Tablet World.pdf

FEATURE Get the best price
Get the best price
Buy your tablet direct from the manufacturer and you’ll always pay
top-whack. Here are some tips to help you get the best price
20 TABLETWORLD
Shopping for tablets can be an expensive business, full of pitfalls for the
wary. Here we offer simple tips to help you get the best value when you
buy technology products, as gifts or for yourself.
It sounds obvious, but if you want to get value for money it’s important to do
some research. And the start of that process is researching which product is best
for your needs. Remember that ‘cheap’ doesn’t always equate to ‘good value’.
Recently, we were challenged over our assertion a year ago that the iPad was
‘well-priced’. Surely, said the reader, Android tablets were cheaper and product
tear-downs had shown that the components were worth a lot less than Apple
charged for the iPad. A tear-down of the components of a device will show how
much they cost, but it bears only a small relation to the value of that product.
The iPad is well-priced, although the argument is more nuanced now. Back
then, the only products that came anywhere near to the quality of the iPad
weren’t as good, and cost at least as much. And they ran an Android smartphone
OS that wasn’t fit for purpose on tablets, with nary a tablet-optimised app or
decent source of music and movies to be found.
The market is very different now. With the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10, Kindle
Fire HD and Nook HD, Android hardware is getting close to iPad-quality, and
these products cost a lot less than Apple’s tablet. Android Jelly Bean is a proper
tablet operating system, with good music and movie options, although there is
still a lack of apps for tablets on Android.
“Remember
that cheap
doesn’t always
equate to
good value”