Table Of Content

1 1 2 Written by Brian Johnson 2 3 Hi guys, welcome back! Ho..ho..ho.. Christmas is about to arrive guys. And that means, in the next few weeks, every corner of your town is gonna be decorated with many beautiful lights and Christmas trees all over the place, including your house as well. But what exactly is the best thing to do in this holiday season besides decorating your Christmas tree and hanging out with your family? 3 4 If you ask me, i probably would advise you to start getting some new contents like movies, music or games on your tablet. But the question is, what if you don‟t have any tablet at your disposal? Well, if that is your situation right now, then the best solution for you is of course buy a tablet before the holiday starts. But you‟re probably confused right now about what kind of tablet that you might want to pick up this holiday season. As a normal consumer who are looking for a tablet, you might think that iPad Air 2 or iPad mini with Retina is a great choice, right? Well, you‟re probably right about that. However, besides these 2 Apple‟s tablets, there is still a lot of other great options out there from other different brands that i believe are also as great as iPads. This is why i‟m here ready to help you. Below, i will show you 21 great quality tablets from varied different manufacturers all across the world, including the iPads. But i probably won‟t talk a lot about these Apple‟s tablets because – state of the obvious -, they are simply great quality tablets, in terms of design, build quality, experience and bla.. bla.. bla... That's why, in the list below, i‟ll put more focus on other tablets besides iPads. But don't worry, these iPads will still be included in the list. Okay then, without further ado, here you go, 21 great quality tablets that you might want to buy this holiday season. Enjoy! 4 5 1. Nvidia Shield Specs: DirectStylus 2, 8.0 inch Capacitive touchscreen 1920 x 1200 pixels, Dual bass reflex port audio, microSD Memory Card slot for up to 128GB, Internal 16 GB, 2 GB RAM, 5 MP rear-facing HDR camera, 5 MP front-facing camera with HDR, Android OS 4.4.2 KitKat, Quad-core 2.2 GHz Cortex-A15 Nvidia Tegra K1, ULP GeForce Kepler 192-core GPU, 19.75 Wh Li-Ion battery If you‟re looking for a great quality gaming tablet that currently has the BEST gaming performance on the market right now, then your destination is definitely Nvidia Shield Tablet ($299.00). This tablet actually just launched around few months ago, but this tablet is just amazing and superior than any other rivals on the market right now, even the new-gen iPads. And that‟s mostly because this Nvidia Shield Tablet is just great in the whole aspect and offers a lot of great benefits that any other tablets don't. 5 6 First of all, this tablet is powered by an extremely strong Tegra K1 processor, coupled with a staggering 192-core Kepler GPU, plus 2GB of RAM. According to many benchmark tests, not only did this processor manage to deliver 3 times graphical performance as Apple‟s iPad Air (A8 SoC), but it‟s also capable to bring the same graphics power of today‟s desktops or PCs on a tablet device. Can you believe that? So with that being said, then Nvidia Shield Tablet is definitely ahead of most of the competitors out there, in both performance and graphics power. But the more impressively is, this NVIDIA‟s homemade tablet is also able to play some PS3 and PC ported games, like Trine 2, Half Life 2, Unreal Engine 4 demos and some other titles from console/PC developers. So yes - Nvidia Shield Tablet is the best gaming tablet out there right now, alongside Xiaomi MI Pad and Google Nexus 9 (which both are also powered by Tegra K1 processor). And the other great thing about this device is, NVIDIA also releases a separate Xbox-alike controller – which 6 7 according to many reviews, it works great on this tablet -, which can be paired together with Nvidia Shield Tablet using the Bluetooth connection. So in terms of gaming experience, this tablet is just unmatched by other rivals and even the iPad Air. Not only that, besides great for playing games, Nvidia Shield Tablet is also a great device for taking notes and even drawing pictures. And that‟s thanks to stylus that comes packed on this tablet. If you haven‟t known already, the stylus of Nvidia Shield Tablet is also as great as the S-Pen on Samsung GALAXY Note devices, especially when it comes to writing experience. The touch response is really fast and every result occurs in real time on- the-fly to the screen, plus its thickness can be easily controlled manually according to your pressure on the screen. Not only that, it also has the palm-recognition feature, which will prevent your palm from being registered on the screen when using the stylus. So long story short, the stylus of Nvidia Shield Tablet is just AWESOME. And the more impressively, you can even draw some professional paintings with this stylus. The spec sheet of this tablet is also one other strongest point of Nvidia Shield Tablet ($299.00). It has an 8-inch display sporting the 1080p full HD resolution, 5MP cameras front and back (which take great shots by the way), microSD card slot, LTE, 2GB of RAM and a bunch of other goodies. 7 8 So you‟ll make no mistake if you decide to buy this tablet, even if you‟re only looking for a basic media-consumption device. This is why i put Nvidia Shield Tablet in my top choice of tablet this year. It‟s just top notch in the whole aspect, even than the iPads. 2. Google Nexus 9 Specs: 8.9 inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen 1536 x 2048 pixels, 4G LTE, Dual- core 2.3 GHz Denver Nvidia Tegra K1 64-bit Chipset, Kepler DX1 GPU, 2 GB RAM, Android OS, v5.0 (Lollipop), No Memory Card slot, 16/32 GB Internal storage, 8 MP rear-facing camera LED flash, 1.6 MP front-facing camera, xxx , Non- removable Li-Po 6700 mAh battery Besides NVIDIA Shield Tablet aforementioned above, there's also another Tegra K1 tablet coming from other manufacturer. This one is Google Nexus 9, which is manufactured by HTC but it‟s a Google- branded tablet under the Nexus flag. However, unlike NVIDIA Shield Tablet above – and Xiaomi Mi Pad -, this Google Nexus 9 ($399.99) is powered by a more powerful dual-core 8 9 Tegra K1 Denver processor with 64-bit architecture, as opposed to the 32-bit quad-core Tegra K1 processor inside NVIDIA Shield Tablet and Xiaomi Mi Pad. So when it comes to performance, it‟s no brainer that Google Nexus 9 will be more superior and powerful than its 2 counterparts. Google Nexus 9 comes with Google‟s latest and greatest Android 5.0 Lollipop – which is the world‟s first tablet that ships with Lollipop out of the box -, (but has been followed by NVIDIA recently with the release of Android 5.0 Lollipop for its NVIDIA Shield Tablet a few months ago). So in terms of performance and experience, this new Lollipop update could really help a lot in making this tablet run much even faster and smoother, plus more efficient in battery life. Unlike NVIDIA Shield Tablet, however, this Google Nexus 9 doesn‟t come packed with stylus – along with its technology. So if you want a note tablet that is also a great gaming device, then you might want to switch to NVIDIA Shield Tablet instead. It may have a lower-resolution screen or 32-bit processor than Google Nexus 9, but i believe this NVIDIA‟s tablet will provide more benefits than what Google Nexus 9 has to offer. 9 10 On the other hand, if you‟re looking for a productivity tablet, your best shot is definitely on Google Nexus 9 as this tablet also comes with keyboard dock or keyboard cover (sold separately, but is not available yet for now). In term of gaming performance, this Google Nexus 9 is probably similar with NVIDIA Shield Tablet or Xiaomi Mi Pad -, given their similar Tegra K1 processor. However, given that the Tegra K1 processor inside Google Nexus 9 is made with 64-bit architecture, then its gaming performance probably will be more superior than on its 2 counterparts. But even so, both tablets in my opinion are equally great. Any games that you see today on the market, can all be played smoothly and perfectly, plus in full graphics on this device. No argue about that. Not to mention, you‟re also able to play many PS3 and PC ported titles like Trine 2, Half Life 2, Unreal Engine 4 demos and many future console- quality games on this tablet. 10