we tried the cheaper Acer but after endlessly having to watch his like a hawk so he wouldn't buy things unknowingly we caved and got him an iPad. the lack of parental controls was just to much of a headache

I got refurbished iPad (1st Generation, 3 years ago) and then Motorola Xoom (1.5 years ago) so that I could get apps in both OS.
To be very honest, I do not find them any useful for DS. Instead, he figured out playing YouTube, Camera features and keeps playing with them. He doesn't see them as work devices except at the school.
Plus, the return policies with the apps is really pathetic. I spent a lot of money but many programs did not end up what I thought them to be (from different reviews) or were useless in our case. So that is just waste of money (and this number goes up pretty fast).

Depending on what you want to achieve out of it, YMMV. Otherwise, both the tablets are good enough.

@A MyAutismTeam Member going to be using it for apps you tube netflix and hoping for helping my daughter to communicate...autism apps mostly