Best Tablet for Gaming under $400

[Falcon912]

Hey guys,

I'm looking for some recommendations on a new tablet, I'm going to use it mainly for gaming and watching movies/TV shows. My iPad Air broke recently and am looking to get an android alternative.

What's most essential for me are the specs, the more future-proof it is the better as I won't be getting another tablet for quite some time (5+ years). Things like the camera, keyboard or controller support are secondary as I'll hardly use these features at all.

Nvidia Shield K1 seemed like a really good choice, however it's impossible to find a new one now at $200. Google’s Pixel C also look pretty awesome with the Tegra X1, but it’s still really expensive even after two years, and I'm not sure if it's really worth it for the steep price.

What are some good tablets I can get that are best bang for the buck (in term of gaming performance) under $400?


By the way, as someone who has never owned an android device before, I'm wondering how good are they for gaming in comparison with the iPad? Google store is looking pretty sweet now with plenty of apps, figure it'd be a good time to switch especially if I can get a tablet that's cheaper and with better specs.

I'm getting pretty tired of apple’s iTunes sync, locked down updates, and the fact that older devices get significantly slower with new iOS updates. Although I wonder how does the Android market fare in comparison, is it a similar thing as well?

Performance in gaming is my primary concern, how are optimisations on android games in comparison with their iOS counterpart? If I buy an android tablet that have similar spec to an iPad, can I expect the same level of performance in game?

Future-proofing is another one of my concern, does android tablets get significantly slower in a couple years as well? I will not have the money to purchase a new tablet for a while, so the longer this one lasts me the better it will be.

Anyway thank you so much for reading this, sincerely appreciate any recommendations that you can give.

Cheers!

 

[twerppoet]

You’d probalby have better luck asking this on one of the Android forums.

I have an older Galaxy Tab A, and a Kindle Fire. Neither of these are likely to be good gaming tablets. I bought them cheap, when they went on sale. Either of them is fine for watching videos or casual games, but just about any Android tablet can do that. Games are a sliding scale. If you want something that will do well with the most damanding graphics intensive games, you’re probably going to have to pay at least as much as you would for a new iPad.

That said, I don’t play games on my Android tablets. The Kindle Fire was bought on a whim when it was on sale. The Galazy Tab was purchased for use with an SDR (Software Defined Radio) app and dongle.

Android has it’s own issues, so don’t imagine you are somehow going to end up with a trouble free tablet that does whatever you want whenever you want the way you want. It’s mostly a matter of finding out which issues you are more willing to live with.

 

[Thomas1977]

I just have one comment. I have to say once you go Apple iPad why would you want to go with anything else.? As far as tablets go.

 

[twerppoet]

I just have one comment. I have to say once you go Apple iPad why would you want to go with anything else.? As far as tablets go.

It depends on what you want to use the tablet for. Apple’s closed and controled eviroment has a lot of benifits; increased security, reliablity, and extended updates. However, it also limits some of the things developers and users can do. If your use case falls withing Apple’s constraints, then things are golden. This is me, most of the time.

If you need to do something outside Apple’s design or security constraints, then it’s easier to get an Adroid tablet. The limits on developers are less strict, so you will find apps in the Google Play store than simply don’t exist in the Apple store. And even Googles store constraints can be bypassed. If you know how and are willing to take your security entirely on your own shoulders, you can download apps outside the Google Play store.

Android also offers the ultimate flexibilty of being able to create and download modified versions of the OS to add specific capabiltys or custom user interfaces. There is (or was last time I looked) an active community of mods and Android version developers.

As I mentioned above, I have a couple of Android tablets to support my Software Defined Radio and Amateur Radio hobbies. The Apple App store has few apps that support these hobbies, mostly because of the propriatry ports and difficulty of working around Apple’s limitations on develpers.

So, there are reasons.

There really is no such thing as the best tablet. Only the best tablet for you, or me, or some particular use.

 

[Thomas1977]

Well if your tablet does everything you want from a tablet than it’s the best for you. And if your happy that’s all that matters. So best is relative term just to kinda add to what was said all ready.