7 inch tablet is a field where the competition is very high and there are many big and small players with devices available for all of us. Asus opened the market for small screen computers with the introduction of their EEE PC 7 inch netbook. Since then there have been many tech giants trying to find the new gadget hit. First HP announced their Slate tablet, but failed to win the buyers as it came out late and at a high price. Then the Chinese manufacturers offered a 7 inch iPad knock off at a quite low price, but with very low level hardware. As time goes by most of the computer oriented companies released their own 7 inch tablets. The book retail leaders Amazon and Barnes&Noble are also entering with their own offerings.
The main purpose of a 7 inch tablet is entertainment, reading a book and maybe some web browsing. The size is just not enough for more serious tasks. As such the OS and software is not that important as long as it is designed for easy use and maximum control of the hardware. Most of the manufacturers lean towards Google Android as it is highly flexible and open to the world. It is cheaper alternative to Windows 7 base tablets and needs lower end hardware.
You can view all of the available 7 inch Android tablets HERE.
There are two 7 inch tablet models that stand out of the crowd. Both of them share the same screen resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels and that’s it.
Amazon Kindle Fire is an entertainment media device from the online retail leader Amazon. It has an IPS screen with multitouch. The processor is a 1 GHz dual core made by Texas Instruments. The on board storage is 8 GB, but you can store all your Amazon content on their cloud storage. This Wi-Fi only device has 1 GB of memory.
The pros:
Amazon’s 7 inch Android tablets has access to all of the Amazon’s digital content like books, movies, music, games and apps. The low $199 price tag makes it accessible to everyone. Amazon has also thought about a better browsing experience. It’s Silk technology pre-renders some of the web page’s elements before it send it to the device. This saves some CPU time and lowers the energy usage of the device. The battery lasts up to 8 hours.
Cons:
Surprisingly Kindle Fire has no camera which would have been a nice feature. Unfortunately currently it is only available in the US.
You can view the full list of features and more reviews HERE.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 Plus is on the other end of the line. It has a PLS touch screen and a dual core 1.2 GHz CPU. This 7 inch tablet is available with 16 or 32 GB of installed storage. The OS is Android 3.2 Honeycomb with TouchWiz.
The pros:
Front facing 2 megapixel camera brings you video chat and self recording, while with the 3 megapixel back camera you can record 720p HD videos. With the help of the Android Kindle app Galaxy Tab 7 Plus can access all of the Amazon’s content plus it has access to Samsung’s Hub services.All of this comes in a stylish brushed metal body
Cons:
The price tag of $399 for the 16 GB model and $499 for the 32GB model might be a drawback for the ones with limited budget. And that’s it!
Check the latest price of Samsung’s 7 inch Tablet and read more owner’s reviews about it HERE.
When choosing a tablet to purchase, make sure you review the specs very careful and think about the things you will need it for. If you have some questions, please drop me a line in the comments section below.