Walmart has created its own line of Android tablets with affordable price tags and they’re surprisingly good for basic tasks.
Want a tablet but you don’t want to spend a bunch of money on an iPad? Walmart now has two Android tablets the company created under its house brand Onn (pronounced like the opposite of off). The best part: they start at just $64 dollars. I was skeptical, but after playing around with them for a while, I’m convinced these basic tablets are better than most of the no-name Android tablets out there.
For starters, there are two sizes to choose from – an 8-inch tablet for $64 or a 10.1-inch tablet for $79. You can also add a keyboard cover to the bigger tablet for just $20 more dollars. I found the keyboard cover to be remarkably well designed – easy and comfortable to type on.
The tablets run the latest version of Android, 9.0 Pie, and do not have a lot of bloatware installed. The only extra apps installed are Walmart’s own suite including Walmart, Walmart Grocery, Walmart eBooks, Sam’s Club and Vudu.
One nice touch – the tablets also include an FM tuner. This means you can listen to over the air radio stations just by connecting a pair of wired headphones, no internet connection necessary.
Specs on these tablets are pretty sparse – the screen isn’t the sharpest or the brightest, the processor is a bit pokey and the camera, well, let’s just say you won’t be taking your holiday card pictures on it.
Google Android 9.0 Pie device operating system
5.5 hours of continuous battery use; more than 600 hours of standby battery life
2GB of RAM with 16GB of storage and expandable memory slot
0.3MP front camera and 2MP rear camera
IPS Screen with 800 x 1280 resolution
1.3GHz Quad-core Processor
But let’s be honest: you’re here for the price. At this price, you get a basic tablet that can handle basic tablet needs like web surfing, listening to music, watching videos and checking out social media.
Although there isn’t much onboard storage, you have a memory card slot so you can easily add a bunch more. A 64-gigabyte card is just $12 on Amazon.
I’m not going to even try to compare these tablets to the iPad. A better comparison is Amazon’s inexpensive Fire tablets. Those tablets are probably a better fit if you’re a Prime member hooked into the Amazon ecosystem. One advantage of Walmart’s tablets is that they give you full access to Google Play store, which means you can download any app you want. Amazon limits you to their own App store for Android apps – there might be some items you want that you can’t easily get there.
Bottom line – these tablets won’t win any awards for speed or design, but they do the job – and at a price that can’t be beat.
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