Best Tablets Under $400

There are some great tablets out there these days, but who says you need to spend big bucks to get a great device? Is it possible to buy a great tablet on a budget and still get everything you need? Let us show you the best tablets on a budget.

Today we’re going to look at six, sub-$400 tablets that will give you everything you need for great mobile computing and entertainment. Don’t worry, we’re not looking at 2011’s junkers, either. Nothing but sleek, modern tech here.

All the stores you’re we have recommended don’t engage in grey importing, either, so you can be sure of your warranty.


Nexus 7

What you’re looking at here isn’t any ordinary tablet: it’s still the best tablet to come out of Google.

The Nexus 7, despite being put together from a hardware perspective by Asus, was Google’s first foray into a Nexus tablet. The Nexus line — for the uninitiated — is intended to be a “pure Google” experience, originally designed for developers, with none of the manufacturer’s crapware slowing it down. To see that design ethos applied to a tablet is very exciting.

It’s a 7-inch, rubber-backed tablet powered by a 1.3Ghz quad-core Tegra 3 and 1GB of RAM. It comes in both the 8GB and 16GB storage variants (we tested the 16GB) and it weighs just 340 grams. The screen is a 7-inch, 720p IPS display, the device is Wi-Fi only and doesn’t come with a MicroSD-card slot.

Picking one up from Google Play will set you back just $249.


iPad Mini

The iPad Mini is a 7.9-inch Apple tablet that sports the same specs as an iPad 2 and the form factor of your favourite A5 notebook.

Under the hood of the 7.9-inch device is dual-core A5 processor with a neat little clock speed of 1GHz, 512MB of RAM, a 1024×768 pixel screen that packs 162 pixels per inch and a 5-megapixel rear facing camera. It weighs just north of 300 grams and is built out of the same sleek aluminium as the iPhone 5.

It’s great, and can run you less than $300 if you look around, but straight out of the Apple Store you’re looking at $369.


Kogan Agora

Say what you want about Ruslan Kogan and his online monolith, Kogan Electronics: they know how to make cheap hardware that you actually would want to buy. The sequel to the Agora tablet is here, and it’s better than ever.

There are two Agora tablets these days — an 8-inch model and a 10-inch model — and both have the same specs while coming in at a pocket-friendly price.

The Agora tablets comes with a dual-core, 1.6GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and between 8GB and 16GB of internal storage space. Both run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the first Kogan product to do so, and both tablets have a 1024×768 screen.

The 8-inch model starts at $119 for the 8GB model, while 16GB will set you back $129. The 10-inch meanwhile is $179 for the 8GB model, and the 16GB is $199. You can grab either from the Kogan Online Store.


Asus MeMO Pad

The MeMo Pad (pronounced “meemopad”) is a quirky little device.

It packs a 7-inch, 1024×600 screen with 170PPI and 350 nits of brightness, an ARM Cortex-A9 chip clocking in at 1GHz, 1GB of RAM, up to 16GB of on-board storage and 32GB of expandable storage and a 4270mAh battery with a stated life of 7 hours.

For those playing at home, yes: the Nexus 7 beats the MeMo Pad on pretty much every single spec listed, but where Asus is trying to compete is on price.

You’ll be able to pick up a MeMo Pad starting from $199 RRP, but these days it’s already much cheaper in store. That’s $50 cheaper than the already bargain-price of the Nexus 7, and for that amount of money, the MeMo Pad makes a lot of sense.

You can nab the MeMO Pad for just $174 from the likes of Harvey Norman.


Galaxy Note 8

We’ll admit it: we’re breaking our budget with the Galaxy Note 8. It suffers from a higher price point, simply because it’s the newest tablet on our budget list. Having said that, it’s fantastic value for money.

While all of the other tablets we looked at were just rectangles with a data connection, the Note 8 has a 3G connection out of the box, meaning that it’s a phone as well as a tablet. That’s two great devices for the price of one, when you think about it.

Weighing just 388 grams, the Note 8 has an 8-inch screen (duh) with a 1280×800 resolution and 189 ppi, on top of a 1.6GHz A9 quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean and the choice of either 16GB or 32GB of storage, expandable up to 64GB via a micro SD card.

The Galaxy Note 8 is a little on the pricey side, coming in at $458.


What’s your favourite cheap tablet? Let us know in the comments!


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