Tablet customers now have more choices than ever. Need a bigger, more powerful iPad? Try the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which is significantly larger than the 9.7-inch iPad Air and 7.9-inch iPad mini. If that's not big enough, make the huge leap to Samsung's 18.4-inch Galaxy View, which is more a small TV than mega-tablet. Or, if you want a super cheap tablet, look no further than the 7-inch Amazon Fire.
These are just a few of the tablets on the market, though. Finding the right one often starts with choosing a platform or operating system, just as it does with smartphones. Do you want a tablet that runs Apple's iOS, Google's Android, or Amazon's Android-based Fire OS? Or, do you want a Windows tablet with an OS experience similar to that of your desktop or laptop?
In this month's PCMag Readers' Choice Award survey, we asked about your satisfaction with the tablets you use and the companies that make them, as well as your satisfaction with the operating system on which they run. Our survey covered areas important for any type of product, such as satisfaction with initial setup and reliability. In addition, we asked many tablet-specific questions including satisfaction with the quality and availability of apps, and satisfaction with Web browsing, email, watching videos, reading ebooks, and more.
We did not include Windows-based tablets and convertible computers such as Microsoft's Surface Pro and Surface Book. While it appears these devices are trying to serve as a PC and tablet, our readers tend to consider them a PC, so we included them in our recent PCMag Readers' Choice Awards for Laptops. Many Surface owners don't use their devices as tablets, a shift we're starting to see among some iPad Pro users, too. We will continue to evaluate this distinction in future surveys; it's one that you should consider yourself in making your tablet choices.
The PCMag Readers' Choice survey for tablets was in the field from May 9 through May 30, 2016. For more information on how the survey is conducted, read the survey methodology.
Each person who completed the survey was entered into a drawing to win an Amazon gift card worth $350.
You can win! Sign up for the Readers' Choice Survey mailing list to receive invitations for future sweepstakes.
Looking for expert opinion? Read The 10 Best Tablets of 2016.
LINK from WINNERS PAGETablet Operating Systems
When choosing a tablet, your first decision is likely going to be what type of tablet to get: one that's based on Apple's iOS, Google's Android, or Amazon's Fire OS. (Until this year, Microsoft offered another choice: a scaled-down version of Windows called Windows RT; it no longer makes any RT-based devices.)
We asked respondents to select the top three reasons they chose the tablet they did, and there were glaring differences in the motivations of users from the different platforms. Apple iOS users are primarily driven by ease of use (26 percent), Apple's reputation (25 percent), compatibility with smartphone and/or computer (22 percent), and a positive experience with a prior Apple tablet (20 percent). The only one of these factors that registered more than a 10 percent response among Android users was the tablet manufacturer's reputation (22 percent).
Android users were instead driven by screen size (28 percent) and screen quality (20 percent), the price of the device (27 percent) and the Android operating system itself (25 percent). Apple respondents are also motivated by the operating system (17 percent) and quality of the screen (17 percent), but not to the extent of Android users.
Amazon Fire OS users are driven even more by price than Android users; perhaps not surprising given the popularity of Amazon's Fire tablet. Thirty-nine percent of respondents said the price of the device was a primary reason for getting a Fire OS tablet and another 23 percent said they got their tablet because it was on sale for a price they couldn't refuse. In contrast, only 3 percent of Apple tablet users said price was a primary reason for their choice. Thirty percent of Amazon respondents also said the tablet's capability as an ebook reader was a driving factor. This was only a consideration for 7 percent of Android users and 4 percent of iOS tablet users.
While each platform's respondents seem to have approached their platform choice with very different motivations, the key question is which platform is delivering the highest level of satisfaction. Here, there is no doubt: Apple's iOS received an overall satisfaction rating from respondents of 8.5 on a scale from zero (extremely dissatisfied) to 10 (extremely satisfied), which was substantially better than Android (8.0) and Fire OS (7.7). Apple earns a PCMag Readers' Choice Award for tablet operating system for the third straight year.
In 2014, Android also won a Readers' Choice Award and last year the platform received an honorable mention. But this year, the difference in overall satisfaction between iOS and Android was too great to give Android any special designation. Interestingly, however, Android users remain the most enthusiastic about recommending their platform: Despite the comparatively low overall satisfaction rating, Android received an 8.7 for likelihood to recommend, the same rating it received last year, putting it slightly ahead of Apple's 8.6 for iOS recommendations. Fire OS could not match Android's enthusiasm; Amazon only received a likelihood to recommend rating of 7.6.
Respondents with new tablets (those less than a year old), said they were also more satisfied with setting up their iOS tablets (9.2) than either the Android (8.7) or Fire OS (8.8) respondents did. In fact, Android and Fire OS received lower satisfaction ratings than iOS on every one of our measures except satisfaction with the availability of free apps (Android and iOS had identical ratings of 8.7), and satisfaction with reading ebooks (Fire OS devices received an 8.9 compared to Apple's 8.5 and Android's 8.2).
See all of our survey results for tablet OSes.
WINNERS: TABLET OPERATING SYSTEMS
Apple iOS
Apple wins the Readers' Choice Award for tablet operating systems for the third straight year. As satisfaction with competing tablet platforms wanes, Apple's users remain consistently enthusiast about the platform from year to year.
Tablets
You have a lot of choices when it comes to tablet brands. Apple has its iPads and Amazon has its Fire tablets, and then there are several companies making Android-based tablets. Even Google offers its own Android tablets with the Nexus lineup, which are made in partnership with various hardware companies.
Nine companies received the requisite minimum responses to be included in our analysis this year. Apple stands out at the top, and is the sole recipient of our PCMag Readers' Choice Award this year for tablets. In 2015, Apple shared the award with Samsung, but while Apple's key ratings remained virtually unchanged this year, Samsung's satisfaction ratings fell. Still, the company earns an Honorable Mention, driven in large part from its respondents' enthusiasm in recommending Samsung's Galaxy-branded tablets.
Apple's overall satisfaction rating dropped a bit from 8.7 to 8.6 this year, but no other tablet brand received a rating higher than 8.3. Apple's satisfaction with reliability rating (9.0) and likelihood to recommend rating (8.8) remain unchanged from last year. Apple also had the highest satisfaction rating for initial setup (9.2), satisfaction with technical support (8.1), and satisfaction with repairs (7.5). Only 4 percent of Apple tablets needed repairs in the last 12 months, the lowest percentage in our survey (tied with Amazon and Lenovo).
Samsung's overall satisfaction rating dropped from 8.6 in 2015 to 8.3, a fairly large decline. The overall satisfaction rating is tied with Lenovo and slightly ahead of Google (8.1) and Amazon (8.0). No other tablet brand received a rating of 8.0 or higher. Where Samsung differentiates itself is in its users' enthusiasm for recommending the brand. Samsung received a likelihood to recommend rating of 8.6 compared to Lenovo and Google's 8.2 and Amazon's 8.1. For this reason, Samsung earns an honorable mention.
We asked several specific questions about tablet satisfaction, and no brand stood out across the board, suggesting some parity among tablets. In many cases, the various Android brands received similar scores, but there were some areas where certain brands stood out. For instance, Lenovo received the highest ratings among all brands for managing email (8.7), calendar (8.5), and contacts (8.4). These ratings were at least three-tenths of a point higher than any competitor. In fact, Lenovo was at or near the top on several measures. It's hard to say why the company's customers aren't more inclined to recommend the brand. Perhaps its middle-of-the-road rating for satisfaction with reliability (8.3) is to blame.
As noted previously, many Amazon tablet users chose the device based on price, but the tablets are also highly regarded for reading ebooks. It received an 8.9 for satisfaction with reading ebooks; Apple was next at 8.5. Amazon's rating for satisfaction with technical support (7.9) was very good and only slightly behind Apple.
See all of our survey results for tablets.
WINNERS: TABLETS
Apple
Apple repeats as a Readers' Choice Award winner for tablets. The company's satisfaction ratings are little changed from last year, which is a good thing since customers are generally quite happy with their tablets but the company can't rest on its laurels.
Samsung
Samsung's satisfaction ratings slipped a little compared to 2015 when it won a Readers' Choice Award, but respondents remain more likely to recommend Samsung tablets than any other Android brand.