Diwali 2014 buying guide: Tablets to consider for over Rs 20,000

If you’ve got a over Rs 20,000 to spare to buy a tablet this Diwali, chances are that you might be disappointed with your choices. Some of the latest tablets released in this price segment are the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 and 10.1, and the HTC Nexus 9. Of these, the iPads will land in India post Diwali and start at an attractive Rs 28,900.

The Nexus 9 is available for pre-order on the Google Play store, starting at Rs 28,900 for the 16 GB version WiFi only version. The other versions with LTE and 32 GB memory space aren’t available for pre-order in India for now.

So if you wanted to buy the latest tablet right before Diwali and have a lot to spend, your choices are likely to be slightly outdated. We take a look at the tablets you can consider.

iPad Air: This is an excellent option to consider now, given that the only upgrades the iPad Air 2 has is the anti-reflective coating on the screen, a new A8X processor, along with M8 motion coprocessor, the 8 megapixel camera and yes the Touch ID fingerprint scanner.  So why spend more money on a ’new’ device when the features are almost the same?

If you don’t want an Android tablet, the iPad is the most obvious option. It also comes with the best App store and has for years been the benchmark in the tablets game. The iPad Air has 9.7-inch Retina display, is really thin weighing a little over 450 grams. It has an Apple A7 CPU with 64-bit architecture as well M7 motion co-processor. It also has a 5 megapixel rear camera and a 1.2 megapixel front camera. The 16GB iPad Air with Wi-Fi is available for Rs 31,900. The 16GB iPad Air Wi-Fi model will start at Rs 28,900 once the Air 2 is launched in India.

iPad mini 2: For those looking at almost similar specs as the iPad Air, but prefer a smaller and more compact device can opt for the iPad mini 2/iPad mini with Retina display. As far as features go, the iPad mini has a 7.9-inch screen size with 2048 x 1536 resolution at 326 pixels per inch (ppi).  It packs in a 6470mAh battery. Featuring the same camera and processor, the 16GB version of the 7.9-inch iPad mini 2 is priced at just Rs 21,900.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S series If you want a tablet, which has been launched just recently into the market and want amazing specs and not just a year-old specs, the Galaxy Tab S series is worth considering. The tablets come in two screen sizes: the 10.5-inch screen which has LTE and voice-calling facility and the 8.4-inch screen version. Both tablets have a Quad HD screen with 2560x1600 resolution and Super AMOLED screen, which means that you’re assured of a stunning screen.

The front camera is 2.1 megapixels and the rear camera is 8 megapixels. The total memory space is 16 GB with 128 GB microSD support, 3GB RAM and an come with an Octa-core processor (1.9 GHz + 1.3 GHz quad-cores).

In our review of the Tab S 8.4, we were very impressed by the excellent display, powerful processing and great speaker quality, even though the battery wasn’t all that impressive.

The only problem with the Tab S series: the price: The 8.4 version starts at Rs 43,090 while the 10.5-inch version costs Rs 44800. Of course if you have a big budget this Diwali that shouldn’t too much of a problem.

Acer Iconia W4 Acer’s Iconia W4 runs on Windows 8.1 mobile OS and is rather light: only 415 grams. The 16GB and 64GB variants of the Iconia W4 are well priced at Rs 24,999 and Rs 26,999 respectively so this isn’t too expensive either.

If a tablet is required for your daily office work, this is better option than either Android or Apple, simple because Windows OS is better suited for enterprise. Also with Iconia W4, you’re getting Office Home and Student 2013 Edition free to go with this tablet, which is a great plus.

The 8-inch W4 runs on Windows Phone 8.1 and is powered by the Bay Trail Intel Atom 1.8GHz quad-core processor. The only possible problem is that the 3G version of the tablet is not yet available in India. Some other features include 2-megapixel front camera, 5-megapixel rear camera, 32/64GB onboard storage and microSD card slot. It’s a decent option to consider if you want to a tablet that is productive for your work as well.

Huawei Honor X1:  This newly launched tablet in the Indian market is available online for Rs 19,999 and is an option that you can look at if your budget is just touching 20,000.

The tablet has a 7-inch LTPS display with 1200 x 1920 pixels resolution, a 1.6 GHz quad-core processor, Voice Calling WiFi, 3G and comes with 13 megapixel primary camera and a 5 megapixel secondary camera for great selfies. The total storage space is 16 GB, with microSD slot which has 32 GB as the limit. It has a 2GB RAM and runs Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean).

The tablet is available on Flipkart.