Samsung Galaxy Tab S
Samsung
has been pouring a lot of effort into making a really decent iPad rival, and
that strategy has seen some hare-brained decisions (such as launching the Tab
Pro in January 2014, and then replacing it a few months later with the Galaxy
Tab S).
But, apart from annoying anyone
that's already bought into the Tab Pro range, this strategy has finally yielded
a brilliant tablet in the shape of this Super AMOLED-shod Tab S duo. Available
in both 8.4- and 10.5-inch screen sizes, Samsung has taken the best of its OS
and technology ability, fused them with the best display on a tablet and
created something pretty special. Performance
The Galaxy Tab
S 8.4 is, generally speaking, very smooth and slick. The kinks and jerkiness we
detected in the Tab Pro 8.4 are mostly absent, though the Tab S 8.4 doesn’t zip
along quite as smoothly as the Snapdragon powered Galaxy S5.
The processor
behind this is Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa (5420), which is in eight core chip with
four ARM Cortex A15 CPUs clocked at 1.9GHz, and four lower-power ARM A7 cores
at 1.3GHz. It’s right up there with the most powerful processors on any Android
phone or tablet, scoring 904 in Geekbench’s single-core test, and 2,669 in the
multi-core. Even accounting for Samsung’s reputation to boosting benchmarks
with high performance modes, it’s clear this is a very powerful device — it’s
only slightly slower than Galaxy S5, HTC One M8 and OnePlus One.
It’s a slightly
less impressive performer in the graphics department, though it’s still more
than powerful enough to run even demanding games smoothly. It scored 13,518 in
the 3D Mark Ice Storm Unlimited test, whereas the latest phones are getting
close to 20,000 these days. It’s only a few thousand points less than the iPad
mini 2, though, and you’re unlikely to find any games that won’t work on it. As
with most phones and tablets at present, the Tab S has more processing power
than it really needs.
The
battery life is great, the screen has to be seen to be believed (and is
excellent for media and internet viewing, which is really the point of a
tablet) and the price is on a par with the rest of the industry. Well done,
Samsung.
Weight: 467g | Dimensions: 247.3 x 177.3 x
6.6mm | OS: Android 4.4.2 | Screen size: 10.5-inch | Resolution:
2560 x 1600 | CPU: Quad-core 2.3 GHz | RAM: 3GB | Storage:
16/32GB | Battery : 7900mAh | Rear
camera: 8MP | Front camera: 2.1MP
The iPad mini 3
The iPad mini range is still a brilliant proposition, offering the best
of the iPad but squishing it down into a smaller package.
Well, that's what happened last
year - this year Apple has basically rebooted the Mini 2, put TouchID on the
front, made it gold and called it a new tablet. Performance
The iPad mini 3
has exactly the same processor as the iPad mini 2 and iPhone
5S – a 64-bit A7
dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM. The cores run at 1.3GHz, as opposed to the
iPad Air 2’s tri-core 1.5GHz, and a quad-core GPU provides plenty of grunt for
3D gaming.
Even though
it’s a year old, it’s still a very competent processor. The iPad mini 3 zips
through menus on iOS 8 and apps open with speed. Games look fantastic,
particularly those made with the 64-bit architecture in mind, such as Infinity
Blade 3.
As expected, in
our benchmark tests the iPad mini 2 scores almost exactly the same as its
predecessor. It scored 2550 on Geekbench 3 and 14,009 on 3D Mark Ice Storm
Unlimited – both decent scores, but less than the Snapdragon 801 or 805 that
most top Android tablets have. It’s also a lot less than the Nvidia Shield Tabletcan muster. That scores
3209 on Geekbench 3 and a whopping 29,206 on Ice Storm Unlimited. That’s more
than double the gaming performance for a lot less cash.
However, the
iPad mini 3, like the mini 2 before it, performs well and should still do so
for a few years to come.
It's
only ahead of the older version (a cheaper option while offering the same specs
minus the biometrics) due to this being a list of the best tablets, and this is
the best mini tablet from Apple, but it's not offering a lot more than last
year's model.
What it does bring is good though: iOS 8 works very well on the mini 3, and
the overall speed and compact size is still a very good combo, even at the
higher price. Weight:
331g | Dimensions: 200 x 134.7 x 7.5mm | OS: iOS 8.1 | Screen size: 7.9-inch|
Resolution: 1536 x 2048 | CPU: Dual-core 1.3GHz | RAM: 1GB | Storage: 16/64/128GB
| Battery: 6470mAh | Rear camera: 5MP | Front camera: 1.2MP
vs Nexus
9
The Nexus 9 is a
bit of a weird one - it's both the replacement for the Nexus 7 and the Nexus
10, without really being a sequel to either thanks to the all-new 8.9-inch
screen.For the eagle eyed among you, you may notice it's jumped up a place in our rankings. That's because it can now be picked up for around £210, making it super affordable. It'll likely be replaced in the next month when Google launches a new slate - but for now it's a steal.
It's mimicking the iPad range by going for a 4:3 screen ratio (which means
wider viewing for web browsing, but annoying black bars above and below when
watching movies) so you've got a wider device that's not quite able to be
gripped in one hand.
But that doesn't mean it's not a great tablet, helped by
the fact it's made by HTC. The brand has brought over its Boomsound speakers
for greater front facing audio, and the screen is certainly high resolution
too. Weight:
425g | Dimensions:
228.2 x 153.7 x 8mm | OS: Android 5.0 | Screen size: 8.9-inch | Resolution:
1536 x 2048 | CPU: Dual-core 2.3 GHz | RAM:
2GB | Storage:
16/32GB | Battery:
6700 mAh | Rear
camera: 8MP | Front camera: 1.6MP
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