Big lots has a slew of cheap off brands. But don't let that stop the tinkering. From $60-139, you get a decent spec tablet that while cheap, flimsy, ain't half bad. These things run ICS and are for the most part rock, hard stable in my experience (bought some to play around with). The best part? They come, out of the box, pre-rooted, don't need superuser as an app, and even include overclocking kernels...the 4.3" Emerson tablet has the ability to go all the way past 1.4 GHz, despite the box claiming a paltry 1GHz as the max. If you get these, they appear rather decent, perfect for web browsing, e-reading, and some gaming. Just be sure to get a case. These things will not tolerate any abuse.
Like a kindle fire, they have 512MB DDR 3 RAM. they bear Cortex-A8 CPUs. Some have the added bonus of a PowerVR GPU. Screens are a bit low-resolution, but not eye straining. I tested a 7" D2 Pad with Pinball Arcade, and while its no Nexus 7, I was impressed with the performance and rendering.
A word of caution. These don't include Google Play. Instead they include an alternative called 1MobileMarket, which I found favorable to Play. It loads fast, on root the download and installs are one click, no more two to three clicks to download, buy, and accept permissions. No more Play glitching like failing to download or false insufficient storage errors after waiting for a long download. If your device doesn't have sufficient storage, downloads won't start. It also offers the ability to save the apk file after download. In my opinion its better, and I've since removed Play from my devices. However, for those of you who had purchased apps, you may want to use Play. I know of no way to flash the gapps.zip and have not tried a custom recovery and I'm not sure there is one. I believe the /system/app exploit may give you Play Store but have yet to test it. The amazon App Store and its purchased content will work and the D2 pad includes it. The Emerson, and Polaroid models give a download link via a windows phone style widget
Like a kindle fire, they have 512MB DDR 3 RAM. they bear Cortex-A8 CPUs. Some have the added bonus of a PowerVR GPU. Screens are a bit low-resolution, but not eye straining. I tested a 7" D2 Pad with Pinball Arcade, and while its no Nexus 7, I was impressed with the performance and rendering.
A word of caution. These don't include Google Play. Instead they include an alternative called 1MobileMarket, which I found favorable to Play. It loads fast, on root the download and installs are one click, no more two to three clicks to download, buy, and accept permissions. No more Play glitching like failing to download or false insufficient storage errors after waiting for a long download. If your device doesn't have sufficient storage, downloads won't start. It also offers the ability to save the apk file after download. In my opinion its better, and I've since removed Play from my devices. However, for those of you who had purchased apps, you may want to use Play. I know of no way to flash the gapps.zip and have not tried a custom recovery and I'm not sure there is one. I believe the /system/app exploit may give you Play Store but have yet to test it. The amazon App Store and its purchased content will work and the D2 pad includes it. The Emerson, and Polaroid models give a download link via a windows phone style widget
