Cheap, generic android tablets - Should you buy one?

When it comes to technology (in most cases) you tend to get what you pay for.

Simply put, if you pay top dollar then you expect to get a device/gadget that looks good, works smoothly and has a future beyond six months.  On the other hand, if you barely paid anything for your device then you can expect much trouble before too long and sadly, this is the case with most of cheap, generic, Chinese-branded, android knock-off tablets on the market today.

Let me hasten to say here, that there are exceptions to the whole "buy cheap get crap" statement (Nexus 7, Kindle Fire, Nook Color etc.), but by far and large you will end up getting what you paid for.

So exactly what are the problems with these generic, Chinese-branded knock-offs?

1. Poor performance - most of the ones I've handled at some point would lag or freeze up when you try getting them to do more than one thing at a time (multitask) and this is mainly because of the limited amount of memory/RAM (256MB) and the slow processors/CPU they come with.
2. Terrible battery life - with the exception of the one or two that might give you a five hours, most of them tend to require a recharge long before that if you were constantly using the device.  Then there is the unreliability of the battery - the software might say you have two (2) hours remaining and the silly thing will go dead in less than an hour.
3. Touchscreen woes - apart from the fact that most of these tablets come with resistive screens and it's unique problems, they tend to be very susceptible to scratches, and lack touch-responsiveness before too long.
4. You do not get access to Google Play Store (Android's home for apps or apps store).  It means you will either have to side-load the apps after getting them from heaven knows where or do without them.
5. Most things do not work as they should - be it Bluetooth  WiFi (especially WiFi) or some other port on the device, you will, before too long, start experiencing problems.
6. Limited storage space - most of them will give you either 2GB or 4GB of storage which is hardly enough space to save a few songs, a couple music videos and pictures after the operating system would have taken it's cut.

Again let me be clear, it is possible to purchase a very cheap tablet that works great, but you WILL have to do the research first - read the reviews, pay attention to the complaints from persons who would have bought the device before and read the fine prints.

NB: It might make more sense to save a bit more and get a tablet that you'll be proud and happy owning than to spend less and end up regretting it.

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