We round up the best Android tablets on the market, from the Motorola Xyboard and Samsung Galaxy Tab to the new Kindle and Nook budget tablets.
The tablet market has been pretty chill in early 2012. Every phone and PC manufacturer jumped onboard the new hot trend, but few of them have seen much success so far. It’s still the iPad’s market to lose, though Amazon and Barnes & Noble have put forth some good low-cost challengers. If you have a bit more money to spend, we recommend you check out some of the odder sized tablets like the Galaxy Tab 7.7 , 8.9, or Motorola Xyboard 8.2. Below are our picks for best Android tablets. All in all, we would probably recommend the iPad over all of these. We’re not Apple fanboys, but the iPad is currently the best tablet.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9
 | Screen: 8.9 inches, 1280×800 pixels |
Description: The Galaxy Tab 8.9 is currently our favorite pure Android tablet. All of the new Samsung tablets are similar and good (10.1, 7.0, 7.7), but the 8.9 seems to be the perfect size for a tablet, enabling the full screen utility that comes with a 10.1-inch, but without the weight and bulk. It’s just small enough to thumb type on too. Read our full review. | |
Motorola Droid Xyboard 8.2
 | Screen: 8.2 inches, 1280×800 pixels Description: The Droid Xyboard 8.2 is a spiritual successor to the Xoom tablet and also has a 10.1-inch version, if you want a bigger screen. Like the 8.9, we’ve found the 8.2-inch screen to be a pleasant medium between 7-inch tablets, which are quite small, and 10-inch, which is sometimes a bit too big (if you’re going 10-inch, just get an iPad). Motorola’s interface is a bit bland, but those looking for a fairly pure Android experience, this is a good route to go. It has a 4G LTE version as well. Read our full review. |
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 LTE
 | Screen: 7.7-inch AMOLED screen, 1280×800 pixels Description: The Galaxy Tab 7.7 is the first of a few 7.7-inch tablets to feature a vivid AMOLED screen. Aside from that, it’s also one of the fastest tablets we’ve ever benchmarked and Verizon’s 4G LTE is great. The only issue is that this bad boy will cost you $600 unless you sign up for a 2-year contract. The 7.7-inch screen size works but is probably the minimum size for a fantastic tablet in our opinion. Read our full review. |
Amazon Kindle Fire
 | Screen: 7.0 inches, 600×1024 pixels Description: The Kindle Fire is not the most powerful tablet and doesn’t even have cameras, but it is the best value, offering a curated Amazon experience with the best UI we’ve seen in an Android tablet yet. But don’t buy this expecting access to the Android Market or Google apps. Read our review. |
Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet (16GB)
 | Screen: 7.0 inches, 600×1024 pixels Description: Everyone is hot on Amazon, but Barnes & Noble has had the second best-selling tablet for a year now. The Nook Tablet is the sequel to the Color. It’s a direct competitor to the Kindle Fire, costing $50 more (for the good version), but coming with microSD, double the RAM, and double the internal storage of the Fire. Also, did we mention that the Nook Tablet’s screen is a helluva lot brighter than Amazon’s? If you’re going to bother getting the Nook over the Kindle Fire, make sure to get the 16GB model. |
There are others…
When it comes to Android tablets, most recent tablets seem to follow similar specs–at least those running Android 3.0 or higher. The Toshiba Excite tablets are looking fantastic, though they aren’t out yet, and the Asus Transformer Prime is also a solid pick, though it has had issues with connectivity. Make sure to make sure your device has good built quality, has a 1GHz dual-core processor (or higher), and has at least 1GB of RAM. Access to the Android Market is also a must…unless you get a B&N or Amazon tablet. We’re hoping the next breed of great tablets run on Android 4.0 and quad-core processors. For a tablet, the better its processing power, the longer it will last you.
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