Black Friday is less than a week away!  Are you ready to hit the streets (or the web) to scarf up the latest and greatest deals?  Well, if you are thinking about purchasing a tablet computer for yourself or your loved one this year, then you are definitely not alone.  This holiday season is already being labeled the holiday for tablets.  

There are certainly a lot of tablets out there available for purchase.  You can go as high as used 64GB iPad 2, or as low as a $67.99 for a PanDigital 7 inch tablet.

Whatever your taste is for tablets this holiday season, you’re sure to be able to find exactly what you’re looking for.

But I wanted to help you out a little by doing some of my own researching.  Based on the fact that 1)  we are all feeling the affects of the economy and are always looking for great deals, and 2)  we probably all would love to get in on the tablet craze this holiday season.

So I went ahead and put together a top 10 tablets under $300 list for you based on the current hottest tablets on the market right now and that have a price tag that does not exceed $300.

You’ll be getting the best of both worlds here with low cost tablets that are in high demand from customers.  And the demand is, the way I see it anyway, a reflection of the quality of these tablets as well.  After all, would millions of people really wants these tablets if the quality was suspect?

Anyway, you be the judge!

Top 10 Hottest Tablets for Christmas 2011

Here we go, the top 10 hottest tablets under $300 for this coming holiday season:

1)   Amazon Kindle Fire, only 99

Amazon’s latest edition to the Kindle family finally arrived yesterday and wow has it been a hit.  The Kindle Fire has been dominating the #1 spot in all categories, including electronics, two months before it was even released.

The Kindle Fire is truly the first competitor to undercut the Apple iPad in price.

2) HP TouchPad Wi-Fi 32 GB 9.7 inch tablet, only $258

The HP TouchPad is definitely an interesting study.  When HP came out and reported that they were going to discontinue production on the HP TouchPad, they went ahead and slashed the price of the tablet down to $99.  And wow, from the literally the second the price dropped to $99, the HP TouchPad was flying off the shelves, and the websites, worldwide.  Suddenly, nobody could find the HP TouchPad anyway – online or offline.  And it was really the first hint of the chink in Apple’s iPad armor (if you will).  Suddenly we realized that you can in fact compete against the iPad with price.  And that’s what the HP TouchPad delivers.  You can pick these bad boys up on Amazon now for our $260 bucks.

3) Samsung Galaxy Tab, 10 inch, 16GB Wi-Fi, only $299 used

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10 inch Android tablet is definitely a hot item this holiday season.  For some reason, people are loving what some consider to be the first real competitor to the iPad.

Discover the next generation of portable entertainment with the thin, light, and powerful Samsung WiFi Galaxy Tab 10.1-Inch. Showcasing a 10.1-inch widescreen HD display and a dual-core processor for stunning detail and speed, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 delivers sharper movies, better game graphics, and crystal-clear video chats.

4) HP TouchPad Wi-Fi 16 GB 9.7 inch tablet, starting at only $228

So if the 32GB HP TouchPad we just talked about in #2 was too much for you.  No worries my friends… you can pick up little brother here, the 16GB HP TouchPad.  The used models are starting at only $228.

5)  PanDigital 72-70 FW 7 Inch Android Tablet, only $67.99

Without a doubt, with the PanDigital you’ll be getting the lowest priced Android tablet available on the market today – at least, one that’s worth talking about here.  And coming in at #5 on the most popular list is nothing to shake a stick at.

The PanImage Multimedia tablet changes the way you access the web, access email, check social networks and curl up with a good book. With instant access to the Barnes and Noble PanImage Color Multimedia Tablet lets you read and carry hundreds of books, magazines, and newspapers with you wherever you go.

6)  ePad 7 Inch Android Tablet VIA 8650, only $94.98

Once again, here we have another very low priced Android tablet that is also very popular amongst the tablet consumers.  Not the most powerful tablet in the world, but definitely something to consider, especially when it’s priced for less than $100.

With the ePad 7 inch VIA 8650, you’ll get a 7″ 800×480 LCD,Android 2.2,support flash 10.1,two point touch,camero,wifi,256M memory, and 2G of flash.  Not bad for less than $100.

7)  Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 inch, 16GB, Wi-Fi, starts at $236.87

Once again we have another Samsung Galaxy Tab making its way to the top 10 list as one of the most popular tablets available for this coming holiday season.  This Android tablet runs Froyo (Android 2.2), sports a 1GHz A8 Cortex processor, 16GB internal memory capacity which is expandable up to 32GB.  Not a bad tablet for the price.

8)  Acer Iconia Tab A500, 10.1 inch tablet, only $297

One of the first Android tablets to get the Honeycomb OS build, this tablet sports the very popular 10.1 inch touch screen display which is what a lot of holiday shoppers are looking for in a tablet this year.

The Acer Iconia Tab A500-10S16u provides the ultimate tablet experience with a gleaming 10.1″ touch-screen and attention grabbing metallic design fueled by top-of-the-line technology and the latest build of Android “Honeycomb” OS. The A500 delivers powerful tablet performance and effortless multimedia enjoyment in a flash! Have fun with Google Apps like Google Movies and Google Music, connect to social networks, play full-version games in console-quality, browse the Web in accelerated speeds and so much more.

9)  Superpad 10.2″ Android tablet, only 67.94

Wow, I know what you’re thinking – a 10.2 inch tablet?  That’s right!  This hot new Android tablet is sporting one of the biggest displays available on any tablet in the market place.  People have not been giving this tablet very high reviews however, so it’s something you definitely want to look at closely.  But you almost can’t beat the price tag of $167.94.

This magnificent 10.2 inch Android Superpad keeps you connected and entertained everywhere you go! The touch screen Superpad Google Android comes with a built in webcam for video chat, Wifi, and numerous cable ports, including two micro SD slots which support up to 32GB (16gb per slot, sold separately), two USB sockets (for key board/mouse/USB flash disk), an audio jack, one HDMI socket, one RJ45 socket (Ethernet) for super-fast wired internet connection. It includes a built in GPS chip, which allows the Superpad to be used as a GPS device. Maps can be purchased online and downloaded to the Superpad, making it a superb 10.2″ navigator! Along with touch screen, it comes with a digital pen that can be used for drawing or note taking. The Android 2.1 software delivers multi touch capabilities and access to watching videos, playing games, and browsing the web.

10)  Vizio 8 inch Android tablet, only $231.53

And what would a list of hot tablets under $300 be without the mention of the Vizio 8 inch Android tablet?  Vizio put millions of dollars into the promotion of this tablet, but it ended up not picking up a whole lot of tracking.  Surprisingly enough, this Vizio Android tablet is carrying a 4 star review rating on Amazon and lots of people have great things to say about this tablet. And for the price of $231.53, you can “almost” not go wrong!  Notice I said almost…

Well that’s it folks, there’s my list of the top 10 hottest tablets on the market for this holiday season.  The tablet scene is changing quickly, especially with the introduction of the Kindle Fire yesterday.

Although the iPad is still king, there are lots of tablets that are making their way onto the scene in hopes of taking just a portion of the Apple iPad share.

Hope these top 10 tablets helped you out in deciding what tablets to purchase this holiday season.  Let me know about any questions or comments below.