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Aldi is latest to sell cheap tablet with £80 LifeTab

The price of tablets is plummeting again as Aldi becomes the latest shop stocking a budget-friendly tablet this weekend.

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Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
Expertise Films, TV, Movies, Television, Technology
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Richard Trenholm
2 min read
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First Tesco, then Argos... now Aldi. The price of tablets is plummeting again as the cheap-as-chips supermarket becomes the latest to sell a budget-friendly tablet this weekend.

Aldi will stick the 7-inch Medion Lifetab E7316 on shelves on Sunday for just £80.

The LifeTab has a quad-core 1.6GHz processor, with 8GB of storage. It runs Android 4.2.2 software, which is a few generations behind the latest Android 4.4 update.

One of the biggest problems with cheaper tablets is often the screen, and the LifeTab is no exception with an unremarkable 1,024x600 display.

So is it worth sticking in your basket? Depends what you want. If you're after 3G Web browsing when you're out and about, or sharply-detailed movies, or super-fast gaming, then you need to keep saving the pennies for a pricier tablet -- like the excellent Google Nexus 7, for example. But if you want a tablet the whole family can use and abuse for simple tasks like email or the odd bit of browsing, and price is the overriding factor, then why not -- just don't expect too much.

Cheapo tablets have proved a hit with customers. Not only has Argos waded in with the £100 Bush MyTablet, but Tesco has already confirmed after boffo business in just a few weeks of selling the £120 Hudl that it's planning a follow-up next year.

What do you think of the Aldi tablet? Are cheap tablets an essential purchase or a false economy? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or push your trolley to our Facebook page.