Need advice for a tablet

[imported_blip]

I'm looking to get my wife a tablet for Christmas. I've never bought a tablet, so I'm not really sure what I need. All our phones are iOS, but the iPads are too expensive. She has an old Nook Color, but the thing doesn't do much and is really slow. Tried to root it, but was too frustrating.

She will mostly use it for surfing, reading books, Netflix, and streaming TV/DVR stuff, all on wifi. I've got it down to a few choices, but I wasn't sure if I was missing a certain feature or something with one or the other. It looks like the Amazon ones aren't standard Android OS, so do they have different apps available? Just want to make sure she can get Kindle, Netflix, Xfinity, etc. apps. Nothing too specialized I think. Here's what I found so far:

Amazon Fire 8"HD ($90)
Galaxy Tab A 7" ($80-$90) or there is also the Tab E Lite; not sure of the differences
Then a bunch of other brands I've never heard of or used (Dragon Touch, ASUS, etc.)

I was originally thinking that the Fire HD would be fine for her needs, but didn't want to miss something before buying. Thanks!!!

 

[Raduque]

You can watch Netflix and use Plex on Fire HD, so it should probably be fine. Fire runs Amazon's forked version of Android and doesn't have Google services on it, so no Play Store. It uses Amazon's app store, which has most things the Play Store does.

 

[Mike64]

This isn't any help picking a specific tablet, but since you tried to root the Nook, I assume you have at least some preference for "pure" Android, in which case it's worth noting that there are Android apps to do pretty much everything "Amazon-specific" that Kindle Fires can do - particularly with respect to using their e-reading environment and media streaming services. And as straight-up tablets, there are relatively few apps specifically written or adapted for the Kindles compared to pure Android apps... So apart from "idiot-proof" ease of use, there really isn't any reason to go with a Kindle Fire as far as functionality is concerned. And while the Fires were, early on, a pretty good deal compared to pure Android tablets hardware-wise, that's really not the case anymore. Admittedly it's only a vague impression, but the impression I have gotten is that most repeat buyers of Fires are either Amazon-fanatics (who like iFanatics, think their mothership can do no wrong and everything it does do is wonderful and in its acolytes' users' best interests) or people who want a truly dead-simple, needs-no-user-input-whatever "tablet experience"...

I will say that although I don't know much about tablets (especially not the higher end iPad-competitor-wannabes), I was looking at the Galaxy Tab A pretty seriously for a while there (as replacement for a Fire HD I'd been given as a present, that I "lost" on a bus) and it seemed pretty comparable to me, minus the Amazon-ecosystem lock-in (and with a better standard warranty, fwtw, now that Amazon has cut so far back on that on most of their models...)

 

[imported_blip]

Thanks for the help.

I’m not too worried about the OS, but Android is probably better/less restrictive. I was mainly trying to root the Nook because it sucks so hard. My wife won it, so I was trying to make it useful.

The specs between the Tab A 7” ($95) and Fire HD 8” ($90) are pretty similar. Fire has the bigger screen and hard drive, a little heavier. Tab A has better OS and way better cameras.

Probably about a toss-up for what she will use it for. Hmmm.

 

[lupi]

For watching stuff, I'd recommend the 10 inch tab a over the smaller one unless cost is a serious issue.

 

[GoodEnough]

I heard Fire is junk and is a forked fake-ass Android.
Anything non-Fire?