Best Budget Tablets Under £300: Value, Design & Performance

Best Budget Tablets Under £300: 

Value, Design & Performance

Want a tablet? Don't want to spend a lot of money? 

Well, you're in luck – here's a selection of some of the best tablets for under £300

Back in the day, circa 2012/12, budget tablets weren’t really an option. In the wake of the iPad launch, every Tom, Dick and Harry came to market with a “cheaper iPad solution” – none, however, even came close. We’re talking shonky design, dire performance and just plain awful displays and battery life.

Then the Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire happened, and this changed everything, igniting innovation at the lower-end of the tablet market. The end result of this is that nowadays you can pick up an excellent tablet device for well under £300 – and in some instances less than £200.

Below are some of our favourites from the past year or so. Enjoy. 

Amazon Kindle Fire HDX & Kindle Fire HD – £199 & £119

 Amazon’s latest Kindle Fire HDX tablets retail for around £199 and come in two size varieties: 7in & 8.9in. The HDX 7 is the cheaper option, with prices starting from £199 for the 16GB version. The HDX 8.9 comes in at a pricier £329. Both pack in very decent specs but neither support Google Play, meaning for apps and games, you’re limited to Amazon’s App Store (which isn’t great).

Another option is 2013’s Kindle Fire HD. This 7in slate doesn’t pack quite as much punch as the newer HDX models, but it does come with a very affordable £119 price tag. You can see how all of Amazon’s tablets compare below. 

NVIDIA Tegra Note – £140

The Tegra Note is a simple mid-range tablet with a truly staggering Tegra 4 chipset inside it. Performance is excellent as a result, making it an ideal choice for those interested in playing mobile games. The display, a 6.97in 1280 x 800 setup, isn’t great by Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire HDX standards but it is perfectly adequate for the price – which at £140 is a pretty damn low.   

You get 16GB of storage and support for SD-cards. The Note runs Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2 and so far NVIDIA hasn’t mentioned anything about updating the slate to Android KitKat. The UX is pretty close to a stock Android setup a la Google’s Nexus 7 and the Moto G. It also features a stylus like the Samsung Galaxy Note, although the one here isn’t quite as functional. Still, it’s a nice addition all the same.   

New Nexus 7 2 16GB

You can pick up the Wi-Fi only 16GB Nexus 7 2 model for £199.99 from PC World and the 32GB version for £239.99. The tablet features a gorgeous 7-inch (1280x1920) display whcih has one of the best pixel densities around – 323ppi. It's powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor clocked at 1.5GHz and boasts a 5-megapixel camera on the back and a 1.2-megapixel camera on the front for self portraits. Google has boosted the battery life too, giving you an extra hour in comparison to the original Nexus 7.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 was announced last year and although the Tab 3 has now been announced, it's not available yet. The Galaxy Tab 2 is obviously the older version, but that doesn't mean it's outdated. Packed with Samsung's Galaxy features including Video Hub, Readers Hub, Music Hub, Game Hub and Samsung Apps, it's made for content.

On the back, there's a 3-megapixel camera and a VGA camera on the front for video calling. Running Android 4.0, it's upgradeable to Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean.

The spec moves a little down hill from here though. Whereas the Galaxy Tab 3 features a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor, its predecessor includes a dual-core 1GHz number.

Apple iPad Mini – £249

If you’re looking for a cheap and easy way to get into Apple’s iOS ecosystem, 2012’s iPad Mini could be just what you’ve been waiting for. Available for £249, the original iPad Mini is still one of the best smaller tablets around, and while it might not be quite as powerful as the iPad Air and new iPad Mini with retina, it is still a very, very capable machine. 

And – because it’s an Apple product you know you’ll be getting software updates for it right up to 2016 and beyond. Apple has more tablet-specific applications than everybody else and one of the most robust ecosystems around. The iPad Mini is a portable, great-looking tablet. And for £249 it’s an absolute bargain. 

Huawei's 7-inch Media Pad 7 Lite 

Huawei's 7-inch Media Pad 7 Lite may be an outside contender in this round up, but it's certainly a solid performer for a smidge over £200. With 3G onboard it's a good deal but it's not as high-specced as the other devices we've listed here. Inside you have a single-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz and 8GB of internal storage – although you can upgrade this further with microSD. The 4100mAh battery provides excellent battery life, ensuring the tablet can do a good couple of days with mid-to-heavy usage. 

Tesco Hudl

Never one to miss a trick, Tesco is now officially in the tablet business with its rather impressive and super affordable Hudl tablet. It’s Android-powered, features a quad-core CPU, and has really nice 7in 1440 x 900 display, making it perfect for gaming and watching movies. And best of all it costs just £120. 

TABLETS ANDROID IOS HUAWEI AMAZON APPLE SAMSUNG GOOGLE NEXUS 7 APPLE IPAD MINISAMSUNG GALAXY TAB 2 7.0AMAZON KINDLE FIRE HD