The year hasn’t been really great for tablets. The product category witnessed yet another sloppy year as the tablet sales continue to slump. The fall of the tablets hasn’t spared even the reigning iPad, which is expected to bear the brunt with its first-ever yearly decline in sales since the product category was announced. Well, this hasn’t stopped the industry bigwigs from churning out some nifty tablets. This year we saw some really sleek and powerful tablets. Here’s a quick look at the ttop three tablets for the year 2014.
iPad Air 2 – Winner
iPad Air 2 still a better option
Apple’s iPad Air 2 easily takes the top position on the dias when it comes to the best tablets of the year. This thinnest, lightest and newest iPad is almost 18 per cent thinner than the original iPad Air and just 6.1mm thin. The major update is the presence of the TouchID fingerprint scanner on the power button. Just like the iPhone 5S, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, it will now allow users to unlock their iPad and even shop securely using Apple Pay. Another major addition is the presence of an 8MP iSight camera, which brings in all the goodies such as time-lapse mode, live HDR, 120fps slo-mo mode, burst mode, panorama and more. There is an improved 1.2MP front facing camera as well. On the display front, the iPad Air 2 comes with a 9.7-inch 2048 x 1536 pixel display. The iPad Air 2 is powered by the Apple A8X system on chip which has a 64-bit architecture and comes with a dedicated M8 motion processor. Apple claims a 12x CPU performance jump and a whopping 180x GPU performance jump from the original iPad. Performance-wise, the device has received rave reviews from tech experts across the globe.
Samsung Tab S 8.4 – First Runner up
In the bid to compete with the reigning iPad, Samsung also churned out some nifty tablets this year. With the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 and 10.5, the company has pushed limits with the super-sharp display and ultra thin body. The chic-looking Tab S 8.4 with a dimpled rubber back and metallic rim, sports 2560×1600 resolution Super AMOLED screen that renders sharp images and text, and holds up well in bright outdoors, while optimizing the tablet’s battery use. After several attempts at dethroning the iPad, looks like Samsung has finally got it right with the Galaxy Tab S. With an excellent display, powerful processing and great speaker quality, there’s little going against the Galaxy Tab S. Read our complete review, to know how the tablet fares.
iPad mini 3 – Second Runner up
Quite close to the Tab S is Apple’s all-new iPad mini 3, which is a generational upgrade over the iPad mini with Retina Display. Though it carries forward most of the aspects from its previous iteration, the complete package places it among the top three tablets. The major update with the mini 3 is also the addition of the TouchID that eventually improves security. The iPad mini 3 is powered by the Apple A7 SoC and just like the iPad Air 2, will run on iOS 8.1. It also gets the 5MP iSight camera like the iPad mini 2.
Worthy Mentions
The recently launched Nexus 9 also deserves a worthy mention. Though a stretch away from bringing some stiff competition to the iPad, the Nexus 9 is a good option when considering the Android clan. The HTC-built Google tablet sports an 8.9-inch IPS display with a 4:3 aspect ratio. It is the first tablet to run Android 5.0 Lollipop and comes powered by 64-bit Nvidia Tegra processor. Read what tech experts say about the Nexus 9.
