We're well into the holiday season, and that means buying gifts, likely that one big gift that will make a loved one's day great. Tablets are fast becoming a favorite gift given price drops and a growing array of choices.
But that large selection leads to having to make an increasingly harder decision. Good thing we've put together a guide for the best tablets to buy this holiday season. Here's a good quick and easy way to make that gift decision much easier.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 - $349
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 is a slim, high-end tablet with a great display and enough power to satisfy most of the more power-hungry users among us.
The device has a design similar to the Galaxy S5 smartphone, which many have hailed as the best-looking Galaxy smartphone to date. One of the highlights of the device is the great display, coming in at 2,460 x 1,600 pixels. The pixel count makes the display look crisp and sharp, whether you're watching high-definition videos or simply browsing the web.
iPad Air 2 - $499
Couldn't go through a tablet roundup article without mentioning the new generation of iPads, could we?
The iPad Air 2 is the flagship of the iPad range, being not only thinner, but also more powerful. The device is 64-bit compatible and includes Apple's new tablet-specific A8X processor, able to handle vibrant graphics in apps or photo editing.
Although a little pricier than other tablets on the market, for Apple-lovers the iPad Air 2 is a no-brainer.
Nvidia Shield - $299
If you have a gamer in the family, then this is the gift for them.
Apart from being an incredibly spec'd device, with a Tegra K1 processor and 16 GB of expandable storage, the device's gaming capabilities make it a truly unique tablet.
The Shield offers a number of gaming options, including the ability to run any Google Play apps as well as play any of around 180 Shield-optimized games. That's not all, though. Users can also stream games from Nvidia Gamestream, which allows the tablet to stream games from a PC, even remotely.
Google Nexus 9 - $399
The Google Nexus 9 shows Google's Android 5.0 Lollipop as it was supposed to be shown. The Nexus 9, made by HTC, features the same Tegra K1 processor as the Nvidia Shield, memory options of 16 GB or 32 GB, and, of course, Google's latest version of Android.
Another reason Android fans will love this tablet is the fact that it, along with other Nexus and Google Play Edition devices, will get Android updates before most other Android devices.
Google Nexus 7 (2013) - $195
As mentioned before, Google Nexus devices get Android updates before most other devices, meaning that Google's Nexus 7 now runs Android 5.0 Lollipop.
While the device has been replaced, that doesn't mean that it's not a good tablet, especially for the price.
Featuring a 1920 x 1200 pixel display and a 5 MP rear-facing camera, the 16-GB Nexus 7 is a great budget-conscious choice for a stocking stuffer this holiday season.
