A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being computers, have similar capabilities, but lack some input/output (I/O) abilities that others have. Modern tablets largely resemble modern smartphones, the only differences being that tablets are relatively larger than smartphones, with screens 7 inches (18 cm) or larger, measured diagonally, and may not support access to a cellular network. Unlike laptops, tablets usually run mobile operating systems, alongside smartphones.
A mobile operating system is an operating system used for smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as typical/mobile laptops are "mobile", the operating systems used on them are generally not considered mobile, as they were originally designed for desktop computers that historically did not have or need specific mobile features. This line distinguishing mobile and other forms has become blurred in recent years, due to the fact that newer devices have become smaller and more mobile unlike hardware of the past. Key notabilities blurring this line are the introduction of tablet computers, light laptops, and the hybridization of the two in 2-in-1 PCs.
CyanogenMod is a discontinued open-source operating system for mobile devices, based on the Android mobile platform. Developed between 2009 and 2016, it was free and open-source software based on the official releases of Android by Google, with added original and third-party code, and based on a rolling release development model. Although only a subset of total CyanogenMod users elected to report their use of the firmware, on 23 March 2015, some reports indicated that over 50 million people ran CyanogenMod on their phones. It was also frequently used as a starting point by developers of other ROMs.
The Samsung Galaxy S is a touchscreen-enabled, slate-format Android smartphone designed, developed, and marketed by Samsung Electronics; it is the first smartphone of the Samsung Galaxy S series. It is the first device of the third Android smartphone series produced by Samsung. It was announced to the press in March 2010 and released for sale in June 2010. Due to shortage of Super AMOLED displays, Samsung released a successor to the device called S scLCD or SL and ceased production of the original I9000 model.
The Nook Color is a tablet computer/e-reader that was marketed by Barnes & Noble. A 7-inch (18 cm) tablet with multitouch touchscreen input, it is the first device in the Nook line to feature a full-color screen. The device is designed for viewing of books, newspapers, magazines, and children's picture books. A limited number of the children's books available for the Nook Color include interactive animations and the option to have a professional voice actor read the story. It was announced on 26 October 2010 and shipped on 16 November 2010. Nook Color became available at the introductory price of US$249. In December 2011, with the release of the Nook Tablet, it lowered to US$169. On 12 August 2012, the price lowered to US$149. On 4 November 2012, the price was further lowered to US$139. The tablet ran on Android.
The Motorola Atrix 4G is an Android-based smartphone developed by Motorola, introduced at CES 2011 along with the Motorola Xoom, Motorola Droid Bionic, and Motorola Cliq 2 on January 5, 2011. It was made available in the first quarter of 2011.
The HP TouchPad is a tablet computer that was developed and designed by Hewlett-Packard. The HP TouchPad was launched on July 1, 2011, in the United States; July 15 in Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany; and August 15 in Australia.
The Barnes & Noble Nook is a brand of e-readers developed by American book retailer Barnes & Noble, based on the Android platform. The original device was announced in the U.S. in October 2009, and was released the next month. The original Nook had a six-inch E-paper display and a separate, smaller color touchscreen that serves as the primary input device and was capable of Wi-Fi and AT&T 3G wireless connectivity. The original Nook was followed in November 2010 by a color LCD device called the Nook Color, in June 2011 by the Nook Simple Touch, and in November 2011 and February 2012 by the Nook Tablet. On April 30, 2012, Barnes & Noble entered into a partnership with Microsoft that spun off the Nook and college businesses into a subsidiary. On August 28, 2012, Barnes and Noble announced partnerships with retailers in the UK, which began offering the Nook digital products in October 2012. In December 2014, B&N purchased Microsoft's Nook shares, ending the partnership.
The Amazon Fire, formerly called the Kindle Fire, is a line of tablet computers developed by Amazon. Built with Quanta Computer, the Kindle Fire was first released in November 2011, featuring a color 7-inch multi-touch display with IPS technology and running on Fire OS, an Android-based operating system. The Kindle Fire HD followed in September 2012, and the Kindle Fire HDX in September 2013. In September 2014, when the fourth generation was introduced, the name "Kindle" was dropped. In later generations, the Fire tablet is also able to convert into a Smart speaker turning on the "Show Mode" options, which the primary interaction will be by voice command through Alexa.
Replicant is a free operating system (OS) based on the Android mobile platform that intends to replace all proprietary Android components with free-software counterparts. It is available for several smartphones and tablet computers. It is written in the same programming languages as Android. The modifications are mostly in the C language; the changes are mostly to the lower-level parts of the OS, such as the Linux kernel and drivers that use it.
The Nook Tablet is a tablet e-reader/media player that was produced and marketed by Barnes & Noble. It followed the Nook Color and was intended to compete with both e-book readers and tablet computers.
Samsung Galaxy Y (GT-S5360) is an Android-based smartphone by Samsung, announced in August 2011. Its main features are 3G connection with speeds up to 7.2 Mbit/s and Wi-Fi.
The Samsung Galaxy S LCD or Samsung Galaxy SL (GT-I9003) was an Android smartphone designed and manufactured by Samsung Electronics that was released in February 2011 due to shortage of Super AMOLED displays. It features a 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 4 GB of internal flash memory, a 4-inch 480x800 pixel WVGA Super Clear LCD capacitive touchscreen display, Wi-Fi connectivity, a 5-megapixel camera with a resolution of 2560x1920, and a front-facing 0.3 MP (640x480) VGA camera.
The first-generation Nexus 7 is a mini tablet computer co-developed by Google and Asus that runs the Android operating system. It is the first tablet in the Google Nexus series of Android consumer devices marketed by Google and built by an original equipment manufacturer partner. The Nexus 7 features a 7.0-inch (180 mm) display, an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core chip, 1 GB of RAM, Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity, and 8, 16 or 32 GB of storage. The tablet was the first device to ship with version 4.1 of Android, nicknamed "Jelly Bean". By emphasizing the integration of the Google Play multimedia store with Android 4.1, Google intended to market the Nexus 7 as an entertainment device and a platform for consuming e-books, television shows, films, games, and music.
The Samsung Galaxy Mega is an Android-based phablet that was manufactured and released by Samsung. It was announced on April 11, 2013. The original model featured a 6.3 in (160 mm) screen, though a revised version was released with a 5.8 in (150 mm) screen. It has a 1,280×720 screen, a dual-core 1.7 GHz processor and an 8-megapixel camera. The phone runs Android 4.2.2 "Jelly Bean" software, and internal storage is 8 or 16 GB.
Oppo N1 is an Android smartphone developed by Oppo Electronics. Unveiled on 23 September 2013, the N1 was released on 10 December 2013.
The OnePlus One is an Android smartphone manufactured by OnePlus. Unveiled in April 2014, it is the first product by OnePlus. The OnePlus One was designed to compare favorably – in performance, quality, and price – to flagship devices by leading smartphone manufacturers. It was also intended to be developer friendly, and has since received a wide variety of ROMs and custom kernels from the community. The OnePlus One shipped to most markets with the Cyanogen OS operating system pre-installed, a commercial variant of CyanogenMod.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 7.0 is a 7-inch Android-based tablet computer produced and marketed by Samsung Electronics. It belongs to the fourth generation of the Samsung Galaxy Tab series, which also includes an 8-inch and a 10.1-inch model, the Galaxy Tab 4 8.0 and Galaxy Tab 4 10.1. It was announced on 1 April 2014 and was released on 1 May.
The Xiaomi Redmi 1S, code-named armani HM 1S, is a smartphone released in May 2014, developed by the Chinese company Xiaomi Inc. It is a part of the Redmi series of smartphones, and succeeded the Redmi 1. Visually similar to its predecessor, it comes with a 4.7-inch screen, a quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A7 processor and runs Android version 4.3 (Jellybean), bundled with the proprietary MIUI v5 user interface, which can be upgraded to MIUI v9 based on Android 4.4.4 KTU84P.
Samsung Galaxy Star 2 Plus G350E is a smartphone manufactured by Samsung Electronics that runs on the open source Android operating system. Announced by Samsung in early August 2014. It has additional software features, expanded hardware, and a redesigned physique from its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy Star 2.
