Inspect-A-Gadget - Do budget Gadgets really match up?

If you follow our social media you will know that we have spent the last few days on our Butlin's Ambassadors break in Skegness. We have had a fantastic time and will be writing all about it and sharing some videos very soon! Skegness is a three and a half hour journey from us and although our two year old is still happy to nap in the car, Ben who is five refuses to and needed something to keep him occupied while travelling that wouldn't disturb his younger sister.

We have been considering getting him his own tablet computer for a while as he enjoys playing with Daddy's kindle fire (and can actually use it better than me!) but I didn't want to spend a lot on something that would be used for travelling and by a five year old as there's a high chance it could get damaged!

So when Moneysupermarket invited us to take part in their Inspect-a-Gadget competition, to put one of five budget gadgets under the spotlight, we jumped at the chance and chose the 7" inch leliktec tablet which was £43.50 when we ordered it a few weeks ago from Amazon (It has now been reduced even further to £35.99).

When it arrived, it came with a charger and was really easy to set up. I was surprised at how lightweight it was, just 600grams!  Being light makes it great for travelling but it also means that it's easier for small hands to carry and keep hold of so 'accidents' are less likely than with more cumbersome gadgets.

It was again straight forward to connect the tablet up with our wifi and download apps from the google play store. Ben insisted that the first App downloaded was Angry Birds, but we also added some educational ones too!

The tablet has  flash player so Ben was able to watch some of his favourite shows on BBCiplayer, however this did drain the battery life significantly. One thing that I found disappointing was that this tablet did not support the Flixster app that we use on the kindle to watch movies that we own UV copies of. This is something that our Kindle is frequently used for. 

Ben has been using the tablet all week (Mummy ad Daddy got a few tries too!) and over all I would conclude that at the current price the tablet is good value for what you get and handy for a child's first device or for travelling when you wouldn't want a more expensive device to get damaged. The weight and size meant it fitted easily into my handbag and I didn't even notice I was carrying it around. So would be ideal for plane or train journeys where you want to limit your baggage costs.

However it is slow and does have it's limitations, especially in the battery life, so if want something that will give you quicker browsing abilities or last longer after charging then I would personally recommend spending the extra to invest in something like a Kindle Fire

So do Budget gadgets really match up? It depends what they are matching up to I guess. It is true that you get what you pay for, so a £40 tablet is not going to give you the same features as one that is more that double the price, but If you want something basic for a holiday then budget is the way to go...

This post is my entry into the Moneysupermarket.com #inspectagadget competition to win money towards a summer holiday. I was sent £50 to purchase the item that I have reviewed in this post.