The best tablet you can buy is the iPad Air

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THE WINNER

APPLE IPAD AIR

When everything is added up, the best tablet is Apple’s iPad Air. The fifth version of the tablet since Apple introduced the iPad in 2010, the iPad Air is extremely well built, exceptionally thin and lightweight (one pound exactly), and performs very well. Its battery easily lasts multiple days, its processor is very fast, and its high-resolution display is excellent. The screen is the No. 1 most important part of a tablet, and the Air’s is great for reading, while vibrant and colorful enough for video. There’s really nothing to complain about when it comes to the Air’s hardware.

One of the biggest advantages that the iPad Air has is the wealth of apps available for it in Apple’s iTunes App Store. A tablet is only as good as what you can do with it, and thanks to the hundreds of thousands of apps for the Air, you can do more with it than any other tablet.

There are also countless games available for the iPad Air — far more than any competing mobile platform. There are puzzle games, adventure games, strategy games, intense 3D action and racing games. And since the Air runs iOS, one of the easiest-to-understand computing platforms available, virtually anyone can pick up an Air and grasp how to use it quickly.

In addition to great hardware and lots of apps, the Air also has the strongest ecosystem of accessories available to it. There are keyboard cases to make it easier to type long emails or documents with the Air, styluses to draw or write on the Air’s display, rugged cases to protect the Air from abuse in extreme situations or the slippery hands of young children, stands to prop the Air up on your desk or next to a monitor, and much more. But you shouldn’t feel compelled to run out and spend a lot of money on accessories for your Air right after you buy it — the core iPad Air experience is really good and comes right out of the box.

The Air has pretty much everything you could want from a tablet: it’s fast, well built, lightweight, and has a ton of apps. It’s just not that portable, which leads us to our runner-up pick.

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THE RUNNER UP

APPLE IPAD MINI WITH RETINA DISPLAY

If you find the iPad Air just too large for your needs, or you’re looking to get most of the same experience while saving a few bucks, the iPad mini with Retina display is the tablet you should get. It has the same design, same software, same performance, same screen resolution, and access to the same apps as the larger Air. It’s just smaller — 7.9 inches as opposed to 9.7 — and slightly lighter, making it therefore easier to hold in one hand or slip into your bag as you walk out the door.

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