I'd like to stay under $200, preferably under 150. I want to read comics, grind out Hearthstone matches, play my humble bundle acquisitions. Is there a second tier brand I should know about? No problem rooting/doing surgery if needed.
Seeing the size between Samsung 7 and 8 instore the other day, I was shocked. I'm thinking I might need to suck it up and spend ~200 to get something big. I imagine the idea is to only buy one and be happy with it.
As long as you're looking at a 1080p screen or better, I think you should have good looking output.
I'm quite happy with the Nexus 7's 1920 x 1200 screen @ 7 inches (about 323ppi) and that works great with text and comics. NewEgg has the 16GB on sale for $150 right now.