I'm looking for a tablet for my ageing uncle, just to use for web browsing and email. He doesn't have internet at his house so it needs to have 3G capability. 10" would be great as his eyesight's not the best, but anything bigger than a phone will be an improvement. It would also need to be available from a brick-and-mortar store (my mum is keen to buy it as a Christmas gift). Any suggestions, perhaps around the $100-$200 mark? So many of the cheaper tablets seem to be wi-fi only, but perhaps I've missed a few in my search!
Any suggestions for cheap prepaid sim cards (he probably won't need a stack of data) would also be welcome!
A little too late unfortunately. You should probably wait until Boxing day and see what deals there are. you've even missed the big ebay christmas sale.
As I see it, in the past few years the only tablets that have fallen in the sub $200 mark (meeting your specifications) have been minor brands like Bauhn (sold in Aldi). Big-name brands e.g samsung. usually are above the $350 for 3g/4g variant. Unless you went and bought a refurbed unit (e.g JB Hifi factory scoop) it's hard to get anything branded for less than 300.
And to be honest, many of the off-brands you can get locally are not worth buying — they either simply suck hardware wise and will provide crappy user experiences. If you're going to buy something like that as a gift, you might as well be buying them a basic laptop.
You should probably visit a Telstra shop and get a Tablet on plan, as not only do you need a tablet but also a 4G plan as well. The downside is that they lock you into a contract — usually 12 - 24 months.
Your other option is to import from overseas and get a China-tab like the Teclast X98 Air 3G or something similar, but this will take 2-5 weeks for delivery.