I've finally decided to spend the dough to get a tablet, but because it is something of a luxury - i.e. I don't need one, I just want one - I've decided to go for one of the cheap ones i.e. not Google Nexus, Samsung or Apple. And there's an awful lot of cheaper ones out there. Oh, and I've decided to go for an 8in screen - 7in too small, 10in too big.

I've done a lot of casting about for reviews and they are all praised by some, others warn off them. It's something of a lottery. I wouldn't touch an Arnova, but some, such as Ployer and Archos have their fans. I've more or less settled on buying an 8in Prestigio from Asda for £149.99, partly because it as an 4:3 ratio which I prefer, partly because as it's spec is pretty similar to others - a great many go for the ARM Cortex A8 - it comes with a useful leather case (daft I know, but...)

However, I should like, for the last time, before I take the plunge one way or another, to hear people's views on what they regard as the better ones of the cheaper Androids around.

I know it's been said before but just be aware with many of these cheap tablets they don't come with Google Play installed which means you don't have full access to all the apps and if you want that you have to fart around a bit to get Google Play installed.

Also, many of these cheap tablets don't have GPS etc, so if you want to use the maps or nav systems etc they won't work.

Good points, but really the question is: given one or two drawbacks (as you point out) which are thought better than others or, to put it another way, which have the fewest such drawbacks? Also, if a tablet as, say ICS or Jellybean, wouldn't it automatically have access to Google Play?

A couple of the guys at work have the momo8, available on amazon for around £115. Comes with jellybean and access to google play. Couple of weak points are variable wifi performance and battery life is around 4 hours.

I'd be surprised if many of the tablets shipped now don't come with Google Play installed already. Even if they don't, it's a piece of p*ss installing the apk. file.

I have a Novo 7 Elf but now I'm after an 8" one so am interested in what's out there for a reasonable price. I've heard the Momo8 mentioned a few times but the wifi is dire apparently and only taking apart the tablet itself and moving the antenna will rectify it.

BIB - the reason that the ultra-cheapo tablets are often that cheap is because they opt to not license the Google Apps part of Android. Android itself is free, but the Google Apps Suite (with Play, Maps and more) does incur a license fee. If there's not much profit margin in the hardware, it maybe doesn't make financial sense for the manufacturer to include the full suite.

here's the official page with full specs (I think its the Asda model)

http://www.prestigio.com/products/pe...ad_8.0_PRO_DUO

fair enough, nothing to complain about there and if 8" 4:3 is important to you then its looks OK. The Nexus 7 16GB is only £20 more though, if you're willing to compromise on screen size/shape.

I don't think so. Model Number from your link PMP5580C_DUO the one is Asda is this model PMP5080PRO

http://direct.asda.com/Prestigio-8in...efault,pd.html

It doesn't specify but I think its a single core could as opposed to the other one which has a dual core A9 chip. If that's the case then seems a lot of money for a single core tablet and 8gb of storage. I imagine it will be pretty sluggish.

ah yep, try this one.
http://www.prestigio.com/products/pe...d_PMP5080C_PRO

Notably missing the "upgradable to 4.1 Jelly Bean" line.
ARM Cortex A8 Rockchip RK2918
CPU Internal Clock Rate 1.00 GHz
and only 800x600 resolution.

If that's a match, my recommendation is to avoid. Too expensive for too little.