Tablet recommendation c. £150 max

[Noodley]

Younger Noodlette, aged 10, has been making noises of wanting a tablet from Santa. Neither Mrs N nor I have the slightest clue about what they do or what to look for, so I was wondering if the collective knowledge of CC could point me in the right direction or maybe offer a recommendation.

She says she wants one to be able go on t'internet and play games.

edit - Mrs N has seen a "Kindle Fire" and was wondering if this would be suitable.

 

[snorri]

I could send you a recipe.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

Kindle Fire is the only choice at that price point IMHO.. its a android tablet
You can see the apps and games available for it at the following URL.
http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=3427287011
Another big plus for a nipper is the Kindle has a massive collection of books available for it, if this encourages her to read more then that alone is not a bad thing imho

 

[Noodley]

Cheers V, she is a big reader so that sounds like it could be the answer.

And snorri, I already have the family recipe for tablet handed down to me...

 

[martint235]

I'd look out for what Google are going to do with the Nexus 7. The 32gb is expected to launch at £199 which means you may be able to pick up the 8gb for around £150, you may even get the 16gb if you're lucky.

 

[Noodley]

cheers martin, will do

 

[martint235]

Oh and the Nexus also runs the kindle app

 

[ACS]

I have a ARCHOS 80 G9 tablet (work provided) and I'm not really impressed with it. The touch screen suffers from terrible lag, the sound is well below expectation and I'm on my second unit the motherboard on my original unit going south after about 4 months. The performance of the wireless connectivity is dire, to attain a stable and robust connection you have to be within spitting distance of the router. The wifi on HTC Wildfire S phone out performs the G9 by a country mile. Review here.
A colleague has the turbo version which performs a great deal better but coming in a higher price point.
The Blackberry Playbook has a lot of good things said about it and one of colleagues purchased one for his daughter (12 years old I think). Not known for being overly extravagant I'm sure the device will be excellent VFM.

 

[martint235]

A friend of mine has a playbook and uses it mainly for watching streamed sports. He seems happy with it.

My only concern would be with RIMs ability to support it but this may not be an issue for you.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

Ohh forgot as a parent one feature you may like on the Kindle fire is FreeTime

which allows parents to place caps on how much time their children spend on the tablet.​

However as stated by others the Nexus is a great tablet, but I never mentioned it as at this time it is outside your max stated budget, but you can't go wrong with it if your budget stretches that far​

 

[Noodley]

Google are selling 16GB Nexus 7 for £159

 

[Norm]

I've a Nexus 7 16gb and cannot recommend them too highly. That said, I'd find another £40 and get the 32gb if I was buying now.

I would avoid the Kindle Fire as you are tied to Amazon for downloads. That's worse than the Apple iTunes thing, IMO.

 

[Noodley]

Had a look at the Nexus 7 and looks very good, I might even get one for myself

Thanks guys, looks like I have younger Noodlette's present covered.

 

[Noodley]

Just found a thread about the Nexus 7 - shows how little I know about these things as until I started this thread I had never heard of it and thought it was a thread about hub gears!!

 

[martint235]

Google are selling 16GB Nexus 7 for £159

I've a Nexus 7 16gb and cannot recommend them too highly. That said, I'd find another £40 and get the 32gb if I was buying now.

I would avoid the Kindle Fire as you are tied to Amazon for downloads. That's worse than the Apple iTunes thing, IMO.

I've got the 16GB and I'm struggling to use all of it so I wouldn't let the memory be a dealbreaker (no offence Norm). I'd also expect the 16gb to come down by maybe £20 before Xmas (if you're thinking of this as a pressie?)

Edit: I didn't know the Kindle Fire was limited to Amazon downloads. That is a dealbreaker, go for a full Android tab (you can install the Amazon Market), of which the best to me is the Nexus. I seriously didn't understand the tablet thing then I bought a cheap chinese model to stream cycling from cyclingfans, I was then convinced and bought the Nexus, it's been attached to me ever since.