Best Android Tablets of 2012

There is no doubt that the best tablet in the world is Apple’s iPad. It is known as the king of tablets. But there are many Android-powered tablets that are giving tough fight to the iPad. Let us see the Android which made it to the top in 2012:

1. Google Nexus 7 (from $199)

It is the first Nexus tablet to be released by Google. Manufactured by Asus, consists of a 7-inch display with a 1280x800 resolution screen with an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor. It comes with a choice of 16GB or 32GB of storage and a 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera.

The tablet runs the very latest Android 4.2 "Jelly Bean" operating system, and features an improved software keyboard.

The hardware also features Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, and optional cellular. It is powered by a battery that can give 10-hours of usage under normal conditions.

2. Google Nexus 10 (from $399)

This is the Nexus 7's bigger brother having a 10-inch screen with 2560x1600 resolution. It has a dual core ARM Cortex A15 processor and a quad core Mali T604 graphics processor.

The Samsung-made tablet also comes with a choice of 16GB or 32GB of storage, a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera, a 1.9 megapixel front-facing camera, and a power pack capable of delivering 11-hours of usage.

3. Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (from $499)

This tablet is top-quality, with a 10.1-inch screen with a 1280x800 resolution display, a 1.4GHz Exynos quad core processor, a choice of 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of storage, a 5 megapixel rear-facing camera, a 1.9 megapixel front-facing camera, and a 100hour battery pack.

It runs on Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" but there's an upgrade path to Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean". It comes with a stylus called the S Pen specifically designed to work with a number of applications.

4. Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch (from $299)

The 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD comes with a 1920x1200 resolution, 1080p (HD) display with in-plane switching, Advanced True Wide (ATW) polarizing filter, and 10-point multi-touch support.

Storage options are 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB, but there's no micro-SD card slot.

The 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD is powered by the latest generation dual-core 1.5GHz OMAP4 4470 processor with an on-board Imagination SGX544 graphics engine that's capable of over 12 billion floating point operations per second -- or 50 percent more than Nvidia's Tegra 3 processor.

Also inside is a dual antenna design for better reception, dual-band 2.4GHz and 5 GHz WI-Fi and MIMO (Multiple In/Multiple Out) that offers higher bandwidth and longer range.

5. Asus Transformer TF300 (from $350)

It is a power tablet that transforms itself into a notebook. It features a 10.1-inch screen with a 1280x800 resolution in-plane switching display and a 1.2GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 processor. There's also an 8 megapixel rear-facing camera, a 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera, and 16GB of storage that can be increased by a microSD card. The tablet is powered by Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich". Apart from a keyboard and touchpad the optional keyboard dock (an additional $149) also increases 5 hours of battery life.

6. Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7-inch (from $200)

The 7-inch screen with 1024x600 resolution display is a little less compared to the Nexus 7, but offsetting this is the micro-SD card slot that allows increasing the storage up from 8GB for a few bucks.

The tablet is powered by a dual core Texas Instruments OMAP processor and a 3 megapixel rear-facing camera. The operating system is Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" but upgradable to Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean".