Best Tablet Under $200-300?

[Smitty77_7]

NOT FOR CELLULAR COVERAGE - NOT FOR CELLULAR COVERAGE

 

I have an aging 1st generation iPad. WiFi usage only, 90% casual surfing, no movie watching, and minimal typing. Don't need lots of storage. The current iPad battery life is fading quickly, and not able to update operating software anymore.

 

I'm not opposed to buying used, and or a few generations older, when looking for a replacement. I think the size of say the 8" is as small of screen that I would want, but suspect the 9" - 11" range would be better for my comfortable usage.

 

Not hung up between Apple vs Android vs Other type operating systems, as long as fast start up is available.

 

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Tips and input appreciated!!

 

Best to all,

Smitty

[VallAndMo]

Hello Smitty,

 

Best bang for the buck seems to be the Nexus 7 2nd gen (2013 version). Used and with 32GB/WiFi, they can be found in the $100-150 range on eBay.

 

Cheers,

--

Vall.

[Carol K]

I have an ASUS T100 that is now 2 years old and love it. It is 10" and has a detachable keyboard. You don't need the keyboard to use it as one pops up on the screen but I like the keyboard for certain things. I have no qualms about recommending it.

 

Carol K

[Zulu]

Here are some MacOfAllTrades used iPads & iPad Airs, Best Buy, and Apple Refurbished iPads. I've bought from MacOfAllTrades and Apple refurbished with success.

Also, a guide to iPad Models -- the model #s are found on the back and are incredibly small.

I have a 4th gen (A1459, late 2012) iPad and my wife has an iPad 2 (A1395, 2011). Hers is getting long in the tooth so I'm buying her an iPad Pro for Xmas, but I was also thinking about an iPad Air. She does a lot of typing so the iPad Pro detachable keyboard was great option.

Happy hunting.

[RV_]

http://www.gearbest.com/tablet-pcs/pp_261671.html

 

I've bought from these guys, very good cheaper price but great products. Can take a month if not shipping from US warehouse. These have a dual boot Android and Windows, the latest Intel Atom quad core fast processors. If you don't like to fiddle and tweak don't buy from them as it takes a bit of trial and error to change from Chinese to English. Microsoft has the surface3 on sale now for $399.99.

 

I get new sale emails daily so I'll stop by if I find something that I'd buy. Steal deal top tech and I buy. But I'm all new systems now and am just looking for friends now.

[RV_]

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Nextbook-Flexx-10.1-2-in-1-Tablet-2-32GB-Quad-Core-Windows-8-Eligible-for-Free-Windows-10-Upgrade/44503405?action=product_interest&action_type=title&item_id=44503405&placement_id=irs-2-m2&strategy=PWVUB&visitor_id&category=&client_guid=e968c04a-32c6-4685-89f4-48c1ab6f6c23&customer_id_enc&config_id=2&parent_item_id=45596374&parent_anchor_item_id=45596374&guid=44fe600b-ac7c-45e8-91f0-a9a2f77e426d&bucket_id=irsbucketdefault&beacon_version=1.0.1&findingMethod=p13n

[Jack Mayer]

The Flex tablets that RV pointed to actually look pretty good in person. They are worth checking out if you have any interest in Windows (especially). HOWEVER< on the W10 topic I cannot recommend the upgrade. I still have a LOT of wifi issues with W10. To the point of two machines being almost unusable they are so annoying. One gets BSOD (blue screen of death) at least every hour due to an Intel wifi driver issue - for which there is not a current solution. It is a known issue in certain circumstances, and there seems to be little to no willingness for Intel or MS to fix it - based on performance. The other machine gets wifi lockup where you have to re-boot the machine to resolve. NOTHING else resolves it including any IPCONFIG commands. This si also a known issue with no resolution yet. Note that BOTH of these machines exhibiting this behavior have wifi AC on them. No machine that *I* have that has just N wifi has these issues, but I don't know if that is a clue or not.

 

Frankly, at this point if you are just looking to browse, and do consumption (primarily) and email I cannot recommend W10 in any form. I'd stick to Android or iOS.

[bigjim]

For the dumb is iOS apple?

[Zulu]

For the dumb is iOS apple?

 

Yep

[RV_]

Jack,

Sorry you've had such bad luck with both Windows 8/8.1 having been unable to do any updates on it, and your WiFi issues with 10. While my experience with it has been stellar, on six machines, all wildly different. My new Surface Pro 3 came with 8.1 and upgraded fine, I'm on it now. My ASUS T200 that came with 8 upgraded perfectly too. As well, our older Dell Venue 11 pro was 8, and now runs 10 perfectly. My wife's tower desktop, an HP with AMD quad core was 7 and now runs 10. The Toshiba 17" laptop 5 years old started with 7, runs 10 perfectly. I just bought her a replacement for her desktop, a touch screen all in one, i5 Lenovo B4030 that came with 8 and upgraded to 10 fine. It had an issue running Quicken home and business 2014 and I realized we had it on the system before upgrading on the HP. So I did a factory restore to 8.1. I shall build her system all in 8.1 installing MS Office, Quicken etc. before upgrading to 10.

 

My WiFi is a dual band Cisco router. I'm replacing it soon with an ac 1900 Linksys. All but the Toshiba laptop have dual band radios in them which have worked fine.

 

I recommend anyone to do their experimenting with new upgrades by doing a fresh system with all the basics as he can revert, or do a factory reset anytime. For me I prefer that as I know what is on it and can factory restore anytime, when I've just set it up.

 

If you could provide some links to the WiFi issue I can cross check my systems for the radios and issues.

 

Thanks.

[Smitty77_7]

Thanks all for the input so far. I'm going out to touch and feel a few units today, to confirm the 8" range will work for me, or at least know I need a bit bigger if it's too small.

 

I may have a lead on about two year old Samsung, that was a raffle win. Taken out of the box to look at, then put back in and never touched again. (A friend of a friend... They're getting me the model number. All they know is at the time, the same unit was on sale at Costco for about $279, with one of their instant $20 off sales. Again, they said about two years ago...).

 

I got a kick out looking at the local Craigslist. Where some models are being sold for asking higher prices then I can find new online:)! Really need to do your homework, found the same thing when I was shopping for my cell phone.

 

While a minor point. I do have Samsung Smart TV's in our vacation home and in our RV, so the seamless connectivity between the Samsung Tab's and Samsung Smart TV's is a minor plus towards Samsung. That being said, the 1st generation iPad was our first exposure to Apple, has performed easily and reliably since day one... So close comparison to a one or two generation old iPad is also going on compared to the Samsung Tab's.

 

If I was not so cheap, I'd just go to Costco and buy the latest and greatest Samsung Tab and be done with it:)!

 

Best to all,

Smitty

[Jack Mayer]

Derek, only some of my systems have the really bad issue. Actually two of them are really bad - especially the one that is BRAND NEW with the BSOD (my sisters). That is just infuriating, since it is now too old to return and the vendor - HP - is totally USELESS. No more HP computers....I swear I should have learned my lesson with their printers, which are now forbidden anywhere I have influence.

 

My T100 works flawless on W10, as does Danielle's ultra now that I switched Jetpacks. Interestingly, she showed the W10 issue with the 291 Jetpack, but it totally went away when I swapped to the Jetpack 791. SAME W10 system. SO there is definitely router interaction. That is dual band, BTW. She runs flawlessly now. All run OK on the WiFiRanger Go2 as well.

 

MY computer is better on the 791, but still has funky wifi user interface issues occasionally (like once every day or so) that requires a reboot to resolve. I can live with that for now, and hope it is resolved in a patch update. But the HP is very bad with a BSOD sometimes every hour. Hopefully in the next week or so they get it resolved. That machine is an hour away from me at my sister's. If I could return it I would and buy here another one. No updates, patches or restores resolve it. It is the Intel driver. Very annoying.

 

Overall I like W10 as an OS. The wifi is still poorly done, even from a user interface - but eventually they will resolve it all.

 

Smitty, for the Galaxy tablets I have them all....all sizes. And I use the 8.4" Pro the most. You would have to get 8" these days unless you find a used 8.4 Pro. My point is the 8" size is just about right for usability. I don;'t like my 10" for most things - it is too hard to handle. Now, put a keyboard on it - like my T100 has - and it is fine. But alone it is too hard to hold and use. It somewhat depends on HOW you use it.

[RV_]

Oops! I thought you said you weren't OS centric. Samsung and Android seem to be your preference after all.

Good luck!