The basic 7-inch RCA Voyager III tablet is a classic bottom-of-the-barrel tablet with basic functionality and costs under $50 from Wal-Mart. As compared to, say, any tablet other than the Amazon Fire, that’s an absolute steal.
When it unveiled the $50 Fire tablet in 2015, Amazon created quite a commotion. The Fire turned out to be a really good tablet for its pricing at a (then unheard of) jaw-droppingly low price. (The Fire normally sells for $50, but it’s now on sale for $40.)
The RCA Voyager III is the fugliest tablet I’ve ever seen
Being dissatisfied with a cheap tablet is difficult since, for $50, what do you really expect? A $50 tablet’s capabilities are limited to checking email, light reading, brisk web browsing, and perhaps streaming one or two movies. (And anyone who believes a cheap tablet can be utilized as a fantastic movie player or a daily replacement for a laptop is definitely mistaken.)
The Fire, however, is a far superior product to the RCA Voyager III. It’s a poor tablet that performs poorly when compared to the Amazon tablet. Its access to the Google Play Store is the sole positive aspect it offers (apart from its ridiculously low price). Take my word for it; if you’re broke and can’t afford anything else, you’re better off going with the Fire (which you can side-load Google Play apps onto anyway).
U-G-L-Y
The ugliest tablet I’ve ever seen is this one. And I have observed numerous pills.
The RCA Voyager III appears to be a crime against the advancement of tablet design in comparison to the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3, one of the best-looking Android tablets ever, which I recently reviewed.
Even the old, bulky, all-plastic appearance isn’t offensive; that’s what you’d expect from a cheap tablet. The other perplexing design decisions are the ideal example of why RCA (or the low-class electronics business that obtained the old RCA name licensing) should definitely leave tablets to the professionals.
The tablet’s bottom edge is where three extremely visible screws that are alternately placed between the power button, volume rocker, and headphone jack cause the most cosmetic damage. Every time I look at them, I wince. Is this some sort of prototype? Most tablets avoided such an unsightly gaffe, even as ugly ducklings.
Another ugly feature of the tablet is the speaker on the back. It has a grill with holes that are so big that food scraps and other waste are easily able to fall into it. (Aside from the poor speaker quality.)
To achieve their low price point, cheap tablets must undoubtedly make some compromises, and design is frequently one of them. Even the Amazon Fire is at best unimpressive, but the RCA tablet’s shoddy design is shockingly poor.
Almost-pure Android
The RCA Voyager runs a mostly pure version of Android 6.0 with a few pre-loaded apps, like Wal-Mart and Vudu, as well as Google’s suite of apps, including Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps and Google Docs.
The clean OS is a wonderful feature even though Android is an old version. The Amazon Fire, in contrast, runs a customized version of Android that works brilliantly if you’re a Prime member since it makes it simple to access the free TV episodes, books, movies, and games that are included in a Prime subscription. Nevertheless, if you’re not a member of Prime, your options are limited.
The RCA tablet has access to the Google Play Store, which is significant. One significant benefit over the Fire is this. Amazon tablets can only download software from the highly selective Amazon App Store, which has fewer options than the Play Store.
I was able to download new games like Super Mario Run and Power Rangers: Legacy Wars, as well as practical apps like TurboTax Refund and Splitwise that aren’t currently available through the Amazon App Store, using the Voyager III. Yet, there is a distinction between being able to download these applications and games and being able to use them.
Slowpoke
The RCA Voyager III would be a sloth, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 a lion, and the Apple iPad Pro 9.7 a cheetah if tablets were animals. a Fire on Amazon? A manatee, most likely.
Folks, the point is that this process is incredibly slow. Maybe this will teach your child the value of patience if you just give it to them. They might become tired of waiting for Super Mario Run to load and go for a run themselves outside. More than using the tablet itself, waiting for apps, webpages, games, and game levels to load made my arms sore.
It was suitable for casual reading, email checking, the occasional YouTube binge, viewing one or two episodes of your current Netflix addiction, or prowling Facebook. Just fine. Everything took a long time to load, but once it was, it worked normally—except for scrolling. Scrolling was never quick.
Although the Voyager performed better than the Amazon Fire on some of our benchmark tests, it seemed sluggish in usage even by budget tablet standards. As long as there are no other programs running in the background, games usually operate smoothly once they have eventually launched. In titles like Asphalt 8: Airborne, choppy graphics were a regular issue.
Conclude
The performance difficulties may not initially matter if you’re searching for an inexpensive tablet for a child, but they will when anything goes wrong and you’re the adult left to figure out what went wrong. Depending on how much more money you have to spend, you can purchase a model with improved performance, a longer battery life, a better screen, and a more streamlined appearance.
Unless you’re a Trump or a Kardashian, you likely worry about saving a few dollars while purchasing new electronics. Given that the best tablets often cost around $600, a simpler, less expensive option, particularly one that costs only $50, is a very alluring concept.
The pricing of the RCA Voyager III makes it a pretty underwhelming tablet. The best tablet to buy under $50 is still the Amazon Fire because it has better hardware. But if you can afford it, I strongly advise upgrading to the Amazon Fire HD 8, which is presently discounted from $90 to $70. For just a tiny increase in spending, you receive far better performance.
