A "which tablet" thread

[tenohfive]

I've got some vouchers for John Lewis and could do with a second tablet to supplement the Samsung Tab S 10.5 that I currently have (and love.) I'm looking for something that'll run Android games happily, can be used for films on long car journeys and that's it really. Other than a decent display and reasonable performance the only feature I'm quite keen that it have is the ability to use OTG memory sticks - easier to dump a load of films on them than mess around transferring to the tablet or a microSD card.

JL's selection isn't fantastic but there are a couple of fair options there:
http://www.johnlewis.com/browse/electricals/ipad-t...

Upper budget of about £200, less is fine though.

The ones catching my eye are the Amazon Kindle Fire HD8 (or possibly 10), Lenovo Tab 2 A10-70 or Samsung Galaxy Tab E. All have pro's and con's associated and I'm dithering between them.

Any thoughts on which would be the better option?

[Evolved]

Samsung Galaxy if not iPad surely?

[tenohfive]

Don't want an iPad, doesn't fit with all the Android products I own.

Galaxy Tab...care to be more specific? There are a huge number of Galaxy tablets but the ones in price range look to be very poor.

Right now I'm inclined to believe that in the midrange price point JL doesn't have the greatest of choice. Seems to be a toss up between:

Amazon Fire HD 10 16GB
Amazon Fire HD8 8GB
Lenovo Tab 2 A10 (not the A10-70)

[sgrimshaw]

Amazon Fire HD 10 32gb is £199.95, but the 64gb is only £30 more if you can stretch the budget just a bit.

[ZesPak]

At that price, have a look at the Asus offerings.

[tenohfive]

sgrimshaw said:

Amazon Fire HD 10 32gb is £199.95, but the 64gb is only £30 more if you can stretch the budget just a bit.

Given that a 64gb OTG USB stick is only £15 and that extra space would only really be used for films, is there some sort of benefit I'm missing?
More is generally better but I'd like to be sure it's money well spent.

Nothing worthwhile there by Asus Zenpack, just the old and underpowered Zenpad 8 (not the S version.)

[sgrimshaw]

tenohfive said:

Given that a 64gb OTG USB stick is only £15 and that extra space would only really be used for films, is there some sort of benefit I'm missing?
More is generally better but I'd like to be sure it's money well spent.

It's better to have more Internal Storage as a starting point.

The Fire has a Micro SD slot which would be the best "external" storage to be added first, sticking a 64GB or 128GB card in for data storage gives you a lot of space.

Personally, I'd avoid the 16GB and buy at least the 32GB version.

[devnull]

Depends how you "Use" android. You specifically pointed out you wanted android, so I guess you are fairly au fait with it? If so, I wouldn't consider the Amazon Fire series - they run a modified version of Android called "FireOS" which you might find a bit neutered. They are primarily designed for those with Amazon Prime accounts.

Android tablet wise, the old Nexus 7 still holds it own (and can be found cheap as chips), or a Pixel C if you want proper android.

[maffski]

Nvidia Shield K1? Review here

[LocoBlade]

A second vote for the Nvidia Shield K1 if JL sell it, I recently bought one each for my two daughters and they're very good especially considering the price. Unlike most lower budget tablets it's running bang up to date Marshmallow with regular updates still coming, its lightning quick (way better specced than most at that price), the screen is good, the battery lasts and the speakers point the right way for non headphone use. Much better than the Hudl2 they replaced which to be fair were OK albeit slower, less reliable and were stuck on Lollipop.

The only thing you might struggle with is finding somewhere with stock, both times I bought I had to hunt around, BT Shop (Dabs) came up trumps both times for me in the end if you're looking further afield than JL.

Edited by LocoBlade on Friday 1st July 18:42