Buying an Android Tablet

I’ve been using Android tablets with my kindergarten class for a few months now. The kids love the games I’ve created for them and this has helped them learn faster and read better. The teachers I train frequently ask me for advice on buying tablets for their school so I decided to put together this article to help them in their tablet shopping. While the article was written keeping the teachers in mind, this would be helpful for anyone in the market for an affordable Android tablet.

If you are looking to buy an Android tablet and have a restricted budget, pick your tablet based on what you plan to use the tablet for. Here are the most common brands of budget tablets you’ll come across on the web and how they compare with each other:

Brand: aPad

Price range Rs. 3000 to Rs. 5000

7” tablet, VIA 8505 processor, 256 MB RAM and 466 MHz processor speed
2GB storage and can be extended up to 16/32 GB via MicroSD card
800*480 Resistive Touchscreen, 1.3 MP front-facing camera
Comes with Android 1.6 installed, can be upgraded up to Android 2.0 (newer versions do not work)

Good for people who are looking for an affordable tablet to be used for browsing the web, sending emails, text chatting, and reading ebooks. Videos/music from the cloud may seem a little slow but performance can be improved if you are on a faster Internet connection. Can be used to play simple games like Mouse Trap but not for games like Angry Birds. Since the tab cannot be upgraded beyond Android 2.0, some games/apps that were built for newer versions of Android cannot be installed on this tab.

Brand: ePad

Price range Rs. 5000 to Rs. 9000

7” tablet, VIA 8650 processor, 256 MB RAM and 800 MHz processor speed
2GB storage and can be extended up to 32 GB via MicroSD card
800*480 Resistive Touchscreen, 1.3 MP front-facing camera
Comes with Android 2.1 or 2.2 installed, can be upgraded up to Android 2.3

In addition to the basic tasks, video chats also work well on this tablet. There is hardly any or very low latency for videos and music streamed online. This is a good tablet for use with kids or in educational institutions as most of the educational apps will work very well on this configurations. However, games like Angry Birds might seem a little slow due to the processing power.

Brand: Cortex A8/Flytouch III

Price range Rs. 8000 to Rs. 12000

8” to 10” tablet, 512 MB RAM and 800 MHz or 1 GHz processor speed
4GB storage and can be extended up to 32 GB via MicroSD card
800*600 Resistive Touchscreen, 1.3 MP front-facing camera
Comes with Android 2.2 installed, can be upgraded up to Android 2.3
If you are interested in using your tablet for gaming purposes or want to use the tablet for sketching, this may be a better option for you.

If you are not sure which category your tablet falls under or have other questions, send me a message on Google+  .