The holiday season is in full effect starting with Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Tablets are popular devices that shoppers like to give to loved ones on Christmas, and a spec comparison of three favorite tablets, Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9, Apple iPad Mini, and Google Nexus 10, can help make a decision.
Specs
The Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch tablet comes with Dolby Audio and in 16GB or 32GB. There is also a 4G LTE Wireless tablet that comes in 32GB or 64GB. Both come with a 1920x1200 HD display with "polarizing filter and anti-glare technology for rich color and deep contrast from any viewing angle." It also comes with a 1.5Ghz dual-core processor with Imagination PowerVR 3D Graphics core and a dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi for 40 percent fast downloads and streaming. The tablet offers up to 10 hours of reading, surfing the web, watching video, or listening to music. The 16GB model sells for $299, and the 16GB with 4G LTE sells for $499.
The iPad Mini has a 7.9-inch IPS LCD screen and run on Apple's new iOS 6 software. It is 23 percent thinner than the fourth-generation iPad. It has a display screen resolution of 1,024 x 768 and has a 35 percent larger display area than the Google Nexus 7, and is 67 percent larger to surf the Web. It has a A5 dual-core chip, 5 megapixel iSight camera on the rear of the tablet which can shoot 1080p HD video, 4G LTE and Wi-Fi support as well as the new Lightning connector available on the iPhone 5. It comes with a FaceTime HD camera and 10 hours of battery life. It has Wi-Fi that is twice as fast as previous generation iPads. It sells for $329 for the 16GB model.
The new Nexus 10 tablet features a 10.05-inch display with a resolution of 2,560x1,600 versus the iPad's resolution of 2,048x1,536 and a 300 ppi with a WQXGA Gorilla Glass 2 screen. It will have nine hours of continuous battery life and feature a 5MP rear-camera and a 1.9MP front-camera. It has 2GB of RAM and a 9,000 mAh battery. The tablet will also have micro USB and micro HDMI ports and has advanced MIMO WiFi, 4x faster than normal WiFi, according to Google Play, and runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. It comes with both 16GB and Wi-Fi for $399.99 or 32GB with Wi-Fi for $499.99.
Comparison
The iPad Mini wins when it comes to apps. The Apple app store is the number one leader in apps with over 700,000 of them, while Android is trailing behind.
In terms of price, the Kindle Fire seems to be the better deal. You get a high-performance tablet with a larger screen than the Mini, slightly smaller than the Nexus 10 for less money.
The Nexus 10 tablet has the highest resolution out of the three tablets, with the iPad Mini having the lowest. The tablet also runs on the latest Android 4.2 operating system, while the iPad Mini runs on the latest Apple iOS 6. Both the iPad Mini and Kindle have 10 hours of reading time, while the Nexus 10 only had nine hours.
A review by Huffington Post said that while the Kindle Fire had awesome features, it is an "over-featured eReader" only good for reading and super light email while the iPad Mini is a "full-featured" tablet with many apps.
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