Lenovo S8-50, Lenovo Yoga 1 (10" tablet) and the Asus MeMo pad 8". I think the names are reasonably respectable but I am without any experience of Android devices (I am an Apple fan myself) i would appreciate any feedback you have.

I did buy my wife a cheap Android Samsung phone a couple of years ago but I was so cheesed off with the product and the support from Samsung that I vowed never to buy another Samsung product ever again.

[Bill Brooks]

i was also looking at the Asus and the Lenovo. I went with the Lenovo due to it's price and better screen resolution. It's an amazing tablet, easily worth more than the $149 at Best Buy. Warning, there is a new update to the ROM that changes the DPI. There's a couple threads that deal with that issue.

[B. Diddy]

I am considering buying an Android tablet for my son. I have several in mind but I have been told that not all devices are able to upgrade the Android OS but how do I know how to find out if it is possible and how it is done.

Welcome to Android Central! How old is your son? If he's older and really tech-savvy, I can understand wanting a device that will get updates for a reasonable time. But if he's younger, is it really necessary for it to be updated? As you can tell from various posts on this forum, people clamor for system updates, and then turn around and bemoan the fact that they're buggy, or change or remove features that they liked. Sometimes it's better for a device to stay on the OS version it came with, if it's working really well.