iPad 4 vs Nexus 10 vs Microsoft Surface vs Kindle Fire HD 8.9

Tablets including iPad 4, Nexus 10, Microsoft Surface, and Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 are becoming the most popular form of computing day by day with millions of units sold already. We recently did a specs comparison for phablets and smartphones so today we decided to do the same for tablets. The tablet market is already cannibalizing the sales of personal computers and this trend is expected to get even stronger in 2013. In this post we are going to take a look at the most popular tablets available in the market today and do a comparison of all to make it easier for you to consider them before making a purchase. Let’s start the comparison featuring iPad 4 vs. Nexus 10 vs. Microsoft Surface vs. Kindle Fire HD 8.9.

All these tablets, which we are concentrating on in this post feature beautiful hardware and really popular software which if evolved a bit more can take over the desktop platforms of today. One of the four tablets in this post, which is iPad 4th generation is powered by Apple’s iOS platform which is known for its apps. The two are powered by Google’s widely popular and dominant platform Android which is steadily gaining on the iPad. Android hasn’t been able to gain as much success in tablets as it enjoys in the world of smartphones. Fourth is from Microsoft called the Surface, which is powered by newly released Windows RT platform and combines the PC experience with tables making it an interesting warrior of the tablet battlefield.

Let’s take a look at different aspects of these tablets briefly.

Processing power

All of the tablets mentioned in this post feature really powerful processors and graphics abilities, which makes them run highly powerful and capable applications and makes using them smooth and lag free. The recently released Nexus 10 tablet comes with a dual-core chip, iPad 4th generation with a dual-core A6 processor with advanced graphics, Microsoft Surface with Nvidia Tegra 3 T30 quad-core chip and Amazon Kindle Fire HD with a Cortex A9 dual-core chip. These powerful processors provide tablets with high processing powers and limitless abilities of running high quality and feature rich apps.

Display

The size of the tablet’s display is a matter of personal choice. Many believe that the display should be at least 8 to 9-inches while others think that it should be 6-8-inches, which is a more portable form factor. Most tablet manufacturers have accommodated both types of people and have released at least two variants of their tablets. Apple released iPad mini along with the normal iPad. Google’s Nexus 7 has been successful and now the company has introduced Nexus 10. Same is true for Amazon, which has release a 8.9-inch version of Kindle Fire HD as well as a 7-inch version. Microsoft has only released Surface in one size but we expect that to change in the coming months as Microsoft is a company that follows market trends and is usually quick in responding to them if not the first.

All the tablets mentioned in the post have high quality displays with really high resolutions. Apple iPad 4th generation features retina display with a resolution of 1536 x 2048 pixels. Google’s Nexus 10 is the tablet with highest resolution available in the market today. It features a whooping resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels. Microsoft surface has a resolution of 1366 x 768 and Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch has 1920 x 1200 pixels.

 

Software

The operating system is the most important aspect of tablet devices and could be a deal breaker for most people. The availability of apps for the platform also plays a major role when a user decides about which tablet he or she wants. Right now on the apps front iOS has a major lead with over 275,000 dedicated tablet apps available for users along with other over 700,000 apps that run on both iPhone and iPad. Android is also catching up with iOS on this front however the exact number of apps available for Android tablets is unknown at this point. On the other hand Windows RT is relatively a new platform and will gain momentum of the apps front as it becomes more established and more devices are released powered by this OS.

Other than apps all the platforms that power these tablets including iOS, Android, and Windows RT feature some unique features of their own that not only make them different from each other but also give users a choice. The tablet market is very different from PC market which was single handedly dominated by Microsoft’s Windows platform for decades.

Camera

 

 

While taking pictures using tablet devices seems like a silly idea to me not having a camera on the device seems even more sillier. Tablet are really good for video calling thanks to their portability and larger screens that smartphones. iPad has both front and back cameras and provides video calling functionality with its built-in Facetime feature and a number of video calling apps. Same is true for other tablets as apps like Skype make it easier for everyone to video chat with their loved ones on the go.

Affordability

Well from the lot of tablets we have discussed in this post Nexus 10 is the most affordable tablet, which despite its price has not compromised on specs and features. In fact any of its specs out pass the specs of its biggest competitors. While Nexus 10′s price is quite low other tablets are also affordable and are priced at the range of $400-$650 with iPad being the most expensive of all four tablets.

Below you can find the detailed specs comparison of all the tablets.