Gearburn’s Top Tablets of 2011

Tablets exploded onto the scene in 2011. The iPad 2, the previous benchmark by which tablets where judged suddenly found its back up against the wall when Motorola, Asus, BlackBerry and countless others trickled out of the development cycle. Here’s Gearburn’s roundup of the killer tablets of the year.

BlackBerry PlayBook

It made a splash, but for all the wrong reasons. The PlayBook is powerful, sturdy and excellent for content viewing but a chore in the usability department. Forced to sync to a BlackBerry phone in order use the email and calender? Come on. A tiny selection of PlayBook apps for a US$500 device (thankfully now US$200)? Not on your life. Weak sales have all but doomed the PlayBook to the bargain bin pile but thankfully, it runs DOS. This tiny inclusion of 30-year old OS turns a fairly stuffy tablet into a chocolate factory of touchscreen pleasures! Recommended for this feature only.