Over the past few years, no tech category has seen more wild
success and crushing failure than tablet computers.
But as the
dust begins to settle, the CNET's list of the Best 5 tablets is a
much stronger lineup than we saw a year ago.
Here are our
Editors' Top 5 tablets as of May 2012.
#5 is the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Now Samsung just
released an update to this called the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2
10.1 -- but that guy didn't make the list.
We're talking about the
original Tab 10.1 from May of 2011, which is thinner, lighter, and
uses a better screen than the new version.
The only worthwhile
feature on the Tab 2, is its slightly lower price.
#4 is the Sony Tablet S.
Sony took their sweet time getting to the
tablet market, but at least they arrived in style.
The fold-over
design feels great.
The screen uses Bravia True Black
technology.
You even get a built-in remote.
It's on the pricey
side, but it???s a beautiful piece of gear.
#3 Is the Asus Transformer Pad TF300.
This is the follow-up to
last year's Eee Pad Transformer Prime.
They dropped the E's,
dropped the price, and dropped the word "Prime" to keep Hasbro
from suing them again.
It's a fast quad-core tablet, it runs Ice
Cream Sandwich out of the box, and an extra $150 gets you a
keyboard attachment that turns the whole thing into a sorta
laptop.
#2 is the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime.
This old man has all
of the specs found in the newer TF300, but in the original thinner
design with a metal finish and a slightly faster processor.
It's not
cheap, but if you want a best in class Android tablet, this is still
the one.
Now, before we get to the #1 tablet, let's take a look at why both
Asus and Samsung are more focused on making their tablets
cheaper, instead of better.
Here are CNET's top Budget tablets.
With all these great options around $199, it's hard to justify
spending twice as much on a ???premium???
tablet.
Unless of course, you're buying an iPad.
Our #1 tablet pick can't
be much of a surprise.
The third-generation iPad offers the best
screen, the best apps, the coolest accessories, and the widest
selection of music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and games.
No
one even talks about unseating the iPad at this point -- it's all a
race for second place.
Those are the top tablets selected by our CNET Editors.
For
more Top 5's like this, head over to Top5.CNET.com.
I'm Donald
Bell, thanks for watching.
