Tech Guides

HardwareZone's Tablet Buying Guide Essentials

By Seow Tein Hee - 22 Nov 2011

Choosing the Right Tablet

Matching Needs

Choosing the right tablet is really all about finding one that matches your needs. And to know what your needs are, you'll have to ask yourself this question - what is your primary activity on a tablet? While each person uses the tablet differently, there are some situations that you can identify with. These will allow you to narrow down the scope and find a tablet that's more within your needs, following which you'll need to consider your budget and how comfortable you are with it.

All-Rounder

To be honest, finding a tablet that does it all is a tall order. Each tablet has its own strengths, yet it has an accompanying weakness to dampen the spirits. But if you're someone who wants a tablet that's capable of almost everything. from music, movies, gaming and having a decent battery life to go along, you'll need to find a well-balanced tablet. And that means you'll need a tablet that has a wide range of storage capacity, a 3G connectivity option and portable enough to carry without it weighing you down.

ASUS Transformer Pad Prime

Following in the footsteps of its predecessor, the ASUS Transformer Pad Prime (formerly known as ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime) comes with the latest NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor, and a additional keyboard dock that acts as a secondary battery for the slate. With Android 4.0 updated onto the new ASUS tablet, the Transformer Pad Prime is capable of a wide variety of activities, as a tablet or a pseudo-notebook.

Reasons for ASUS Transformer Pad Prime

  • Keyboard dock for better typing experience
     
  • Dock extends battery life
     
  • Sophisticated design with manageable portability

 

Entertainment Tablet

Those who value entertainment on their tablets will probably want to get the best they can get in the display and resolution section. Remember, having a bigger screen will also mean a higher resolution is in order to maintain the same pixels per inch density compared to smaller tablets. Of course, having the necessary storage capacity for your multimedia files is another crucial factor to consider. And to ensure that you get the best video rendering performance, you'll require the best hardware to handle the load.

Apple iPad (2012)

There's no denying that Apple's tablet offering is perhaps the one that needs to be benchmarked against. And with the latest iPad tossing in an updated Apple A5X dual-core processor and a massive bump in its screen resolution to 2,048 x 1,536 pixels, the new iPad is a top choice for those who value entertainment on a tablet. Furthermore, the extensive list of apps and its ease of use is another selling point for those who wish to take their first step into the tablet realm.

Reasons for Apple iPad (2012)

  • Extensive apps list
     
  • High screen resolution
     
  • Multiple options in terms of storage capacity and 3G connectivity

 

Working Tablet

You are always working on-the-go, and your tablet is the key to your work efficiency. However, since your main concerns lie with work emails, documents and basically juggling your communication between your client/business partners, you'll need a tablet that comes with security features to protect your data. You don’t need too much memory capacity – a 16GB tablet would suffice. Because you are not looking to entertain yourself frivolously, a smaller 7-inch tablet is suitable.

That and considering the fact that you will be constantly on the move, a smaller and portable tablet will ensure that it is more convenient to handle. And last but not least, 3G connectivity is imperative, considering the fact that you need to be updated on-the-go and be connected to cloud computing services.

Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet

Put the words Lenovo and ThinkPad together, and the likely image is a device built for business. This is true for the Android-based Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet. Taking a cue from its business notebook's design, the ThinkPad Tablet is preferred not just for its hardware, but also the preloaded software within. This includes apps such as Documents to Go for document editing and  Computrace Mobile by Absolute Software, which lets you disable the tablet if the device is lost or stolen. SD card encryption is also added in as a security measure against unauthorized access.

Reasons for Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet

  • Preloaded work-centric apps such as Documents to Go
     
  • Security apps to enhance data integrity
     
  • Handwriting features to take business notes with ease

 

Reading Tablet

You like reading, and you see the tablet primarily as a handy tool for that experience. Running e-book/magazine programmes and reading e-books requires little processing power or memory space, so you are typically looking at a single core, 16-32GB tablet. There’s no need for constant Internet connectivity, so a Wi-fi one is sufficient for the times when you need to sync your ebook collections or purchase magazines. For the best experience, you are looking at 7-inch for ebooks, or 10.1-inch for both ebook and magazine reading.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7

What makes the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 stand out from the crowd, is the use of the Korean company's Super AMOLED display. While it doesn't match up to Apple's 2,048 x 1,536 pixels resolution, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 comes in pretty strong with its 1,280 x 800 resolution, coupled by an above average battery mileage, thin profile and thus high portability associated with it.

Reasons for Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7

  • Comfortable and compact
     
  • Clear and sharp display quality on its 7.7-inch Super AMOLED display

Of course these aren’t strict guidelines for you to follow - most of us cannot be pigeonholed into a particular profile. Safe to say is the fact that most of us are a mixture of multiple profiles – we want our tablets to be a tool for our work as well as for multimedia consumption. In that case, you have to weigh your options more cautiously, and decide which needs override the other.

If you've identified your needs, or feel like you need more options, check out a full listing of the latest tablets in our product guide.

 

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