[General Questions and Answers] Droidriven:
Narrow your choices down based on the purposes you will be using the device for. Things like CPU, RAM and GPU will play a large part in whether the device can reasonably perform under the conditions that you will be using it. If you do a lot of multitasking or using a lot of social media, you need more RAM and a reasonably fast CPU, if you will not be doing a lot of multitasking or using a lot of social media, RAM may not be an issue for you. If you will be playing high quality hardware intensive games, you need a high performance CPU and GPU. If you use wired headphones/earbuds, you need a device that has a headphone jack. If you want to use expandable storage, you need a device that has an external sdcard slot. If you use OTG, you need a device that supports OTG. If you will be using it a lot for long hours, you need more battery capacity. If you plan on using the device for 3 or more years, you may need a device that has removable/replaceable battery. Etc..etc.

In other words, take into consideration, the other types of hardware/software that you might have a need or want to interface with or use along with your device at some point.

There are also other factors to consider, such as, whether the device is well supported by the manufacturer with updates or with the availability to download the stock firmware in case you need to flash/repair the device or just all around good customer support/relations. These factors are actually more important than price point and hardware specs. What is the point of getting a device that has awesome hardware at a cheap price if the manufacturer does not support the device at all or does not make the stock firmware/stock source available? Choose something from a manufacturer or brand that is known for good hardware, software and customer support, don't be suckered into buying a device just because it has awesome specs at a decent price. All of the cheaper hardware devices with high specs are usually not supported by their manufacturer because of several factors:

1) they know the devices are crap and will inevitably have some kind of hardware/software issues so they don't support the devices because they don't want to cut into their profit, they know they wouldn't be able to afford the costs of repairs/replacements.

2) some manufacturers of cheap hardware devices use components from whoever they can source them from, in some cases, this means that some models of devices they build can have the exact same motherboard but the components/chips on those motherboards may vary, even though it is "supposed" to be the "same" device. This means that there is not a "uniform" stock firmware for all of the motherboard/component variations, they may have several different firmware versions, one for each motherboard/component variant of the exact "same" model number/device, making it impossible to have "one" firmware that all owners of that "model" can use. They do not offer hardware/software support for these devices with the "variations" of firmware because they know that the average user could very easily think they were using the correct firmware for their model number/device but could actually be using the wrong firmware variant for their specific hardware/component variant of that "model" number. Depending on the difference in the components between each variant of that motherboard, using the wrong variant of firmware leads to a bricked device, therefore, they offer no support so they don't have to be responsible for anything that may go wrong.

3) in some cases, a company will have ownership/trade rights to a certain motherboard/component design along with ownership of the source code/stock firmware for that specific motherboard/component design and they will allow other companies the "use" of their hardware/software to make devices for themselves, but not ownership of their design. In these cases, these outside companies/manufacturers using that motherboard/component design will each be offering a device with their own name and they may even look different on the outside with slight variations on placement of external hardware buttons and external ports/jacks, but they will all essentially be the exact same device. These companies can use the design, but they can not offer hardware or software support because they do not own the hardware/software themselves.

As far as chips go, always remember this rule and you won't be sorry. Japanese chips tend to be better than Chinese chips due to Japanese/Japanese-owned companies using higher quality materials and higher manufacturing standards, in most cases. So, when choosing a device, it tends to be a good idea to stay away from devices that are mostly chinese chips, even those that may have a Japanese CPU with most of the other chips being chinese. Do that and you will be giving yourself the best chance for a product that works well and lasts.