Sub $300 Tablet?

J

JMccovery

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Does anyone know of any sub $300 Android tablets?

I've already looked at the Coby Kyros and the Archos 7, any others? Just lookin for a tablet to mess around with, nothing serious.
 
The NOOKColor is the only choice under $300.

There really is no competition once you consider all that's possible with it by rooting it and then installing a custom ROM on it. It's designed to be an eBook reader with some other capabilities (from the factory), but with a few minutes and a custom ROM, oh boy... you'll never stop asking yourself "How the hell did that make something this awesome for $250 when nobody else seems to be able to do it?" :D

The capabilities, the size, the form factor (in my opinion, it's still the only "tablet" that has done it right so far), and that astonishing IPS LCD panel in it just makes it the only choice.

Huge community of support over at XDA-Developers too with an entire subforum devoted to it you can find here
 
Is rooting it really that easy? I've been thinking about getting a Blackberry Playbook but it seems like a Nook Color might be the better choice.
 
LTR said:
Is rooting it really that easy? I've been thinking about getting a Blackberry Playbook but it seems like a Nook Color might be the better choice.
Click to expand...

If you can read & folow very basic directions you can root the nook color. It took me about 6 miniutes to read through the directions for mine & that was me reading them then again & again because i was amazed at how simple it was after rooting some phones (goldcard ftw)
 
bastage said:
If you can read & folow very basic directions you can root the nook color. It took me about 6 miniutes to read through the directions for mine & that was me reading them then again & again because i was amazed at how simple it was after rooting some phones (goldcard ftw)
Click to expand...

Hmm. thanks I might give this nook thing a whirl.
 
I had a nook color and a Viewsonic Gtab. For under $300, those are really your best two options. The screen on the gtab was terrible compared to the nook color. After rooting, custom ROM, and OCing, the nook color was great. Doesn't take that long to figure everything out.

You might be able to find a Galaxy Tab for around $300 with Wifi only. It's comparable to an OC'd nook except that the GPU in the Galaxy Tab is a little better.
 
kirbyrj said:
You might be able to find a Galaxy Tab for around $300 with Wifi only. It's comparable to an OC'd nook except that the GPU in the Galaxy Tab is a little better.
Click to expand...

I picked up my Galaxy Tab for $249 with WiFi and 3g. Not really impressed with it though.
It's a cute toy.
 
DogsofJune said:
I picked up my Galaxy Tab for $249 with WiFi and 3g. Not really impressed with it though.
It's a cute toy.
Click to expand...

If you're not impressed with that, than don't worry about the Nook Color either. It's basically the same thing without any physical buttons and is slower.
 
It does what it's intended for, it's just a bit quirky at times.
I like the idea of tablets, and can use one to assist with some of my work, but I look forward to these maturing a bit more.
 
you can get viewsonic tablet for less than 300, dual core tegra etc
but the screen is horrible on that one
 
Galaxy Tab with 3G on sale from AT&T for $200+$36 activation. Info in hot deals or on Slick Deals.
 
I just got my nook color. Went through three of them to find one without a loose bezel port dead pixel in the middle of the screen, or distortion when pressing the bottom of the panel. Finally got a decent one and I love it.

In minutes I had CM7 installed on a memory card. Now I've got that on u-sdhc and can boot to stock nook when the card is out. Really enjoying it so far. Good size and nice screen.

Typed this post on Opera mini on it.
 
Last edited:
Nightrainsrt4 said:
I just got my nook color. Went through three of them to find one without a loose bezel port dead pixel in the middle of the screen, or distortion when pressing the bottom of the panel. Finally got a decent one and I love it.

In minutes I had CM7 installed on a memory card. Now I've got that on usdhc and can boot to stock nook when the card is out. Really enjoying it so far. Good size and nice screen.

Typed this post on Opera mini on it.
Click to expand...

Funny, did something very similar yesterday. Went, got a nook, had it rooted with CM7 installed within about 30 minutes. Loving it so far...seriously considering something larger once we have some more options later this year.
 
I've got CM7 7.0.2 on my Nook Color right now. Battery life sucks right now (about 2 days). Dalingrin has some newer nightlies and a beta on .32 that have much better battery life, but I'm waiting for a stable version.
 
yujie said:
Anyone tried the Zenithink ZT-180 v2 10" or 7" ePad aPad WiFi 2GB Camera Android 2.2 $78 http://www.buyincoins.com/details/7-epad-apad-wifi-2gb-camera-android-2-2-mid-tablet-pc-product-3429.html ?
Click to expand...

Large thread on the BIC tablet: http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2901657

I'll likely have mine by the end of May or the beginning of June then I'll be using HCH's rom (http://techknow.freeforums.org/wm8650-1-3-0-hybrid-honeycombmod-f112.html). For $70, I think I'll be happy with it. I mainly just want it for light web browsing.
 
JMccovery said:
Does anyone know of any sub $300 Android tablets?

Just lookin for a tablet to mess around with, nothing serious.
Click to expand...

the Huawei IDEOS s7 slim just came out, they're $299 and pretty stellar, dollar for dollar:

capacitive screen, micro SD slot, sim card slot for 3G, front and rear cameras, HDMI output... running android 2.2 but there are phones that use the same qualcomm snapdragon processor which are 2.3 now so it is possible that someone will develop a firmware upgrade.
 
I literally just got a Nook Color up and running. I want to look into that Archos, but I had such a poor viewing angle problem with the Viewsonic Gtab that I don't really want to deal with that again like some of the reviews point out.

256mb of RAM isn't enough I don't think. If I needed a 10.1" tablet, I'd grab another Gtab over this I think. Nook Color is still the sweet spot for me (unless you snag a good deal on a Galaxy Tab with the SGX540).
 
I'm pretty happy with my new Asus Transformer.... $400, but I consider it significantly better than the Nook or ViewSonic options, which are about the only decent name brand ones under $300.
 
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