With the market full of new and amazing tablets, there isn’t much that tells these tablets apart from each other. Almost every new model claims to be the fastest in the market.
The London-based Which? Magazine has took the bestselling tablets from the likes of Apple, Samsung, Google and Tesco, covering various price ranges, and ran each one through speed benchmarking tests.
Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 edition) topped the list with the benchmark score of 2856, while Apple’s iPad 2 came in last with only 502 points. Apple’s iPad Air was in second place with 2687, followed by the second-generation Google Nexus 7 in third with 2675.
WHICH? BENCHMARKING SCORES
1. Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition (£399): 2856
2. Apple iPad Air 16GB (£399): 2687
3. Google Nexus 7 2013 (£199): 2675
4. Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 (£329): 2667
5. Advent Vega Tegra Note 7″ (£139): 2612
6. iPad mini with Retina display 16GB (£319): 2512
7. Tesco Hudl (£119): 1926
8. Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8GB (£119): 807
9. Apple iPad 2 16GB (£329): 502
According to the results, Apple’s iPad Air is five times better than the iPad 2, though we shouldn’t be too surprised; iPad 2 was afterall released in 2011.
Which? used Geekbench software to test each tablet’s speed. The software is designed to test multi-core performance by replicating a series of everyday tasks.
Each of these tests is given a score, which are then combined and weighted to calculate a final numeric score.
In theory, the higher the score, the faster the tablet will be when browsing the web, loading pages, opening apps and streaming video.
All tablets tested were Wi-Fi only models.
Although speed alone should not influence the buying decision, a faster processor means greater efficiency too. High processing power gives you the ultimate bragging rights owning a latest premium tablet. However, battery life and storage space should be given equivalent importance while buying a tablet.