The £150 tablet - Samsung A8, Nokia T20, Lenovo M10

Posted 20th Jan 2023

Hey guys,

I'm trying to find a tablet predominantly for my 6 year old to be entertained on a journey to Cornwall. So, predominantly watching downloads from BBC, YouTube etc. Nothing fancy, nothing work related etc!

Tempted by all three of these, they seem to come up quite often in the 'best tablet' lists. We don't have prime, so not really considering the Fire selection tbh.

I have 10% off at JL which would, I believe, take the T20 down to 135. 153 for the A8 and 170 for the M10.

I may need to buy two since my daughter may need to be entertained in a similar way too, tbc at the moment!

Thoughts and real life experiences most welcome. My Galaxy Tab from 12 years ago is finally just to slow!

10 Comments

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21st Jan
Easy. Samsung for the software support.

If you get a Lenovo tab be careful with the exact model you are getting e.g. plus or not, and which gen. There are multiple tablets called M10, some of which are total garbage.

Lenovo M10 plus 3rd gen (has been £160) is the first Lenovo with a decent CPU (helio g80) and 1080p screen. It also comes with 4GB RAM which is a bonus. The 2nd gen is too slow, the non-plus has 800p screen.

Galaxy Tab A8 (£160) has basically the same CPU (though called unisoc T618) and screen but only 3GB RAM. Galaxy Tab A7 with SS662 is about the same. Probably the Tab A8 will get longer software support than the A7 (though there is also a tab A7 2022 that might get the most software support of all. Don't confuse the Tab A7 with the Tab A 7.0, or the Tab A8 with the Tab A 8.0. (you only want A7 or A8)
Author
21st Jan
Very helpful, thanks! They do like to confuse with the naaming system eh?

The stuff I read about Lenovo and Google kids was interesting, and could be useful.

Nokia is supposed to feel really nice in terms of build quality, and the price is tempting with the JL offer!

Yeah my Samsung also doesn't get updates anymore, but I think sbout 12+ years is pretty decent.

I also considered Chrome books eith flip, as they seem similar price point - to the poster above not sure if that could be useful for you in hospital?

I suspect it would just get covered in crumbs and smears of god knows what in the back of the car!
20th Jan
Amazon Fire tablets, cheap and good enough. Stick to 8" for kids as bigger can be too heavy to hold for hours. If you are bit techy then installing Google Play store on a Fire is the way to get any imaginable Android app, thought Amazon's app store has the obvious ones like iPlayer. However buying one in a hurry is not a good idea, they are now priced 50% higher than what I paid during a Black Friday type event. (edited)
Author
20th Jan
I'd probably be able to do stuff go a Fire tablet if necessary, I'm, fairly technically minded, if a bit oldskool!

I'll need one in a week or two, so I can't be too choosy time wise!

I think being non prime just put me off Fire tablets
21st Jan
Whatever happened to interacting with your child?
Author
21st Jan
In my case, nothing, it still happens practically 24*7! A journey taking about 10 hours with stops sometimes requires more than Ispy and sharing a colouring book. Especially if one parent is driving and one is navigating. Anyhow, I was more looking for tablet recommendations as opposed to car games, we already have shed loads of those, too many to mention!
21st Jan
I'm also interested in the outcome of this. Been in hospital twice this month and my trusty tab pro is a bit old now and loosing access to alot of aps as they never updated the android on it.

On paper I think my first choice is the A8 as it had play store on that some of the others didn't have and through employee discounts could get it for £120 after trading in an old tablet.

Will be good to see what others think.