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YugaTech Christmas Gadget Guide: Tablets

You can only do so much on a smartphone and not everyone needs the power of a laptop. Years ago, only a few people really wanted a tablet, but now that the form factor is finally realizing its full potential, we figured that it would be awesome to make a Christmas Gadget Guide to tablets.

Yugatech 728x90 Reno7 Series

tablets

7-inchers

For tablets, we found it very hard to recommend something marketed in the local scene as they aren’t there yet when it comes to giving a good multimedia experience. At Php9k, you can start to get that said experience with the Asus MemoPad HD 7. It features all the essentials you’ll need in a tablet from the display, a set of cameras, decent internals & good software. If a quad-core MediaTek CPU won’t cut it for you, you can always get more for a higher price.

NEXUS 7

Well enough, Asus still has you covered with the FonePad starting at Php11k for the 8GB version. Not only does it pack better hardware all around with an Intel Atom Z2460 CPU, but it also features phone capabilitites as you’d expect for those who need to make calls on their tablets without too much compromise.

While the 2nd-gen Google Nexus 7 is still techinically made by Asus, it offers a totally different experience. At Php13.5k, you get high-end internals from the Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU to the full HD 1080p display. To top all of that, you’ll be in line to get the latest version of Android ASAP.

8-inchers

Apple made the 8-inch tablet more known with the first iPad Mini. At Php13,500 – 15,500, you can get access to iOS’ loaded app store which contains the most number of tablet optimized apps & games. While it’s not the best in hardware, we’re pretty sure it does great nonetheless.

One of the newer tablets this year, the LG G Pad 8.3 packs amazing internals for a not so high price at around Php17k. It features a very fast Snapdragon 600 CPU, a premium build & a 1080p full HD IPS LCD display. The G Pad 8.3 is no doubt one of the best Android tablets you can get right now.

LG GPAD 83

It’s pretty hard to recommend any Windows RT tablet as of the moment, but for those looking for a complete Windows experience, take a good hard look at the Acer Iconia W3.  Ranging from Php17-20k, you can get a Windows 8.1 tablet running on an Intel Atom Z7260 CPU, 2GB RAM & 32GB internal storage. No make joke about it too as it can run legacy Windows applications!

On the stylus front, there’s only the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 at Php22k. The thing is, it’s no longer one of the most powerful tablets especially for the price. However if pocket productivity is your endgame, then the Galaxy Note 8.0 could be just the perfect tablet here for you. If you’re looking for something more recent though larger, you can get its bigger brother – the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition.

The 9-incher

ipad air

At 9.7-inches, it’s hard to count the Apple iPad Air as a 10-incher instead, all because Apple did a very good job at making the latest iPad a lot smaller and lighter than any of its competitors out there. It’s also packing cutting-edge hardware from the A7 CPU to the Retina Display. The 16GB version will cost you starting at Php25k.

10 & 11-inchers

If it weren’t for the recent launch of the Asus Transformer Book T100, I would have recommended the Dell Latitude 10, the Asus VivoTab Smart or the Samsung Ativ Smart PC. But anyway, now that the T100 is out, we’d have to tell you to look nowhere else as it offers an up-to-date Intel Atom Z3740 CPU, 2GB RAM, 64GB storage & a keyboard dock for as low as Php24k. Nothing offers the same package as the T100… unless maybe you need a rear-facing camera on your tablet.

Asus transformer book t100 ph

If Intel Atom CPUs on Windows 8 tablets won’t work for you just yet, you can get last years’ Microsoft Surface Pro at around Php57k. It offers a 10.6-inch full HD display, a 3rd generation Intel Core i5 CPU, 4GB RAM & 128GB of storage. The touch cover & the stylus are fancy accessories too if you need them.

Last but not least is the similar Samsung Ativ Smart PC Pro. At Php55k you get similar internals to the MS Surface Pro, but biggest difference would probably be the bigger 11.6-inch display. It also features an Intel Core i5 CPU, 4GB RAM & a keyboard dock.

Sadly, we do not have any Haswell-running tablets available locally right now, i.e. Surface Pro 2. We do not have the Retina iPad Mini too. We would have happily included them in this list if we found them but we can’t find them locally so we’ll just have to keep you posted! Feel free to tell us which tablet you’re planning to get in the comments section.

Also part of the YugaTech Christmas Gadget Guide:

We’ll try to out more guides soon!

Update: The iPad Mini with Retina Display gets priced at Php21k – enough to make it into this list! For those craving for Tegra 4, the Asus Transformer Pad TF701T is also out for Php28k.

Update 2: Looks like we have something more to consider: Dell Venue 8 Pro lands for Php18,999 / Microsoft Surface Pro 2 starts at Php60k

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Avatar for Bob Freking

Bob Freking occasionally contributes articles to the website. He is a UST Graduate of Commerce & Business Administration, Major in Marketing Management, and a full-time Sith Lord with three dragons.

15 Responses

  1. Avatar for a a says:

    galaxy note 10.1 for the win!

  2. Avatar for roiji roiji says:

    nakakainis, wala pa yung Asus Trasnformer Pad TF701 :(

  3. Avatar for zal zal says:

    9 incher IFIVE X2 Less than 10k pesos. Excellent Value for Money

  4. Avatar for tmcr7 tmcr7 says:

    Hi Bob! What can you say about the IFive Mini3? Looks great on paper and really cheap around 8k. :-)

    • Avatar for Bob Freking Bob Freking says:

      Looking good! Haven’t tested anything from them just yet so I can’t say too much about it. For the meantime, I’ll just point you guys towards the ‘tried and tested’.

  5. Avatar for Bartolo Colon Bartolo Colon says:

    Buti nabasa ko tong article na to. Samsung note 8.0 na dapat bibilhin ko, e mas astig pala yung LG G Pad, mas mura pa. Yun na ang bibilhin ko this christmas. Thanks Yugatech!

    • Avatar for Bob Freking Bob Freking says:

      Nice to hear we’ve helped. Tell us how you like the G Pad 8.3 when you get it!

    • Avatar for Loki Loki says:

      Parang wala pa ata sa pinas yung G Pad :/
      Sa ibang blogs nabasa ko nasa 21k+ daw…

      please give us more info. about this :)

    • Avatar for Bob Freking Bob Freking says:

      Local online shops have them for the price we mentioned. Officially though, we have no word yet but you can expect LG to sell it at around that price – 21k+.

    • Avatar for abuzalzal abuzalzal says:

      San nakakabili ng LG GPad dito sa Pinas?

    • Avatar for Maou Maou says:

      @Bob can you provide the links of those local online shops? Having a hard time looking for one. TIA

  6. Avatar for jayr jayr says:

    any news yet if there’s a local phone manufacturer that will bring this phone to us..
    this is the upgrade of SM knight..hopefully CM na makakuha nito pra cheaper.

    http://community.i-mobilephone.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=1338

    • Avatar for jayr jayr says:

      by the way it is the I-mobile IQ-X3..
      5.0 Full-HD, 1GB RAM, quad core, 2,700mah, 18MP rear, 8MP front..

  7. Avatar for Iyan Sommerset Iyan Sommerset says:

    Skipped an entire category of decent 10″ non-notebook tablets. My grandma’s been enjoying her Galaxy Tab 3 10″ for the past few months, and it sits nicely within the 14-16k php bracket for people who want something big but don’t wanna shell out more than 20 grand for a tablet.

    • Avatar for hafladhfskf hafladhfskf says:

      tab 3 10.1 is relatively overpriced if you look at its internals and screen. i’d say the nexus 10, but its only available from gray market sellers, for about 17k

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