Ajshope

The Toshiba is a pretty good tablet. Honestly you can't go too wrong with any name brand. The big players are Samsung and Asus, but Lenovo, Acer, and Toshiba are also computer manufacturers so their tablets are quality tablets.

No, they all use microSD cards which are the same as what phones use.

I was able to open the Kindle box without using the pull tab. I just pulled the seam apart at the top (where the clear circle sticker is in your photo).

Also, there is no guarantee that Samsung will always update. I mean the Motorola Xoom is a Google experience device (meaning Google pushes the updates not Motorola even though now they are one in the same) and Google just said that they are no longer supporting it past 4.1.2. A company always has to determine what will result in the best user experience for the customer. Sometimes an update will actually make things worse.

For number 1) No, they are both mainstream tablets that can access everything equally. The main difference is the processor, which is actually better on the Nexus 7. If you are looking for an everyday tablet that you want to be fast and get updates as soon as Google puts them out, then get the Nexus 7. There are some drawbacks with the Nexus 7 though as since it will always be on the cutting edge in terms of software, there may be some minor quirks every once in awhile if Google missed something in the software update. I'm fine with that type of stuff as I like being on the bleeding edge, but to some people it would drive them nuts.

I wish HTC would try to get back into the tablet game. They have great build quality and they are pretty good with their phone updates. I guess with the likes of Samsung, Asus, Apple, and Amazon, they just don't see much room left. It's a shame though because Samsung's build quality isn't the greatest, Amazon has limitations, and Asus (minus the Nexus 7) and Apple are pricey.

The difference is that the a500 is a dual-core tablet. The a110 is a quad-core. The a700 is their replacement for the a500. I was going to get the a700, but read too many bad reviews about it. Their 7 inch tablets are great though. The issue I have with Samsung is that it takes them forever to update any of their items. They are always one of the last to update because of all of the stuff they have to do with Touchwiz. Plus the Galaxy Note 10.1 is the only tablet Samsung has that's a quad-core tablet and the screen on it isn't as good as the Asus TF700. The only reason I even got a Samsung phone is because it is the Galaxy Nexus so it gets updated by Google and not Samsung.

Oh, anyone looking for an alternative to the Nexus 7 with a microSD card slot check out the Acer Iconia Tab a110. I can't believe I forgot about this one. I got my wife the a100 back in February and it works really well. Acer has some issues with the 10 inch tablets (overheating, stuttering, freezing, etc), but we've had no issues with the 7 inch.

Over the last 6-8 months the cheaper tablets have become a lot better. They are now using the ARM processors as the single core processors have plummeted in price and because of that, a lot have access to the Google Play store. I've bought 2 tablets for under $100, one was a 7 inch one and the other was a 9 inch one and both of them have been great so far (I've been testing them as I got them in August). As long as they have Google Play access, I have no issues buying the cheaper tablets for family members who don't care about an HD screen, a quad-core processor, or GPS; which actually ends up being everyone. I'm the only one that cares about that type of stuff.

It's essentially the same tablet as the Idolian IdolPad+ and since it has Google Play access, I wouldn't see why you wouldn't be able to get Netflix on it.

If you only want it for reading, get the Kindle. Although Amazon did just push (or is about to push) a software update to the Kindle Fire that allows you to limit activities on it. So like you could make it so your son can only play games for 1 hour a day on the tablet and yet let him have unlimited reading access.

I bought the Idolian IdolPad+ on Amazon where it was only $89.99 at the time and I was able to get a 16GB microSD card for under $10. So the Walmart one is actually a bit better of a deal right now because it has more storage. I was just in the right place at the right time with the Idolian tablet.

Yeah, if you want a 7 inch one the one from Walmart looks okay. I bought this one for my mother-in-law. I bought it back in August and I've been periodically testing it since then and it seems to work really well.

Google doesn't exactly create the specs. Google gives the manufacturer the price point they want to come in at and tells them to give them the best they can for that price point. Samsung has had rear cameras on all of their tablets and Google didn't exactly give them an ultra low price point to try to keep it under so the rear camera probably wasn't even discussed and Samsung just put it in there.

For under $100? I'm not sure. I mean as long as it says it can Skype they should all work. I'm a bit more picky and I tend to project that onto the people I'm buying for. Like for instance I would never buy an Android tablet that doesn't have access to Google Play. Now the people I'm buying for may not care about that as long as they can get apps and games, but since I know so much about the limitations of certain tablets and the way Google wants the eco-system, I have a hard time buying the $50-$80 "Android" tablets. The tablets that Sears and Kmart have in their Black Friday ads are ones that I would buy though. In fact I'm looking to buy the Mach Speed Trio Stealth 9.7 inch tablet.

Anyway, back to answeing questions. For older people that may not be concerned about stuff like always getting the latest software updates I think this would be a good tablet. In all honesty I'm not sure what Lenovo is like in terms of their firmware and software updating, they may actually be pretty good, but I just know that Asus has the best track record of maintaining their tablets. I am definitely trying to get larger tablets for the older people on my list. It's just a matter of finding them at a reasonable price.

I guess I could see stuff like that. The fan sites usually talk about it in the context of just randomly walking around and seeing something that you want to take a picture of and pulling out your 10 inch tablet just to take the picture.

Maybe it's a tech geek thing then because on sites like Android Central, Droid Life, even some of the Apple fan sites, they always talk about how it's dorky to use the rear camera on a tablet. Maybe we are just such geeks about technology that we don't want to seem even geekier/dorkier than we already are.

Well, I think the Nexus 7 over all is a better deal. The whole reason Google doesn't have expandable memory in any of their "Google experience" devices is because they want the software and hardware to run as smoothly together as possible and with cloud services like SkyDrive from Microsoft, Google Drive, Box, DropBox, etc. which all give you at least 5GB of free storage, removable storage isn't as critical as it used to be.

The Nexus 7 with 32GB of storage is now $249. Given that he's 17, the Nexus 7 would be the "cool" tablet as it has a quad-core processor instead of dual-core, it has Android 4.2 and as a computer scientist, former Best Buy employee, an Android fanatic (I have the Galaxy Nexus phone and the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity), and just an over all tech geek, you never want to be seen using your tablet as an actual camera. So the rear camera shouldn't be a big issue. The front facing camera is what is important on a tablet as its use is mostly for Skype and other video chatting. Rear cameras on tablets are actually pretty ridiculous.

I'm getting my wife's grandparents tablets. I bought a 9 inch one for my wife's grandmother which is this one and it was really good and works really well for what it is so I bought another one for her grandfather and I had to get a replacement and return it as well because the quality wasn't as good as the one I got for her grandmother. So I went to Amazon and bought this one (which is essentially the same tablet) and I had to return two of those because again the quality wasn't as good. The 9 inch tablets like these are popping up all over the place. Even Sears has one in their Black Friday ad called 4sight or something like that. The first one I got is really nice and while it doesn't have the bells and whistles that I like (HD screen, quad-core processor, GPS, etc.) it was amazing for the price, but I think the quality control started slipping once demand started to climb. The 9 inch ones with the white back are essentially all the same, they may just have a few minor cosmetic differences on the back so I'm thinking they are all coming from the same factory in China. The seller from ebay did say that the 9.7 inch tablets that they sell have been very good and they haven't had any issues or complaints, so I may try to get the 9.7 Mach Speed Trio Stealth that Sears has in their Black Friday ad as it is essentially the same as this which is normally $169 there, but they just raised the price because they are currently out of stock.

I'm done with all of the shopping except for the wife and I may just give her money since our 5 year anniversary is on Black Friday and I'm already giving her a ring for that, plus she wants the iPhone 5. Of course all of the shopping this year was pretty easy as 3 people are getting tablets, one is getting a Keurig , one a Kindle, and the other is getting a bunch of tools. All of my shopping this year and last was done on eBay and Amazon so that made it even easier.

To those that said Best Buy because they were out of stock of some items, do you expect Best Buy to have an unlimited supply of product? Honestly, can you be that ignorant? You weren't one of the people that called or came in the store at 11 am asking for the $379.99 notebook were you? No joke, I took about 5 calls in a row from people asking me about that laptop at 11 am. Also, for those who were upset about Best Buy because the cars got in your way... Best Buy wasn't driving those cars. Get upset at the people, not the store.

Just went past the Best Buy that I work at around 6pm and there were 10 to 15 people in line.

I work at one in Columbus, Ohio.