Top 5 best laptop-replacement tablets you can get this holiday season
Not everyone likes to lug around a laptop bag everywhere, but a physical keyboard is still a commodity that is very hard to give up, not to mention the availability to desktop apps.
The good news is that we don’t necessarily have to compromise on comfort, convenience, nor performance.
The tablet has come a long way from its modest beginnings, and thanks to more powerful ARM processors, modern tablets can let users do more on the go, than your average 2010 model laptop. While we still have a way to go before the next big tablets announcements of 2017, let’s have a look at five of the most powerful and versatile tablets available this holiday season.
The iPad Pro was first announced last year, as a “laptop killer”, alongside its companion accessory, the Apple Pencil: the second stylus built by Apple, in almost 20 years. The 12.9 inch version was the first to be introduced to the masses, with a resolution of 2732x2048 pixels on an amazingly sharp Retina display. The iPad Pro is powered by Apple’s own 64-bit A9X CPU, coupled with an M9 coprocessor.
The battery on the latest generation iPad can last up to 10 hours, thanks to a modular battery design inspired by the 12 inch MacBook Retina, also introduced in 2015. The storage sizes available on the iPad Pro,range from 32GB, up to 256GB. One of the most notable features of the iPad Pro is the quadraphonic sound, from four speakers located at the four corners of the tablet. The sound is dynamically controlled depending on the position of the tablet. For instance, when watching a movie, the left and right speakers will switch when turning the tablet upside down, as the screen rotates.
The 9.7 inch version of the Apple iPad Pro has everything you love about the regular sized iPad Pro, in an iPad Air 2 form factor. The new tablet, introduced this year, is powered by the same A9X processor as the 12.9 inch version, and features a True Tone display. Apple Pencil is also compatible with this version. The sound system features the same quad-speakers as its bigger brother.
The 4th generation of Microsoft’s flagship tablet PC is one of the best Windows 10 tablets on the market. The 12.3 inches proprietary PixelSense multi touch display is a direct descendant from the original Surface 1.0 “tabletop” PC introduced by Bill Gates in 2009. Its latest generation has a native resolution of 2736 x 1824 pixels, driven by an Intel HD Graphics 515 chipset. Powered by Intel Skylake, comes with Microsoft Surface Pen, the universally supported stylus designed to work across the full range of Surface devices, as well as many third-party capacitive tablet PCs.
Samsung in universally recognized for its signature Galaxy tablets running Android, but the latest models of Windows 10 Samsung Galaxy tablets sports some pretty impressive specs. The Pro S comes with a detachable keyboard, and runs on an Intel Core M3 processor. On-board memory is 4GB, with a 128GB SSD.
One of the greatest features about this tablet is its battery life, which lasts about 10 hours, thanks to its energy-efficient AMOLED display.
Lenovo has held on tight to the title of leader in non-Apple computing devices for home users. LEnovo desktop and laptop PCs have dominated the market worldwide, for being the most affordable and popular option available, alongside historical names like Compaq, HP, and Gateway. Today, Lenovo is all-in on manufacturing powerful tablet PCs that can easily outperform its own former desktop and laptop offerings. Lenovo IdeaPad Mix is the closest Lenovo has got to building a Microsoft Surface clone, with some features even reminiscent of the Apple iPad, with a certain level of imagination.
As a matter of fact, the Lenovo IdeaPad looks like a hybrid device, somewhere in between a Microsoft Surface Pro 4, and an Apple iPad Pro.
The design of the IdeaPad features a detachable keyboard from a slate tablet component, the latter of which sports a kickstand similar in working principle to the Surface.
Much like the Surface, IdeaPad’s 12 inch display is powered by an Intel HD Graphics 515 chipset, alongside a 900MHz M3 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 64GB SSD.
While the processing speed might seem a little low for a Windows 10 PC (considering that Microsoft’s recommended specs is at least 1GHz), the IdeaPad still holds its own for performance within the ultra-thin category.
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