With so many tablets on the market, it can be almost impossible to tell them apart. Do you go for the freedom and variety of Android, the predictability and comfortable infrastructure of Windows, or the locked down reliability of iOS? Each OS has its pros and cons, as do the devices that run them. And each offers something different. Which is best depends on what you’re going to use it for and where.
Google Nexus 7 and 10
The Google Nexus range of seven and 10-inch devices are to tablets what the Google Nexus 4 and 5 are to mobile phones – great performance with few compromises for an excellent price.
The design of the Google Nexus tablets may be a little uninspiring, but under the hood it offers solid performance, great display and a pure Android experience that most Android users crave for. They are very reasonably priced devices and give more expensive devices a run for their money.
With a multitude of productivity and pure business apps now available on the Play Store, any Android device is a worthy business tool. This is an offering that is too good to miss.
With rumours that Android KitKat will soon be available for Nexus tablets too, that prospect becomes even more attractive. These tablets are absolutely the most worthy contenders for business or pleasure.
Samsung Galaxy Note
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and 10.1-inch versions are great tablets with a decent screen, good specs and the S Pen (also known as stylus) that makes an enormous difference. Running Android Jelly Bean with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI overtop, the Samsung Galaxy Note is fast, friendly and capable of running business apps with ease.
Thanks to the quad-core processor that runs both devices, the Samsung Galaxy Note tablets are more than capable even though the screens are not the best around.
While not cheap, they’re not as expensive as an iPad but can do everything the iPad can do.
The main downside is that they don’t look and feel as nice as an iPad does and the screen isn’t as detailed. As long as you can cope with that, the Samsung Galaxy Note tablets are great to work with, and the S Pen gives it an amazing array of new features that you can never have (so far) in any other tablet.
iPad Mini
The iPad Mini was first released in 2012 as a smaller sibling to the iPad. The 7.9-inch display is designed to be the perfect compromise between the larger iPad and eBook readers and smaller tablets. It’s very portable and easy to hold.
The iPad Mini has the typical Apple premium feel. The screen is a 2,048 by 1,536-pixel retina display.
iOS is polished, mostly secure, and benefits from amazing ease of use and millions of apps. Given the size and limited power of the iPad Mini, it’s more suitable as a personal tablet or as a POS device rather than for full productivity. Weighing only 310g means you can hold it all day long without issue.
As with all Apple devices, the downside is performance and price. They may be the best-looking devices on the market and have indisputable brand cache, but Apple products aren’t the fastest, most original, or the cheapest. While they look and work great, there are more capable and lower cost devices out there if the brand doesn’t win you over.
iPad Air
The iPad Air is Apple’s newest iPad, announced in October 2013. At 478g, it’s thinner and lighter than its predecessors, without any of the quality or screen compromises that often follow downsizing. Run by a 64-bit Apple A7 chipset, there is plenty of power on tap too. That said, there are very few apps that take advantage of 64-bit architecture yet.
The 9.7-inch 2,048 by 1,536-pixel Retina screen is simply excellent. Framed by a thin bezel, the colour reproduction is good, as is response, depth and usability across media.
The case is premium, as are the speakers, switches, and overall impression of the iPad Air.
With a variety of connection and storage options, this tablet has one size to fit everyone. Ignore the 16Gb version though, as most business and personal users will need much more than that to survive.
iOS 7 is an improvement across the board. It’s more modern, slick and more grown-up than before. It also has some neat tricks up its sleeve, making it easier to live and work with. Of course, the apps available for iOS cover everything you could ever want and many you wouldn’t.
The main downside with the iPad Air is the cost. As you would expect from Apple, you’re paying a premium, but you really do get what you pay for.
Acer Iconia W700
The Acer Iconia W700 has gone in a slightly different direction to the Microsoft Surface. Rather than having a keyboard, it has a dock that keeps the viewing angle friendly and acts as a charger and USB hub. It’s an interesting take on tablets and one that works quite well.
The design is chunky, measuring 11.9 x 295 x 191mm and weighing in at 925g. The aluminium casing around the tablet gives a premium feel, and the build quality is exceptional. The Acer Iconia W700 is essentially a flat PC, running an Intel Core i3-2365M chipset with integrated Intel 3D GPU clocked at 1.4GHz. It also has 4Gb of RAM and either a 64Gb or 128Gb SSD.
The 11.6-inch LED screen has a wide viewing angle, decent levels of detail but isn’t the best screen in the world for the power. It’s much more at home when docked to an HD screen.
The dock is the Achilles heel of the Acer Iconia W700. It feels cheap, it is awkward to carry around and is certainly designed to be left at the office.
Overall, it’s better to consider the Acer Iconia W700 as a flat laptop rather than a tablet. Viewed as such, it’s a great performer.
Viewed as a tablet, it’s large, heavy at 942g, unwieldy, and falls short compared to some of its competitors.
Microsoft Surface 2
The Microsoft Surface 2 is another tablet that runs Windows RT and does a credible job of it. The kickstand that holds the screen up is excellent and the 1,920 by 1,080-pixel screen is bright, clear and nicely detailed. The 1.7GHz quad-core Tegra 4 chipset and 2GB of RAM are more than up to the task too.
Another advantage is the expandable storage. Unlike many of the tablets here, the Surface has a MicroSD slot so you can move, add and change storage to your heart’s content. It’s a small thing, but important to many businesses.
The Microsoft Surface 2 is thinner, lighter and better made than its predecessor. Windows RT is also more polished and reliable than ever before. However, Microsoft apps are still woefully behind iOS and Android, so if your business uses them you may be limited in what you can do with this device.
If you or your employees are happy with Windows and you don’t use a lot of apps, the Microsoft Surface 2 is a solid performer. It has the benefits of a laptop, just in a smaller package weighing only 676g.
Nokia Lumia 2520
The Nokia Lumia 2520 is the phone manufacturer’s first true tablet. It’s a 10.1-inch device that includes a quad-core processor running at 2.2GHz and Microsoft Windows RT. The first thing that strikes you about the Nokia Lumia 2520 is the quality feel. From the photos, it doesn’t look that great, but hands-on, it’s excellent.
The polycarbonate case and 1,080p screen are both premium parts that make this tablet a real contender. It’s fast, comes with a foldable keyboard, has a low-reflective screen and runs most, if not all, Windows programmes and apps.
Whatever you think of the Microsoft operating system, it’s familiar, easy-to-use and mildly comforting. It will put many buyers off, given the problems inherent with the tablet version of Windows. However, it shouldn’t.
If you can look past that and the relative lack of apps, it’s an easy purchase to make. If you use Windows at the office or at home, that decision is made even easier.
Jesmond Darmanin is a technology enthusiast who has his own blog at www.itnewsblog.com.