Jwraith15
Newbie
What to watch out for when buying a budget tablet < $200
A lot have been burned by buying to cheap. The key things to look for when buying a tablet are internal storage, RAM and battery capacity. Things like pixel density, speakers, graphics card, processor speed are important too but for the right price you can skimp on some of these.
Don't be fooled by brands either. Even name brand Samsung, Asus and Dell can cheat you out of a good user experience.
The most important thing to look at when buying a budget
If your buying from a store always check the storage settings screen before buying. Anything with less than a total of 16gb of storage is garbage. More importantly check how much space is remaining because the Android operating system and manufacturers software can take up between 3 and 6gb of your internal storage. To get full enjoyment out of your tablet you need a wide variety of things to do on it which means having lots of apps. Although most apps use less than 500mb of space, others can take up 2 or 3gb. Also keep in mind that the majority of applications cannot be installed onto you external storage card.
RAM is the second most important requirement.
Anything with less than 1gb of ram is unusable. 2gb is recommended. Tablets with 1gb of ram are sluggish and refresh screens often. Low ram can bog down your tablet fast and even cause freezing and choppyness. Tablets with 2gb of ram switch screens smoothly and load apps quickly. Samsung in particular with their Galaxy Tab 1 through 4 were incredibly sluggish tablets because of low ram. Android auto kills applications to free up memory for you but it does so in an inefficient manner and there are apps to manage memory but they all do a poor job. The best cure for running low on memory is to have more to start out with.
Battery life is the last most important spec to look at when buying a new tablet.
Never buy a tablet that states it only gets 4 to 6 hours. Always shoot for 8 to 10 hours of battery life. Gaming and video playback will naturally cut your battery life in half. Some processors like Tegra and Snapdragon have a special battery saving core that really boost your battery life but researching processors can get tricky. Always do your research when it comes to battery life. In general Intel processors use more battery up than Snapdragon processors do.
So here is the minimum requirements to look for when buying a modern (2015) tablet.
16gb of internal storage
2gb of RAM
8 Hours battery life.
Greater than 1ghz processor is also recommended but almost all meet this requirement.
A lot have been burned by buying to cheap. The key things to look for when buying a tablet are internal storage, RAM and battery capacity. Things like pixel density, speakers, graphics card, processor speed are important too but for the right price you can skimp on some of these.
Don't be fooled by brands either. Even name brand Samsung, Asus and Dell can cheat you out of a good user experience.
The most important thing to look at when buying a budget
If your buying from a store always check the storage settings screen before buying. Anything with less than a total of 16gb of storage is garbage. More importantly check how much space is remaining because the Android operating system and manufacturers software can take up between 3 and 6gb of your internal storage. To get full enjoyment out of your tablet you need a wide variety of things to do on it which means having lots of apps. Although most apps use less than 500mb of space, others can take up 2 or 3gb. Also keep in mind that the majority of applications cannot be installed onto you external storage card.
RAM is the second most important requirement.
Anything with less than 1gb of ram is unusable. 2gb is recommended. Tablets with 1gb of ram are sluggish and refresh screens often. Low ram can bog down your tablet fast and even cause freezing and choppyness. Tablets with 2gb of ram switch screens smoothly and load apps quickly. Samsung in particular with their Galaxy Tab 1 through 4 were incredibly sluggish tablets because of low ram. Android auto kills applications to free up memory for you but it does so in an inefficient manner and there are apps to manage memory but they all do a poor job. The best cure for running low on memory is to have more to start out with.
Battery life is the last most important spec to look at when buying a new tablet.
Never buy a tablet that states it only gets 4 to 6 hours. Always shoot for 8 to 10 hours of battery life. Gaming and video playback will naturally cut your battery life in half. Some processors like Tegra and Snapdragon have a special battery saving core that really boost your battery life but researching processors can get tricky. Always do your research when it comes to battery life. In general Intel processors use more battery up than Snapdragon processors do.
So here is the minimum requirements to look for when buying a modern (2015) tablet.
16gb of internal storage
2gb of RAM
8 Hours battery life.
Greater than 1ghz processor is also recommended but almost all meet this requirement.
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