Best cheap (but not Amazon Fire) smaller tablet.

[DWolvin]

Hey all,
I'm going to be needing a tablet in the 'smaller than 10 inch size' pretty soon, and I know someone here probably knows more than me. Is there anything I should look at other than the Galaxy Tab a7 lite?

 

[Aurelius]

Hey all,
I'm going to be needing a tablet in the 'smaller than 10 inch size' pretty soon, and I know someone here probably knows more than me. Is there anything I should look at other than the Galaxy Tab a7 lite?

Your options for Android are... not great. The Galaxy Tab A7 Lite is old and probably pokey. Ditto the Lenovo Tab M9.

Right now, the best small tablet is the iPad mini. It's expensive (even the refurb from Apple is $419), but it's fast, has a great display and supports the current Apple Pencil if you want to draw.

 

[DWolvin]

Fair enough, I might poke around at the store and see if I can stand iOS.

 

[Aurelius]

Fair enough, I might poke around at the store and see if I can stand iOS.

I'll say this: it's still true that Apple is putting more effort into tablet UIs than Google, in general. While I'd really like to try the Pixel Tablet to see how Google is progressing, Apple is paradoxically doing more with multitasking and power user functionality. iPadOS 17 should also bring a few welcome features like lock screen customization.

The one area I'd like to see Apple improve is file management. Not that I want PC-style folder navigation, but it'd be nice to more easily shuffle files on and off through local transfers. I mainly rely on cloud services for syncing content these days, mind you.

 

[DWolvin]

Fair enough, and the more I think about it I figure all I'm going to need is the library app for the wife and a decent browser... It looks like you need to go a few generations back to get a sub $150 mini, but that's probably still faster than an A7 lite.

 

[Aurelius]

Fair enough, and the more I think about it I figure all I'm going to need is the library app for the wife and a decent browser... It looks like you need to go a few generations back to get a sub $150 mini, but that's probably still faster than an A7 lite.

Rumor has it that Apple might refresh the iPad mini this fall, so that could lead to some good prices for the outgoing model (refurb or otherwise).

 

[DWolvin]

Didn't hate iOs, but also didn't feel like teaching it to my (non-tech) wife. Found a T-Mob Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.4inch (2020) for extra cheap. I think that will do fine for a few years.