Manufacturers like OnePlus, Huawei, Motorola and Xiaomi have done a great job disrupting the smartphone market in the last couple years, offering very well appointed phones with superior user experiences and a relatively low price tag. The Nexus 7 offered the same level of disruption back in 2012, but I am left wondering what has happened to the 7-inch Android tablet market since then, wondering if it will ever regain that prestige, or be left to the disappointment that is most budget devices found today.
5-inch TomTom GPS car mount, there is a good chance your 7-inch tablet will fit in it. Your 8-inch or larger tablet will not. Not to mention, Taylor over on Android Authority proves that the Nexus 7 is the perfect fit for most in-dash installations. I’ve measured my car stereo to be within a fraction of an inch the same size as my Nexus 7. It’s like it was meant to be.
You can forget about $50, or even $200, those flagship tablets will run you at least $500 and can reach $1500 or more. With these great tablets all commanding high price tags, why not have a worthy high-end 7-inch Android tablet at the $300-$500 price point? There are a few, but you might not like what they are or what they offer.
16:9 7″ is the ideal tablet size for me and I share your pain of not having a single solid model at hand. The next best thing I found is the first nVidia Shield which fulfills many of my wishes like a rubberized back, front facing stereo speakers, integrated stylus 16:9, but it is 8″ and when I look for preowned ones (you cannot get them new anymore) most of them are broken, which does not speak for its overall quality ?
I cannot deny that many who shared my passion for the Nexus 7 – either the original 2012 model or the updated 2013 model – have long since moved on to other devices. Many of those have chosen a large screen phone, measuring in around 6-inches or larger themselves. With this availability of powerful phones at nearly the same size, should anyone still be excited for a 7-inch Android tablet?
That’s right, we can’t put together a list like this and exclude the tablet that made us fall in love with tablets. Let me be clear though, Google has officially discontinued this device in favor of the newer and larger Nexus 9, but you can still find this tablet elsewhere. Also, the 2012 version is just too old and tired, please don’t bother with it if you need a general purpose device, it’ll let you down.
Not to be confused with a great tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 is still as solid of an offering as you’re likely to find out there, especially for a 2014 era device. Expect as old as Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box, with a quad-core processor and 1.5GB of RAM. You are still looking at 8GB of internal storage, expandable with an up to 32GB microSD card. The 7-inch panel is 1280×800 resolution. As I write this, Amazon has the Galaxy Tab 4 on sale for $149.00.
While I will call the MediPad X2 a tablet, there is room to argue that it is actually a phone. Indeed, it is equipped with Cat6 LTE through dual SIM slots, thus possessing the ability to make phone calls. Further, considering it is a 7-inch device, the overall dimensions are significantly smaller than the Nexus 7, rocking minimal bezels all the way around.
With a device like this, it should come as no surprise that the Huawei MediaPad X2 costs a bit more than just $50. Expect to drop about $400 for this early-2015 era metal tablet. Check it out on Amazon for more details.
While Lenovo is another manufacturer struggling to find a foothold for mobile products on a global scale, the TAB 2 A7 and IdeaTab A3000 are extremely similar devices that land smack dab in the middle of the pack. A quad-core MediaTek processor is backed by 1GB of RAM, 8GB and 16GB internal storage offerings are expandable by up to 64GB in a microSD card. These 7-inch panels clock in at 1024×600 pixels of resolution as well. Once again, the sky is not the limit here, look to drop about $80 on the 8GB model of the Lenovo TAB 2 A7 at Amazon. $110 for the 16GB IdeaTab A3000 .
The flagship tablets on the market measure in starting at 8-inches, but mostly 10-inch and larger sizes. The Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet was contender for best tablet on the market for a time in 2015, the iPad Pro. Surface Pro 4 and Google’s newly announced Pixel C all came later in 2015 with specs we almost envied on our laptops.
I said this earlier, I think almost all current 7-inch Android tablets suck. Where the Nexus 7 ushered in a generation of highly capable tablets, the average 7-inch Android tablet today is equipped with, basically, the same specs as that 2012 Nexus device.
7-inch Android tablets. Let me be completely honest with you folks, forget the iPad, my passion for tablets is entirely thanks to a great 7-inch Android tablet, the first generation Nexus 7. Built for Google by ASUS. the Nexus 7 launched in July of 2012 as Google’s very first Nexus tablet.
All worthy tablets, we’re happy to have the SHIELD and Venue 8 7000 on some of our other best tablet lists, but they are both 8-inch+ tablets. Your EVGA Tegra Note 7 qualifies in this 7-inch segment, thank you so much for the recommendation.
I’ll urge you to look around for deals usually in the $150 or lower range, but you can always grab the Nexus 7 for $199 for the 32GB model on Amazon today.
Our current digital world has most of us enjoying multiple devices on a daily basis. For those of us in this situation online roulette for money 800x800, we rarely only use one device, and only one device, at a time. As I type this very article on my laptop, I am listening to music off of a 7-inch Android tablet, have another 7-inch Android tablet working as a photo frame on my desk, a small phone is in Daydream mode as a clock, which is docked and connected to a Bluetooth speaker, on stand-by for my next “OK, Google” command, and my main phone is beeping to inform me of incoming SMS and chat messages from family and friends.
The reason I say there are no good options out there is simply that there are no major flagship devices at this size. Even many 8-inch tablets are treated as an after-thought, I reference how Apple nearly did not announce the iPad Mini 4. giving it no stage time at their recent event. save for a single image of it along with the entire family of iPads .
In this multi-device little world of mine, the 7-inch tablet is the core of my mobile device usage. I turn to it for text based communications, entertainment, social interaction, navigation, non-PC productivity tasks and so much more. These tasks do not need to come to a crashing halt when the phone rings, or when Windows needs to restart for another update. Sorry casino bc urban, that’s another rant video poker games for sale, for another day.
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Andrew Martonik of Android Central says the K1 is “a new value proposition” thanks to Nvidia dropping $100 from the price of the old Shield while keeping the features and performance.
We’ve tested 11 tablets over the past two years, drawing from an ever-decreasing pool of contenders: We started with seven candidates in 2015, but looked at just two in early 2016 and two more in late 2016. There just aren’t many models being released that meet our criteria. We used each for general tasks such as browsing the web, checking email, watching movies, and listening to music. We also played games, took photos, and edited documents stored in Google Drive. We spent at least a week with each tablet, but some, including the Pixel C, have been a regular part of our digital lives for months.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 is the best Android tablet you can buy, with a handy S Pen stylus and a vibrant 9.7-inch Super AMOLED display. The Tab S3 has a sleek glass and aluminum frame like the Galaxy S7; its Snapdragon 820 is plenty powerful, and the 9.7-inch Super AMOLED screen is nicer than the iPad Pro’s LCD. The Tab S3 runs Android 7.0 with Samsung’s TouchWiz optimizations, but some of the changes allow the S Pen to do cool things including system-wide handwriting recognition and quick screen-captures—and unlike Apple’s Pencil, it never needs to be recharged. The Tab S3 also has the best multitasking features of any Android tablet we’ve tested, but Android still lacks tablet-optimized apps—for the price, the iPad Pro is a better choice for most.
The Fire HD 8 works best with Amazon Prime, as subscribers get access to a selection of free music, books, and videos. If you aren’t a Prime member, you still get a selection of free apps from Amazon Underground. many of which cost money on Google’s store, plus any content in Amazon’s ecosystem you’ve purchased or uploaded (such as documents and music).
Samsung’s keyboard case is interesting, but the keys are too cramped for prolonged use, and it’s too expensive.
The Tab S3 runs Android 7.0 Nougat with the TouchWiz Android skin on top, and for once there’s good reason for Samsung to modify Android. The S Pen is tightly integrated with the software canadian gambling sites that accept paypal, allowing you to record GIFs from your screen, copy almost any text on the device, and use handwriting input wherever you want. This tablet has the standard Android split-screen app mode, but Samsung has kept its own “pop-up view” in addition to that. Pop-up view lets you shrink apps down into floating windows, like on a desktop PC. As I say in the Android Police review, “The combination of split-screen and pop-up view works surprisingly well.” It helps compensate for Android’s lack of tablet-optimized apps. This is the best Android tablet for multitasking we’ve ever tested.
November 11, 2016: Though its components are almost two years old, the Nvidia Shield Tablet K1 is still the best full-featured Android tablet for most people. But we tested some additional tablets this year, and we think the Amazon Fire HD 8 is the best cheap media-consumption tablet, while the Google Pixel C is the best high-end Android tablet—though most people don’t need one.
The Asus ZenWatch 3 is the best smartwatch for an Android phone right now, as it’s relatively stylish, reasonably future-proof, and has good battery life.
The $90 base model of the Fire HD 8 also includes ads on the lock screen, which you can disable for $15. That’s a tolerable tradeoff when you need a media-consumption tablet on the cheap.
The Huawei MediaPad M3 has a great 8.4-inch 2560×1600 display. It’s light and well-built, but it runs Huawei’s older Marshmallow-based Android software, which has a lot of awkward interface elements and clunky features that require constant babysitting. Huawei’s Nougat update on phones has been much improved, so we’ll take another look at this tablet when and if it’s updated.
The K1’s screen is good, but it doesn’t fully saturate blue or red (colors are only noticeably washed out in images with very saturated blues and reds). It’s not as accurate or bright as the display on the more expensive Galaxy Tab S3.
A $90 tablet still involves a lot of compromises, but Amazon has refined its tablet formula over the years. Despite a low-end, quad-core processor and only 1.5 GB of RAM, the tablet still manages solid performance for basic tasks. As CNET explained. “Apps loaded reasonably quickly and the device didn’t feel sluggish.”
A 32-bit Nvidia Tegra K1 processor makes the Shield Tablet K1 competitive with other prices in this category, even two years after the original Shield launched. The tablet’s 2 GB of RAM isn’t a lot, but it’s enough that the tablet runs smoothly. It helps that the K1’s stock version of Android 7.0 is faster than the heavy skins used by Samsung and LG.
If you have an older Android tablet that’s slow in day-to-day use, you might want to upgrade. The faster processors and increased RAM of the latest tablets make them much more responsive for gaming, content creation pokies online wage, and general use, and newer tablets often have better, higher-resolution screens than older ones. Your older tablet also probably won’t get the latest version of Android (7.0 Nougat), so you won’t be able to take advantage of the latest software features, including split-screen side-by-side multitasking, the ability to reply to notifications directly from their notification cards, and longer battery life.
The Nvidia Shield Tablet K1 is designed for gamers, but it’s the best tablet for non-gamers, too.
The Google Pixel C was our previous upgrade pick, and it’s still a good Android tablet. It’s fast and gets updated directly from Google, but it doesn’t have as many distinctive features as the Galaxy Tab S3. There’s no stylus, and apps can’t use windowed mode, which makes multitasking harder. And despite the fact that it’s a year old, it’s still expensive, at $500. We only recommend the Pixel C if you care about fast Android updates above all else.
A good tablet must have a high-resolution screen, a powerful CPU, and at least 2 GB of RAM. Every tablet will feel slower over the next two to three years as apps grow larger and demand even more CPU power and RAM, and as the Android operating system adds new features, so you want to start out with solid hardware.
The Galaxy Tab S3 feels faster than the Shield K1 and on par with the Pixel C french quarter fest 2017, our previous pick for high-end Android tablet. However, the S3’s battery life is weaker than the Pixel C’s. It’s good enough to last more than a day of heavy use or two of lighter duty. The Tab S3 is only 6mm thick, so there’s not as much space for battery in there. The slender frame is all glass and aluminum, like the Galaxy S7, a step up from Samsung’s previous plastic tablets. Engadget says, “It’s not the most inspired or exciting design, but it succeeds in making the tablet feel classier and more expensive.”
April 21, 2016: We’ve spent 30 additional hours testing new tablets, and we know that Nvidia’s Shield Tablet K1 will remain our top pick and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S2 8-Inch will be our new runner-up. We’ve noticed that stock of the Shield is low right now, but we confirmed with Nvidia that it’s continuing to make the tablet. We’ll update our guide in the next few weeks with our full test results.
May 2, 2016: After 30 hours testing three additional tablets, Nvidia’s Shield Tablet K1 replaces the previous Shield as our top pick. The K1 is nearly the same as its predecessor, but lacks the first Shield’s heat-management issues and is currently $100 cheaper. If you want something thinner and lighter and with a better screen, consider the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 8-Inch. We like it, though its price is at the upper end of what we think you should pay for an Android tablet.
Engadget liked the K1 in late 2015, saying it “still lives up to every word we wrote about the original [in 2014].” In that review of the original Shield. reviewer Sean Buckley writes, “It’s not only the best Android gaming device on the market, but also a fine tablet, too.” He noted that the original Shield Tablet “is delightfully fast, offering one of the smoothest, most stutter-free experiences I’ve ever had with an Android tablet,” and gives it good marks for “clear, balanced colors, great contrast and wide viewing angles.”
Few people really need a tablet, but if you’re reading this, you probably want one because of what they’re good for: watching video, browsing the web, reading, checking email and social networks, and playing games. They’re great for media consumption, but some people even manage to get most of their work done on one.
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We tested eight smart plug-in switches using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and found the Belkin WeMo Mini is the best way for most people to add smart control to the outlets in their homes.
The Tab S3 has a crisp, vibrant Super AMOLED display and it includes the S pen stylus.
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The K1’s battery life is good, at just over 7 hours of active use on a single charge. It’s not as long as you can get from some other tablets, but most people use a tablet for an hour or two here or there, rather than for a full workday at a time. Android tablets have a bad habit of rapidly draining their batteries when not in use, though the updates to Android 6.0 and 7.0 have somewhat mitigated this: Unlike most of the other tablets we tested, the K1 still had power left after 48 hours on standby mode. Though if you leave the tablet sitting around for a week, it’ll probably run out of juice.
Unlike the original Shield, the K1 doesn’t come with a charger or a stylus—part of the reason the K1 costs $100 less than its predecessor. Most people already have a Micro-USB cable and charger lying around, but if you don’t, our guides to the best USB wall charger and best Micro-USB cable will help you get what you need to charge the K1 (and all your other USB-charged devices) at full speed for less than the cost of Nvidia’s official charger. The previously included stylus is now a $20 add-on, but without a slot on the tablet to hold the stylus canada x america, it’s easy to lose.
You might consider getting a larger phone instead of a tablet the next time you upgrade your phone.
The most interesting aspects of the K1 are its gaming capabilities. Nvidia designed the tablet to play both Android games and certain games running on your desktop PC—assuming you have an Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 GPU or better (sorry, no AMD cards). In this setup, your PC handles the heavy processing work for the game and then streams the video over Wi-Fi to the tablet, letting you play on the tablet or on a TV (via an HDMI connection from the tablet). Using the tablet with an HDMI cable connected is a bit of a hassle, so if you’re playing on the TV, you’ll probably want to keep the tablet plugged into a charger and control the game with the Shield Controller (sold separately).
Chris Heinonen writes about home audio and video for The Wirecutter. He also writes reviews and runs Reference Home Theater. Previously he has contributed to Secrets of Home Theater, Electronic House, AnandTech, and HDGuru. He lives in Portland, Oregon, and spends his free time chasing after his sons and running.
November 25, 2016: We’ve added the Barnes & Noble 7-inch Nook Tablet, Huawei MediaPad M3, and Asus ZenPad 3S 10 to the What to look forward to section below.
If you want a cheap tablet for watching videos, reading, or browsing the web, Amazon’s Fire HD 8 tablet is great. It doesn’t have access to the Google Play Store or any of Google’s apps, but it costs less than $100 and makes it easy to access Amazon content (especially for Prime members). Amazon’s Fire OS (based on Android) runs very well, and the Fire HD 8 offers better battery life than the Shield K1 or Pixel C. The display is only 1280×800, but that’s fine for a budget media tablet. Amazon’s app store is not as extensive as the Play Store, but it does have free versions of many apps and games that cost money on other Android tablets. The Fire HD 8 also has more extensive parental controls than other tablets, making it a great family device.
The Shield Tablet K1’s soft-touch plastic chassis isn’t the fanciest, and it collects fingerprints, but it’s comfortable to hold. Photo: Ryan Whitwam
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As an alternative to a tablet, you may want to consider getting a larger phone the next time you upgrade. An Android phone with a 5.7-inch screen will let you do the same things as a 7-inch tablet. The screen will be smaller, of course, but in many ways it will be just as usable as a tablet—even more so at times, thanks to its better portability.
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Although you could never call the original Nexus 7 ugly, the silver plastic edging around the screen bezel and dimpled rubberised chassis certainly made it feel a little toy-like. The same certainly can't be said of the slick new version, which has slimmed down to a mere 8.7mm thick. It's also lost weight, dropping from 340g to 290g. Combined with a thinner screen bezel (around 6mm from either side) you really notice the difference when holding the tablet one-handed – smaller hands will be able to hold it comfortably and it won't give you wrist ache after a train journey spent leafing through eBooks. The importance of this shouldn't be underestimated; no tablet at this size can match it in terms of how pleasant it is to hold for long periods.
NVIDIA also removed the stylus holder on the K1, which brings us to our next point – the stylus is gone! So are the charging cable and wall adaptor. The big news here is that NVIDIA is trying to cut costs, and they did just that by not including a stylus or charger. With that said, this tablet is now only $200, which makes it not only one of the best Android tablets out there, but also one of the most affordable.
January 17, 2017
Just take a look at the tablets below – they are the very best Android has to offer, and you really can’t go wrong with any of them. Without further ado, here’s our list of the best Android tablets available so far in the year 2016.
While it’s a little dated at this point, the Nexus 9 is still a great Android tablet. It was created by Google and built by HTC, which is basically an Android lover’s dream. It runs the latest version of Android, and will continue to receive timely software updates for another year or so.
Android tablets come in all shapes and sizes, as well as many different price points. Looking at the market as a whole, it's hard to know where to start looking for the tablet that's right for you.
Weight: 389g | Dimensions: 237 x 169 x 5.6mm | OS: Android 6 Marshmallow (Nougat incoming) | Screen size: 9.7 inches | Resolution: 2,048 x 1,536 | CPU: Exynos 7 5433, octa-core | RAM: 3GB | Storage: 32GB | microSD slot: Yes | Battery: 5,870mAh | Rear camera: 8MP | Front camera: 2.1MP
The Galaxy Tab S2 is the latest and greatest in Samsung's line of tablets. But funnily enough, the Tab S has the better screen, a Super AMOLED display pushing 2560 x 1600 versus the Tab S2's 2048 x 1536. A minor, but noteworthy difference between the two. Case in point: last-gen doesn't always mean outdated.
This tablet boasts an 8-inch screen to make watching HD content enjoyable, and best of all, it's cheap as all get out, running at just $100. If you have an Amazon Prime account, you'll be well-served by this tiny, but surprisingly mighty tablet.
Ultra-thin aluminum design
The best Android tablet around
We'll be updating this list frequently as more tough Android-powered tablet competitors launch. If you're mind is set on something a little more affordable, head over to our list of the best cheap tablets around. Looking for smartphones? Check out our list of the best Android phones .
Small specs upgrade
Screen lack sharpness
Thinner, lighter design
Tough to hold while gaming
Weight: 270g | Dimensions: 213 x 123 x 6.4mm | OS: Android 6 Marshmallow | Screen size: 8 inches | Resolution: 1 casino bc x johnny,920 x 1,200 | CPU: Snapdragon (unspecified), quad-core | RAM: 3GB | Storage: 16GB | microSD slot: Yes | Battery: 4,500mAh | Rear camera: 8.1MP | Front camera: 2.2MP
Slower than leading tablets
Weight: 305g | Dimensions: 215 x 124 x 6mm | OS: Android 5.0.2 Lollipop | Screen size: 8.4 inches | Resolution: 2 gambling embroidery designs,560 x 1,600 | CPU: Intel Atom Z3580, quad-core | RAM: 2GB | Storage: 16GB | microSD slot: Yes | Battery: 9.5 hours | Rear camera: 5MP | Front camera: 5MP
Accessories are costly
Simply put, if value is your main concern, you can't do better than Nvidia's tablet.
Expensive price tag
The Pixel C certainly isn't cheap casinos online to win money, but you won't find another Android tablet packed with as much power, style, and the latest software updates for years to come.
Most tablets are very similar to one another, but not the Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro. It sits in its own sub-category of Android tablets that try and succeed at being weird slots online zoo, yet awesome.
Its design borrows from the gorgeous Chromebook Pixel and builds upon it, with versatility to allow easy switching between a standalone tablet or a laptop. Android power users will also appreciate that it runs stock OS and thus, like Nexus and Pixel products, the Pixel C is now running the latest software, Android Nougat .
The Galaxy Tab 4 has an intuitive software interface and a slim design like the higher-end Samsung tablets, but if you don’t need those things there are similarly equipped alternatives with a lower price tag.
The Lenovo Tab3 A7 is an adequate choice for those looking for a well-designed budget tablet with decent performance for everyday tasks.
Shopping for a budget tablet is often an unpleasant endeavor given the large pile of mediocre products in the market but Lenovo’s new Tab3 A7 promises an end to this trend. While not a flashy device, the A7 is decently designed, with a stunningly soft, almost Moleskine-like chassis. Its small size and a commendable 0.3-inch thickness make it a delight to hold and carry around for use while on the go. The tablet also has an IP52 rating, which means it is protected against dust and accidental water splashes. The A7 might be well-designed, but the average 7-inch screen is arguably the most hurtful let-down with the Lenovo Tab3 A7. Sporting a modest 1024 x 600-pixel resolution, the clarity is insufficient and text and icons appear rather soft. That said, the viewing angles are decent and brightness level is sufficient. What is even more remarkable with the A7 is its software. In addition to packing Android v6.0 Marshmallow, Lenovo has been generous enough to include more than a few useful software features across the interface. One among these is Kids Mode, a parental-control software feature that allows a parent to create a friendly eco-system for their child. The Kids Mode interface also has larger app icons than the normal Android, and its adaptive blue light filter helps to prevent a child’s eyes from getting tired after prolonged use. The A7 comes rigged with a quad-core 1GHz MTK processor and 1GB RAM, which is enough hardware for basic tablet use, but not nearly as enough for heavy multitasking and gaming. In a way, the average hardware is expected given the friendly price, and the upside is a very impressive 15-hour battery life.
The Amazon Fire 7 has a textured plastic design, true to its budget nature. It remains sturdy, however, with Amazon claiming it to be 1.8 times more durable than the iPad Air 2; we will leave the testing to you. Compared to screens found on more expensive devices, the 7-inch 1024 x 600 display is not much. However, its IPS technology makes for some pretty tight viewing angles, and for the Fire’s price, there’s not much competition. Fire OS 5 is layered on top of Android 5.1, which replaces most of the interface and apps. It is a bit intruding as most of the screens try to get you to buy Amazon products or apps, but for $10 extra you can get a version of the tablet without the ads. Performance is surprisingly smooth, games run well, albeit not with gorgeous graphics, and the interface is mostly fluid. It only has 1GB of RAM, however, reducing multitasking capability and increasing the time between app switches. Tablets are not known for their great photography features, and the Fire 7’s are no exception; they are pretty poor. However, battery life is great, with more than 10 hours of continuous video playback.
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Thanks to their attractive size and one handed operation the size of the 7-inch tablet market has grown year in and year out and now accounts for a higher percentage of sales than both 8-inch and 10-inch tablets. The following guide will aid you in finding the best 7-inch tablet with regularly updated content designed to guide you on your quest to find a worthy purchase, whereas our series of cheap tablet guides deals with their more budget counterparts. For under $300 you can find some powerful tablets that can handle more advanced apps and functionality relative to their budget counterparts.
Though beaten by some competitors in gaming benchmarks, the LG G Pad V410 is an LTE enabled tablet with a long-lasting battery, excellent audio and a tempting price tag for budget buyers.
If you can’t afford the latest Apple tablet, the 2014 iPad Mini 3 still offers great value for the money, featuring innovations like Retina display and TouchID it packs more than enough power for day to day use.
The Apple iPad Mini 3 is almost identical to its predecessor; the iPad mini 2. which costs about $100 less. Its aluminum unibody construction is as sleek as it was first featured three years back. This metallic design with rounded edges and circular button can also been seen on the iPhone 6. It is thicker than the Air 2 by 1.4mm but doesn’t feel any heavier. Packing similar components, it was rated with the same 10 hours of battery life as its predecessor. Its low resolution 1.2MP front camera and a 5MP rear camera both remain unchanged from last year. It features a 7.9-inch, 2,048 x 1,536 retina display, scoring high on sharpness and brightness, but it doesn’t have the anti-glare coating see on the iPad Air 2 screen. It is also unimpressive compared to the Tab S 8.4’s AMOLED display which has slightly superior contrast, colors and brightness. Featuring an A7 processor backed by 1GB of RAM, its core hardware component remains the same as last year. Whether it is web surfing or gaming, the Mini 3 delivers fast performance across the board. However, it’s not as powerful as the new iPad Air 2 which features a faster 1.94GHz A8X processor and 2 GB of RAM. So where are the upgrades on Mini 3? Well, it now supports the new Touch ID and Apple SIM features. If you have the Mini 2, the Mini 3 probably doesn’t warrant any upgrade. Instead, up your game to Apple’s latest in the small tablet world; the iPad Mini 4 .