Tablet for $150 - $200

[SlowSpyder]

Christmas is coming up, my son currently has an Asus Memo Pad. It is a smaller tablet, maybe 7". The screen was recently cracked (he has no idea how ), and I was planning on replacing it before the glass cracked anyway. He is eight, plays games. Lots of Minecraft, Plants vs. Zombies, Call of Zombies, and whatever else is popular at the time.

The Memo Pad has been ok, but I can see obvious slow down and skipped frames here and there in some games. So, I'd like to replace it, what do you recommend for playing games? A bit bigger display wouldn't hurt, but isn't a must. Bluetooth would be nice.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[lopri]

You missed out on $199 Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 deal @Bestbuy. They must have been sold out. It is possible though your local stores still have one or two in stock.

Microcenter sells iPad mini 16 GB for $199, mini retina for $249. It could be is in-store only.

 

[SlowSpyder]

You missed out on $199 Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 deal @Bestbuy. They must have been sold out. It is possible though your local stores still have one or two in stock.

Microcenter sells iPad mini 16 GB for $199, mini retina for $249. It could be is in-store only.

What do you think of this Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 8.0?

I should add, I have $100 in Best Buy gift cards, I'd like to use those towards this ideally. Doesn't have to be, but that would be a plus.

*edit - I see that's with a two year contract. I'm not looking for a 4G data plan, just something to connect to WiFi around the house. So nevermind on that I guess.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Looking at that tablet, the display is 8.4" and 2560 x 1600. The 8.0" is 1280 x 800. How are the mobile GPU's for such high resolution? Do games automatically downscale? The lower 1280 x 800 resolution is much easier to push, even with a lesser GPU. I'm not sure how much such high resolution matters on an 8" - 8.4" display.

 

[postmortemIA]

Looking at that tablet, the display is 8.4" and 2560 x 1600. The 8.0" is 1280 x 800. How are the mobile GPU's for such high resolution? Do games automatically downscale? The lower 1280 x 800 resolution is much easier to push, even with a lesser GPU. I'm not sure how much such high resolution matters on an 8" - 8.4" display.

At least 1080p is preferred as you approach 10 inches. You do see pixels otherwise.

 

[stlc8tr]

You missed out on $199 Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 deal @Bestbuy. They must have been sold out. It is possible though your local stores still have one or two in stock.

Microcenter sells iPad mini 16 GB for $199, mini retina for $249. It could be is in-store only.

They still have it in stock but it's now $230 instead.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-...=1219093181535

Still a good deal though.

OP: 2560x1600 is fine for games that aren't graphically intensive like PvZ 2, Candy Crush, etc.

 

[lopri]

I do not know how representative 3DMarks and GL Benchmark are of real-world graphics performance, but according to these charts the tab pro seems to be competitive enough. If you go to the link below you can see the off-screen performance (normalized to 1080p) as well.

http://anandtech.com/show/7886/samsung-galaxy-tab-pro-84-and-101-review/6

Tegra Note 7 performs better thanks to its 1280x800 res, though, so maybe the experience is better, too. I do not play intensive games on tablets so it is hard to say but for me Samsung tablets (Note 8.0) aged better than other Android tablets including Nexus 7's (2012 and 2013) in everyday usage.

BTW, I hear NVIDIA Shield tablet is great for games. It is $300, though. If gaming is the priority perhaps Tegra Note 7 or Shield tablet may be a better option. I have never used them before so I have no opinion about them.

 

[gus6464]

ipad mini 2 will surely come back down to $220 at best buy. I got mine the day before Thanksgiving at that price.

 

[SlowSpyder]

ipad mini 2 will surely come back down to $220 at best buy. I got mine the day before Thanksgiving at that price.

Nothing against Apple, but I'm somewhat familiar with Android and so is my son. We'll probably want to stick with that.

I like the Galaxy 8.4, but am a bit concerned about how things will run at such high resolution. I don't know that I can change the resolution that games run at, I don't recall seeing that option in the games he played, though some may be adjustable.

8" - 9" is perfect sized, probably won't go bigger, and that'd be out of my price range anyway.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Thoughts on this Bay Trail powered Lenovo S850? 2GB memory, Intel Quad @ 1.33 - 1.86GHz, Intel HD graphics (four execution units 311MHz - 778MHz) from what I can tell. 1920x1200 8" display.

This Asus ME572 doesn't look bad either. Looks like a different CPU, but still Intel (Atom Z3560). Not sure how graphics performance will compare, this is also a 2GB 1920 x 1200 display, but this one only 7".

Not sure how a faster dual core part compares, but this Dell Venue 8 looks ok too. Again, 1920x1200 8" display, 2GB system memory.

I suppose graphics performance is more important than CPU performance, though. Anyone have any thoughts on those or something similar to those?

I looked at the EVGA Tegra Note too, but seems kind of pricey for a 7" 1280x800 tablet.

 

[Bateluer]

Looking at that tablet, the display is 8.4" and 2560 x 1600. The 8.0" is 1280 x 800. How are the mobile GPU's for such high resolution? Do games automatically downscale? The lower 1280 x 800 resolution is much easier to push, even with a lesser GPU. I'm not sure how much such high resolution matters on an 8" - 8.4" display.

The Tab Pro 8.4 and Galaxy Tab 4 8.0 are two completely different creatures under the hood. The TP8.4 was Samsung's best for a few months, and uses a MUCH faster CPU than the budget minded Tab 4 lineup. Tab 4s use quad Cortex A7s. Very underpowered, especially when trying to run TouchWiz. The GPU on the Tab Pro easily handles the 1600p resolution, the GPU on the Tab barely handles the 1280x800 resolution.