9-10 inch tab at around $300 for "gaming"

[Neuromancer]

It is for my mother's 60th birthday.
I was looking at possibly the Asus MeMO FHD.
$300 is a pretty hard limit but its my moms and I have not been able to afford a nice gift for her in a while. My kids are older and dont ask for a hundred things anymore, they like fewer better gifts, and I got them sorted already.


Her birthday is just after Christmas. so Brick and mortar pickup would be nice. Best Buy is local (I could hit microcenter on the way to her house). Been looking around and do not see a CPU or GPU performance chart anywhere. The memo FHD has the uh, something (clover?) trail, not the new bay trail which wont hit android till next year...

Needs

Large screen with decent res. Cant see getting a 10 tab and settling for 720p

SDHC, cuz not having it is a ripoff. USB port is optional but bonus.

Google play is absolute must. I do not mind rooting to add it.


Not sure if needs

2GB RAM? More ram is always better especially at higher res. or am I just an old PC hound?

Verizon LTE compatibility. Specifically via SIM slot. She has a droid, IIRC not all droids have sims, so not sure if it would be possible to swap back and forth.

Rootability. Not sure if rooting is always the answer so would rather only do it, IF it needs it.

OS upgradability. Its funny, tabs are like apple products, if it came out 4 years ago you gotta buy a whole new PC instead of just installing windows 7.

(Speaking of which can the intel clover trail tabs, be "rooted" to install windows 8? It is x86 arch which means android performance is probably lower than real x86 software yes?)

Post scriptum

Does not have to be new, refurb is okay, long as it looks all nice and shiny. it will be after xmas a couple of days so I expect refurbs will be where they should, not 5% off MSRP but 40% off MSRP.

 

[Adinaky]

The Asus MeMO FHD looks pretty nice in my opinion, but in this review it says the display isn't that good. If you buy it, here you can find a rooting guide.

I'd also like to suggest you the Nexus 7 (second gen). I know it's not a 9 or 10 inch tablet, but it has a better cpu and a better display than the MeMO and it is cheaper as well. I have the first gen one and I can say it runs great, so it's successor certainly runs better. Of course there is a whole forum on xda dedicated to it.

 

[Enablingwolf]

You might be able to locate an Asus TF700 (1920x1200) in your price range. They are pretty versitile devices and have the dock option. The hacking support for them, is pretty good too. Which on the whole, fits most of what you asked for. The TF300 (1280x800) would be a good option, but the res is lower and the pixel density is also lower.

With the dock you get full SD card slot and USB. Plus extended battery time. I use the TF300 and find it ok, though not having 2gigs of RAM and lower res is kind of a drag. It does handle games good and overall is a decent value if you can find them on sale.

The MeMO are just next gen Transformers with a new name.

If you're feeling really cheap and want an easy deal. Cube makes ok Chinese tablets.
http://www.cube-tablet.com/buy-products.html
Keep in mind they are cheap for a reason. The hardware is there mostly, but support is limited and they can be wonky. I know one user that has one and it works pretty good for the price. Though for half your budget price. I think this might be an OK option as last resort.. Or first, depending if you like the price point versus hardware specs of other manufacturers.
They are better than Levono, which makes crappy tabs IMO. (My Levono tablet is a turd.)

 

[Luke1978]

Don't really think you would need to root a tablet for your mom. Only real benefit it would have is to remove the bloatware. I have a couple of rooted phones and have experimented with it. Some are much easier than others (HTCDev for example) My Droid DNA runs a custom recovery, and ViperDNA (release based ROM) the HTC OneV my daughter uses was just to increase storage space/remove bloat

I doubt shed see any real benefit from a custom kernel or overclocking, especially compared to the reliability hit vs performance increase. As well as diminished battery life.

Most tablets, especially carrier versions do OTA's the same way phones do.

And afaik any android tablet includes gapps. Pretty sure you can find an APK if for some reason it does not. Or install from the web via play.google.com

 

[Enablingwolf]

And afaik any android tablet includes gapps. Pretty sure you can find an APK if for some reason it does not. Or install from the web via play.google.com

Did Amazon lift needing root on the Kindle (Fire?) Not having Play makes them sort of weak being an android tablet. They do have an ok amount of games, but Amazon is rather limited in consumable installs compared to Play.

 

[Luke1978]

Did Amazon lift needing root on the Kindle (Fire?) Not having Play makes them sort of weak being an android tablet. They do have an ok amount of games, but Amazon is rather limited in consumable installs compared to Play.

Kindle/Amazon are a different breed entirely. Wasn't my intention to lump them in with the other android devices as their version of Android is gone through and modified specifically to push the user towards their own proprietary stuff.

If one does go that way rooting is the only real option to get play store and install gaps

Kindle Fire root guide.

 

[Enablingwolf]

Minus not having Play. Kindle are not bad devices for the price. The ads they run against Apple, are amusing the first few times seeing them. In person the screens are not to shabby. For a heavy Amazon consumer, they would be a solid option.

 

[Neuromancer]

I had considered the kindle, and new it needed rooting for play. But was not sure how ewell it would game.

Sister is picking up a bluetooth keyboard that doubles as a portable recharging station so dock is not necessary i think.

I will check out hte TF700, I looked at hte Kindle HDX but did not like that it did not have an SD slot.

 

[dfonda]

Nexus 7@$180 and a $100 gift certificate (Play store or a fav restaurant.)

 

[Neuromancer]

Bought two for my kids.

She wants something larger.

First one arrived with dead battery and wouldnt boot. Fixed that (got it charging now). Second worked perfect, until I hit update, now it is stuck at the X. trying to figure out how to put the new OS on it through USB. Was up till 2am working on it.

The "easy to do" method does not work as you have to have a working unit, so I am trying to do it manually now.

My kids are not far, so I can fix theirs for them, my mom is 100 miles away. Meaning if something breaks she is out of luck.

 

[rpjkw11]

My Nexus 7 2 stuck at the X also two weeks after I got it. I spent 20 minutes on phone with tech support (great experience BTW) and its been working very well since then. I wanted to get my wife a Nexus 10 2 for Christmas, but looks like I'll have to wait for the CES next month or go to Plan C. The soon-to-be-released Samsung Galaxy Note looks very interesting in 12.2 or 10.2 inch screens, but will probably be closer to $600usd.

 

[Neuromancer]

Yeah, I really should have bought 3 of these.


Bidding on a TFT700 now for my mom. I have not played with the Nexus 7 except for repairing them, but I like how easy it is to work on.

I understand the bootloader, and the back snaps off easily if I have to do a battery replacement


Definitely liking the ASUS stuff just like on PC

 

[Enablingwolf]

If you do get a tf700. Look at the Cromi-x ROMs if you feel more than stock is wanted, but not giving up stock.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2425383

 

[cyberfish]

From my experience, older people (especially those with less-than-perfect eyesight, which is most of them) tend to appreciate bigger screens more than resolution. They probably won't be able to tell between 720p and 1080p, but would be straining to see things on a small display.

 

[deathman20]

If you do get a tf700. Look at the Cromi-x ROMs if you feel more than stock is wanted, but not giving up stock.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2425383

+1 to that. Cromi-X made the tablet very usable IMO. Got rid of many issues with slowness on it. Mind you its still can have that lagging feel to it but great device overall.

I got rid of mine a few months back, TF700+Dock. While I miss it I did get a Nexus 7 (2013) edition and love it. For what I need it being smaller, lighter and overall faster it was a good option IMO. Besides snagging a 32GB for $220 getting a BT keyboard and still came ahead win win The person that purchased my TF700 loves it even on stock kernal and works perfectly for him. Just my power user self was making it drag