With market flooded with tablets, its becoming difficult for users to decide amongst the choices. To make it simple let me list a few criteria for you:
1) COST - If you can afford and iPad or galaxy, you don't really have to look for anything else
. Else its a huge market where there are tabs ranging from $50 to more than $1000. If you remember reading / hearing the news that cheapest tab of $35 was launched in India last week. Neat huh!!
2) CONNECTIVITY - Going for a $130 tablet of a less heard manufacturer? Check the connectivity? Is it only Wi-Fi or is it Wi-Fi & 3G both or is it Wi-Fi, 3G, Edge, GPRS? Most probably only wi-fi and no option of connecting to the PC or other devices with bluetooth.
3) PROCESSOR - In today's date anything less than 1GHz is not worth considering. Your applications will respond slow and you will feel sick using this...specially while working on multiple applications.
4) DISPLAY - I look for bright and sharp displays. I prefer HD that provides high resolution. If its not good, its not worth it as later some point in time i will regret my decision of compromising on display.
5) SIZE - 10" is good to use but difficult to carry along. At the same time 7" though is as good as 10" in use and more convenient to carry. Its becomes must to carry if it is doubling as a tablet + phone.
6) WARRANTY - Are you getting international warranty / free look up period along with the tablet.
7) STORAGE - I would say that 16GB + is just fine and i would prefer to have an option of expandable memory. That means that equipment should have a slot for memory card.
8) ACCESSORIES - Are you getting any accessories along with your tablet? Least that we can expect is a carry case.
9) DUAL CAMERA - Front camera will mostly range from VGA to 1.2 MP and Rear camera will range from 2 to 5 MP. This is kind of taken for granted on all the tablets.
10) OS - Check the version of OS on the Tablet. Do not go for outdated versions as applications (apps) will stop supporting older OS in matter of a year. If we talk about Android - Honeycomb is the current version which is available on recently launched Android Tablets. If we talk about ipad from apple, it works on iOS5. There are tablets which work on windows as well - i recently tested ACER ICONIA with Windows.
11) HOW TO CHECK IF TAB THAT I AM ABOUT TO BUY IS GOOD? - Simple - Your best source is web. I prefer to check CNET & guardian for ratings & comparisons of Gizmos.
12) NAME OF FEW GOOD TABS - SAMSUNG GALAXY, APPLE's IPAD, ACER ICONIA, HTC FLYER, BLACKBERRY PLAYBOOK, MOTOROLA XOOM, VIEWSONIC VIEWPAD, DELL STREAK, LG GSLATE etc etc etc. Did i forget AMAZON KINDLE FIRE? Keep this also in mind.
13) WHERE CAN I BUY TAB - There are various stores and websites which sells tablets. I prefer Amazon - Link for Tablets store is as follows:
Tablets On Amazon - Tablets
Hope this will help you in determining what you should be gifting your near and dear ones in this festive season. Won't tablet make a wonderful gift? It will, and you will enjoy watching your loved ones when they will unwrap the gift box and will scream with joy upon finding the tablet which they always wanted to buy.
Thanks!!
Swadhin Gandhi
