Hey, be careful out there -- "10 Black Friday Dos and Don'ts." Here's No. 8:
Don't Even Consider Buying a Cheap, Low-End Tablet
What's the point of buying a tablet if it can't run your apps and the picture is such a low resolution that all the pixels are so big that they look like Ben-Day dots. So please for the love of Jobs or the admiration of Android avoid low-cost craplets like the Ematic eGlide EGL25BL that Walmart sells. With its 7-inch resistive touch screen and 1-GHz processor, this sad slate is likely to send you screaming back to your PC.
A lot of them are in that spirit (no cheap phones, no crappy notebooks, etc., ectc.), and it's always good advice. The more concerned we are about getting a good price deal, the more likely we are to forget about quality.
Comments
Be careful about offending WalMart, Leo. You might mysteriously disappear, only to be found years later in a Chinese sweatshop. They have powers beyond our comprehension.
When I moved, I had to give up my Virgin phone. Virgin had been going downhill ever since Sprint bought them, and Sprint won't work in my new home.
So I went with AT&T. I was with them once before when they bought Cingular, and they were FUBAR. The real cost of a phone is the time, though, and at 10c a minute, I simply have to top up every 2-3 months for $25 and my unused minutes keep accumulating.
I got my laptop a year ago Black Friday for $300, and I recently saw the same model being retailed at $699; it seems to impress all who've used it. Reviews of the eGlide suggest it's not a deal at any price, but the Fire HD and the Nexxus 7 are receiving rave reviews. It's not the price that matters; but brand counts for a lot. Samsung, Amazon, and Google tend to give you a lot for your money. Apple gives you a lot, but you don't buy Apple, you rent it, either with a non-replaceable battery that stops taking a charge after a year or so, or an operating system that needs to be upgraded once a year for $129.