We’re long past the point where the most popular tablets had 10 inches worth of display, and the original Apple iPad had just been released. Since 2010 when this was news, the tablet market has grown considerably, and now we have high quality tablet devices at very reasonable prices. The dimensions have also slimmed down a bit, as we’re about to see. Today we’re comparing three of the most popular tablet devices available, positioned at different levels in the market in terms of pricing. That being said, let’s dig in and see which device is best for you.
The tablets we are going to be reviewing today are the iPad Mini 2 from Apple, Amazon’s Kindle Fire HDX and Google’s Nexus 7.
Al three tablets have elements that make the devices worth looking at, and pretty safe to say that they are rather different from one another. Starting right from the beginning , all three come with different operating systems. The Amazon tablet, Kindle Fire HDX comes with a rendition of Fire OS 4, which is based on Google’s Android 4.4 KitKat with a touch of personalization from the UI. The iPad comes, of course, with Apple’s IOS8. Each is backed up by its own online market. Apple’s App Store takes care of the iPad, while the Google device relies on the Play Store. Amazon, on the other hand is putting its retailing service to use.
Design
The Apple iPad Mini 2 is the thinnest of the bunch, measuring only 7.5 mm in thickness. It sports an appearance similar to that of its predecessor, and also to the Nexus 7. The screen is wider, however, and the bezels are really narrow. The classic Apple Home button is located on the front of the device .Meanwhile, the back is made out of aluminum. Out of the three, this is the device which feel the most high-end, due to its metallic body.
The 2013 Nexus 7 tablet is thinner and also lighter in comparison to the previous Nexus 7 mode. The body is made of polycarbonate that has a matte finish to it. The bezels are narrower as well, just as in the case of the iPad.
The Kindle Fire HDX is very similar to the previous models, although its back panel features a far more out of the ordinary design, unlike other devices. The design of the device is completed by stereo speakers and the contoured lines around the edges give it a nice touch.
Display
In terms of display, all three devices feature a similar configuration. All three have their ppi pixel density above 320 and use the IPS LCD technology to power the screen. You could say that you will get a pretty good experience with either display.
Processor
The configuration of the Nexus 7 2013 isn’t entirely bad, although it has a pretty old processor that won’t be able to keep up at top performance rates. It packs the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad core processing unit, clocked at 1.5 GHz. It also features 2 GB of RAM which back it up. The tablet still relies on Google, however, as the Android 4.4 KitKat gives it a little boost.
The iPad Mini 2 sure is stiff competition in this category, as it relies on Apple’s A7 processor, which is a 64-bit chip. Putting this chip with next-gen architecture into a very well managed, closed environment, such as Apple’s iOS, will only result in high performance rates. The advancement with the 64-bit architecture promises even further performance once more developers will switch to 64-bit.
Clocked at 2.2 GHz, the quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor teams up with the included 2 GB of RAM to bring you pretty high performance. The Kindle Fire HDX comes with a modified version of Android Jelly Bean which was specially design to suite Amazon’s purposes. Although we are unsure of what the tweaked OS can do, it’s unlikely that the device will give an overall bad performance, given the fact that it comes with the Snapdragon 800 chip.
While neither device comes with support for microSD, they have to rely on their internal memory. The Nexus 7 is the weakest in this category, with only a 16 and a 32 GB version, whereas the other two each have a 16 GB version, followed by 32 and 64 GB variants for the Amazon Kindle Fire HFX, and either 64 or 128 GB for the iPad Mini 2.
On Amazon.com, the Kindle Fire HDX is about $200, while the iPad Mini 2 and Nexus 7 are about $350 and $215 respectively.
Related ItemsAmazon Kindle Fire HDX vs iPad Mini 2 vs Nexus 7
