On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 10:47 AM, Jason Hsu <jhsu802701 at jasonhsu.com> wrote: > I was planning to buy one of those cheap <$100 Android tablets on Ebay. However, I nixed that idea as a result of doing a Google search for "cheap Android tablets on Ebay". This search revealed complaints about their inferiority - resistive touchscreens or inferior capacitive touchscreens and lack of compatibility with Google Play. > > What are the cheapest options (smartphone, tablet, or anything else) for being compatible with Google Play? When you buy the super cheap android tablets nobody wins, especially not you. Yaron mentioned the Kindle Fire, which is $200 new, slightly less used. I have a Nook Color, which has lower specs, and is starting to show its age, but is yet a bit cheaper. Rooting and installing Cyanogenmod (or whatever you prefer) should be trivial for someone with your computer experience. Otherwise, why not that $40 phone from your friend? Or did it end up being something pretty old, and not a Sensation? I've had decent luck with finding used phones in decent shape on Craigslist. Just use something like AndroidCentral to compare phones to see what specs they have and then poke around Craigslist to see what you find. I had an HTC Inspire 4G (which my sister is currently using) and when I bought it last year, it was at the sweet spot for value for what you pay for a used phone. You can probably find something slightly better now as the best value. Anything that has decent community support, and a selection of ROMs available should be able to use Google Play.