From the moment Steve Jobs presented his offspring Apple iPad and shouting from the audience: "Nobody needs this gadget!" six years have already passed. Today, looking at the computer market, no one doubts the success of the tablet direction, and those people who screamed from the audience have long been lost in the crowd, and most likely with a new gadget in their pocket.
In the Russian territory, there is no noticeable preponderance of tablets over stationary PCs, but judging by the data for the past and the year before last, sales of gadgets increased by more than 50%. Despite high-profile premieres and extensive advertising campaigns, “apple” tablets own only a third of the world market, and the most representative brand that specializes in “Android” devices, “Samsung”, and even less - 18%.
Gadget market
But looking at the big picture, one cannot help but notice the Asian offensive of gadgets - cheap Chinese 3G tablets have occupied a niche with a sales share exceeding 35% of the entire market. There is something to ponder and draw the appropriate conclusions.
All manufacturers are fighting hard for each customer and the percentage in a crowded market. The current situation puts the customer in a very favorable position from the point of view of choice, and the technological race in this segment leads to the fact that even the cheapest 3G tablet exceeds all the user's expectations.
Rating tablets
Let's try to highlight the most remarkable and relevant models in terms of price and quality, focusing on the products of local Internet sites. The rating is based on the psychological border of 10 thousand rubles.
Immediately it is worth noting several common points that are inherent in all respondents in the top. The vast majority of modern devices are able to provide the user with a comfortable work with social networks. They all feel great while surfing the web and watching videos in the 720p standard. Toys, maybe not all, but will go more or less smoothly. For the rest, we get acquainted with the rating and select something for our needs.
Prestigio MultiPad PMP5870C
A gadget with an average price of four thousand rubles offers its user a completely acceptable and modern set of features. The device is developed on the RockChip RK3066 platform with a dual-core processor, and in a nutshell it can be described as the cheapest 3G tablet. The price did not affect the performance and quality of the device so much, therefore for the base model the device behaves quite adequately.
According to its technical characteristics, the model is close to the Samsung Galaxy S2. With a video and games, the gadget helps to cope with a fairly powerful four-core accelerator Mali400MP4 complete with a 1.6 GHz processor.
In general, the model looks very attractive: a high-quality 7-inch display with a resolution of 1280x800 pixels and with an IPS matrix on board, 1 GB of RAM, good speakers with a decent volume margin, USB-OTG connectors and 8 GB of internal memory.
Here you can add a leather case, a simple one-click root access, the ability to change ID-memory and a lot of custom firmware for Android, starting with version 4.2.1. All this has an inexpensive tablet with 3G Prestigio, and this makes it a very good buy.
The only thing that user reviews mark as a fly in the ointment is the low quality of both cameras and the lack of wireless connections: in addition to 3G and Wi-Fi, the model does not have any protocols - Bluetooth or similar.
SUPRA M741G
Cheap 3G-enabled tablets are still the trade-off of Wi-Fi devices. But the price of such a device is slightly higher: it’s cheaper to find a Supra with a G mark for less than six thousand rubles.
But the funds spent on this device are quite justified from a technical point of view. The quad-core processor on the MediaTek MT8389 chip provides excellent performance for two SIM cards, GPS and a 5-megapixel camera.
Otherwise, the inexpensive 3G tablet from Supra looks ordinary: a TN matrix with a resolution of 1024x600 pixels, 1 GB of RAM and a 3000 mAh battery. Judging by the user reviews, the impression of the tablet is more or less good, the only thing that owners often complain about is too much energy consumption, which means a short battery life.
Wexler TAB 7t 16GB
Wexler's TAB 7t line is a cheap 3G tablet, but with a pretty powerful stuffing. The model is based on the architectural base of the "nVidia" Tegra 3 series and is available in several versions: internal memory 8/16/32 GB and the presence of a 3G module.
The device is equipped with an IPS-matrix on a 7-inch screen with a resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels. There is a rear camera with 5 megapixels, good speakers with a high-quality sound adapter and a GPS module. The price for the Russian market is quite attractive - 6,000 rubles on the Yandex market.
But cheap tablets with 3G can not do without a fly in the ointment. User reviews note software failures atypical for the Tegra accelerator, as a result of which the manufacturer was forced to issue frequent firmware updates.
Despite positioning the gadget as a device for gamers and enthusiasts, the model, by virtue of its technical characteristics and built-in software, cannot boast of extensive space for users to independently modify existing software. There are no third-party firmware that can fix the situation, and is not expected, so many telephone functions remain incomplete - for example, the user cannot check the account status through a USSD request.
But in general, even in this form, the gadget fully realizes itself in the game plan, and the Wi-Fi and GPS modules work a little better than other budget options. In addition, other cheap 3G tablets do not look as pretty as Wexler.
ASUS FonePad HD 7 ME372CG
First-tier brands do not so often condescend to the release of budget devices, because you can make money on usually retail in the premium models segment, but exceptions, fortunately, happen, and the FonePad model is just one of those lucky numbers.
“Asus” introduced real exoticism to the gadget market - a tablet that runs on the Intel Atom processor. The chip appeared a couple of years ago and has two cores on board at 1600 MHz with four computing threads. This cannot boast the rest of the cheap 3G tablets.
The brand did not raise prices for its device, and on large Internet sites the device can be seen for 9500-10 000 rubles, which is very good for such an impressive and branded filling.
The gadget has a 7-inch display on an IPS-matrix with a resolution of 1280x800 pixels, excellent stereo sound, support for 3G networks, GPS, a 5-megapixel camera and by its basic characteristics, the device is close to the flagship in the face of "Nexus 7". In general, the model turned out to be very successful and deserves attention, especially since user reviews about the device are very flattering.
IconBit NETTAB SKAT RX
The SKAT RX can be categorized as the "Best Chinese Tablets." The review should immediately begin with the pride of Chinese processor engineering - RockChip RK3188. The chip works with the Cortex-A9 architecture, which is considered one of the most productive, and four 1600 MHz cores each allow the device to easily cope with games and demonstrate performance comparable to Samsung Galaxy S3.
Optimization of the Mali400MP4 video accelerator with internal resources allowed the gadget to produce very good FPS performance at high graphics settings. The only thing that users note in their reviews as a clear flaw of the device is a morally outdated display with a resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels, well, the rear camera could also be made better.
But even despite such shortcomings at a cost of five thousand rubles, the model remains very attractive for those who need good graphics in games and comfortable work in the browser.
In the Middle Kingdom, this model is better known as the Cube U35GT, and, unfortunately, does not have wide potential for enthusiasts: the “root” is the right with minimal modification of the firmware - this is the whole scope for fans to do everything for themselves.
Summarizing
The tablet market has become wider, richer and more diverse. You can see the models for a thousand rubles and for 70,000. If someone is interested in premium lines, but there is not enough money, as often happens, then instead of new Chinese devices you can try to find used devices from the same Samsung "And Apple, the benefit of doing them, if not forever, then competently and with love for the user.
The only thing that can be warned of future owners: there are fakes, so be careful and careful.