Smaller Tablet suggestions?

Russ · 22-05-2014, 07:37

I'm getting an allowance in my 2nd job for a Tablet of around £140. I can go over that amount which I'd have to pay the remainder of which I'd rather not do so if I can keep it around that price or less I'll be happy.

It would need to be a decent device, obviously I'm not going to get a very large screen or massive spec etc and I've been looking at the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 but some reviews seem to say it's a bit underwhelming. If that's about what I can expect for the budget available then all well and good, I'll get one of those but was wondering if anyone can recommend an alternative if better. I already have my Kindle Fire HD but that's a little heavy and I'd prefer to keep that just for personal use.

Money is pretty tight so again, I don't want to go over the allowance....

Kabaal · 22-05-2014, 07:40

Nexus 7 2013 would probably be your best bet.

Russ · 22-05-2014, 07:52

I was thinking that - do you mean the 32GB version? That seems to be on eBay for £107.

Kabaal · 22-05-2014, 08:00

I was thinking more the 16GB version as you'd be hard pushed to find the 32GB near your budget unless second hand/refurbished. Bear in mind there are 2012 and 2013 versions with the 2013 being significantly better.

Russ · 22-05-2014, 08:08

The budget is really only for brand new models but I might be able to wing a refurbished one if it has a guarantee and Argos have refurb 32GB models on ebay for £107 p&p included.

---------- Post added at 08:08 ---------- Previous post was at 08:05 ----------

edit: it's £107 for another hour then back up to £119. Still looks like a good deal to me either way.

dilli-theclaw · 22-05-2014, 08:39

I got my son a refurb one for Christmas and he's had no problems with it.

techguyone · 22-05-2014, 09:23

small tablet go for nexus 7, large, go for nexus 10. I have both, and they are excellent, there's a lot of el crappo tablets out there, and it's hard to sort through all the dross. those two are sound though.

**Hugh** · 22-05-2014, 09:54

Another vote for the Nexus 7 from me.

22-05-2014, 11:04

The Argos ones appear to be 1st gen you want 2nd gen

1st gen has 1 gig ram 2nd gen has 2 gig this makes a huge difference

qasdfdsaq · 22-05-2014, 11:19

Pretty much all tablets in that price range (hell, even phones) are pretty underwhelming. The Nexus is pretty much the best value device there and one of the few that break the trend of putting bottom end components in anything below £400

---------- Post added at 11:19 ---------- Previous post was at 11:14 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by tizmeinnit

1st gen has 1 gig ram 2nd gen has 2 gig this makes a huge difference

I disagree. I'd say the difference between 1GB and 2GB RAM on the same Android device makes little difference if any at all.

That said the second gen Nexus 7 is far superior to the 1st gen irrelevant of the RAM. It has double the screen resolution, better wifi, better CPU, better bluetooth, better camera, etc. etc.

The difference between a 720p vs 1080p screen, and 1.2mp camera vs 5mp camera + 1.2mp secondary is going to be far greater than an extra GB of RAM.

22-05-2014, 11:24

any tab running a few apps and Android above will slow down a lot if it only has 1 gig of ram. Even with all the clean ups and whatever 1 gig is just not enough. The Nexus is the only good cheap one with 2 gig the 8 inch Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 has 1.5 gig apparently

---------- Post added at 11:24 ---------- Previous post was at 11:23 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Pretty much all tablets in that price range (hell, even phones) are pretty underwhelming. The Nexus is pretty much the best value device there and one of the few that break the trend of putting bottom end components in anything below £400

---------- Post added at 11:19 ---------- Previous post was at 11:14 ----------

I disagree. I'd say the difference between 1GB and 2GB RAM on the same Android device makes little difference if any at all.

That said the second gen Nexus 7 is far superior to the 1st gen irrelevant of the RAM. It has double the screen resolution, better wifi, better CPU, better bluetooth, better camera, etc. etc.

The difference between a 720p vs 1080p screen, and 1.2mp camera vs 5mp camera + 1.2mp secondary is going to be far greater than an extra GB of RAM.

I totally disagree with your disagreement.

**Maggy** · 22-05-2014, 12:12

Another Nexus 7 here and you can still read your kindle books if you get the app.Also Google have a ebook app.

qasdfdsaq · 22-05-2014, 12:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by tizmeinnit

any tab running a few apps and Android above will slow down a lot if it only has 1 gig of ram. Even with all the clean ups and whatever 1 gig is just not enough. The Nexus is the only good cheap one with 2 gig the 8 inch Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 has 1.5 gig apparently

Absolutely not. Amount of RAM has absolutely nothing to do with execution speed.

Running "a few apps" does not consume more RAM. The majority of Android apps use no memory when in the background and only one is ever in the foreground (unless you're using multi-window or PIP).

The Android OS itself barely takes 300-400MB even with bloated Touchwiz on top so a clean, vanilla edition like on the Nexus would use even less. And I can't think of a single app that uses more than 100MB of RAM, even Chrome with 15 tabs open is using less than 50MB.

Android KitKat is specifically designed to run happily on 512MB of RAM.

And perhaps you're forgetting the Galaxy S3. Best selling Android device of its time with broadly similar specs to the Nexus 7 (1.4Ghz quad, 720p display, etc.) and 1GB of RAM. If 1GB made things so terribly slow how come there was no huge outcry from Galaxy S3 owners especially given it has Samsung's memory hungry Touchwiz bloatware on top? How was it easily one of the fastest Android devices of its day?

The only time Android will be affected by too little RAM is if a single application needs more than all the free RAM in the system. Which means a single app using over 700MB on a 1GB device. At which point it will still make no difference to speed, it'll just crash that app and get on with everything else.

**Maggy** · 22-05-2014, 15:40

How about we all try to answer the original question and leave the arguments for another thread.Thank you for your assistance.

Russ · 22-05-2014, 15:44

I was leaning towards the Nexus 7 until I just read that about it being like the S3, perhaps the worst phone I've ever owned with so much lag and sluggishness and it wasn't much better when I put Cyanogenmod on it. Still if it's only for work I might just go along with it and I'll be under my budget.