Walmart's New Android Tablets Put An Emphasis On Value

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Walmart has long been making ingress into cheap electronics, so it should come as no surprise that the company has decided to tackle the tablet space with its new Onn Android models. These aren't just budget tablets — in fact, they're priced at a level that looks, at first glance, almost too good to be true. In a world where budget Android tablets from Lenovo or Samsung are creeping toward $150 or more, Walmart is clearly making a bid to undercut its competition. There are currently new (though older-model) Onn tablets available for around the $50 mark, and in an effort to depress pricing even more, the retail giant also offers open-box Onn tablets for as little as $32.

This is definitely not a new strategy for the retailer, following Walmart's play in the budget TV space — but it does feel like a very thoughtful and deliberate move at a time when consumers are particularly price sensitive and less likely to be picky about brand prestige for secondary electronics like tablets. A play in the budget space for tablets specifically also makes sense, as these devices typically fill a niche dominated by light browsing or other, less demanding tasks where blistering performance isn't a priority.

Walmart's Onn tablets aren't racing to outperform flagships from other companies, and that's exactly the point. Instead of chasing benchmarks or cutting-edge hardware, Walmart is looking to deliver snappy productivity performance at a price intended to move units at volume. That said, the company has also wisely diversified its latest offerings so that "prosumers" looking for a tablet that does offer higher-end specs can still find them priced more affordably than competitive models from other manufacturers.

The 2026 lineup, for instance, includes a "flagship" Onn 13 Pro tablet at 13 inches with a 2.6 GHz CPU, a pair of cameras (8 MP front and 13 MP rear), and a 2400 × 1600 IPS LCD display, priced at $288. At the opposite end of the price spectrum lies the 2026 Onn 7 Core Tablet for $97, a more modestly specced 7-inch option for those looking for a highly portable tablet that'll slip easily into a bag or purse. Walmart also has some vibrantly colored kids tablets in its Onn line, all of which feature kickstands and thick protective cases to hold up to kids' rambunctious lifestyles.

What makes Walmart's play in the budget tablet space so smart is how it aligns with broader trends in consumer electronics. Smartphones are increasingly becoming premium, high-performance machines, more portable equivalents of our desktop and laptop PCs. This means tablets are getting boxed into a complementary role rather than serving as a primary computing device for most users. That trend means there's a growing market for highly affordable tablets that don't need to do everything, but just need to handle a handful of tasks extremely well.

Of course, a big part of this move's success hinges on the retailer's massive footprint, which it has leveraged to sell Walmart-exclusive electronics before. Walmart has the luxury of positioning its tablets prominently in its brick-and-mortar stores and featuring them online, ensuring that they're the first tablet options that most shoppers' eyes alight on before the company's competitors are surfaced. Of course, the eye-popping pricing comes with sacrifices: build quality, long-term software support, and performance longevity tend to lag behind premium-priced alternatives. That said, for a specific audience (families, casual users, or anyone looking for an affordable second screen), those compromises are likely worth the much lighter impact on their wallets.