NATPC - if your home needs more budget Android tablets - or fewer termites

Richard Fieldhouse (11 May 2012)

Many people will have seen that the company NATPC are offering quite a range of budget tablets available by mail order in the UK - most obviously sold through Amazon. In some cases the specs are pretty compelling - and the reviews aren't bad either. Take this one for instance.

But what of the company? Well there's no obvious website at the time of writing. At least not one for the tablet and gadget seller.

If, on the other hand, your house is infested with termites, things look more promising, especially if it's in America, because NATPC, the pest removal people do have a website.

For the tablet buyer, the NATPC tablets are effectively imported straight from China and if you're hoping for after sales support, your best bet is to rely on the intermediary - for instance Amazon. For this reason, a quick check on that intermediary might be worthwhile as some of the less familiar names again have no physical UK base and no reputation to sustain.

This isn't to say that all these products should be avoided as they really are significantly cheaper than competing branded tablets. What it does mean though is that there is a little more risk associated with the purchase.

If you would prefer to compromise, there are manufacturers - like Archos - who follow a middle line. They are real companies - Archos is French - but at the same time they tend to keep their heads down enough - especially in the US market - to avoid attracting the hugely expensive PR budgets, advertising, and perhaps most importantly patent actions that dog the likes of Samsung or HTC.