The demand for standalone tablets aren't what it used to be, partly because of its limited functionality, what can a tablet do other than the obvious, surf the net and embroiled in some form of entertainment that includes viewing YouTube vids and gaming.
The demand for slate like devices began to increase once the Surface Pro entered the market, hybrid devices such as the Surface Pro are functional, enough that it rivals any laptop on the market, yet at the same time morph into a full fledged tablet, powerful enough to run an entire desktop OS.
If you're looking to add tablet or a convertible hybrid to your shopping list, here's some recommended devices.
The iPad Pro (12.9inch model)_Start Price: $799
The iPad Pro is probably not for the faint of heart. Mainly because this particular model I'm recommending as a gift is huge measuring 12.9 inch, almost dwarfing some laptop displays. Apple main intention with the iPad Pro target the graphic artist, the designer, and engineer. For me, the main attraction is not the hardware or display, but it's the stylus pen dubbed the Apple Pencil. Throw in the AutoCAD software which you can download from Apple app store. The iPad Pro is definitely tailor made for the consummate professional.
Probably my only gripe with the iPad Pro is the stylus pen, the tablets main attraction is sold separately at $100.
About the the display, it's enormous and packs some serious pixels at 2732 x2047. The hardware, impressive, it rocks a A9X Apple chipset, dual core 2.26GHz processor, graphics powered by a PowerVR Series 12-core graphics chip.
Samsung Galaxy TabPro S_Start Price: $699
When it comes to hybrid devices, mark the Surface Pro 4 down on your holiday shopping list. To me the Surface Pro 4 set the tone on how a hybrid devices is suppose to behave. It has a enough power to be a full fledged laptop, yet it's portable enough to act as a tablet. In 2016 we saw the emergence of some pretty impressive hybrid tablets flood the market, one that impressed me the most is the Samsung TabPro.
In comparing the TabPro S to the Surface Pro 4 ( quick note, in comparison I did not use the Surface Pro 4 high end variant), there is somewhat a vast difference, the Windows 10 based hybrid device is much thinner than its competitors, $100 cheap and, you're going to like this, the keyboard comes with the TabPro S right out the box free of charge. The display also stands out differently from the rest of the tablet portables as it sports a nicely lit AMOLED display.
Not just for work related tasks, the TabPro S have enough power to engage in some gaming during your down time.
Amazon Fire HD8_Start Price: $134
So maybe you don't want to spend an excessive amount of money a tablet, in a hunt for something more affordable look no further than the Amazon Fire HD8 . This reasonably priced Android slate is well suited for installing any app of your choice, stream video content, and since this is a Amazon device, it can also be used as a reader. The only drawback to this Android tablet, there is no native Google apps, no direct access to Google Play. The Fire HD8 full concentration is on the Amazon ecosystem. Google apps would have to be install separately.
The hardware specs is not to shabby, you're getting 16-32GB of storage, with an microSD expansion card slot that goes up to 200GB, a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 1,5GHz of RAM.