Apple iPad Air
The iPad Air -- the fifth and newest edition of Apple's 9.7-inch tablet -- isn't much different from its predecessor except in two areas: It's lighter and faster. Those two virtues make the Air a worthy upgrade. The Air weighs just over a pound, making it one of the lightest full-size tablets. And the Air's new 64-bit A7 processor -- the same chip powering the iPhone 5S -- is a nice step up from the iPad 4's dual-core A6X. Starting at $499 for 16 GB of RAM and Wi-Fi, the Air is expensive, but its beautiful Retina display, rich selection of applications, and 9- to 10-hour battery life make it an excellent choice.
Amazon Kindle Fire HDX
You know that old joke about selling at a loss but making it up in volume? That almost applies to Amazon, which famously offers its Kindle tablets at cost, but theoretically turns a profit by getting its users to buy all kinds of merchandise at its online store.
Whatever the business model, the bottom line for consumers is that the Kindle Fire HDX is a tremendous value. Starting at $229 for the 16-GB model, the 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX features a crisp 1920- by 1200-pixel display, which rivals that of the new (and much pricier) $399 Apple iPad Mini. The 2.2-GHz quad-core processor delivers zippy performance, and Amazon's new "Mayday" button gives HDX users 24/7 access to live tech support.
The Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 weighs just 13.2 ounces (0.825 pounds), has an excellent 2560- by 1600-pixel screen, and starts at $379 (16GB/Wi-Fi) -- that's $120 less than the slightly larger iPad Air. Bottom line: the HDX lineup is a good deal.
Asus Transformer Book T100
Asus gets high marks for tablet innovation. Its Transformer Book Trio, a dual-boot Android/Windows 8 hybrid tablet announced earlier this year, might be a good choice for those seeking a tablet-laptop combo. Unfortunately, the Trio wasn't available in time for our 2013 Best Of list.
In the meantime here's an affordable option: The Asus Transformer Book T100 tablet/laptop, a Windows 8.1 hybrid starting at $349 with a detachable keyboard and 32 GB of storage. The T100 features a quad-core Intel Atom Bay Trail-TZ3740 processor, 2 GB of RAM, and a 10.1-inch, 1,366-by-768-pixel screen. It has a 1.2-megapixel front camera, but no back camera. (Hey, how often you do use your tablet's back camera?) The T100 might not have top-of-the-line specs, but it's a capable performer for the price.
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