Lenovo A1 7 inch Multi Touch Tablet (Cortex A8 1GHz, 16Gb Storage, 512Mb RAM, Dual Camera (0.3MP front/3MP rear), Android 2.3.4) - Black

I have been looking for a reasonably priced Android tablet for a while. What I wanted was a good range of features with enough power to make it usable without having to start messing about with custom firmware etc. With the Lenovo A1, I wasn't disappointed. It's solidly built but not too heavy, the 1ghz processor is powerful enough for all but the most processor intensive games. Initial setup was straightforward and should not cause any problems for even the greatest technophobes. Wi-Fi connectivity is reliable, with no disconnections. There is full access to Google's Android Market, so apps can be easily downloaded. The battery life is good enough for 3 hours of fairly heavy usage. The capacitive screen is responsive without being oversensitive, although not all the pre-installed apps seem able to use multi-touch. Flash 11 didn't come pre-installed, but was easily downloaded from the app store giving trouble free internet video. The addition of inbuilt GPS is a real bonus, even though I have a dedicated satnav, I'm sure it will come in handy in a emergency. The 16Gb of flash memory should be more than enough for most users but there is also a micro SD card slot should you feel the need to expand the storage further. The 3 megapixel rear facing camera is okay for a tablet camera, but isn't a replacement for a proper digital camera, and the 0.3 megapixel front facing camera is next to useless. Reports suggest that Skype will not work with the front facing camera, although I personally haven't tried it.

If I had any complaints at all about this device, it's that the illuminated touch sensitive buttons on the frame switch off too quickly. After a couple of hours of using it you'll instinctively know where they are, so it's not such a problem. My only other gripe is that because the IdeaPad uses an OS designed for phone resolutions, the widgets won't centre on the 1024 x 600 screen. This is more of a minor irritation than a problem and doesn't affect the tablet in any way.

If you're looking for a mid-priced tablet manufactured by a major brand, then this should definitely be right at the top of your shortlist.

I bought one of these at the new lower prices from Amazon UK and so far I'm very impressed. For the modest price I was expecting it to be little sluggish bearing in mind it's well under half the price of the entry level iPad but dragging icons and running multiple apps seems fine. I can stream from iTunes using a neat little app called air bubble and pretty much of all of the apps from the iPhone/iPad world are also on Android these days incl. Dropbox, Facebook, Evernote and Viewranger etc. It runs most video formats no problem so no more having to convert to MP4 etc..

Integration with Google is seamless, it automatically sync'd my gmail, contacts & Picasa photos! Using the Android Marketplace is much easier than using Apple's App store (and hey I am an apple fanboy!).

My main fear was the screen size, 7" compared to 10" of other tablets. I've put it along aside an iPad and there's not much in it if you are looking for a coffee table computer. (I can almost fit 3 iPod touches in the screen area BTW!)

The huge plus with this machine is the additional SD socket. As well as the onboard 16GB of ram (referred to as "internal SD") there is also an empty micro SD socket you can plug in a micro SD card. So, if you buy an additional 32GB micro SD card (currently £22 delivered on Amazon UK) you can turn this little badger into a 48GB tablet! Don't suppose it'll be long before 64GB SDs are this price either.

Botton line for me..why spend £400 if all you will be mainly doing is looking up recipes in Goggle, IMDB'ing Movie stars to see if they've kicked it, reading books with the Kindle app in the Loo, showing off the photos of the grandchildren and watching BBC iPlayer in bed when you do the same for almost £250 less?

I was looking at this or the Cambridge Sciences G7II. Very happy with this:

1024 screen which is a very responsive capacitive screen with pinch to zoom.

Although only a single core processor, more than fast enough for general browsing.

Official Android Market - games download quickly (I downloaded a racing game that utilises the device's motion sensor).

Battery power is very good (I was browsing, downloading, game playing and streaming; lasted for about 6 hours.

Comes with Documents to go which is compatible with Word etc.

Build quality is solid.

For a branded tablet with these specs at this price it's highly recommended, although if you need 3G, I'm pretty sure you need to look elsewhere.