a chinese tablet nowadays works better than a samsung one. the trick to buy anything chinese is to avoid the copy cats. do not buy anything that looks like a traditional brand knock off. buy something that has its own brand and your good.
also, my work provided newly released tab3 runs slower then my years old hacked hp touchpad btw. way slower!
My own personal recommendation is to buy a Chinese phone. They're a lot more affordable, and work nearly just as well.
I wrote a bit about my phone, a Samsung Mega look-alike that I paid $200 for. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6494895