I just happened to go through a tablet(s) purchase. My needs are basically wanting something 'instant on" to look stuff up after I've turned my computer off for the evening, and for stuff like watching instructional videos when I'm doing something on a vehicle, in my workshop, etc. Not for reading - I have a Kindle paperwhite exclusively for that. So I was looking for something with a 10" screen, but cheap, since it wasn't a primary device and I didn't care about speed, having GPS, etc.
A couple of weeks ago I thought I found what I wanted on an Amazon Lightening Deal. See here:
http://www.armedpolitesociety.com/index.php?topic=53776.0It went back. It turns out a bunch of these cheap Chinese tablets come with Allwinner processors, and guess what? They have malware written to the ROM. Nothing mentioned in the Amazon reviews (until I reviewed it) but I started getting popups, even after factory resets. The darn things are on a timer and actually are set to talk to Chinese servers after they detect an internet connection. Apparently several of the big virus protection orgs have told Amazon about this, but they keep selling them.
I give this long background as a warning that the cheap tablets aren't worth it. I paid $60 for it. I returned it and got myself a Lenovo for $110. It arrived yesterday and is well worth the extra money. This one is going to suit my "secondary device" needs very well.
That said, if you want to do "computery stuff" on it, I concur with mntbkr on going Windows. The Surface is the winner by far there, IMO, but is of course a little pricey. Woot! sometimes has refurbished older generation Surfaceseses. Lenovo and I think a couple of others make decent Windows tablets as well for much less.