There are big differences between the quality of tablet computer displays, a test by a German consumer goods testing organisation has found. Stiftung Warentest compared the displays of 15 tablets and found that the best ones had good colour, high resolution and high contrast. At the other end of the scale were tablets where the image was blurred and pixellated and text was hard to read.
In the survey the testers differentiated between smaller devices with screens of between 6.8 und 8.4 inches diagonally and bigger tablets of between 8.7 and 10.9 inches.
Among the small tablets, three were rated "good" and the remaining four as "satisfactory." The testers most liked the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 8.0 LTE which costs 475 euros (516 dollars) and Apple's iPad Mini 4 WiFi+Cellular 16 GB for 505 euros.
The intended use of the tablet is usually reflected in the size a person chooses - if someone intends to travel with the device a lot, they usually buy a smaller one. If it's going to be used mainly in the home, it's generally larger.
Most users will be choosing between the competing operating systems of Android and iOS. The Windows option lags behind because of the much smaller selection of apps, the testers found.
The testers found big differences in battery life: the weakest devices lasted 7 hours, the best twice as long.
Overall the tablets' cameras didn't achieve great ratings: Only one tablet had a camera rated "good," the rest just managed "satisfactory" or "adequate."
If someone wants to surf while on the go and doesn't want to rely on WiFi only, they should make sure there's a SIM card slot, the testers advised. Not all tablets have one.
Tablet makers also often offer versions with and without cellular modems. The latter can be considerably cheaper.
For the larger tablets, the testers handed out four ratings of "good," three of "satisfactory" and one "adequate." Here the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7 LTE was up front, costing 565 euros, followed by the 655 euro Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet LTE.
But some cheaper devices also achieved a "good" rating, namely the 295-euro Asus Zenpad 19 LTE and the 219-euro Archos 101 Helium 4G. The prices of the tested devices ranged between 140 and 650 euros.