We have seen and used PCs, notebooks and mobile phones for decades. With various screen sizes, these devices are suited for diverse applications. For instance, with large monitor sizes up to 23″, PCs sit on desktops and are essential tools for businesses and homes. Whereas mobile phones with screen sizes ranging from approximately 2” up to approximately 5” as used in today’s smart-phones, are carried around.
While tablet PCs have been around for many years, it was not until Apple’s iPAD reached the market with its 9.7″ touch screen tablet along with its other features, that tablet PCs become serious devices that can bridge the gap between notebook PCs and smart-phones.
Tablet PCs have the benefits of mobile devices, processor power matching those of notebook PCs, and prices way lower than those two types of devices.
Now that you are ready to purchase a tablet PC you may be wondering which device will best suit your requirements. In this article I will show you what factors to consider and help you to select a Tablet PC that best suits your requirements.
Processor
The processor is one of the most important components that will affect performance and responsiveness of the tablet PC. A slow processor will cause you frustration especially if you are going to be playing games or watch movies or videos (especially in HD) on or off Internet.
The model i-LAN TP97A 9.7” tablet is fitted with an ARM Cortex-A9 Dual Core 1.5Ghx processor and provides significant performance and responsiveness. It is suited to run apps that require processing power, such as accessing the Internet, running a multiple of apps, playing games or watching high definition videos.
The smaller i-LAN TP70A 7”tablet Pc is fitted with an ARM Cortex-A8 1.2Ghz Processor which will give you adequate performance to access the Internet, run apps, play games or watch high definition videos.
Touch Screen
This is the second most important piece of hardware (after the processor) on the tablet and it provides the interface for you to interact with the tablet PC and running apps. Touch screens can be either resistive as used in the low cost tablet PC or Capacitive type as used in the higher end units. Capacitive touch screens are very responsive compared to the resistive type and also support multi-touch. This allows you to use multiple input touches that are required for some apps. One example is playing a piano on the touch screen. The i-LAN tablet PC’s are fitted with a 10 point capacitive touch screen on the TP97A Tablet PC and a 5 point capacitive touch screen on the 7” TP70A.
Another consideration is the screen resolution. The higher the screen resolution the better the quality of images displayed on the screen will be. Also depending on the size of the screen, the screen resolution will indicate if it can display widescreen properly. The screen resolution is expressed as the pixel width x height. The 800×480 pixel screen used in the TP70A tablet PC is a widescreen format
Recommendation: Choose a capacitive screen with multi-touch capability as used in the i-LAN tablet PCs.
Operating System (OS)
The operating system controls the tablet PCs and allows applications to work. The most popular operating systems are Apple iOS as used in the Apple iPads and Google Android that is used in many other brands of Tablet PC’s. The later version Android OS has many added features so it is recommended to select a tablet PC running the latest OS.
The i-LAN tablet PC’s run Android version 4.1 which is one of the latest versions.
Memory
There are two forms of memories: RAM and Storage. The larger memory, the better performance it will provide.
RAM
The RAM is the memory in the tablet PC where data is stored temporarily and allows applications to run. A larger RAM allows multiple apps to run as well as improving performance. The minimum RAM required is 512MB.
The i-LAN TP70A 7”tablet Pc is fitted with 512MB DDR3 SDRAM and the larger model i-LAN TP97A 9.7” tablet is fitted with 1GB DDR3 SDRAM
Storage
This is usually called NAND flash and it is used to store all your programs and data. Since Android uses storage efficiently you may find that 4GB NAND flash is sufficient if you only use the tablet PC for email, simple games and Internet access. To store larger files such as videos you will need more NAND flash. 8GB will be sufficient but 16GB will be better.
The i-LAN TP70A 7”tablet PC is fitted with 8GB NAND flash and the larger model i-LAN TP97A 9.7” tablet is fitted with 16GB NAND flash.
If more storage capacity is required you can expand the storage capacity by plugging in an external microSD card. The i-LAN TP97A can take a microSD card up to 64GB capacity, whereas the i-LAN TP70A can take a microSD card up to 32GB capacity.
Battery
The battery is an important component in the tablet PC, it must be sufficient to give you hours of use from the tablet PC.
The i-LAN TP70A 7”tablet Pc is fitted with a 3000mAH Lithium-Ion battery and the i-LAN TP97A 9.7”tablet PC is fitted with and 8000mAH Lithium-Ion battery. These will give you several hours of continuous use from the tablet PC.
To extend the run-time of the tablet PC when you are not able to re-charge the built-in battery, you can use a power bank attached to the tablet PC. The power bank is a re-chargeable battery unit that connects to the tablet PC. This unit is fitted with a 8000mAh polymer Lithium-Ion battery.