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Tablets are one of the more popular tech toys in 2011, and for good reason: they turn on right away; you can use your fingertip to comfortably run programs; and they weigh next to nothing, making them handy travel companions.

But prices can be steep, be it the Apple iPad 2 (from $519), Motorola Xoom ($599) or the upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook (from $499).

If your budget is more like, say, $300, TigerDirect.ca has a sale on ViewSonic's gTablet, an Android 2.2-powered tablet with 10.1-inch touchscreen, Wi-Fi N and Bluetooth wireless connectivity, and 16GB of internal memory (which is expandable via USB thumbdrives and microSD cards).

A front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera can be used for self-portraits or online video chats with supported apps.

The tablet also has some umph thanks to its dual-core 1GHz processors, 512MB of system memory (which helps with multitasking) and a NVIDIA Tegra 2 chip (for graphics performance in 3D apps, like games).

The gTablet weighs 1.55 pounds and is just a half-inch thick. Battery life tops more than 8 hours.

Like other tablets, this product is ideal for checking email, surfing the web, reading e-books, listening to music, watching video, playing games, and more.

While the TigerDirect.ca page shows this product has an average user rating of 4 out of 4 stars (based on 47 reviews), some of the comments lament the fact you don't have direct access to the Android Market store to download more than 200,000 apps. There are many preloaded apps, though, and many more you can download -- but it doesn't offer the same experience as pricier Android tablets (such as the Motorola Xoom). At least you should be able to upgrade this tablet to newer versions of Android this year, to take advantage of newer features.

The tablet also doesn't offer 3G (cellular) connectivity when you're nowhere near a Wi-Fi hotspot.

But for $300, the gTablet could be a decent alternative to the pricier tabs on the market.

Oh, and if you want to save even more cash, there is a $10 off promotion throughout April if you purchase the tablet through VISA (more info here). At least this covers the shipping to Toronto, which is $7.20.

TO Star

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