Kind of depends on what you want to do with it, honestly.
The problem with any of the Android (Google) variants is that the reason they’re cheap is because you’re not the customer, you’re the product. Or more to the point, Google will take a loss on the device in order to capture and sell information about you. You’ll have the widest selection of devices here, though, at all price points.
Not sure what Amazon’s fork of Android means in terms of data collection, though if it’s not so bad you might want to consider a Kindle Fire. The biggest knock on Amazon I’ve heard is that again, they’ll sell the device at a loss because they want to use the device to drive sales traffic back to Amazon.
The Apple devices tend to be the most expensive, but they also tend to hold their value longer. If you only want lightweight use (email, web) and not planning on using much for productivity, look for older models and/or refurbished units to save money. Naturally, Apple devices work best for content consumption when you use their “store”, so watch for costs associated with any content you want to get, though it tends to be competitive with other platforms.
If you like Windows, there are some tablets that run Windows 8. I’m not too familiar with them so I can’t help much, but I doubt you need something as beefy as the Surface Pro, and I’m not sure they still make the Surface RT, which sounds more like what you’d want.
The problem with any of the Android (Google) variants is that the reason they’re cheap is because you’re not the customer, you’re the product. Or more to the point, Google will take a loss on the device in order to capture and sell information about you. You’ll have the widest selection of devices here, though, at all price points.
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The reason I want to steer clear of Goooogovermentgle.
Our family has 3 Kindle Fires and two Fire phones. We love them.
Never had a problem with any and they do waaay more than we ever need.
Given all of your requirements, ChickenSoup, I’ll throw in a vote for a Kindle Fire.
Runs Android, which is only tangentially related to Google.
They now sell them at Best Buy. They have them there on powered up displays where you can actually play with them and see what they can do, as opposed to buying a pig in a poke. There’s usually five or six models to look at, everything from the old style paperwhite one (mainly for e-book reading) all the way up to the Kindle Fire HDX.