Looking for a budget tablet for my mother

[JoostinOnline]

I'm in the US and I think a tablet would be a good gift for my mother this Christmas.  While I'm fairly knowledgeable in desktops, what I know about mobile devices is pitiful.  I don't even know where to start.  I'm not looking to spend more than $100.  Right now she has a $50 2015 Fire Tablet that she's used for 4 years, so anything would be a step up.I'm hoping for Black Friday sales and such.  Some suggestions would be nice, but especially some things to watch for in specs if I look for myself.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

Lol, the 100$ fire tablets are much better than the 50$ ones. Plus, prime day is supposedly coming soon, so you might get a 150$ish model for 100$

[JoostinOnline]

Just now, HelpfulTechWizard said:

Lol, the 100$ fire tablets are much better than the 50$ ones. Plus, prime day is supposedly coming soon, so you might get a 150$ish model for 100$

Are those the HD models?  Also, can you explain what makes them better?  I'm mostly a newbie at this stuff.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

1 minute ago, JoostinOnline said:

Are those the HD models?  Also, can you explain what makes them better?  I'm mostly a newbie at this stuff.

The 2015 50$ one would be a 5th gen fire 7 iirc. I have the 5th gen one, and the 50$ one had a shitty processor made for wearables (like smart watches) a 480p screen, and 512mb of ram. Bassically, the more expensive models have CPUs made for mobile phones and tablets, and a 720p or 1080p screen, and enough ram to have 2 browser tabs open.

[JoostinOnline]

1 minute ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

The 2015 50$ one would be a 5th gen fire 7 iirc. I have the 5th gen one, and the 50$ one had a shitty processor made for wearables (like smart watches) a 480p screen, and 512mb of ram. Bassically, the more expensive models have CPUs made for mobile phones and tablets, and a 720p or 1080p screen, and enough ram to have 2 browser tabs open.

Are there any respected mobile benchmarks so I could get an idea of performance of different models and brands?

[JoostinOnline]

2 hours ago, huilun02 said:

At $100 there are only a few things to look out for.

• Processor core count
• RAM
• Internal storage
• Screen resolution

Although right now I don't really see an option other than the Fire HD 8. 

 

You might want to wait for the upcoming Prime Day on 13-14 Oct to see if a better model of Amazon tablet falls within your budget.

 

And please avoid all of them no-brand tablets.

Oh I'll definitely be waiting at least until then. This is a Christmas gift, I've got a few months. I don't mind the MSRP to be above $100, I just want suggestions to watch for possible sales.

 

I was thinking about the HD 8 Plus or the HD 10. The thing is, I have no way of knowing if the performance benefit is worth it. I don't even have a baseline. She was okay with her Fire 7 for a long time though, and still occasionally uses it. Performance isn't a big priority.