How To Find A Low Cost Android Tablet

Android tablets are taking over the world. The price of a decent tablet is plummeting and with so much choice out there it can be daunting knowing where to start if you’re considering a new one. We have tablets aimed at kids, tablets aimed at older users, casual users will shortly have tablets aimed at dogs and hamsters.  Have you considered using older technology and installing Android on one of the now obsolete tablets?

A particularly good example is the HP Touchpad, an abandoned HP product that ran the now defunct WebOS. It had a robust design, 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core APQ8060 processor, a large bright 10-inch HD screen and Beats audio sound fresh from the house of Dr Dre.

The processor handles even recent, graphic heavy Android games with relative ease. As a trial, and certainly not just to waste some time playing games, I tried a number of different apps from the Play store and had no compatibility issues. Galaxy On Fire ran without any slowdown using an install of Android Jellybean, even when additional graphic effects were enabled, and it seems quite happy running several apps at once in the background without any adverse effects. I did have some serious issues when playing Word with Friends, but that turned out to be my inability to spell correctly and can’t really be blamed on the hardware.

The HP Touchpad came in two incarnations, 16GB and 32GB, unfortunately without any opportunity for expandable memory via an SD card or the like, but both are enough to run a good number of Android applications and still have room for some music and movie files.  A 32GB Touchpad retailed originally at $600, but could be snapped up in a fire sale at a bargain $100 shortly after HP announced they were abandoning it. Now you can buy then second-hand for less than half that. They have a loyal if small following and are well worth considering if you are on a tight budget but still want to experience the wonderful world of Android.

There are several comprehensive guides on YouTube that walk you through the process of installing a dual boot on your Touchpad so it runs both Android and the original WebOS, but step one has got to be finding one. Many of the Touchpads’ on Ebay already have Android pre-installed, saving you the time and effort and reducing any risk of bricking your new toy.

It’s one of the most inexpensive ways of enjoying an Android tablet, especially if you are looking to enjoy a large screen-size, so try Ebay now and see if you can pick up a bargain before everyone reads this and word gets out how good they are.

[Image via media.engadget]