Apple iPad Air 2, Samsung Galaxy Tab S, Google Nexus 9: Which Tablet is the Best for the Holiday Season?

By Adelyn Torralba Oct 27, 2014 01:20 PM EDT

Apple iPad Air 2, Samsung Galaxy Tab S, Google Nexus 9: Which Tablet is the Best for the Holiday Season?

After conquering the tablet scene for quite sometime now, Samsung is now facing serious rivals in the tech-market scene. Shortly after Google and HTC has launched their newest flagship tablet, Apple has finally unveiled the anticipated upgrade for their iPad Air series.

As the tablet arena heats up, and the holiday season has already kicked in, let us compare this three elite tablets and find out which is the best among the rest. Here is a comprehensive comparison among Apple's iPad Air 2 versus Samsung Galaxy Tab S versus Google Nexus 9 based on the reports from NDTV, CNet and Tech Times.

Screen size is the distinct feature that differentiates tablet to smartphones and tablet. Between the three top devices, Galaxy Tab S has the biggest display at 10.5-inch with 2560 x 1600 resolution. iPad Air 2 comes next at 9.7-inch display with 2048 x 1536 and Nexus 9 is the smallest at 8.9-inch with 2048 x 1536. In terms of pixel density, Nexus 9 and Tab S have the same 288 ppi while Air 2 has 264 ppi only.

In terms of body and built, Apple is the thinnest at 9.4 x 6.6 x 0.24 inches compared to Samsung with 9.74 x 6.98 x 0.26 inches dimension and Google's 8.9 x 6.05 x 0.31 inches. With the dimensions of the three tablets, Samsung is clearly the biggest. In terms of weight Nexus 9 is the lightest at 425 grams followed by iPad Air 2 at 437 grams and Tab S at 465 grams.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S is a bit inferior in terms of its operating system. Both iPad Air 2 and Nexus 9 has the latest operating system; Apple's iOS 8 upgradable to iOS 8.1, Google's latest Android Lollipop 5.0, while Tab S is still in Android Kitkat 4.4.2, although, it will soon be upgradable to the latest Android OS.

When it comes to performance, the three tablets are within the close range as iPad Air 2 is equipped with 64-bit A8X chip with M8 motion co-processor while Galaxy Tab S is powered by Exynos 5 Octa 5420 SoC with 1.9 GHz quad-core Cortex-A15 and Nexus 9 has a relatively inferior processor, 64-bit NVIDIA Tegra K1 with 2.3GHz dual-core Denver.

In terms of memory, Samsung is superior at 3GB RAM compared to Google and HTC's at 2GB while Apple has no RAM revealed yet. Tab S is still on top because it is the only tablet among the three that has an expandable storage up to 128GB. It is available in 16GB and 32GB variants just like Nexus 9. iPad Air 2, on the other hand, has 16Gb, 64GB and 128GB variants.

Apple iPad Air 2 is equipped with the best battery compared to the two tablets. Though all the tablets have non-removable battery, Apple's latest flagship is powered by 27.3-watt-hour battery with 10-hour usage time on Wi-Fi and 9-hour usage time on cellular. Meanwhile, Galaxy Tab S features 7,900mAh battery with up 9 hours of usage while Nexus 9 has a 6,700mAh battery that has the same juice time.

The three tablets has the same 8MP HD main snapper but Tab S has the best selfie cam with 2.1 MP front snapper, followed by Nexus 9 at 1.6MP front camera and Air 2's 1.2MP snapper. In terms of additional features, both Galaxy Tab S and iPad Air 2 have fingerprint scanner that Nexus lacks.

If color is your deciding criteria, Apple has made Silver, Space Grey and Gold iPad Air 2 while Samsung made Dazzling White and Titanium Bronze Tab S and Google and HTC made Indigo Black, Lunar White and Sand Nexus 9.

With the hardwares and software that are not entirely far from each other, price might be an important factor to consider. In this area, Nexus 9's 16GB is the cheapest among the three tablets. Nexus 9 is available at $399 while iPad Air 2 nd Galaxy Tab S' 16GB variants are available at $499.