Top 3 small tablets: Comparison

iPad Mini is making waves across the world. The small 7.85 inch tablet from market leader Apple has established an instant cord with the tab lovers across the world. With the sort of response it is receiving, the naysayers’ claim that it wouldn’t be able to compete with existing market leaders has proven without any basis.

Apple products cannot be written off so early and detractors have been forced to backtrack on the promised failure of the small tablet from Apple. But unlike in the past when most Apple tablets went unchallenged, this time Apple will have to fight a tough battle against entrenched market leaders including Amazon and Google that made its foray in the small tablet market just a couple of months ago with the introduction of Nexus 7.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire was the undisputed market leader in the small tab segment. But it received its first major credible challenge from Google’s Nexus 7 that came loaded with very impressive display and a very powerful processor. Now the competition is going to be really very tough in the segment unlike the bigger 10 inch tablet segment where Apple still enjoys complete dominance over its rivals.

Now the competition seems to be very tough between three small tablets including iPad Mini, Google Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD. It is sure that two major products iPad Mini will challenge are Google Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire HD. Google’s Asus built tablet has been around in market for a while. It has been getting great attention. Amazon recently introduced its new Kindle Fire HD. Along with iPad Mini, Kindle Fire HD will also be hitting stores. Here we make a comparison between these three devices.

Apple’s iPad will run on the powerful and very refined operating system from Cupertino based company iOS 6. The new update to the Apple firmware has many new features. It brings Siri to tablets and it has better cloud and performance traits. On the other hand Google’s Nexus 7 will run on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. To be true, Nexus 7 is the first device to get the brand new OS update from Google. The new Kindle Fire HD, on the other hand, is to hit stores with an extremely skinned version of Android 4.0 ICS.

When it comes to display, Apple’s new iPad Mini will be the biggest of the lot. It comes with a 7.9-inch IPS display that has a resolution of 1024×768 pixels at 163ppi. The company has given up Retina display obviously to cut costs. Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD 7 on the other hand sport the same 7-inch IPS displays with 1280×800 pixels at 216-ppi. Both the tabs have a slight edge over iPad Mini with slightly better resolution and pixel density, but they have rather smaller displays. But Apple’s smaller iPad seems to have a slight edge over its competitors as it is slightly bigger in size.

Apple’s iPad also scores over its competitors when it comes to its refined manufacturing quality. It is also thinnest of them all. Though larger than Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD, iPad Mini is the thinnest and lightest with a 0.28-inch and 308gm body. It is taller at 7.9 inches and wider at 5.3 inches. Nexus 7 comes second in thinness and weight respectively with 0.41 inches and 340gm. Kindle Fire is thicker at 0.45 inches and weightier at 400gms. Both the devices have almost the same height and width.

When it comes to power and processing qualities, Nexus 7 lords over the other two tablets. The small iPad is powered by a dual core A5 processor. In this department, Nexus 7 is the shining star with a quad core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor. It is the first small screen tablet to get a quad core chipset. Amazon has placed in a 1.2GHz dual core TI OMAP4460 CPU inside its new Kindle Fire HD. Like its new iPhones, Apple will sell iPad Mini in three memory versions; 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. The company doesn’t offer microSD slot for expanding memory, though. Nexus 7 is up there in two memory options, 8GB and 16GB. It is heard that Google is now planning to launch a 32GB version for the device. Kindle Fire HD, at the same time, comes in 16GB and 32GB versions. Both Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire respectively offer GDrive and Amazon Cloud Drive cloud storages.

In one aspect iPad Mini wins hands down over its rivals. Apple has slotted in a 5MP iSight rear camera on iPad Mini. It offers 1080p HD video recording and other advanced camera features. The device sports a 1.2MP front camera for 720p HD video chats. Both Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD skip rear cameras. The devices have front cameras of moderate qualities for video chatting facility.

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Posted by admin on November 2, 2012. Filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry