Buying a cheap tablet with adequate features has become an impossible mission. The vast number of options makes it easy to get lost in the sea of data, acronyms, and specifications. If we don’t know what we’re buying, we can end up with a bad product… or worse, the Tadeo Jones tablet (which costs 89€ and Telecinco sells for 129€).
Due to Christmas shopping, I’ve had to visit several large stores (Carrefour, MediaMarkt, etc…) and I’ve seen people ignoring quite good value-for-money models to buy others that are worse and more expensive. We tend to associate more expensive with better, and this is not always true.
The advice from salespeople didn’t help, who, either due to lack of time, lack of knowledge, or because they are interested in selling the most expensive model, didn’t always make the best recommendations for the customer. Add to this the pitiful specification sheets they put on products, which usually show the most eye-catching features and hide the really important ones.
So you don’t get ripped off and can choose the most suitable tablet for you at the best price, I’m writing this series of 3 articles. This one explains what to look for when buying a tablet. In the other two, I will make recommendations and examples of good tablets to buy, in 7” and 10” respectively.
Size Matters, 7” or 10”
The first thing to decide is whether you want a 7” or a 10” tablet. It’s a very personal decision, which only you can decide what size is best. Statistically, most people prefer 10”, but there are also strong advocates for 7”.
- 7” tablets are smaller and therefore weigh less. They generally have slightly shorter battery life, are easier to transport and handle. They are also somewhat cheaper.
- 10” tablets have a larger surface area, making them more comfortable for reading documents, plans, images, and videos. On the other hand, holding them for a long time can become tiring.
As I said, only you can make the decision. My advice is to take the opportunity to look in a large store, play with several sizes, and determine which one best fits your tastes, needs, and the use you intend to give it.
What We Should Look For
To choose a good tablet, you should focus on 4 aspects.
- Screen: The screen is fundamental in a tablet because it represents the majority of the user experience. A bad screen with low resolution will make it hard to read, images appear blurry, and letters poorly defined. The minimum resolution you should ask for is 1024x600 for 7” and 1200x800 for 10”. Usually, resolution is a feature that commercial centers tend to “forget” to mention. Ask them to provide the data. If you see a tablet with an 800x480 resolution, leave it on the shelf.
- Processor: The other most important aspect is the processor. If you buy a tablet with a bad processor, you will have an unpleasant experience, full of stutters, waits, and crashes. I’ll make it easy for you, two words. Dual Core, if it has less, you don’t want it. It doesn’t matter if they tell you it has 1.5Ghz, that it’s an A15, blah blah… you want dual core, and up from there. Logically, if it has 4 cores even better, and the faster they are, also better.
- Operating System: Minimum Android 4.0. The higher the number, the better. Although it’s starting to be hard to find tablets below that, don’t accept anything older.
- SD Card: For me, being able to expand the memory using SD or micro SD cards is an essential aspect in a tablet. It’s a cheap way to expand memory almost limitlessly. For example, it’s not uncommon to find that the 32GB model of a tablet costs 100€ more than the 16GB model… they charge you 100€ for 16GB!!! A 16GB card costs 16€. And if you still run out of space, you can buy several and swap them.
These four aspects, while not the only ones, are good indicators of the overall quality of the tablet. In particular, pay attention to the screen resolution and the processor. Of course, there are other factors that can influence, such as having GPS, having HDMI (to connect to the TV), having 3G (although you’ll have to contract a data plan or get a SIM duplicate), having a camera (I don’t use the tablet’s camera, but to each their own). Each person must prioritize if any of these aspects is important to them.
Recommendations
In the next two articles, we will see recommendations and buying examples for tablets. Link to recommendations for 7-inch tablets.Link to recommendations for 10-inch tablets.
