Over Christmas, I was asked to set one of these tablets up for daily use. It's a 9" screen running android 4.0 and it apparently is shipped already rooted so you can trim it to bare minimum if you're so inclined. Hardware-wise, it performed surprisingly well. The only deficiency was the lack of bluetooth which I'm guessing could be remedied with a cheap dongle.
I was told this unit was purchased on Amazon for $129 on a special. At that price, I think it was a good deal for a "reader." Personally, I don't need another guest tablet yet but if this one drops below $100, it might make a good one for that use or to serve as a sacrificial tablet for the kids.
I just gave my daughter my old iPad
Good tip. There is some decent off brand tablet hardware out there buried by a ton of marginal-to-crap hardware which makes it hard to find by trial and error.
So far I'm still flush with tablets with an iPad3 a dual boot HP Touchpad going strong.