Lenovo IdeaTab A1000

“It might be possible to put together a decent tablet at this price. Unfortunately, no company has yet proved this to be true. The IdeaTab A1000′s general specs aren’t so different from the original Nexus 7 or the Memo Pad HD, but the A1000 is a poor tablet user experience, rendering the low price a moot point. Performance-wise, there’s not much to complain about, but the severe lack of space for apps combined with a terrible display make the A1000 hard to recommend. Spend an extra $20 and get the Memo Pad HD 7 from Asus. If this is your exact budget, a discounted Nook HD is even a better choice (if it’s still in stock). You’ll get a far better experience on a different tablet.”

“Dirt cheap Android tablets are in abundance, but after the recent Google Nexus 7, it reestablished what it means to be a fantastic budget offering – while at the same time, set the bar higher for everyone else too. Even with its lower $160 base price point, it’s not enough to put the Lenovo IdeaTab A1000 in the same realm. In fact, it’s not even remotely close, as everything about this is just dated and behind the times. To tell you the truth, the only thing going for this is its super affordable price point, which no doubt will attract consumers who are strapped for cash. At the end of the day, though, we’d still recommend just forking over a bit more to pick up even the second-generation Nexus 7 – or if you can snag a deal, the first-generation one for less.”

“Do not mistake this tablet as being something you might weigh against the Nexus 7. Speaking in strictly hardware terms there’s less than half of the performance present. If it were up to me, I would recommend this device only for the demographics I mentioned earlier. However, if you’re an existing Android user looking to complement their smartphone, you will come away unimpressed. Need to scoop one of for a youngster or someone who has no experience with these new-fangled tech products, it’s hard to argue with the price.”

“The Lenovo IdeaTab A1000 has some surprisingly good qualities for a tablet that competes in one of Android's lowest price tiers. Unfortunately, the sum of its parts cannot fix the whole, which is absolutely crippled by a very poor (and completely fixable) software design flaw. After updating included apps and installing a small handful of others, the tablet loses some of its most important core functionalities. In its current state, there are too many other good (and working) tablets out there to consider this one.”