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Saturday 22 December 2012

The Best Five Budget Tablets 2012 Christmas


This year has been a turning point for tablets, with models on sale for less than £200 (Image: Recombu)This Christmas people up and down the UK people will be getting tablets - with retailers reporting that a tablet is selling every second in Britain.

Just two years ago the choice would have been Apple or Apple, however 2012 has been a watershed in the tablet market, and there are plenty of great tablets for under £200 - and not all of them have the Apple logo on the back. Budget doesn’t necessarily mean poor quality any more. Here’s our pick of top five best budget tablets.

1: Google Nexus 7
From £159

The Google Nexus 7 is made by Asus, it’s a well designed-tablet with some great specs - and unlike Kindle, it has a forward-facing camera for Skype. The 7-inch screen is excellent for movies and the quad-core processor ensures it’s exceptionally quick, ably handling 3D games.Google Play Store now has a great selection of music, apps, books and videos.

Running the latest of Android Jelly Bean, as a flagship Nexus device you can buy the Nexus 7 safe in the knowledge it is guaranteed at least two more significant software updates from Google, adding new features.

Considering the feature set here, starting at £159 for the 16GB version, the Nexus 7 is great value, although it’s worth noting the Nexus 7 has a front (rather than rear-facing) camera, so isn’t a great choice for shooting movies and there’s no way of expanding the memory so choose between 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions.

Reasonably priced, powerful, with a great app selection and the latest version of Android’s operating system, the Google Nexus 7 is the best budget tablet

2: Apple iPad Mini
From £269


The Apple iPad Mini is the smallest and cheapest iPad has ever produced. Weighing just 308g, it’s less than half the weight of the big screen iPad, so as well as being used with one hand, it’s infinitely more portable too.

The LED-backlit 7.9-inch screen is good rather than being amazing. Unfortunately it’s not a Retina display, so text isn’t quite as sharp as the big iPad, but it’s a great size for browsing the web comfortably or watching movies. The dual-core processor can able handle graphically intensive games and you get access to the Apple App Store, which has over 275,000 apps.

There’s a respectable 5-megapixel camera for movies and photos too, as well as a front-facing camera for video calls, but like the Nexus 7, there’s no removable memory, just 16, 32 and 64GB versions.
With prices starting at £269 for the 16GB WiFi only version or £369 for the 3G/4G version, the iPad Mini is a lot more expensive than the other tablets here. In fact you can get a refurbished iPad 2 with a 9.7-inch screen for £259.

Overall, the iPad Mini is a great all-rounder, if you want a tablet that is portable, easy to use, great for movies, games and snapping the odd photo, this is the device for you.

3: Amazon Kindle Fire HD
From £159


The Amazon Kindle Fire HD is Amazon’s attempt to take some of the tablet market.
Despite being Android based, you don’t get access to the Google Play Store, instead the Amazon Store is pre-installed. App selection can’t match Android and Apple's rivals, with tens rather than hundreds of thousands, but there is a wide selection of movies, songs, TV shows and of course E-books from Amazon. If you’ve used Amazon’s previous Kindles you’ll find the reading experience disappointing - it isn’t as good as an E-Ink display.

Movies look fantastic on the 7-inch screen though, which is bright and vibrant with excellent colours and there’s a HDMI mini port for outputting to a HD TV, although with just one front-facing primarily for making Skype calls, you won’t outputting your own movies.

The Kindle Fire starts at £159 for the 16GB version, rising to £199 for the 32GB version - a reasonable price considering the hardware on offer. You can pay £10 more for a version without adverts too.
Overall, the Amazon Kindle Fire HD lacks the versatility of the Nexus 7 or iPad Mini, but is a good choice if you want a tablet for consuming content  - and don’t mind buying that content from Amazon.

4: BlackBerry Playbook
From £129


RIM’s BlackBerry Playbook is a little older than than the other tablets here, but it’s a very capable and usable tablet, with specifications matching newer devices.

Based around RIM’s QNX operating system (the godfather to forthcoming mobile operating system BB10) it’s a different to Android and iOS, with features that are cards you flick off the great 7-inch screen to close, but still very usable.

The dual-core processor is excellent for gaming and there’s a decent selection of games available, although the quantity doesn’t match the Nexus 7 or iPad Mini.

The Playbook the only tablet to support true multi-tasking so you can swap between applications such as music or YouTube playback and they’ll continue running in the background.

There’s also a 5-megapixel camera and HDMI port for connecting it to TV to play back movies.
If you like browsing the internet, downloading and watching movies and listening to music, the Playbook is worth considering. You can currently snap up the 64GB version for just £129 from PC World - £300 cheaper than the 64GB iPad Mini. If you’re not bothered too much about apps, that’s a lot of storage.

5: Hannspree HANNSpad
Price £88

The Hannspree HANNSpad is the cheapest tablet here. Running Google’s Android operating system, specifically Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich, you can download apps, play games, listen to music.
The 7-inch screen isn’t as sharp, nor is it as quick as the other tablets here, so it’s not the best choice for movies and games, while internal memory is just 512MB, so you’ll need to factor in cost of a memory card.

But these are minor complaints and what do you expect for £90? Overall the Hannspree HANNSpad is a solid choice if you’re looking for a tablet to check your email or watch YouTube from the comfort of your sofa - but there tablets with better multimedia offerings.

Floods Bring Christmas Misery

  • Families preparing for Christmas have been hit by floods and travel chaos as heavy rain batters Britain.

    The southwest of England has been particularly badly affected by the downpours. Three severe flood warnings - which means there is a danger to life - were issued in Devon and Cornwall.
    Conditions are so bad that rail passengers have been told to avoid parts of southwest England and South Wales.

    And motorists and shoppers faced difficult conditions on one of the busiest weekends of the year for travel and shopping.

    The town of Braunton in north Devon has been effectively cut off, with homes and shops under water, after the River Caen burst its banks.
    Liz Spear, chairwoman of Braunton Parish Council, said a river was running through the centre of the town.

    "It's really bad. We had flooding seven years ago but it was nothing like this," she said.
    Some residents in Helston, Cornwall, were evacuated overnight after river levels rose.
    In Lostwithiel around 195 people were advised to leave their homes, and a rest area was set up in the Community Centre.

    Cornwall Council spokeswoman Trisha Hewitt, said:  "As this is falling on saturated ground, this could cause further flooding."

    The Environment Agency has issued 126 flood warnings - where flooding is expected - across the whole of England and Wales, and 338 flood alerts, where flooding is possible.

    There was a heightened flood risk across Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Bristol, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, West and East Sussex, North Yorkshire, South Wales, Ceredigion and Gwynedd.
    In Scotland, 17 flood warnings - mostly in Tayside - and 15 flood alerts were issued by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.                Heathrow to Bristol Transfer Taxis

    The Met Office released amber weather warnings, which mean "be prepared", for heavy rain and strong winds across southwest England, Yorkshire and Humber, Wales, central Scotland and the Grampians until Sunday morning.

    Sky News weather presenter Nazaneen Ghaffar said heavy rain was forecast to continue across much of the country.

    "We're going to continue with bits and pieces of rain over south-western parts of England for the rest of today," she said.

    "That main rain from Saturday morning is moving north and eastwards - so there will be some heavy downpours in Scotland and northern England."
    The water has already led to major issues on road and train networks, spelling trouble for Britons travelling this weekend.

    The First Great Western train company advised passengers whose travel was not essential to avoid any journeys west of Taunton in Somerset because of flooding and landslips.

    Arriva Trains Wales told passengers to avoid any rail travel in South Wales. Both operators were using road vehicles to transport passengers, but efforts were hampered by a lack of vehicles and flooded roads.

    Meanwhile, staff shortages and signalling problems caused disruption on London Midland services. Buses replaced trains on some routes, while passengers were warned of possible cancellations at short notice.

    Mark Ridge, landlord of The London Inn, Braunton, only moved into the pub seven months ago with his family and had spent £90,000 on renovation work.

    "We were hoping this weekend would be our bumper weekend, to carry us through January and February trade wise, but it's just killed it now," he said.

    Annette Essex, who owns a pet shop in Braunton, said: "Suddenly at 6am the banks of one of the rivers broke and the water came flooding down Caen Street and into the high street and we were under about 3ft of water in our store area.

    "It was like a torrent of water. It was quite scary because you could hear the swish of the water and the whole road just turned into a river in the space of about 30-40 minutes."
    In the Midlands the number of flood alerts has increased steadily throughout the day and now stands at 65 in total. London Heathrow Taxis Cabs Transfers