Cheap but useful gadgets - Blackberry Playbook

At £169 it's not what I would usually call cheap but as far as tablets go it certainly is. It's no iPad but at a fraction of the price it's impressive.

The AppWorld is dreadful I won't deny that. However, they are accepting more and more apps each week from android developers after updating the market for android apps. The AppWorld is irrelevant though when you learn how to side load android apps which are not yet available on the RIM market. I side loaded Kindle and instantly turned my device in to a kindle that can do a lot more. You can't get apps for iPlayer etc but you just need to navigate to the website on the browser and bookmark them to the home screen. I now have a folder with iPlayer, ITVPlayer, 4oD, Demand 5 and Catchup TV turning this into a great mobile media device.

Along with the very capable specs I think this is a very sleek looking tablet and at just 7 inches it is certainly more portable than an iPad. Despite its size, websites are easily readable without the need to zoom in. The lack of 3G could be a let down for some but merely as a laptop replacement in the home this tablet is great.

Despite RIM pulling out of the market i would recommend this to any casual internet users instead of a laptop. In my opinion it beats the kindle fire as the best budget tablet.