Why hello there, dear people of the internet. I come unto thee for a chance to recieve your imparted wisdom.

So yeah, I'm just about to buy myself a new PC as my laptop is becoming outdated and derping with Skyrim and I'd rather be able to upgrade every now and then. However, I also would like a bit of portability. I'm currently living in London and I travel up to Liverpool every few months to visit family. I've decided that a cheap tablet would work wonders.

However, I'm clueless on the subject. There are a few things I'm hoping to get out of the tablet (though I don't expect everything):

• Be able to play some simple games. Preferably able to run windows programs so I can play emulators, older games etc. Not expecting to play the latest uber games, obviously.
  
• Be able to do some word processing and to use spreadsheets. If I can use MS Office, it'd be marvellous.
  
• Be able to play videos and have a HDMI cable slot so I can watch films on my tv via my tablet (the TV I use when in Liverpool doesn't have a vga port for some reason).
  
• Be able to use WiFi and have web-based chat functions. Preferably Steam and Skype (Steam is very important to me, it's my main mode of communication)
  
• Be able to last > 5 minutes. The most I ever travel without a charger is 7 hours, but this is by coach, and it's most likely ~2-3 hours normally
  
• Be fairly cheap. This isn't in any way my main computer. This is just for when I'm travelling every now and then.
  
• Not be Apple. This would defy my want for it to be cheap and I do not like Apple, at all.
  
• Would be great if I could use the thing in a similar manner to a graphics tablet to work in Flash while travelling, but I doubt I could get this for a reasonable price.

So any help would be great if you have the time to spend on a lost wee peasent, oh mighty lords of the internet. I'll add to it if I forget something.

There ins't a Steam chat client for Android or iOS as far as I know.

Doesn't seem to be Steam for any kind of handheld device. Was searching for it for my phone a while back. :/

Oh well, I guess I'll live without it.

While I remember - Needs to be reasonably ligtweight. Don't wanna be waltzing round with a ginormous monster of a tablet. Would kinda defy the purpose.

1. Windows tablet = $600 minimum with them svcking really badly until $850. All that stuff can be done in Android, though.
2. Plenty of alternatives to MS Office, as you'll only be able to get that on a Windows tablet
3. Pretty much all tablets would fit this bill price above $400
4. Steam chat has no API AFAIK so there is no third-party client that can do it. If you want this, it'd have to be a Windows tablet
5. Most tablets provide plenty of battery life. The godly Asus Transformer Prime offers 12 hours of battery life watching 1080p videos
6. It won't be cheap if you want a Windows tablet
7. Simple enough
8. Would, once again, require Windows.

If you drop the Steam chat and #8 it's doable for around $400.

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/12050308/Archos-9-Intel-Atom-Processor-Z510-1-1GHz-1GB-60GB-8-9-inch-Windows-7-Starter-Netbook-Laptop-Tablet-Black/Product.html?searchtype=allproducts&searchsource=0&searchstring=windows+tablet&urlrefer=search

This guys seems to know what he's talking about. Took me about 2 minutes to find that. :l

Besides, I'm plnning to get it second hand for less.

Well, if you can wait until around January, and afford ￡500, I'd recommend the http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/09/transformer-prime-detailed-10-inch-super-ips-display-12-hour/ (which I heard about via Defron). It can play fairly decent games, it isn't Apple, I believe it can play videos, ￡500 = 32 gb of storage with an SD slot and USB, about 12 hours of battery life. That's all I can think of off the top of my head, but for the money, it seems really good. I'd research it a bit more if I were you.

Defron would probably be the one to tell you about this tablet

gawd, that thing is horrible. Glorified netbook at best, no hdmi out, and would complain even when surfing this forums (granted atom chips hate these forums).

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/19425777/-/Product.html

What about that?

that costs almost as much as the PC I'm buying. :blink:

My GOAL is <￡100. I don't expect my entire list to be fulfilled. My main desires are: HDMI port and Video abilities, WiFi and Gaming. Skype would be a bonus, too. I don't want some kind of mega machine.

I'd also like to have a usb port. If I have a machine without much memory, it's fine for me to use a pendrive to play films over.

Well, for that price rage I don't think I can be of any assistance sorry :sadvaultboy:

I'm not a tablet mastermind and the only good tablets I know of certainly cost more than ￡100, though I'm not sure about second hand.

Get a good internet Tablet to suit communication needs and download apps from the Android Market (since I doubt you'll want a Windows Tablet) for games and spreadsheet things.

Why not get a smartphone instead of a tablet?

I honestly don't think you're going to get anything for under a hundred quid tbh.

A year ago we got a Viewsonic ThinkPad 10 for work which is a duel boot Android/Windows device. Hardly any RAM or internal memory but did the job for what we needed - showcasing websites to clients and doing presentations etc. And even that was ￡350. I can't think of any tablets that are in any way decent for near your budget.

http://androidfc.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/asus_transformer.png In fact I have already done so. And it's awesome.
It comes with a good replacement for Office (Word, Powerpoint and Excel), has mini HDMI out, lasts up to 8 hours (15 with the dock-keyboard) en it's not Apple.

Though a new version is comming out soon, so you may want to check that one out.

You're goal is completely unreasonable and you will only be disappointed and angry at yourself for any tablet you get in that price range. You definitely won't be getting HDMI or gaming (beyond Facebook games) with a sub-100 quid tablet. Any such tablet will be a resistive screen without multitouch support (multitouch being required by pretty much all mobile OS games), you'd be lucky if it had VGA-out or a webcam too. Definitely won't run Windows since your price is pretty much the price of Windows just by itself and ARM would be needed to keep the price down. The processor itself would probably be one of the old qualcomm SoCs that can't do much of anything that is intensive at all.

Entry-level tablets are priced at $250 USD, mid-range (pretty much what you'll need for what you are after) are $350-400, and high-end are $500.

You may be able to find a used linux-based netbook in your price range, but that's it as far as mobile computing goes.

Acer Iconia can run full settings for half life 2 at around 28 fps. It should be able to run Oblivion at around 25 fps. HL 2 has better engine but a lot less objects than Oblivion, so if you are thinking Skyrim, you can forget about it. Get a gaming laptop. No tablet can get you to run Skyrim at satisfactory graphic settings.

One more thing about tablets. Current trend is SSD harddisk, no more than 64GB. You can only run very few essential software with this, and Steam is really HD hogging as your game library grows. Yes 100 pounds is unrealistic. Yes you can get one at this price here in China for an Android tablet. Anything windows is out of question.

I don't think those are the kinds of games he meant. Not to mention they would control terribly on a tablet and most likely be very uncomfortable to play for long periods of time.

Honestly, if you're looking for a cheap tablet, get an iPad 1st gen and jailbreak it. You'll get over your Apple hate in about a day.

Buy an iPad

-sent from my iPad

Cheers

Did you really just criticize DEFRON about his tech advice? :blink:

HERETIC!!!

At any rate, I have my eye on the Galaxy Tab 10.1. At least until I can get a good Windows 8 tablet that is. :chaos: