The 7″ tablet computer is gaining great strides in the marketplace and are likely to be popular as Christmas gifts this year. There is great choice available now with several quality 7″ tablets available. With this mini-review we hope to sift through the jargon and help you to make an informed choice about with one would be the ideal for you.
The rise in popularity of the 7″ tablet this year is not surprising. Although smaller in screen area than the standard 10″ iPad-type device, the 7″ tablets offer a far more portable and convenient size for general purpose use. Indeed, the fact that these 7″ tablets can be held comfortably with one hand is a big factor in their success and their book-like dimensions make them popular as ebook readers.
So with value for money in mind, here is our list of the Top 5 7″ Tablet computers available right now;
Google Nexus 7
Galaxy Tab2
Kindle Fire HD
NatPC 7″ Tablet
iPad Mini
#1 Google Nexus 7
The Google Nexus 7″ tablet is a quality product built by ASUS. It features the latest Android 4.1 software and has a quad-core processor so everything is faster, web pages load quickly and game-play is smooth and responsive. A fully charged Nexus 7 is capable of 9 hours of HD video playback, 10 hours of web browsing or e-reading. The only down-side is that the Nexus’s memory is not upgradable as there is no MicroSD slot, but with the rise of cloud-based services such as DropBox this is less likely to be a big problem.
The Nexus 7 is easily the best 7″ tablet available at the moment and with the recent release of the new 32GB model, we are likely to see price drops on the existing 8GB and 16GB models. Prices are likely to drop to around €230 for the 16GB Nexus 7 and hopefully about €200 for the 8GB Nexus 7.
#2 Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7″ Tablet
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7″ tablet is another quality tablet featuring the latest Android 4.1 operating system. It features a dual-core CPU and come in 8GB and 16GB versions. The beauty of the Tab 2 is that it features a MicroSD card-slot for upgrading the internal memory. Also of note is that it has both front (VGA quality) and rear (3 MegaPixel) facing cameras which is great for voice calling with apps like Skype etc. The Tab 2 also boasts GPS, Bluetooth v3.0, USB 2.0 and full Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n.
All in all this is a feature-packed and capable tablet. Prices are likely to be around €230 for the 8GB Galaxy Tab2 to about €250 for the 16GB Galaxy Tab2.
#3 Kindle Fire HD 7″ Tablet
The Kindle Fire HD 7″ tablet is the latest and greatest tablet by Amazon and it is likely to be very popular due to it’s quality HD screen display size of 1280 x 800 pixels. The Kindle Fire HD feature a dual-core CPU and is available in 16 GB or 32 GB models. The Fire HD also boasts long battery life, with over 11 hours of reading, surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching videos or listening to music on a single charge.
Prices range from €220 for the 16GB Kindle Fire HD to €280 for the 32GB Kindle Fire HD.
#4 NatPC M009S 7″ Tablet
The name you may not have heard of but this NatPC 7″ tablet can be bought for only about €100 and you get a lot of bang for your buck with this tablet. It features an A10 1.2GHz CPU with a 400MHz dedicated graphics processor, a web camera and it comes in 8GB and 16GB versions. The latest android 4.0 is installed on this tablet and features a Capacitive 7″ screen offering smooth “pinch to zoom” operations. It also features a Micro SD slot so it is upgradeable.
I’ll be honest, the screen on this is never going to be as good as the Nexus 7 or any of the higher-priced ones mentioned above but the fact the tablet is very functional and affordable, the NatPC 7″ tablet is a worthy introduction to the tablet world.
#5 iPad Mini 7″ Tablet
Of course there is the new release from Apple to consider, the new 7″ iPad Mini. Undoubtedly this will be another success but with the availability of plenty of cheaper devices now, it’s tough to put this anywhere near #1 in the list. Although it has only just been released it looks like the 16GB iPad Mini is going to cost about €450! It’s certainly a lot of money but if you are fan of their iPods and iPhones then this certainly would be one to consider.
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