Black Friday 2014 Deals: Walmart Selling Windows Tablets Under $100 - Pros and Cons
Attention all shoppers: Another Wal-mart doorbuster deal on electronics and gadgets for Black Friday 2014 has been released. EFun's Windows-based Nextbook 8 Tablet will be selling at a price just under $100, but is it worth even that price? Here are some details.
Nextbook 8: Microsoft Windows and Office at $99
How can you beat $99 for a Windows tablet? Technically you can't, since according to CNET, this is the first time a new Windows tablet has gone for sale under $100.
And there are some advantages that come with Microsoft software. First off, the Nextbook 8 runs Windows 8 and not the incredibly unpopular bargain-bin Windows RT. This means you'll be up to speed with high-end tablets, as far as operating systems go at least.
But the biggest advantage is that a new Nextbook 8 comes with a one-year subscription to Microsoft Office 365. That means having Office on your tablet (along with one complimentary installation on a PC or Mac), and the option for the full-featured Office on one phone as well (not the new free, but somewhat limited Office apps for iOS and Android). Finally, you'll get 1 terabyte -- that's 1,000 GB -- of free cloud storage with Microsoft OneDrive.
Core Specs: Pretty Lean, Even for Under $100
The Office 365 subscription is worth $70 in itself, but that's not important if you don't have a decent tablet to run it on.
The Nextbook 8 unfortunately doesn't impress as a tablet. It features an Intel Atom processor with 1GB of RAM, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi, and USB and microHDMI inputs.
But if you're looking for a device with decent cameras, look elsewhere: The Nextbook 8 has a meager 2.0MP back camera and a front camera so laughably low-rent that it doesn't match even many flip phones.
And while the 8-inch screen gets 1,280x800 resolution -- not bad at that price -- the Android variant's screen has been rated very poorly for viewing angels, brightness and impact on battery life.
Expect the Netbook 8 to get about six hours of normal use before it's caput. Graphics performance and loadtime are going to be below average as well.
One Last Consideration: Room to Grow
That said, one of the most important things about the Nextbook 8 is the fact that it has a microSD card slot capable of expansion to 64GB. While internal memory only runs 16GB, cheap, big microSD cards are easy to find online and a cinch to install.
With that feature, and the OneDrive cloud subscription boosting the Nextbook 8, you'll probably never run out of storage on this slate.
So is the Nextbook 8 Windows Edition worth $99 -- in addition to time you'll be waiting outside a Wal-Mart in the cold to get your hands on one? It's hard to say, but if you or the person you're buying it for definitely does not have Office and needs it, then probably. But if you're looking for a decent screen with decent performance and don't care about Windows 8.1 or Office, your best bet is to look for some beefier Android alternatives around the same price.
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