Arnova 9 G2 8GB 9.7 inch 2.3 Android Tablet (1Ghz Processor, WiFi, Webcam, 3G Ready)

For a value for money product, I would happily give this five stars. Naturally the IPad and other tablets at twice the price are better hardware, but for the price this is unbeatable. It's more than adequate hardware for the job, everything works surprisingly well, programmes start up fast, transitions are smooth, video and audio playback are excellent.

Definitely five stars, but...

Arnova, as do many low end manufacturers, mess with the Android operating system to maximise their profits. That's fine, it's their business, but it also minimises the users experience. They put on a very poor app store of their own, leaving out Google Play, and using standard Google products such as GMail and Calendar is practically impossible except through the browser.

If you're a hacker, it's not such a big deal. An hour with ArcTools (which can be got through the Arnova Apps store) puts it all right and you end up with a fully functional Android tablet that performs well at a low price, a five-star product :)

But if you're not comfortable with that kind of thing and need GMail and Calendar apps, maybe it's best to go for the later, more expensive models, which don't mess around with Android.

Me? I love it!

So I got one of these at a great knock down price because it had a problem with switching off and not restarting, with only the arnova name coming up then it cut off. I purchased a new charger and hey ho away we go, just don't let it get bellow 10% of battery charge as it starts to freeze,probably something to do with the battery savings mode it goes into.

The build quality is great and the functionality is fantastic, it is super duper easy to install a custom firmware but that is not necessary with the ics upgrade it has started getting throught the world, The only thing I was disappointed with is no gps, but I have found that I can install a usb gps and supposedly it works just as well if not better than an inbuilt one.

All in all a very functional device that plays all the movie files I throw at it without the bars albeit a little stretched in some instances.

The build quality is fantastic it has a sturdy body that does not flex at all when using it and the battery lasts long enough to watch a few movies or browse the web for a around 5 hours. More than long enough for me. It plays games really well and is a good all-round entertainment device.

If you have never owned a tablet in your life or had the use of one for an extended period I would get something cheap to start with, they are nice devices to have but after the initial fun of using one they could sit in the cupboard and easily be forgotten about.

I've got to start by saying that the product description is wrong, the 9 G2 only has 512mb of ram. That being said, for the price this is a really good tablet. I'm usually fussy about slow pc`s/ phones tablets etc so when my wife's old slow Archos tablet broke down I was dubious about buying another from the same brand. However, when we saw this in the shop and she was immediately impressed by the screen, there were other tablets by other manufacturers as well as other higher spec Archos/Arnova tablets but the visible range of this screen stood out above the others including some of the much higher priced big names, it is very good when viewing from an angle meaning you dont have to have it pointed straight at your face when trying to look at the screen.
Its not going to win any awards for speed and sometimes slows down when there's a lot of apps open but overall its surprisingly very snappy. One of my only niggles is having to use a propriety charger rather than the USB port, this is a pain if your constantly taking it with you so I ended up buying a second charger.

One of the good points with this tablet for me is the ability to unofficially upgrade it to android 4.0. A new model was released which is by all accounts the same hardware with newer software and if your brave enough this version can be flashed ... and its well worth it. (say goodbye to your warranty though as is the case of installing custom software on any android device so only do this if your willing to take the risk and know what your doing). Its also good for tethering on the go, I use a HTC one x with the standard wifi hotspot and it works flawlessly (ive only tested this with the 4.0 software, not 2.3).
Another thing worth mentioning is this tablet is virtually identical in size to an ipad so you can also use this with most ipad cases (with some slight modifications to the case to access all the ports) but this is ideal as theres a lot of cheap ipad cases on the market.

All in all a very good tablet for £160, you would be very hard pushed to find another one as good as this with a screen of this size, resolution and quality for the price (at the time of writing) and I was so impressed with my wifes I went out and bought one myself!