Choosing a tablet is no easier than choosing a smartphone. In the tablet market, the leaders are also 2 "giants", Samsung and Apple - while there are a lot of companies from Asia that do not claim the throne, but produce high-quality products worthy of the attention of buyers.
Which tablet to choose and what should you look at first of all? You will learn about this by reading this article to end.
The choice of a tablet must be approached somewhat differently than the choice of a smartphone - nevertheless, these 2 devices have different purposes. A smartphone is needed primarily for calls; The main function of the tablet is to provide the user with access to the Internet. Therefore, when choosing a tablet, you should prioritize those criteria that affect the convenience of Internet surfing - overall performance and display size.
Performance
The speed of the tablet depends on the chipset model, the number of cores, the clock speed, the graphics accelerator, the amount of RAM when searching for information on the network, watching movies and, in particular, the game process. An ordinary user who does not expect “miracles” from a tablet should purchase a device with the following minimum performance characteristics:
- Number of cores - from 4. 2 cores are now only enough for Apple tablets, which use processors of their own production. Buying a 2-core device with Android OS is only worth it in case of an acute shortage of money.
- Clock frequency - from 1.4 GHz. You can watch movies and work on the Internet already at 600 MHz, but for resource-intensive games and applications this frequency will obviously not be enough.
- The amount of RAM - from 2 GB. The buyer needs to remember that when the tablet is launched, the installed processes instantly occupy about 600 MB of “RAM”. If the tablet has 1 GB of RAM, then only 400 MB remains for user processes - this is enough only to solve the simplest tasks.
For games, it is best to take a gadget with an NVIDIA Tegra processor line - for example, Asus Transformer Prime.
Display: size and resolution
Tablets are available in the following form factors: 7-inch, 8-inch and 10-inch. The device with a 7-inch screen has a compact size and can even fit in the lining of a jacket. It is convenient to use it as e-book, but for watching movies - not really.
A 10-inch tablet is more suitable for working with multimedia files. However, buying a budget gadget with a large screen is not recommended - for 2 reasons: firstly, such a tablet can be very bulky and heavy, Secondly, on the display of a cheap device, graininess will certainly be noticeable.
8-inch gadgets are not common. This is a borderline option, which in fact is devoid of the advantages of both of the above. It is worth refraining from buying an 8-inch gadget - especially since the accessories for such a form factor “weep a lot”.
As for the screen resolution, the best option for a 7-inch device is HD (1280×720), for a 10-inch FullHD (1920×1080). Buy tablets with b about higher resolution is meaningless: the user will not notice the difference in image quality, but will suffer from the fact that the gadget is quickly discharged.
If the tablet screen is made using OGS technology (that is, without an air gap) - this is an additional bonus. OGS-screens are notable for their wide viewing angles and excellent color reproduction.
Availability of 3G
It will not be possible to put a SIM card into a tablet that does not support 3G - it will be possible to access the Internet from such a gadget only if there is a connection to a Wi-Fi network. As a rule, Wi-Fi tablets are much cheaper than 3G counterparts. Therefore, for a buyer who intends to use the device mainly at home, it is more profitable to purchase a device without a SIM slot.
If you can put a SIM card in a tablet, this does not mean that you can make calls from it - iPad devices, for example, do not have a call function. Whether a specific tablet model supports the call function needs to be clarified immediately before purchase.
Operating system
The following operating systems are installed on modern tablets:
- iOS. The iOS operating system can only be found on gadgets manufactured by Apple. Its main advantages are stability and high speed. The operating system is simplified as much as possible, and therefore does not require many processor cores and an impressive amount of RAM for correct operation. iOS users can download games and apps from the AppStore - in the summer of 2016, the number of apps in the store exceeded 2 million. The key disadvantage of iOS is its closeness, due to which a novice user may have problems mastering the gadget.
- Android. This operating system is open. Dealing with it is easy; data from a PC to an Android background can be transferred without the use of additional software - like iTunes for iOS or Zune for Windows Phone 7. Shop android applications called Google Play. There are even more programs and games in it than in the AppStore, but not all of them can boast of decent quality; this is because only authorized Apple developers can place applications on the AppStore, and ordinary programmers on Google Play. Unlike iOS, Android is considered a vulnerable operating system and needs an antivirus.
- Windows. Our site recently wrote that Windows Phone 8.1 was officially "dead" - the mobile operating system lost support from Microsoft. However, there are a lot of good Windows 10 tablets in 2017 - Microsoft OS gadgets are produced by such large companies as Lenovo, Huawei, Asus. The advantages of the mobile "OS" Windows are considered to be a convenient "tiled" interface, a pre-installed package of full-fledged Office programs and undemanding to the hardware of the gadget. The key disadvantage is the “poverty” of the official Windows Store app store. The last measurement, which took place in the fall of 2015, showed that there were only 669 thousand programs in the Windows Store - by that time there were already 1.5 million applications in the AppStore and Google Play.
Buyers who have experience using Apple technology should prefer a gadget with iOS, it is better for beginners to take a device with a “green robot”. A tablet with Windows 10 is still an option for an amateur; such a device can be advised to "burnt" geeks - to broaden their horizons.
Battery
The capacity of the battery depends on how long the tablet will last without recharging. This parameter should only be considered in conjunction with the performance and display characteristics of the device. A gadget with premium filling and a FullHD display, of course, will consume energy much faster than a budget model. For an inexpensive gadget, on the contrary, a large battery is an unnecessary luxury.
For those who are waiting for specifics, let's clarify: a gadget with a 7-inch screen will have enough batteries with a capacity of 3,500 - 4,000 mAh, a 10-inch tablet needs 5,000 - 7,000 mAh. The battery of 7340 mAh tablet iPad Air 2 was enough for 10 hours of continuous Internet surfing.
cameras
It's naive to expect professional-quality shots from a tablet. Tablets take pictures worse than smartphones - after all, this is not their main function. A feature of tablets is that their front cameras are usually no worse than the rear ones. The quality of the image from the front camera is important - because the user, due to the possible lack of a call function on the tablet, will most likely chat on Skype.
If the back and front cameras of the tablet are capable of boasting a resolution of 5 megapixels, this is more than enough.
What else is worth paying attention to?
When choosing a tablet, the buyer should also pay attention to such minor points:
- Housing material. Metal tablets are considered more reliable and look much more solid than plastic ones, but they catch Wi-Fi worse. Therefore, if the buyer intends to take a metal tablet, he should take care of 3G support.
- OTG support. If the tablet is equipped with the On-The-Go (OTG) function, the user will be able to connect a USB flash drive to it and import / export documents literally on the go.
- Stylus support. With the help of a stylus, it will be much more convenient and pleasant for the user to work with graphics. This material tells about the best tablets with a stylus.
- Expandable memory. The amount of internal memory of the device is not so important if the memory can be expanded with a MicroSD flash drive. It is not difficult to buy such a flash drive now - they are sold for next to nothing.
- GPS support /GLONASS. If the tablet is able to receive information from satellite systems, it is just right to upload the car navigator to Avito - the mobile device will cope with laying the route just as well.
Conclusion
Going to the store for a tablet, the buyer must clearly understand how he will use mobile device. To check mail and VK “at home”, an option with Wi-Fi is suitable, but for work it is better to take a gadget that supports 3G. A Wi-Fi tablet is cheaper, but once it's out of range, many of its useful features become unavailable.
Answering a question for yourself WiFi or 3G, the buyer should pay attention to the performance and display characteristics of the device. By purchasing a 4-core device with 2 GB of RAM and a Full HD display, the user will hardly experience any inconvenience while surfing the Internet.