YugaTech Christmas Gadget Guide 2014: Tablets

Unlike in the smartphone segment, consumers have lesser options when it comes to tablets. Nevertheless, we rounded up our list of best tablets that you can reward yourself or buy for your techie significant other this holiday season.

7-inchers

If you’re on a tight budget, you can easily find a decent 7-inch slate that costs around three to four grand. Apart from the ones you can see on booths of some unknown brands, Cherry Mobile also has a few tablets (Fusion Breeze 2, Fusion Aura and Superion Radar) that costs less than Php3,000USD 51INR 4,334EUR 49CNY 372.

Have an extra grand or two to shell out? If you’re looking for a tablet from a reputable brand, we highly recommend these two: the Acer Iconia B1-730 and the ASUS FonePad 7 (FE170CG).

When it comes to bang-for-the-buck tablet, I think we can all agree that the Acer B1-730 takes the cake for its ridiculously-competitive price tag (Php4,488USD 76INR 6,483EUR 73CNY 557) and pretty decent features you don’t usually see in a tablet at this price point.

Now if you want phone functionalities with your tablet and you don’t mind shelling out a little extra on it, the ASUS FonePad 7 FE170CG should be a good choice. Priced at only Php5,995USD 102INR 8,660EUR 97CNY 744, this tablet offers strong battery life, great sound output and it can also double as a dual-SIM smartphone for your voice call and SMS needs.

Tablets running on Windows 8 are slowly becoming more and more affordable. Sadly though, most of them have not made it to our shore. Luckily, there are a few like the HP Stream 7 which currently retails for Php7,999USD 136INR 11,555EUR 130CNY 993 that are locally available for consumers who wants full Windows experience on their tablet PC.

Now if you’re into graphics intensive games, then the Cherry Mobile Tegra Note 7 should be a good candidate. As its name implies, this Php9,999USD 170INR 14,445EUR 162CNY 1,241-worth slate (non-LTE variant) is powered by a 1.8Ghz quad-core processor from NVidia with 1GB of RAM, as well as a 72-core NVidia GeForce GPU.

Despite of being the oldest in the group, the 2nd Gen Google Nexus 7 is still a worthy consideration if you’re looking for a sub-Php10K, 7-inch slate. If you know where to look, you can get the 16GB WiFi-only variant of this tablet for under Php10,000USD 170INR 14,446EUR 162CNY 1,241 which is quite a steal considering that it has full-HD display, Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU paired to a 2GB of RAM.

8-inchers

Folks that want to complement their existing Apple devices with iPad Mini 3 (available in some online stores). Or you can settle with the iPad Mini 2 if you want to save a few bucks.

If you’re not into the iOS platform though, here are some non-Apple options that you can choose from.

Much like in the previous category, Cherry Mobile offers budget-conscious buyers with a set of affordable 8-inch slates that ranges from Php3,699USD 63INR 5,344EUR 60CNY 459 (Fusion Storm) all the way to Php7,499USD 128INR 10,833EUR 122CNY 931 (Superion Odyssey).

Starmobile also has a couple of 8-inchers namely the Engage 8 Quad+ (Php6,990USD 119INR 10,098EUR 113CNY 867) and the Engage 8 3G (Php9,990USD 170INR 14,432EUR 162CNY 1,240). These are slightly more expensive than CM’s offerings, but both of them feature aluminum bodies which makes it easy to justify the price difference.

For those of you who don’t mind not having data connectivity on your tablet, the Acer Iconia Tab 8 should be an interesting proposition. Priced at Php10,990USD 187INR 15,876EUR 178CNY 1,364, this tablet sports a IPS display with WUXGA (1920×1200) resolution, quad-core Intel Atom processor with 2GB of RAM and an expandable 16GB of internal storage.

Acer also has something for the Windows lover out there. The Acer Iconia W4-820 has a “Zero Air Gap” IPS display with HD resolution, slightly the same internal configuration, but it runs on Windows 8.1 and it comes with a bundled wireless keyboard. These minor improvements do cost extra though, extra eight grand to be exact, which may be a little too hard to justify.

On the other hand, if you don’t mind splurging a bit for your 8-inch tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 should be worthy investment. The combination of its flagship specs, and its sub-Php18K price tag (see listing here) makes it a real must-have.

But if you want a slate that can handle a good amount of water, the new, but pricey, Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact is a good choice. The IP68-certified tablet has a price tag of Php31,990USD 545INR 46,213EUR 519CNY 3,970.

9-inchers

Unlike last year, the Apple iPad Air isn’t the only note-worthy candidate in this year’s Christmas Guide.

It’s now joined by the Google/HTC Nexus 9 which has unofficially made available locally though Kimstore.

The Apple iPad Air will set you back Php20,490USD 349INR 29,600EUR 333CNY 2,543 while the Nexus 9 can be had for Php18,999USD 324INR 27,446EUR 308CNY 2,358.

10-inchers

Consumers have fewer options to choose from in the 10-inch department, but the Cherry Mobile Alpha Morph is a little hard to beat because it combines decent specifications with super competitive price tag (Php11,999USD 204INR 17,334EUR 195CNY 1,489).

Now if you want more storage and significantly better build, then look no further than the ASUS Transformer T100T. It costs two times more (Php23,995USD 409INR 34,663EUR 389CNY 2,978) than the Alpha Morph, but you get a more respectable keyboard with 500GB of storage built-in, a more pixel-packed display, and a more powerful processor.

The 10-inch variant of the recently launched Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 should also be on your shortlist, especially if you’re looking for an Android slate with a 10-inch display. It’s currently being retailed for Php19,999USD 341INR 28,891EUR 325CNY 2,482, but the first few buyers will get an instant Php1,800USD 31INR 2,600EUR 29CNY 223 off on its SRP when bought from any of the Lenovo Exclusive Stores nationwide.

12-inchers

Now if you really want to go big, we have a couple of impressive slates here running Android and Windows. As expected, these two don’t come cheap.

For Android lovers, we have the Samsung Galaxy Note PRO 12.2 with an introductory price of Php36,990USD 630INR 53,436EUR 600CNY 4,590 for the WiFi-only model.

But if you want a portable workhorse, you can get the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 which is now available at Villman for Php69,999USD 1,193INR 101,121EUR 1,136CNY 8,687.

There you have it guys! That’s our Christmas Gift Guide: Tablets for this year. We hope our list helped you out in picking the right tablet for you. If you have any suggestions, feel free to let us know in the comments field below.