Ideas for a cheapish tablet?

So this semester for school I'm thinking of going with a tablet instead of traditional books.

I need opinions on a tablet that would be good for that, and also to do some entertainment things. By entertainment i mean netflix, spotify, and games like hearthstone. 

I'd say my budget is around $300. Looking to stay as cheap as i can, but i dont want a junk tablet. It is possible i could spend a little more if it is really worth the money. 

Thanks in advance. 

If you had about 50 bucks more i would of recommended the Samsung Galaxy S Tab 8.4. its $350 with a 1600p screen. but around $300 a Nvidia Shield Tablet will be fine. and it comes with a built in Stylus. which is a nice added feature.

If you could save a bit more i'd personally go with this one.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KHA2DQM/ref=psdc_1232597011_t1_B00LM6KF7O

but if you are strictly at a $300 Budget i'd go with the NVIDIA shield tablet. it's $299.

http://www.amazon.com/NVIDIA-940-81761-2500-000-SHIELD-Tablet-WiFi/dp/B00LM6KF7O

If you're not opposed to buying used, the Nexus 7 2013 is still a very good option. You can find them for around $120-140.

300$ is a pretty expensive tablet and considering tablets have a longer life span then phones you could probably could use it throughout all of collage. Since your mostly going to be using it for books I would recommend a tablet in the 8 to 10 inch range. I generally do not like Samsung devices since they are made of cheap plastic, bloated and have slow updates times.

On that bases I would recomend the Nvidia Shield Tablet

It runs stock android, has front facing speakers, built well and has fast updates

Link

 

Nexus 7

or wait until this comes out in may https://jolla.com/tablet/

i found this deal if you like other brands it a pretty good bundle 

http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Miix-64GB-Keyboard-Bundle/dp/B00IAYFA8U/ref=sr_1_10?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1421118301&sr=1-10

I wouldn't get a Windows tablet personally and kickstarter projects like Jolla scare me. 

I was planning on buying this. I cannot vouch for the quality of it as of yet.

You know Jolla has been selling a phone for over a year now. They are a real established company of people how have worked for other smartphone companies. 

Once the tablet is out is will be sold normally through their store.

Shield tablet or nexus 7. 

Nexus if you plan on messing with the software, multibooting, custom roms, ect. 

Shield if you play games. 

Hmm, tough call. If you're willing to go a bit over your original budget, we just got in the Dell Venue 8 7840 and that thing is actually pretty damn cool. First tablet in a long while to impress me. However gimmicky, it is the 'worlds thinnest tablet' which makes it very easy to handle. The 2560x1600 OLED screen looks stupidly good as well as the bonus of front facing speakers and 3D camera on the rear. To wrap it all up is that it's running nearly stock android, which means really quick updates and smooth experience. 

However, if you really don't want to break budget, the Tab Pro 8.4 falls right on the mark.

Lenovo A8 50 a5500, bought it for about 130$. It's awesome, serves me without any problems, I'm also using Nova Launcher on it. You might wanna consider it.