Under $300

[moach1]

Thinking of getting son an Android tablet for Christmas since he plays with my phone all day long. Has to have the market on it. Looking to spend up to $300 on it, since I was planning on getting him a iPod touch. He is 6 and I think at this stage he would get more use out of a tablet. Any input is greatly appreciated.

 

[Prof-KOS]

I'm afraid you're not going to find anything with the Android Market, or indeed Google Apps at all, for under $300 out of the box. The Viewsonic G Tablet is $379.99 regular but can be got at Sears Outlet for $279.99 if you're lucky. It is fairly easy to flash it with TnT Lite custom ROM and Google Apps or even CyanogenMod 6.1.

 

[jharo]

You can get an Archos 70 for about $275. It doesn't come with Market on it, but you can get it on.

 

[anon(21022)]

Just saw today the woow! Digital tablet, 220$ for wifi only, 280 with 3g. I emailed them to ask if wifi only has the Market and they said yes, but also said their 7" one is stuck at eclair and won't see upgrades.

I'm still tempted, especially after seeing that keyboard/case, kb uses USB on the tablet not Bluetooth. Interesting if it delivers....

Sent from my SH-03C

 

[moach1]

Thanks all. Anybody have any experience with the Witstech?

 

[anon(20964)]

+1 for the Archos 70

Sent from my A70S using Tapatalk

 

[aznmode]

I was gonna just say if you don't really need it before xmas you could go for one of those apad ones. Less than $200. Don't worry bout the end of the link price. It's 179 right now. Although I'm not sure it has Market but you can always just side load apps.

Android 2.1 Tablet PC-aPad-MID-7 TFT Touch Screen-ARM 11-Telechips 8902B-720MHZ-256 DDR2-2G-Wifi-Camera(SMQ5821) - US$ 299.98

 

[kangrapes]

Witstech

I have Witstech A81E. Good device for the money. Have make sure it is running the 1122 firmware. I have the GPS option and use Copilot navigation App. It works very well. Fast little device and internet cruising is a breeze. Runs Flash well. I purchased from Merimobiles and their support has been excellent. They helped with installing the new firmware.
I have a friend that purchased a Cruz. Nicer screen but pretty much a waste because there is no intention by the compnay to send out an upgrade to 2.2.

 

[s2h2golf]

The Nookcolor is the best Android tablet out there. For $250, you get a TI OMAP processor running at 800mhz and a strong graphics processor. It has a capacitive screen, unlike some of the China tablets (not knocking them, I've played with some of them and they have been nice, but they have resistive screens that are slow compared to capacitive). The benchmarks I have seen have it at 700-800 on Quadrant and 7-8 on Linpack. In short, that means it is comparable to a lot of the recently released phones. If you go to the XDA website Nook Color Android Development - xda-developers you can get good directions on how to get the Market enabled (Auto-Nooter link). As with most cutting edge stuff at XDA, you have to be patient and understand what is going on, but the community over there is really good about helping out.

Oh yeah, I forgot - the Nookcolor is getting an update to 2.2 in Jan/Feb. This tablet will be supported for quite a while considering Barnes and Noble is backing it.

 

[TheDroidLurker]

After setting up 2 of them as gifts for my non-tech savvy mother and my younger sis, I would recommend the Huawei Ideos s7. Priced right at $299, runs 2.1 (upgrading to 2.2 1st qtr of next year), and not a bad entry level tablet. Best Buy sells them.

It's not an Android dream machine but it is a capable little tablet that can also function on GSM networks. Just pop in a SIM. Also has microSD support. Look it up.
Huawei Ideos S7 at Best Buy

 

[s2h2golf]

After setting up 2 of them as gifts for my non-tech savvy mother and my younger sis, I would recommend the Huawei Ideos s7. Priced right at $299, runs 2.1 (upgrading to 2.2 1st qtr of next year), and not a bad entry level tablet. Best Buy sells them.

It's not an Android dream machine but it is a capable little tablet that can also function on GSM networks. Just pop in a SIM. Also has microSD support. Look it up.
Huawei Ideos S7 at Best Buy

Important to note that this tablet has a resistive screen and not capacitive. It also has a Snapdragon processor clocked at 784mhz or something like that. It is nice too, but for $100 to $150 less you can get a Coby Kyros 7005 or 7015 tablet at Toys R Us and several other places that has a resistive screen that is very responsive (more than the Ideos S7), runs 2.1, has a big development community (the Coby is a re-branded China tablet) and is well constructed running an ARM11 processor clocked at 720mhz. The only thing the Coby tablets do not have is the SIM card slot and a camera. I purchased both of these (Coby and Ideos), along with the NookColor, the Velocity Micro Cruz Reader, the Sylvania tablet that Kmart/Sears sells and the Maylong tablet that Walgreens was selling. Originally these were supposed to be Christmas gifts, but all of them had issues with one aspect or another (cheap construction - [Maylong, Sylvania] resistive screen that was too slow [Cruz Reader, Ideos7]) that they all went back and I just bought a full-blown laptop for $299. After I played with all of these tablets and tried different things with them, I decided that I should get one for myself and went with the best capacitive screen tablet I could find - the Nookcolor. Just my insight.