Budget Digital Tablets???

[maggiew]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a budget digital tablet? Trying to decide what I should keep my eyes out for on Black Friday.

Maggie

 

[Tink-aholic]

I've been researching them pretty hard for Christmas myself and as of right now, I like the Acer. Target has several models out for under $350, all with Android OS. If you have an Android phone with a data package, I'm pretty sure you can use an app like EasyTether to use online in places without WiFi.

I bet they'll be cheaper for Black Friday/Black Monday.

Good luck.

 

[maggiew]

What kind of features should I look out for? On one review I watched, he said the accelerometer was a nice feature because it adjusts the screen landscape/portrait when you turn the tablet.

Maggie

 

[timmac]

If I could offer only one piece of advice, be sure it's a capacitive screen rather than a resistive screen. Some of the really low end tablets use the latter, and it's not nearly as responsive as capacitive.

 

[maggiew]

If I could offer only one piece of advice, be sure it's a capacitive screen rather than a resistive screen. Some of the really low end tablets use the latter, and it's not nearly as responsive as capacitive.

With the capacitive screen, you can use your fingers to zoom, etc. Correct?

Maggie

 

[timmac]

With the capacitive screen, you can use your fingers to zoom, etc. Correct?

Maggie

Not necessarily; the types of gestures have to do with the software, not the type of screen.

The difference between resistive and capacitive is that the latter responds to touch, while the former actually requires a slight bit of pressure on the screen, and so tends to be less responsive.

 

[maggiew]

Not necessarily; the types of gestures have to do with the software, not the type of screen.

The difference between resistive and capacitive is that the latter responds to touch, while the former actually requires a slight bit of pressure on the screen, and so tends to be less responsive.

Ok. On one review I watched he said it had the hard tap type screen and you couldn't zoom etc with your fingers. You had to go to the button to zoom and move side to side.

 

[timmac]

Ok. On one review I watched he said it had the hard tap type screen and you couldn't zoom etc with your fingers. You had to go to the button to zoom and move side to side.

That was probably something specific to the model tablet you were looking at. In theory, there's no reason a resistive screen couldn't support zooming. In reality, just don't buy anything with a resistive screen anyway, if you plan on using it for a lot of touch-sensitive applications. A basic eReader used mostly for books where you only occasionally have to touch the screen it might be okay, but not much more than that.