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.

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.

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 Php13USD 0.22INR 19EUR 0.21CNY 2.5k, 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 Php13,500USD 230INR 19,502EUR 219CNY 1,675 – 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.

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 Php17USD 0.29INR 25EUR 0.28CNY 2-20k, 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

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.

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:

• YugaTech Christmas Gadget Guide: Laptops & Ultrabooks
• YugaTech Christmas Gadget Guide: Smartphones
• 6 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Buying a Gadget

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 Php18,999USD 324INR 27,446EUR 308CNY 2,358 / Microsoft Surface Pro 2 starts at Php60k