2012 Top Ten Tablets Compared

Buying Guide

A tablet is a portable device mid-way the portability of a smartphone and the functionality of a laptop or a netbook. Tablet PCs do existed before the trend of iPads but it was entirely Steve Jobs’ idea of an iPad that had an OS and UI tailor made for bigger touch-screens that brought the tablets back into the mainstream. When talking of Tablets, we can quote 2011 as the year of Tablets that began with Apple iPad 2 and continued till Asus Transformer Prime.

All the gadget freaks love to own a Tablet. The market is full of various varieties of the Tablets confusing its buyers. To prevent you from any such confusion, here we have a list of top 10 Tablets launched in the year 2011.

1 – Apple iPad 2 (16 GB, Wi-Fi)
(Rs. 27,000 onwards)

Thumbs Up – iOS 5, specifically iPad apps, wonderful screen, fluid web browsing, excellent speed, great battery life, solid hardware quality and the most important, it’s Apple.

Thumbs Down – Comparatively mow screen resolution, iTunes still required and bad fixed focus cameras.

Conclusion – Though the cost is high but still there’s no match to this table. The iPad is not only very fast and interesting to use but also comfortable to carry due to its solid build and thin body. As of now it has the longest battery life so that once charged you do not need the charger for at least a week if the tablet is used casually.

2–Amazon KindleFire 
(Rs.13,500 OnEbay)

Thumbs Up – Highly affordable and fast too due to its Dual-Core processor, nice screen, good browser, Amazon media services are the best after Apple iTunes, exclusive applications

Thumbs Down – 8GB non-expandable storage, no additional features like camera, GPS, microphone and 3G, few UI quirks

Conclusion – It is the best amongst the most usable and affordable tablets. If interested, you can install Android 4.0 ICS on it.

3 – Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1/ Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9
(Rs. 30,990 onwards)

Thumbs Up – Great screen, slimmer and lighter than iPad 2, Android 4.0 upcoming, fast, usable cameras, nice on-screen apps and good battery-life.

Thumbs Down – Very limited tablet apps and no option of memory expansion

Conclusion – It is so far the best 10 inch Android tablet with all the latest features in its light and slim body. It has been officially announced to get Android 4.0 ICS. .

4 – Sony Tablet S (Rs. 29,990)

Thumbs Up – Fresh, easy to handle, paperback-like design, Android 4.0 Upcoming, PlayStation Mobile gaming certified, Integrated Universal remote

Thumbs Down – Low brightness of the screen, average battery life, heavy and proprietary charger

Conclusion – It is a tablet with a different slim look and feel. The PlayStation certified games for mobile and an integrated all-in-one remote makes it a great tablet for your living room.

5 – Asus Transformer (Rs. 29,990)

Thumbs Up – A very useful Keypad and Touchpad Dock for those who type a lot, full-sized USB port and card slot, HDMI out serves as a good additional feature for the media freaks

Thumbs Down – Average build quality and poor quality camera

Conclusion – The tablet is undoubtedly of the days of yore but the keyboard dock that doubles up as a secondary battery built-in serves as a great add-on. The HDMI port, touchpad and full-sized card slot make the tablet a nice replacement with an additional advantage of touchscreen.

6 – Motorola Xoom (Rs. 19,900)

Thumbs Up – Low Cost, Android 3.2 (upgradeable to Android 4.0 ICS), HDMI, 3G connectivity in all models, various connectivity and sensor options are present

Thumbs Down – Boring design, heavy and fat when compared to other tablets

Conclusion – Though the tablet has a heavy body, it is highly affordable Android 3.2 tablet with strong connectivity and hardware features.

7 – Apple iPad (64GB, Wi-Fi) (Rs. 27,000)

Thumbs Up – Nice screen, big storage option, great games and applications, excellent for reading books, good range of accessories, great battery life

Thumbs Down – no cameras, no 3G connectivity, and limited RAM of 256 MB

Conclusion – The tablet is around 2 years old but still gives a tough competition to a lot of tablets. It has a great collection of games and apps specifically made for the iPads hence a perfect source of entertainment with various options. The long battery life serves as a cherry on the cake.

8. HTC Flyer (Wi-Fi + 3G) Rs. 22,000

Thumbs Up – Affordable price, great build-quality, good looking, Android 3.2 Honeycomb, all-round connectivity, fast single core processor, HTC sense, digital pen for making notes and scribbling

Thumbs Down – Single core processor that may fail to run all the high-end games, dual core tablet at cheaper price and thicker than others

Conclusion – It has a smart aluminium unibody with a great 7 inch screen along with HTC sense UI. The device is the best 7-inch tablet at an affordable price with Android 3.2. It also includes a 3G connectivity option.

9 – Samsung Galaxy Tab (7-inch, 16GB, Wi-Fi) 
(Rs. 15,000 on EBay India)

Thumbs Up – Faster processor than other tablets, nice gaming and web browsing performance, Android 2.3 along with Samsung TouchWiz 3.0 UI, good Samsung tablet specific apps like email, calendar, music player, nice screen quality

Thumbs Down – Cannot be upgraded to Android 3.0 or 4.0 and average battery life.

Conclusion – It is the best Android 2.3 tablet that has all the Google services. It has a nice screen, light and easy to carry. The build quality is good too.

10 – Aakash Tablet/ Ubislate 7+ (Rs. 2,500 onwards)

Thumbs Up – Extremely affordable that makes it the cheapest tablet in the world, can play HD videos, Android 2.2 in Aakash/ 2.3 in Ubislate 7+, full-sized USB port, Made in India

Thumbs Down – We can say none at this price, can be excellent if they fit a capacitive touchscreen

Conclusion – We are proud of the Indian government to have launched the world’s cheapest tablet for the students and even subsidized the price.