When Steve Jobs announced the Apple iPad, the first mass-market tablet device, in January 2010, the response was lukewarm. Consumers and reviewers alike had trouble seeing how a device with no USB ports, no keyboard, and no ability to multitask would be successful. Even our esteemed publication published, 42 Reasons Why Netbooks Are Better Than the iPad.

Wherefore art thou, netbook?

With 250 million iPads(Opens in a new window) and over 600 million tablets overall sold since 2010(Opens in a new window), it’s time to fully acknowledge that there’s a place in our lives for yet another category of device to go with our computers and smartphones. The tablet category still faces challenges. Google’s simple Chromebook laptops surpassed iPads in sales in the education market as schools realized that, while tablets are very good for consuming information, tablets are not especially well suited to creating content. Plus there’s the fact that Chromebooks cost about half what an iPad costs. Perhaps the biggest challenge is the rise of the phablet smartphone—phones with screens larger than 5 inches, such as the Samsung Galaxy Note lineup and the Apple iPhone 6 Plus—which make it less appealing to buy a mini tablet with a screen less than 8 inches.

Two years ago, Microsoft introduced its own take on the tablet with the Windows 8-based Surface Pro and the Windows RT-based Surface. These devices, with their detachable keyboards, were designed to bridge the gap between laptops and tablets. Thankfully, the latest generation of the Surface has jettisoned Windows RT for full-blown Windows, making the Surface a very good low-end Windows PC while the Surface Pro competes with high-end ultrabook laptops.

For this year’s PCMag Readers’ Choice Award survey of tablet devices, we removed Windows-based devices and covered them in our laptop survey earlier this year. We did this because they are true Windows computers with all the functionality of any Windows PC and, unlike iPads, are not designed primarily as devices for consuming content (e.g. watching movies, reading email, listening to music, and so forth.) The move didn’t hurt Microsoft, which won the Readers’ Choice award for laptops, but it does more clearly help you decide which tablet device to purchase based on the feedback of your fellow PCMag readers.

Our survey asked respondents to rate their satisfaction with their tablets on several criteria including overall satisfaction, reliability, ease of setup, and likelihood to recommend (both the device and the operating system) We also asked you to rate your tablets in specific areas such as satisfaction with managing email, the availability of apps, and taking photos as well as several others. These criteria helped us establish which company’s tablet devices our readers prefer overall as well as the strengths of each device. Read on to see what they decided.

The PCMag Readers’ Choice survey for tablets was in the field from May 12, 2015 through June 1, 2015. 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 a $350 Amazon Gift Card.

You can win, too! Want to participate in future survey sweepstakes? Sign up for the Readers’ Choice survey email list to receive invitations.

Tablet OS

Tablet Operating Systems

When choosing a tablet, your first decision should probably be what operating system or platform the tablet will run on. With the demise of Windows RT, there are three primary choices: Apple iOS, Google Android, and Amazon Fire OS (which is based on a forked version of Android). Once you’ve chosen a platform, then you can decide which specific device you want to purchase.

Apple wins our 2015 PCMag Readers’ Choice Award for tablet operating system this year after having shared the award with Android last year. Apple had the highest overall satisfaction rating (8.5 on a scale from 0 for extremely dissatisfied to 10 for extremely satisfied) and the highest overall satisfaction with devices based on its operating system (8.7). Apple received the highest ratings in several of our drill-down categories including satisfaction with the availability of apps (9.1), quality of the apps (8.7), watching videos (8.7), Web browsing (8.6), listening to music (8.3), as well as gaming (7.8). These are the key aspects that make tablets appealing.

¦ Red—Readers’ Choice Winner. ¦ Blue—Honorable Mention.

Android receives an honorable mention this year. Overall satisfaction dropped slightly from an 8.4 in 2014 to 8.3 this year. However, as with last year, Android received the highest rating for likelihood to recommend the operating system (8.7) compared to Apple’s 8.5. Interestingly, the enthusiasm for the Android operating system doesn’t carry over to the devices that run it. Android devices only receive an 8.1 for overall satisfaction and likelihood to recommend. Android users are confident in their choice of operating system if not in their choice of device.

In our drill-down categories, Android received the highest rating for managing email (8.4, tied with Apple) and managing calendar (8.1). Although respondents preferred Apple’s availability of apps, Android had a slight edge in satisfaction with the availability of free apps (8.8 to Apple’s 8.7). In nearly every other aspect of tablet satisfaction, Android trailed slightly behind Apple.

Amazon developed its custom version of Android, Fire OS, to create an operating system suited for an Amazon ecosystem of content and devices: Kindle ebooks, Amazon Prime Movies, and Music, and Amazon’s Fire TV. With “generic” Android (that’s in quotes because most tablet vendors still tweak Android for their devices, just less than Amazon), respondents were more satisfied with their operating system than their devices. With Fire OS, it’s just the opposite. Fire OS received only an 8.0 for satisfaction with the operating system, but an 8.4 for satisfaction with the device. Similarly, likelihood to recommend Fire OS was only 7.5 but likelihood to recommend the device on which Fire OS was running was 8.4. Still, perhaps with Apple’s iOS and Amazon’s Fire OS only running on their company’s own devices, it’s not surprising that consumers give less thought to the operating system than to the device itself.

Amazon’s focus on making Fire OS a great operating system for consuming content seems to be resonating with users. Amazon received its highest rating in our drill-down categories in watching video (8.5) and listening to music (8.2). Still, both of these ratings trailed slightly behind Apple.

According to Microsoft, Windows RT is dead. However, a small number of our respondents are still running RT-based devices. The hobbled version of Windows only received a 6.6 for overall satisfaction and clearly the respondents got the message that there would be no more RT: Likelihood to recommend was only 4.9.

See all of our survey results for Tablet Operating System.

WINNERS: TABLET OPERATING SYSTEM

Readers’ Choice 2010 Award

Apple iOS
Apple’s iOS operating system, the platform on which all iPads run, once again wins the PCMag Readers’ Choice. Respondents gave Apple the highest ratings in nearly every drill-down aspect of tablet usage, leading to a category-best rating for overall satisfaction.

Readers’ Choice 2010 Honorable Mention

Android by Google
No tablet operating system is more likely to be recommended by our respondents than Google’s Android, although respondents didn’t express the same enthusiasm for their Android-based tablets. In general, Android doesn’t deliver quite the satisfaction levels as Apple’s iOS, but it’s not far behind.

Tablets

Tablets

Tablet consumers are not lacking for choice. Thirteen companies received enough responses to be included in our analysis this year. Last year, Microsoft won our Readers’ Choice award for tablets with its Windows 8 and 8.1-based Surface Pros. However, as we noted earlier, this year we moved Microsoft into the laptop category (where it still won a Readers’ Choice award) to keep the tablet category focused on slate-based devices designed primarily for consuming rather than creating content.

Apple, which received an honorable mention in 2014, earns a PCMag Readers’ Choice Award this year. The company shares the award with Samsung. Overall satisfaction with Apple’s devices was slightly higher than Samsung (8.7 to 8.6) but likelihood to recommend was identical (8.8). Apple and Samsung, along with Amazon, had the lowest percentage of tablets needing repairs within the last 12 months (4 percent). In our drill-down results, Apple rated highest in availability of apps (9.1) and quality of apps (8.8) as well as watching videos (8.7). Apple also had the highest rating with satisfaction with repairs (7.7).

¦ Red—Readers’ Choice Winner.

Samsung is not to be outdone by Apple. Samsung tablets received the highest satisfaction rating for Web browsing (8.7 to Apple’s 8.6). Perhaps this is due to Samsung’s support for multi-window, allowing you to have a browser open on one side of the screen while you run other apps on the other side (a feature Apple will add to iPads in iOS 9). Samsung also got top marks for availability of free apps (8.9 to 8.7) and didn’t trail Apple by more than 0.2 points in any other ratings category…except when it comes to satisfaction with repairs (6.7) and tech support (7.1 to Apple’s 8.0).

In general, it’s very easy to get started with a tablet device, but Samsung received higher ratings for ease of setup than any other company. Ninety-three percent of Samsung respondents who purchased their tablet within the last year said everything worked right out of the box and another 6 percent said they were able to fix any issues themselves, leaving only 1 percent with more serious problems. No other company had such a high percentage of customers with positive setup experiences.

Amazon has taken a hybrid approach with its Fire tablets (the company is dropping Kindle from its tablets’ names, reserving that for ebook readers). Amazon currently offers a wide range of tablets from the 8.9-inch Fire HDX 8.9 to the 6-inch Fire HD 6. Like Apple, Amazon creates its own ecosystem of devices and content for its tablets. Yet, Amazon’s Fire OS is based on Android and runs regular Android apps. You’ll have to get the apps from Amazon’s own app store and if they’re not available there, you’ll have to figure out how to sideload the apps onto your tablet.

Amazon received the third highest rating for overall satisfaction (8.4, tied with LG) and likelihood to recommend (also 8.4). Amazon’s content-focused tablets were only slightly behind our Readers’ Choice winners for watching videos (8.5) and listening to music (8.2). However, in nearly every other drill-down category, Amazon was among the lowest satisfaction ratings. Fire tablet customers must be pining for the full Google Play app store. Amazon received a rating of only 7.6 for satisfaction with the availability of apps. Only Barnes & Noble (7.5) and Microsoft’s phased-out Windows RT-based tablets (5.2) received lower ratings.

Anyone who shops at Amazon knows that the company always tries to put customer satisfaction first. This carries over to its tablets. Amazon received the highest ratings for satisfaction with technical support (8.6). Sixteen percent of respondents said that they had contacted Amazon for technical support over the last year. Only Verizon had a higher percentage of tech support incidents. However, Amazon’s high number may be more reflective of the ease with which customers can get support. Amazon’s unique Mayday feature quickly brings a live support representative onto your screen at the touch of a button. The reps can see your screen and even draw and tap on items for you(Opens in a new window).

Google received an honorable mention in 2014 for its own Nexus line of Android tablets. However, Google’s overall satisfaction plunged fairly substantially this year from 8.7 to 8.1. There were corresponding drops in overall reliability and likelihood to recommend, both of which went from 8.9 to 8.3.

A couple of other brands better known for other types of devices received notable ratings. LG, more often considered for smartphones, televisions, and refrigerators, had the same overall satisfaction rating as Amazon (8.4), just behind our Readers’ Choice Award winners. Among the admittedly small number of respondents with LG tablets, not a single one reported needing repairs within the last 12 months. However, satisfaction with LG tablets didn’t translate into a recommendation. LG’s likelihood to recommend rating was only 8.0, placing it squarely in the middle of the pack.

Lenovo may be better known for its laptops, but the company also offers a wide variety of Android tablets from a sub-$100 7-inch model to its top-of-the-line Yoga tablets, which include a built-in kickstand for propping up or hanging the tablet. Lenovo received the highest ratings in our survey for listening to music (8.5); it was just behind Apple for watching video (8.6 to Apple’s 8.7). However, overall satisfaction and likelihood to recommend were both rated only 8.1.

See all of our survey results for tablets.

WINNERS: TABLETS

Readers’ Choice 2010 Award

Apple
Apple created the tablet category with iPad and, as the market leader, it’s the one every other tablet maker is gunning for. There’s stiff competition, but Apple remains on top, providing the highest level of overall satisfaction among all the tablet brands rated.

Readers’ Choice 2010 Award

Samsung
Samsung continues to innovate to try to break Apple’s grip on the tablet market. It seems to be working. Samsung’s tablet excellence starts right from the setup experience. No other brand rates as highly for ease of setup or likelihood to be recommended.