The GSMArena tablet buyer's guide: July 2015

Compact tablets

The compact tablets are leading the way as usual and the cheapest of them all is the Lenovo Tab 2 A7-10. A close relative to the A7-10 A3500 from our last edition, this one comes with a 7” IPS LCD of 600 x 1024px and 170ppi, a quad-core Cortex-A7 Mediatek processor, 8GB of internal storage and reasonable size and weight.

It’s a no-frills device but its price tag says it all.

The next entry is the Alcatel Pixi 3 (7), which costs a bit more but does well to add 3G connectivity. In fact, the Wi-Fi only Pixi 3 (7) costs the same as the 3G variant and you may find the latter subsidized by your carrier.

The specs are nothing to rave about but they fill the bill just fine. The Alcatel Pixi 3 (7) has a 7” 600 x 1024px display and a quad-core CPU. The 512MB of RAM and the poor 4GB of inbuilt storage are potentially troubling. Not all Android builds allow you to move most apps onto a microSD card, so the low onboard space may become a problem in the long run.

Moving up to just below 100 Euro (and just above $100), we come to the seasoned Lenovo A7-50 A3500. It’s a step up in screen resolution too, at 800 x 1280px across the same 7” diagonal. The processor is the entry-level quad-core Cortex-A7 and there’s 1GB of RAM.

To sum it up, you’re getting a more pixel-dense screen resolution for a bit more cash over the aforementioned entry-level tablets.

The Asus Memo Pad 7 comes with a much better 7” IPS display of 800 x 1280px resolution, a 5MP 1080p-enabled camera and a competent Intel Atom Z3745 chipset that’s more than capable of handling Android KitKat.

It would have been nice if the tablet shipped with Android Lollipop or if Asus was faster at supplying it. Still this is a great offer for the money.

The Asus FonePad 7 is almost the same product as the Memo Pad 7 but for a few key differences. It packs the same 7” IPS display of the same 800 x 1280px resolution, a 5MP camera and a similar body but comes with a dual-core Intel Atom Z2560 instead of the quad-core Z3745 of the Memo Pad 7 and offers built-in 3G and LTE along with voice call support thanks to a micro-SIM slot.

This iteration of the Fonepad by Asus is a bit old now and might only get as high as Android KitKat but it is still better equipped than its newer siblings.

The already affordable 7" Amazon Kindle Fire HDX hasn’t received any further discounts but its price tag is more than reasonable for the level of equipment. It's worth noting that Amazon is expected to refresh its line of 7-inch Kindle Fire HDXs in two months time so it may be worth it to wait. The Kindle Fire HDX moves toward higher-specced tablets with a 1200 x 1920px display, a Snapdragon 800 chipset, 2GB of RAM, LTE connectivity and storage options ranging from 16GB to 64GB.

The bit about storage options is important as the Kindle Fire HDX has no card slot and you'll need to keep that in mind. Another thing to remember is the forked Android version on board - it isn't compatible with Google Play Services and won't bring you the same Android experience as most of the tablets in this guide. The Kindle Fire HDX is basically a means to tap into Amazon's content and that's the reason Amazon can afford to sell its hardware at a lower price.

That means you’ll be enjoying every Amazon service and product but won’t be able to take advantage of all the things you like about Google’s Android operating system.

The next tablet you’ll be well familiar with. During our last tablet buyer’s guide the Asus-made Nexus 7 (2013) was quite a bit more expensive and we excluded it from the rankings. Its price has now settled and it proudly takes the best spot in our compact tablets lineup.

The Nexus 7 (2013) is two years old now and we hope Google is working on its replacement but it’s still well worth it. It provides a great 7” IPS display of 1200 x 1920px, great stereo speakers, the very latest in Google Android thanks to the Nexus moniker and an LTE variant.

Because this is a Nexus device its storage is non-expandable but thanks to it being a Nexus there’s very little bloatware to bog it down.