Which tablet is the better buy? The Apple iPad Air or the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 10.1.
For the design and display, the iPad Air has its back made of aluminum, which is more elegant and durable than plastic, and users get that cold sensation when holding the device. However, the tablet benefits from some measures of protection, being covered with a scratch resistant glass and oleophobic coating (anti fingerprints). It comes in two variants of weights, so the WiFi version is lighter at 46 grams, while the 3G/LTE version is 9 grams heavier, and its dimensions are 240×169.5×7.5 mm. Its screen is a LED-backlit IPS LCD measuring 9.7 inches, a resolution of 1536×2048 pixels, and a pixel density of 264ppi.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 10.1 is robust, larger in dimensions measuring 243.4×176.4x8 mm, and weighs 487 grams. The display is sized at 10.1 mm, but it’s TFT and supports a resolution of 1280x800pixels at only 149ppi. The bezels are thicker, but it seems to look better than the iPad Air in landscape mode.
In terms of hardware and OS, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 10.1 has a Quad-core 1.2GHz processor based on a Qualcomm APQ8026 chipset and paired with Adreno 305 graphics, 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, which can go up to 64GB if adding a microSD card.The iPad Air comes with Apple’s 64bit A7 chipset that supports a Dual-core 1.3GHz Cyclone processor, PowerVR G6430 graphics and 1GB of RAM DDR3, but its internal storage is unexpandable and it’s available in variants of 16/32/64/128 GB.
The Samsung tablet runs on the Android v4.4.2 (KitKat) and the iPad Air was released with iOS 7, but now it supports iOS 8.1.2 and users can take advantage of the features that were available for the Android users such as third party keyboards, widget integration etc.
For the battery and camera specs, both tablets have the same battery life at 10 hours with mixed usage, although their units have different capacities: the Tab 4 comes with a 6800 mAh battery, while the iPad Air is fitted with an 8600 mAh battery.
The Tab 4 has a back camera at 3.15MP and lacks autofocus and LED flash, and it can record at 720p@30fps, while the secondary camera is 1.3MP. The iPad Air beats its rival with a more advanced back camera of 5MP, which has autofocus, HDR, touch focus, geo tagging, face and smile detection and 1080p@30fps video capture, while the front camera is weaker at 1.2MP.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 10.1 cost $28 on Amazon, while the iPad Air WiFi cost $384 (16GB), $447 (32GB), $55 (64GB), and $621 (126GB).
Which tablet device is the better buy? Sound off in the comments section below.
