Oh no... My Dad Needs a Tablet

[AdamFromLTT]

The budget tablet market is a fickle beast. But when your dad needs a tablet, and he doesn't want to shell out for an Apple iPad, where do you go? Samsung Tablets? Amazon Fire Tablets? WALMART TABLETS? We take a look at some of the best cheap tablets - Android, iOS or otherwise - and let you know what to expect before you buy.

Buy a refurbished Apple iPad (2018) on Amazon: https://geni.us/q5CgM
Buy a Walmart onn. 10.1" Tablet: https://geni.us/rSn4uB
Buy a VastKing KingPad K10 Pro on Amazon: https://geni.us/SADJn
Buy a Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite: https://geni.us/XM596
Buy an Amazon Fire HD 10.1" Tablet: https://geni.us/EouBRsk
Buy an Apple iPad 9th Gen: https://geni.us/1J3qgos

 

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.
 

 

[DANK_AS_gay]

This makes sense actually. I would have gone for the iPad (9th gen, or refurbished, in that order), but since he already is on Android and is familiar with how it works, learning a whole new OS wouldn't be fun. Plus, I would be playing COD: Mobile and Minecraft, where a buff GPU would be more necessary than for Solitaire. So for his needs this makes perfect sense. So I don't wanna hear any Apple fanboys complaining about how this was the "wrong choice". And that's coming from an Apple fanboy.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

3 minutes ago, DANK_AS_gay said:

This makes sense actually. I would have gone for the iPad (9th gen, or refurbished, in that order), but since he already is on Android and is familiar with how it works, learning a whole new OS wouldn't be fun. Plus, I would be playing COD: Mobile and Minecraft, where a buff GPU would be more necessary than for Solitaire. So for his needs this makes perfect sense. So I don't wanna hear any Apple fanboys complaining about how this was the "wrong choice". And that's coming from an Apple fanboy.

Lol yeah, I'm an iPad stan through and through but there are times when you just don't need the features

[poochyena]

I got the samsung tab A refurbished for $250 a few years ago and it runs amazingly well https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P125RL2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Very good screen and speakers, and very responsive. Much cheaper than a laptop too.

[DANK_AS_gay]

1 minute ago, orbitalbuzzsaw said:

Lol yeah, I'm an iPad stan through and through but there are times when you just don't need the features

I don't draw much but the screens and build quality are far superior to tablets of the same price, while having much better performance as well. No wonder they have 50% of the market.

Plus, to all of the Android fanboys, performance isn't everything (even if it were, Apple devices are regularly faster lol), sideloading APKs isn't a feature most people will ever take advantage of (same with kernel level stuff and whatever else you can "customise" that you can't on Apple), and update support is poor on most of your phones, even ones that come from Google itself!

[DANK_AS_gay]

3 minutes ago, poochyena said:

I got the samsung tab A refurbished for $250 a few years ago and it runs amazingly well https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P125RL2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Very good screen and speakers, and very responsive. Much cheaper than a laptop too.

Entire image for "proof" I guess.

Edited March 1, 2022 by DANK_AS_gay
proof

[Zrekk]

Got my Dad a Lenovo tablet on subscription from my mobile phone provider, would been ~$330 at the time. Negotiated a deal where my monthly payments barely moved.

 

[sub68]

My favorite phone was a 100 usd Nokia android.

[Wandererx]

When they had the Covid lockdowns I got the kids a pair of Lenovo Tab M8's.  They seem to work fine for all their school stuff and they run Minecraft and Roblox.  Plus they have the parental lock down features to set time limits for apps.

[DANK_AS_gay]

42 minutes ago, Wandererx said:

When they had the Covid lockdowns I got the kids a pair of Lenovo Tab M8's.  They seem to work fine for all their school stuff and they run Minecraft and Roblox.  Plus they have the parental lock down features to set time limits for apps.

Why would an older gentleman need to have parental restrictions and time limits?

[OhioYJ]

The Tab S6 Lite has good community support too, so it will very likely continue to get software updates from the community long after Samsung stops updating it. It has official Lineage OS support for example. At least for those that are into such things. 

[Salv8 (sam)]

i'm incredibly disappointed that you guys didn't even touch apon Lenovo tablets, they have a good assortment of tablets under $250.

seriously the Tab M8 FHD is $150 and has access to the full google suite and play store.

[DANK_AS_gay]

25 minutes ago, Salv8 (sam) said:

i'm incredibly disappointed that you guys didn't even touch apon Lenovo tablets, they have a good assortment of tablets under $250.

seriously the Tab M8 FHD is $150 and has access to the full google suite and play store.

Can't review every tablet ever. I mean they did review like five of them, and also came to the conclusion that sub-200$ isn't a great idea. So more detail in that regard isn't something that is needed

[The_Love_Spud]

2 hours ago, Salv8 (sam) said:

i'm incredibly disappointed that you guys didn't even touch apon Lenovo tablets, they have a good assortment of tablets under $250.

seriously the Tab M8 FHD is $150 and has access to the full google suite and play store.

I would suggest that the biggest miss was more specifically Lenovo's regularly sub-$250 ChromeOS Duet tablet/Chromebook. The ChromeOS ecosystem delivers Android app compatibility with, in the specific case of a newer device like the Duet, 6 more years of updates.

 

Good luck!
Jon

[xnamkcor]

I spent a few months looking into tablets to replace my LG v500. My budget was looking to be something like 200 USD. The Lenovo M8/M10 series was looking to be my decision. I even attempted to buy one, but they refused my payment method.

 

Ended up finding an LG v930 for 60 USD used.

[GhostRoadieBL]

I'm surprised the Galaxy Tab A7 didn't make it on the short list, it's been really solid for me. The S6 Lite didn't justify the added cost when the pen wasn't going to be useful.

the media experience side by side was surprisingly comparable with quad speakers opposed to the S6's dual (the A7 speakers noticeably sound better), screen wasn't as bright as the S6 but did have better colour in videos

 

Pretty sure most people would prefer the a7 unless they needed the pen, even considering price you can add a 250gb microsd and probably a case to the a7 32gb model before you hit the base s6 lite price

[Egg-Roll]

Um unless it's a editing error but ONN and the Fire both have the same chipset, so multi processing should be the same outside of the 1GB extra ram and OS customizations.

 

I too also know someone (and bought it for them) who owns both a Sammy Tab and Lenovo tablet (model I forget it's a 10" one), both sound great and both were around the $250 mark in CAD, they don't game any type of fps game so no idea how good they are for those. Should note, it is a pain in the ass at times to get the Lenovo, they sell out so fast lol.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

The biggest gripe I had with my Galaxy Tab S5e was the horrid memory management. Despite having 4GB of RAM, it could barely multitask. I'm not sure if it's an Android issue, but it would constantly be reloading apps whenever I switch between them. And I was just merely using it for OneNote, Acrobat, and YouTube. 

 

The 1440P ish AMOLED display was beautiful, the quad speakers were great, battery life was... meh it was on par with my 5 year old iPad Mini. 

[AldiPrayogi]

I was in the market for cheap tablet recently. Decided to pre-order the Samsung A8 Wifi. The specs is enough for my use case of Netflix and simple web browsing (3GB RAM and 32 Storage + expansion). Just enough so that I don't have to open up my laptop to watch and consume content.

[Luscious]

I have a slightly different tablet conundrum. I'm looking for a 8 inch tablet that ISN'T an iPad mini. A 7 inch smartphone doesn't really cut it and I'm not spending $1700 on a Galaxy Z fold either.

 

Anybody out there have good recommendations for an 8 inch Android device??? I have two old 8 inch Samsung tablets that are in desperate need of a refresh, one of which is LTE. Something in the $500 range would be sweet.

[sub68]

8 hours ago, DANK_AS_gay said:

Why would an older gentleman need to have parental restrictions and time limits?

because it makes time for family.

[xnamkcor]

1 hour ago, Luscious said:

I have a slightly different tablet conundrum. I'm looking for a 8 inch tablet that ISN'T an iPad mini. A 7 inch smartphone doesn't really cut it and I'm not spending $1700 on a Galaxy Z fold either.

 

Anybody out there have good recommendations for an 8 inch Android device??? I have two old 8 inch Samsung tablets that are in desperate need of a refresh, one of which is LTE. Something in the $500 range would be sweet.

Is 8" the upper limit for size? What were your old tablets? Do you want LTE or 5G on the new tablet? Any other wants? 500 seems like a bit much money to have issues finding something.

[Luscious]

2 hours ago, xnamkcor said:

Is 8" the upper limit for size? What were your old tablets? Do you want LTE or 5G on the new tablet? Any other wants? 500 seems like a bit much money to have issues finding something.

I'm replacing a Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0" 4G LTE model, so it would be nice for something that accepts the sim. 8 inches is as big as I want to go since these fit into a case and mount that I use. I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 8.0 that I'm also looking to replace since this is having issues running apps as well. I'd like to replace the two tablets and just have one newer one. $500 is where the iPad mini starts.

[daggerton]

ive hade these saved on my amazon wishlist for awhile. id label them "decent" for games, vids, basic tablet use.  and fall under the $250 budget.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08L615SXN/?coliid=I2YYOCISJUGPRP&colid=3GJI559R1VAPP&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it_im
and
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZC87M3J/?coliid=I10X3WNSO3YYPE&colid=3GJI559R1VAPP&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

[JogerJ]

The Amazon Fire HD 10 is honestly not a bad deal if you get it on a discount for like 100$ or less (which happens now and then, 75$ last black friday) , or even cheaper with ads, bear with me now. The ads only show up on the lockscreen and are removable (DLC which costs like 15$), but more than often all it takes is a chat with customer support and complaining asking nicely to remove the ads (just tell them they're intrusive to the user experience) and they'd remove it for you for free (ULPT: if it doesn't work, try again until a different support person does it for you). It's honestly more than adequate for kids and 4 years guaranteed software updates and support is probably more than what others on this round-up of tablets offers (except Apple).

 

Amazon is really selling these tablets at guaranteed loss to ensure you stay within their ecosystem of services, which most people with a prime membership already are anyways.