10-inch tablets are a fantastic balance between portablity and useability. Not too big to take on a train and not too small for the odd bit of office work, these 10 inchers are at home on the desk or on the sofa, and here are five of the best for 2014.
Sony Xperia Z2
Along a similar price scale (£399) to the iPad Air, the Sony Xperia Z2 is a worthy premium tablet competitor. It’s thinner than the iPad Air, at just 6.4mm, and also lighter, at 426g. The 10.1-inch display has a pixel resolution of 1,920×1,200 giving it a DPI of 224, which is just off being as sharp as the iPad Air.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor paired with 3GB RAM gets things done fast on the Z2, along with Android 4.4 KitKat bringing in the latest Android operating system. The 6000mAh battery gives this a long enough battery life and the 8.1MP camera is fairly high end for tablets at the moment.
Nokia Lumia 2520
Nokia’s first Windows tablet, the Nokia Lumia 2520 runs on Windows 8.1 and looks good whilst doing it (it’s also available in gloss or matte finish).
With a quad-core 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU, together with 2GB of RAM and Adreno 330 graphics, this tablet’s performance is keeping right up there with the rest in early 2014.
The 10.1 inch slate comes in at around £400, and with a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080, everything looks great on it. A close competitor to the Surface Pro 2, which is coming up next.
Surface Pro 2
The Surface’s strength lies in its hardware. With a 10.6 inch 1920 x 1080 full HD screen, up to 8GB of RAM and an i5 CPU, it’s powerful, while still packing the punch in a sleek, lightweight tablet form.
Running on Windows, the Surface Pro 2 is a suitable laptop replacement, especially with a keyboard and handy docking station that can come with device. This tablet was launched with some software issues, but Microsoft has been working hard to patch them out in the past few months, and now it seems to have been sorted. More recent Surface’s even ship with an upgraded processor!
Nexus 10
Despite being released in 2013, Google’s Nexus 10 is still one of the most popular and respected 10-inch tablets. Coming with a 2,560 x 1,600 screen, a dual-core CPU and 2GB RAM, the Nexus 10 is fast and smooth with no added manufacturer bloatware (a massive bonus for Google Nexus devices).
iPad Air
With a thin, light, and sleek design, the latest iPad Air is a favourite amongst tablet enthusiasts. Sporting an A7 64-bit chip, this 5th generation tablet from Apple runs an impressive-looking iOS7 on a 9.7-inch display.
Released in November 2013, the iPad Air weighs just 469g (Wi-Fi only model) and measures 240x169x7.5mm.
With 1GB RAM, and storage options ranging from 16GB to 128GB, the iPad Air also offers great functionality for the workplace, adding to its fun-friendly 5MP camera and long battery life.
The iPad Air is a premium tablet, and you can get your hands on one for a starting price of around £399, going up to £799 for more storage and adding a cellular option rather than just Wi-Fi.
