It's well over a year since Apple reignited the tablet world with the release of the iPad. Since then the market has evolved quite a bit, but to be honest, not nearly so fast as many of us had expected.
But now, after a few price reductions, and after several tablets have matured a little and started to gain a real foothold in the market, it makes sense to compile a list of the ones that are genuinely worthy of consideration - worth spending money on to use every day for entertainment and for business, not just to see how well tablets work.
Apple iPad 2
The original and best - for now.
This is the second coming of the Jobsian fondle-slab and yes, the iPad still wins most buyers' hearts. The iPad's screen is clear and bright, and the software is smooth - even the document production and movie editing work pretty well considering the limitations of a touchscreen input and a processor which is still smaller than on modern PCs so as to reduce power hungriness.
So why wouldn't you buy an iPad? Well in some ways it's a one-size-fits-all solution - it's a fantastically well-designed compromise of all the options you might value. But if you need something cheaper, smaller, larger, with better cameras, with a more open software environment... or just something that plays Flash. In short, if you value something particular, then there'll probably now be a tablet out there that makes more sense.
But remember that the iPad's going to be the most popular choice amongst your friends for a year or so yet. And because there are so many iPads out there, you'll get the best choice of apps to buy in the App Store - and the best selection of accessories.
Talking of Accessories
A wide choice of accessories is a very good sign of a healthy market and a promising product - for the iPad and all the other recommended tablets you can see the number of accessories available through Amazon via the links on the right.
The number available when we updated this page is shown below the panel of the most popular three. New accessories will become available if the tablet is popular. By clicking the number on the right you will be able to see how it's changed by the time you read this.
[When you see the results page, you may have to click Go to get the search to work. Also, keep in mind that this is a highly inexact measure - but the results probably do have some value.]
All of the non-iPad tablets in this list run on the Android platform, in case this using the version called Honeycomb - the first that Google developed specifically for tablets rather than for mobile phones. The Transformer originally sold with Honeycomb 3.0 but now an updates to 3.1 or 3.2 (still called
Honeycomb) are available.
A new version of the Transformer is expected around January 2012 which is slimmer, faster, and of course, pricier. This new Transformer Prime (TF201) will be amongst the first to receive the newest version of Android (4.0 - Ice Cream Sandwich)
What also makes the Transformer special is that it transforms (you see how the clue has been subtly worked into the name?) Yes, it can transform into something which looks very much like a notebook. Other tablets can perform this trick: this accessory
does it for an iPad.
Asus, though, have designed the Transformer from the ground up to have this split personality - and they've made quite a good job of it. The dock works nicely, containing batteries to boost the the number of hours that you can work away from the home or office, and there's software pre-installed so that you can link to your desktop PC and then the Transformer can behave just like a notebook - at least while you're in WiFi range, for instance at Starbucks.
In fact, you could also dispense with your office PC altogether, sit the Transformer on your office desk and let it access the virtualised ghost of your old Windows PC preserved in a host server in the office or in the Cloud.
In this way, it's possible to use the Android environment for Email, for web browsing and for simpler documents while returning to the old Windows environment for complex documents and legacy applications. Over time, new Android apps may replace the Windows ones, but for the next few years, a hybrid device like the Transformer could help with the transition.
The latest Honeycomb update also improves access to USB peripherals and the transformer dock has the USB socket for the purpose. You would need a larger tablet for your work and the Transformer is the only one we have recommended with the larger 1280 x 800, 10-inch screen. But to be honest, that's still quite small to sit alone on your office desk.
This French company comes between the huge global players like Samsung or Apple on the one hand and the white box manufacturers like Tabtech or A1CS, on the other whose websites can be mysteriously hard to find.
But not so with Archos, which has a proper website and telephone support of a sort.
Their new Gen 9 series of tablets has been quite well received and is still cheaper than many of the big brand alternatives. They come with Android Honeycomb an update to Ice Cream Sandwich has been promised for early next year. Updates for Archos' earlier tablets (which go back a long way) have arrived in the past.
If you have a smaller bag and some impressive TV / audio equipment around your house
This tablet just squeezed the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 out of the list. The Galaxy is a slimmer, neater package, but this one has a few more features - particularly TV remote and some (apparently oldish) Playstation games.
Although their first tablet is a little late to the market, Sony have a good track record and quite an extensive ecosystem extending from TVs and a film catalogue to bricks and mortar shops in the UK.
The tablet itself is very similar to the Asus Transformer 1 on the inside, with the same dual core 1GHz processor and the same 1280 x 800 resolution. But the screen is smaller at 9.4" diagonally with a novel folded-magazine-shaped enclosure.
It has a DLNA interface and an infra-red TV / audio remote control sender, but rather arrogantly there is an assumption that everyone has DLNA equipment and the tablet itself has no HDMI connector and no dock for transferring via HDMI.
If you really would prefer to leave your bag a home altogether.
At 5.3", this is by far the smallest tablet on our list. Many column inches have been expended on whether it should really be looked on as a mobile phone - it has full phone functionality and runs the slightly older Android 2.3 Gingerbread platform which is better suited to phones in some ways. For most users this is probably quite an academic distinction and the tablet / phone / thing will probably shortly be getting the update to Ice Cream Sandwich anyway.
Of course, as it is so phonish, it can be bought with a contract and will be more enthusiastically pushed by the cellular providers.
The screen on this "thing" is considered to be just about the best currently available on any "thing" and it has more-or-less the fastest dual-core processors as well.
It also comes with a cute little stylus which has a very handy screenshot feature and allows for very accurate selection of hyperlinks on your web page, or for the annotation of PDF files, notes and the like. There's a slot for the stylus, but of course there is also the risk of losing it and having to get a new one.
Subscribe to news updates via RSS Feed
does it for an iPad.