Get a Lenovo IdeaPad 7-inch tablet for $169.99

Quick housekeeping note: Tomorrow (May 26) at 4 p.m. ET, you can hear me on WJR Radio's Internet Advisor show, where I'll be discussing cheap deals (natch) and the ever-popular topic of cord-cutting. Hope you'll tune in! (You can listen live online or via the WJR app.) Back in January, Lenovo offered its IdeaPad A1 7-inch Android tablet for a little under $170. It sold out very quickly. Today, while supplies last, Newegg has the IdeaPad A1 for $169.99 shipped. It's new, not refurbished. If you want to talk apples and apples, that's the same price as a refurbished Kindle Fire. What does this tablet offer that that one doesn't? Plenty. (And I say that as someone who really likes his Kindle Fire.) The IdeaPad A1 features a 1GHz processor, 16GB of storage, front- and rear-facing cameras (0.3 and 3.0 megapixels, respectively), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, offline GPS, and Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). The Fire, by comparison, has 8GB of storage (and no expansion slot), no cameras, no Bluetooth, no GPS, and a "closed" version of Android. Indeed, it's because the IdeaPad runs Gingerbread that I give it higher marks than, say, the Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet -- both of which have nice media-centric ecosystems, but impose some limits on what you can do, app-wise. CNET hasn't reviewed the A1, but the user reviews at Newegg are overwhelmingly positive. I haven't had any hands-on time with this particular model, but having read the comments from my previous posts about it, it seems most buyers truly love it. If you're looking for a seriously versatile 7-inch tablet, this is probably the best $170 you can spend. Bonus deal: If you're looking for the best $140 you can spend, try this: Today only, Best Buy has the refurbished 16GB BlackBerry PlayBook for $139.99 shipped (plus sales tax in most states). RIM's recent 2.0 OS update brought a lot of improvements, including Android app support. Your thoughts?