Ok...just saw a video on you tube about cheap little tablets, and they mentioned Ali Express....
Seems as if you can pick and choose what features you want for a little Wi-Fi wonder.
Going to look for one for my son and a nephew .
Getting one for my son for semi-sorta business reasons... getting one for the nephew so he will quit bugging his aunt (my wife) about getting online and getting his pay statements for the month (he is terrible about writing down and keeping his account information).
Thought i'd look around here and see what they have... heard some were as low as $50 and fair to middlin' decent....

http://www.aliexpress.com/category/100005062/tablet-pcs.html

For $50 I got a refurb from Newegg (HANSPREE). I t came this past sat, and I have already spent several hours setting it up to all sorts things I am now taking off my phone.  

Well I am a tablet noob.. but this is the unit at Newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100013680%20%2040...

It has a very nice AL back .. so it "looks" high dollar. It has twin back firing speaks, but they are weak compared to my HTC One with dual front firing Beats speakers. No biggie, there is a headphone jack.. and they are "good enough".

I watched my first Netflix movie on it last without nary a buffer or hiccup. Thats pretty dern amazing to me. My phone buffers on little ole youtube vids!

So, I mean for $50 ,, it seems a good value. I am a task person, so in getting the tablet it need to be useful and so far it is.

I was using my phone as an alarm clock.. now the tablet does this, Phone goes OFF at night.
I watch certain youtube channels daily, my WD streaming box lasted all of 2 weeks before it burned up and died. So the tablet has this chore.
I like to check Craigslist... not daily.. but often... now I can do that in bed while watching the local news.
I offloaded CL app from my phone, the fandango app, and the redbox app... all these are on the tablet and if I want to check these I am normally at home anyway. Basically any app i don't normally check on the phone on the road .. I put on the tablet.
So far it has done everything .. taken every app... oo that reminds me I need to add TEDtalks apps.. love that stuff.
I loaded Chrome browser and a few Google apps that I never had on the phone like drive. I dont have ANY mail on there .. I just dont want the thing beeping me for incomming crap. The phone has two email accounts and facebook .. so its always beeping and buzzing.
The manual says to charge 10 hours before first use.. the completely discharge .. then recharge to full .. then you can use as normal. After that first charge, its suppose to re-charge in 5 hours from dead.

I do not like the charger, OK thats kinda strong.. I am disappointed that the charge is the old BARREL tube type versus just a USB variant. Just seems dumb.
1Gb RAM
16/12 GB internal (SD) thats what they call it
an external micro SD port ( I put a 16 GB in there)
micro HDMI .. not sure I will ever use that

It seems that as is the norm ... 99% apps cant be put on the external SD but many can be put on the internal SD.

This beats using a tiny phone screen for things other that calls ( youtube/browser) by a mile.

This seems to be an OLDER model, thus the price break, but it seems completely functional for my needs.

PS:
I just read the few reviews on it.. they claim it is slow.. which it may be .. but not compared to my phone. I did DL an "app killer". It shows that the OS does open several OS related apps (just like windoze) so it may be that. I used the app killer like I do on my phone ( which does not open lots of OS type apps) to release memory after a good bit of use.

I'm having good luck with the Hisense tegra3 tablets, about a year and a half ago.

I also bought an ASUS 10" for dad

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1375976637

Kids are using them in school for their browsing/facebook/in class note taking/recording and are happy with them.  Allow them to upload the handouts and view locally/later.

Yep OF, you is spot on.....
My PC dumped its hard drive a few weeks ago.
I went a shopping and ended up with a HP Envy all in one with all the fix'n and under a grand.
It is beautiful and the beats audio is amazing, real close to my Bose wave.
However, it is loaded to the hilt with associated programs.
I imagine they paid MS/HP for the privilege of spamming us  

For a newer unit with all its technology, it is slower.
I am not a quick study and barely grasp (if at all) the stuff you talk about....
I don't like touching the screen as I have to lean forward to do so, and tho you can navigate with mouse and keyboard, it appears they are trying to break us of that habit, for they put addition hoops to navigate through using that format.
Windows 8.1 is just plain weird and seems designed by engineers who have no real life experience of, uh, real life....
Their defaults (programs) are not user friendly and tax my ability to change them to my own liking and preference.
I feel like I am about to wipe out my whole computer whenever I attempt such, often just giving up and going with what is there, arg  

The graphics are amazing, and it has been a real blessing in my photo editing (daily) of all the photography I do in capturing my wife's art ( beads) that she crafts and we sell on the INTERNET.

Streaming movies, etc, is wonderful, and almost elevates the need for TV/cable, that is if you like watching them by yourself