DECEMBER 2021 T3 47Affordable tablets
icking up a tablet might
at first seem like an
unnecessary luxury
when you already have a
smartphone, but you’d be surprised
at just how many apps work better
on a bigger display – that extra
screen real estate really comes in
handy for reading emails, browsing
the web and working on documents,
and of course movies and television
shows benefit from the additional
space too.
Actually, when you think about it
properly, there aren’t many tasks
that are more suited to a phone than
to a tablet... it’s just that a tablet
can’t fit in your pocket, so it’s
difficult to take around with you all
day. Perhaps taking photos and
making calls are best left to phones,
but for everything else a tablet
really shines.
What’s more, this is an upgrade
that doesn’t have to cost you: as we’ll
show you here, affordable tablets are
becoming better and better in
almost every area. While they can’t
quite match up to the slates at the
premium end of the market in every
department, they’re certainly very
usable, and there’s the added benefit
of not having wasted a fortune if
something untoward should happen
to your device.
Some corners have to be cut to
reach a lower price point obviously,
but a lot of those compromises are
ones that most people aren’t going
to be too concerned about. The best
gadgets are the ones that offer
the most value for money – the
maximum bang for your buck –
and the tablet devices that you’ll
find at the lower end of the price
scale definitely match up with
that description.
And if you’re not completely
swayed by the idea of an affordable
tablet, then maybe a friend or family
member would be. These budget-
end tablets make excellent gifts at
Christmas or any other time of the
year, and it’s almost guaranteed that
the recipient of your generosity is
going to get plenty of use out of their
new toy.
Think about all the apps available
on the Google Play Store, the
Amazon App Store and the AppleApp Store: from games to sketching
apps, from streaming services to
smart home control, from office
suites to weather forecasters, there’s
an awful lot there, and all these apps
are going to run just fine on an
affordable tablet.
Besides the main device itself,
busy accessory ecosystems are
springing up alongside these slates- and because you’ve saved some
money on the tablet itself, you might
find yourself with some spare cash
for an accessory or two. You can
trick out your new tablet with a
case, a keyboard, a smart pair of
headphones and much more. When
it comes to the most popular models,
you’ll find plenty of choice available.
THE PROS AND CONS
As you might have already gathered,
we’re fans of affordable tablets – and
in particular of the best affordable
tablets around at the moment, which
continue to combine slick user
experiences on the software side
with hardware that isn’t going to put
a huge dent in your savings account
once the purchase goes through.P
Words: David Nield Photography: Neil GodwinYou don’t have to pay a huge amount to get yourself a great
tablet – and we can tell you exactly what you need to be
looking for in a budget slate
Affordable
tablets
THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO...