Who knows about tablets?

[lizabu]

My girls are 11 and 13 and they both asked for and iPad for Christmas. The problems is I don't have a two iPad budget. There seem to be so many tablets out there it's a little overwhelming. What would you say is the best tablet a person can get for say $200-300?

 

[Merandab4]

Have you thought about the kindles? I think that would be the most economical route to go. What do you think your girls want to use them for? If it's just for reading, and internet, movies,and maybe a few games, the Kindle is the way to go. ( I think the only thing the kindle fire can't do is take pictures, but the kindle HD might)

We were going to go with the ipad, but the salesman at Best Buy talked us out of it and we ended up getting a tablet that works off the Android system instead. It was a few hundred $ cheaper and it has more memory. So far i have been happy with it. But I certainly wouldn't want to buy two of them because it was still pricey.

Hope that helps.

 

[mymeme]

I'm not sure the price right now but have you looked on Apple.com at the refurbished iPad2 ? They have the same warranty as new. This might bring it down enough and this way they could share all the apps and music. Just a thought

 

[Ashlander]

Did you see they just announced the new iPad Mini today - the cost is $329 for a 16gb. I am definitely going to be saving up for this for all of my kids - not sure if it will be a Christmas present or not. We have so many apple products now I just think it would be easier to stick with Apple. I know my kids would each love their own ipad.

 

[ccgirl]

Have you thought about the kindles? I think that would be the most economical route to go. What do you think your girls want to use them for? If it's just for reading, and internet, movies,and maybe a few games, the Kindle is the way to go. ( I think the only thing the kindle fire can't do is take pictures, but the kindle HD might)

We were going to go with the ipad, but the salesman at Best Buy talked us out of it and we ended up getting a tablet that works off the Android system instead. It was a few hundred $ cheaper and it has more memory. So far i have been happy with it. But I certainly wouldn't want to buy two of them because it was still pricey.

Hope that helps.

Just wanted to add that I totally agree. Last year for Christmast, I got my DD10 a HP Touchpad and she absolutely loves it. It was only $150. They have some very reasonable tablets out there.

 

[crl]

My DD has a Nexus 7. Our friend recommended it saying it was comparable to the IPads. It had a quad-core processor. And at one time, Staples had a deal where you got a $25 credit to goggle play with the purchase.

 

[Mel522]

Unless they want it for reading, I would go with the Nexus. I'd say it is the best out right now. Even better than the ipad.

 

[lizabu]

Thanks everyone. They like to surf the net a little bit. They like to watch movies and listen to music. They like to read. The thing they like most of all is playing games. I have somewhere to start now. Thank you all for sharing.

 

[Debbru]

Just wanted to add that I totally agree. Last year for Christmast, I got my DD10 a HP Touchpad and she absolutely loves it. It was only $150. They have some very reasonable tablets out there.

Also love my touchpad - but keep in mind this was a $600 tablet that HP discontinued about 6 weeks after its introduction. That $150 price was their "firesale" price.

 

[Diabolicdesire]

If you can swing it and they really want an IPad the I would consider getting them the iPad mini. It will be just outta the price range you mentioned. My DDs love apple products and despite them having tablets would still love an iPad.

 

[Melynny]

I'll add another one to your choices, I have a 10 inch Toshiba Thrive. It's been absolutely wonderful and you can get one now for around 200.00, maybe less for a refurbished one.. they have front and rear cameras, full size hdmi outputs, user replaceable batteries, really neat "grippable" back cases that are user replaceable( that is if you can find any anymore), they also have a full size USB and a full size SD card slot for adding memory or getting pics from a camera. I have not had a problem with any of the apps, I also use it for e books, but for reading l really like my Kindle better. These come in 8, 16 and 32 memory models and cost much less than an ipad. By the way, my 10 year old grandson LOVES it for games. I purchased a much lower cost 7 inch tablet for him and I have had a heck of a time just getting it to load Angry Birds, in fact, I still don't have that piece of crap working correctly, this was a Novell Planet, and I don't recommend that at all. Hope this helps with your decision.

 

[Kies99]

Also keep this in mind other products you might already have.

If you have iPhones or iPods, it may make sense to keep it "in the family" and go with an Ipad. I say this because if you already are using iTunes, you have may have paid for items that may not work on other products.

Example: my neighbor had iPhones/Ipad and had bought a lot of movies through iTunes. He changed phones to a Samsung phone and all his movies would have a red line through them when he tried to use on the Samsung phone. He returned the phone after 2 weeks and went back to iPhone.

 

[butsy113]

Also just so you know the lowest model Ipad mini is $329. It would still be iPad but with only a few differences. You might want to check it out, especially if you have another apple product and already have a ton of apps.