Despite the fact that modern next-generation mobile phones come with enormously powerful cameras, tablets are a bit neglected in this regard. But if you want to take photos with a tablet, you should look for a tablet with a good camera. And that's where things start to get complicated.
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Best tablets with a good camera
Obviously, comparing camera qualities across devices is incredibly difficult because there are so many variables. But we can use the simple (and some photographers and connoisseurs would say too simple) method of comparison of the number of megapixels. We know that it is not the best way, but if not it would be practically impossible to make a comparison.
For us, tablets with better camera with the following:
- iPad Pro 12.6 "
- Samsung Galaxy Tab S7
- iPad Pro 11 "
- Lenovo Tab P12
Apple iPad Pro
This tablet is one of the best if you want something that borders on excellence and with fantastic reliability. It comes equipped with a powerful M1 chip based on the ISA ARM, with a microarchitecture designed by Cupertino from scratch, and with a very powerful GPU based on Imagination Technologies' PowerVR. In addition, it also has a dedicated NPU for artificial intelligence.
Its screen is 11 inches, with Liquid Retina technology with a high pixel density, TrueTone, and ProMotion, for a quality of exceptional image, and a wide color gamut to enjoy videos, images, and video games like never before.
It also has a long autonomy of up to 10 hours, WiFi, Bluetooth, a safe, stable and robust iPadOS operating system, and a 12 MP wide-angle and ultra-wide angle 10 MP front camera, with a LiDAR sensor included. With this you can capture photos and video awesome.
Lenovo Tab P12
This Chinese tablet has a fantastic value for money, for those who are looking for something good, beautiful and cheap. It comes equipped with a large 12.7 ”screen and stunning 2K resolution and Dolby Vision. It also has Android 13 with the possibility of an OTA update to have the latest features and security patches.
Includes Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity technology. As for the rest of the hardware, it impresses with its Mediatek Dimensity 7050 processor with 8 Kryo cores, and a powerful GPU integrated Adreno for your graphics. As for memory, it comes equipped with 6 GB of high-performance LPDDR4x and 128 GB of internal flash memory.
It has a great design, and a battery that can last Up to 15 hours with a full charge thanks to its 8600 mAh. On the side it mounts a fingerprint sensor, and its front camera is 2 × 8 MP FF, while the rear is 13 MP with AF + 5 MP with FF. Its JBL speakers with Dolbe Atmos support, and its two integrated microphones are surprising.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S7
Another of the tablets with Android 10 (upgradeable) and better camera. It's the Galaxy Tab S7, with a high-quality 13 MP rear camera and an 8 MP front camera. It includes speakers compatible with Dolby Atmos surround sound, and quadruple AKG transducer. This, together with its 11 ”touch screen and QHD resolution and 120 Hz refresh rate, make this tablet truly powerful for multimedia for many hours thanks to the 8000 mAh battery.
Includes a chip Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 +, which is among the most powerful, with 10% more performance than the 865. It has a high frequency of work, with 8 Kryo 585 Prime cores that could reach 3.1 Ghz, and a very powerful Adreno 650 GPU to render the graphics up to 10% faster than its predecessor, being able to reach 144 frames per second. To complement that, it also includes 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal memory.
Apple iPad Pro 11 "
This iPad is somewhat cheaper than the Pro version of 2021, but it still has fantastic reliability and durability. With an operating system iPadOS 14 highly streamlined and streamlined, with updates available. WiFi connectivity, and the possibility of using advanced 4G LTE.
Very good stereo sound quality, 10.9 ”Liquid Retina display with high pixel density and True Tone technology for superior color gamut, quality integrated microphone, and Touch ID for authentication.
Comes with a powerful chip Apple A14 Bionic, with Neural Engine to accelerate with artificial intelligence. The basic configuration has 64 GB of internal memory, although it can reach 256 GB. The battery of this tablet will also last for many hours thanks to its capacity and optimization. And, as for the camera, it has one of the best sensors, with a 12 MP rear camera, and a 7 MP front camera for FaceTimeHD.
Tablet brands with good cameras
Apple
Apple is the most important technology company in the world and, although it began by making computers, it has reached this position thanks to its iPhone. Three years after launching the smartphone that changed everything, he launched something very similar, but with a much larger size that he called iPad.
The Apple tablet is preferred by most users, and is usually chosen by everyone who can afford it. It uses a variant of iOS that they have recently rebranded as iPadOS, and the hardware inside is also enviable. Among this we find its famous SoCs, and some of the best cameras available in tablets that inherit the specifications of the iPhone.
Samsung
Samsung is one of the most important technology companies on the planet. It is not surprising that it is, since it has existed for more than eighty years, eight decades in which it is manufacturing all kinds of electronic devices and components.
Unlike other brands, Samsung does not create just a few hardware products, but covers much more, such as home appliances and even batteries, chips, RAM and storage. What we also find in its catalog are smartphones and tablets, in both cases being faced with one of the best on the market.
South Koreans create tablets for all types of users, but the most powerful have advanced hardware, among which we have cameras almost as good as the ones they mount on their smartphones.
Huawei
Although Huawei has been around for more than three decades, it was not until the latter that it became a very popular brand. And it has done it thanks to something that practically all of us have: smartphones. As a Chinese company, everything it offers is usually done with good value for money, something that is even more pronounced on their tablets.
Huawei offers us options for all types of users, but even the most powerful are competitively priced. And that nobody is left with the detail of "Chinese" as "bad", since in this case it is not fulfilled at all.
The tablet with the best camera: iPad Pro
Taking as a measure this value that we have talked about, there is a clear winner, and it is none other than the iPad Pro, the improved version of the iPad Air.
Despite being almost a complete stranger, the camera of this device incorporates two 12MP lenses in its 11 ″ body accompanied by another 10 Mpx wide-angle sensor. Is about a tablet with a good camera, which can record videos with a resolution of up to 4K. It also has sports autofocus, lidar sensor and LED flash, what more do you want? In addition, the front camera is also relatively decent (for what you can find out there), coming in at 7MP, which is better than the rear camera on many other tablets.
As for the rest of the features of the tablet, they are not bad either. The device is powered by an Apple M1 processor, and it comes with iOS 15 installed, though can be upgraded to future versions without problem.
If you prefer to buy a tablet from other major brands, recognized and with more presence (although Apple is increasingly common to find), and you are willing to give up the capacity of the camera a bit, there are around 30 tablets on the market with an 8MP camera or better. For example, some of the iPad models or Samsung brand they have 8MP cameras. They can be worth the same and they are not bad at all, but it is not the same.
If you want one of the largest smartphones in the world or one of the smallest tablets, Apple has the niche covered with the iPad Pro. This tablet with a good camera was announced in a keynote as an 11 ”device, thinner and lighter than iPad Air and iPad Mini, which would also offer 4G LTE connection and dual microphones for making phone calls. In that edition we had the opportunity to make a first approach and use the version of the for a while and it left us in awe of its light and thin chassis and how they have been able to integrate that camera into it.
La 2372 × 2048 pixel IPS screen The iPad Pro looked good in brightness and color in the demo unit we tested. Apple claims that the screen can reach up to 600 nitsas it uses LTPS (Low Temperature Polysilicon).
The iPad Pro is made of a dark aluminum material with a one-piece body, which gives it a subtle yet attractive aesthetic. Has a thickness only 6.1 mm. With this, the iPad Pro is more than many of its competitors. Its 469 grams of weight also make it gain in this regard compared to other tablets of similar size.
The bezel surrounding the iPad Pro display is just 2.99mm, allowing the screen to occupy 80 percent of the front surface of the device. Apple has been able to achieve a luminous design by using the one-piece aluminum body manufactured through a special injection molding process.
Apart from the lightness of the design, we found that holding the iPad Pro as the best tablet with a camera was somewhat difficult. Apple CEO Tim Cook showed how the device fits into any home and professional environment, while the iPad mini doesn't, but that could vary depending on one's needs.
Inside, the iPad Pro works with a Apple M1 processor. It also provides 6GB of RAM and 128, 256 or 512 GB or even 2TB of storage internal according to versions.
The tablet supports a 7 MP front camera with an additional wide angle lens for taking group selfies. The iPad camera software also enhances selfies with filters made to soften the face and a small selfie window that pops up on the screen to help you frame your photo well. For its part, the 12 MP rear camera uses a Sony Exmor lens to provide better image quality.
The tablet runs the version of iOS 15 which has been slightly tweaked from iOS 14. The iPad Pro we tested did not have much customization in the form or functions of the software. We could see that the camera software had a selfie mode and some face smoothing options, but most of the apps were Apple versions of common services like the calculator for example.
Finally, we are going to talk a little about whether or not you should buy this tablet. Without a doubt, if you are looking for a tablet with a good camera, Apple's iPad Pro is a great choice. Especially if you are passionate about taking selfies, either alone or in a group, this device will meet all your expectations. In that case, fully recommended. Of course, if you are looking for other features and not just the camera, or you want a tablet with a different screen size, the offer is very wide and it is up to you to choose the most suitable one for you.
How to choose a tablet with a good camera
Number of cameras
At first, the moving cameras weren't very good and there was only one. One should be normal, but not in devices as thin as mobile phones and tablets. At a certain point, to improve in some aspects one of two is necessary: either a thicker camera or several that fit in the same space. Manufacturers have opted for the second option, which is why there are already devices with two, three and even more cameras, or lenses if we want to say it well.
And what can you get with the extra lenses? Well this depends on the manufacturer. There was one who thought it was a good idea to take 3D photos, but this did not work. Later, Apple had another idea: improve things like zoom or, more importantly, make the famous portrait effect which brings out the main subject light and the background blurred. It is only possible to achieve this effect with guarantees with very good AI, Machine Learning or with more cameras, so if we are looking for the best quality, we have to look at the number of cameras that a tablet includes and what we can do with them.
Megapixels
"My camera is 12Mpx and yours is only 8Mpx, so it's better than yours." Have you never read or heard something like this? This is simply not true and it is a common mistake among those who do not know ANYTHING about photography: to look at some numbers that only serve to sell. Megapixels They do not define the quality of the photos, but their size. What does this mean? Well, the one who claims that his camera has 12Mpx will be able to print or view his photos on canvases larger than the 8Mpx without losing quality, but this quality can be poor output and the 8Mpx could print his photos with higher quality, but smaller.
This is something to keep in mind. If we want to take photos with the tablet and share them to view them on other tablets or mobile phones, megapixels are rather unimportant. Now, if for our work or hobby we need large photos, we do have to look for one with a good number of megapixels, but also other factors, such as aperture or pixel sizes.
Opening
As we just explained, more important than the number of megapixels is the aperture. At least this is the case if we are not going to take a photo on the street, in broad daylight and in good weather. The opening tells us the amount of light a lens can handle. The larger the aperture, the more light it will let through and the better photos it will take in those conditions where the brightness of the scene is not perfect.
Having explained the above, it is important to mention a detail: the opening is usually indicated with a letter «f» and a value that decreases the larger the opening. In other words, a lens with aperture f / 1.8 is larger than one with f / 2.2. The lower the numerical value, the higher the quality, always speaking of light.
Flash
Everyone knows what a camera flash is. Without them, taking a photo of a low-light scene would be impossible. Basically, it's a light that turns on just at the moment of taking the photo to illuminate what we want to capture. But not all are the same and we can still value some things.
The size of the flash may be of some importance, but the power is more important. A good led flash it can illuminate even a totally dark room. But we can also look at another detail: that the flash has several colors. A two-color flash, added to the software of the device, can deduce how much light it needs from one color and how much from the other, which can make, for example, photos with faces show a more realistic color, and not with pale faces .
And although I think there are few options on the market, if you find something with xenon flash, I would not recommend your purchase. They are good, but not for mobile devices, in part because they eat the battery in few photos. For this reason, they practically do not exist.
LiDAR sensor
One of the latest technologies to reach the cameras of mobile devices and tablets is LiDAR. It stands for Light Detection and Ranging, and is used to determine the distance from a laser emitter to an object or surface using a pulsed laser beam. Thanks to this function, a camera can collect more information and take better photos, but it also has other applications such as object scanning.
Camera software
But not only the hardware is important; it is also, and a lot, the software. In fact, I will not mention brands, but there have been cases of mobiles with very good cameras that spoiled the photos by the software, taking images with bright colors, noise ... a disaster. The problem here is that it is difficult to know which one has good software and which one does not, but we will try to give some advice.
The most popular camera in the world is that of the iPhone, and it is not because it is the best, but because it is on a mobile that we carry with us and whose camera is "point-and-shot." This means that we can take out the mobile, point, press the button and the image, in general, will come out quite well, so we do not need to be expert photographers. This is achieved by combining hardware and software, which process the image before displaying it.
In any case, we have the phone or tablet that we have, as long as it is iOS or Android, which are the ones with the most apps available, We can always search the App Store and Google Play for third-party camera applications, which, in theory, would solve the bad processing by default of the device. And in the case of the iPhone / iPad, with third-party apps we will also get more advanced functions for more demanding and knowledgeable photographers.
Video recording quality
In addition to photos, cameras can also record videos. We may think that a good still camera will make good videos by extension, but this is not always the case, or not all that it could. It is true that a camera with a good aperture, number of megapixels, etc., will take videos of decent quality, but aren't there more options? Yes there are, and you have to take them into account.
Although there is still not one in every home in the world, more and more monitors or televisions with 4K resolution. Therefore, if we want to see the videos with the best possible resolution on our 4K TV, we need the video camera of our tablet to reach that quality. The FPS you can record at will also improve the quality of your videos. FPS are Frames Per SecondIn other words, the "photos" that you can take every second. The higher the quantity, the higher the quality.
In addition to the above, there is another important point to take into account: the possibility of recording slow motion. Also known as SloMo or slow-motion, this function allows us, upon selection, to record with a higher amount of FPS, which usually starts at 120fps, but it is also possible to record at 240fps or even more. When we review this function, we have to also check at what resolution it can record in slow motion, since it is likely that the 4K that can record at normal speed will drop to 720p when we record in SloMo.
How to choose a tablet with a good front camera
On the occasion of the Covid, teleworking has become another companion for many of us and that has caused us not only to need a tablet with a good rear camera, but also a good front camera.
In this regard, the front camera is still the great forgotten in most models, offering a fair quality but if what you want is to have the highest quality for video calls with family or work meetings, we recommend that you bet on a tablet have a good front camera, both in megapixels and aperture so that the frame is not only limited to your face, but encompasses more field of vision.
Another aspect that some high-end tablets are beginning to incorporate is the centered framingIn other words, the tablet is able to take advantage of its wide-angle lens to always keep us in the center of the image even if we move, adjusting the frame and zooming out or out so that we are always in focus.
In addition to the above, you can also assess some of the following criteria to choose correctly:
- Pixels: The quality of the captured image will largely depend on the number of pixels, since it represents the number of pixels or points that the sensor can capture, therefore higher resolution images. Although a sensor with more megapixels is not always better, since currently, cameras include other technologies and solutions to improve it, such as the use of AI for autofocus, facial recognition, filters, etc.
- Frame rate and firing speed: Although these values are not usually given in some descriptions, it is also an important factor when choosing a photographic sensor. It will show the amount of FPS at a certain resolution to record video. For example, a 1080p @ 60 camera is lower than a 1080p @ 120, since the second can reach 120 frames per second captured, giving a more fluid video. In terms of shooting or shutter speed, it responds to the exposure time during which the camera's shutter is open by capturing more light.
- Sensor size: it is also vital, and there are ¼ ”, ⅓”, ½ ”, 1 / 1.8”, ⅔ ”, etc. Generally, the larger it is, the better, although in the case of front cameras they are usually small due to space limitations with the screen.
- Focal aperture: the letter f is used to designate it, and the brightness that the sensor can capture through the diaphragm will depend on it. A larger aperture is represented by a smaller f-number, so it's best to look for the lowest possible numbers. For example, f / 2 better than f / 8.
- Color depth: It is important that it has a better color depth, so that there are fewer differences with the real images.
- Dynamic range: If they have technologies such as HDR, HDR10 or HDR +, the camera will be able to capture shadows and highlights better, with more vivid images.
- Performance in the dark: If you want to capture images at night, or in places with poor lighting, a sensor with night mode and a higher ISO is also important. ISO determines how sensitive the sensor is for capturing light.
- IR filterOnly the highest quality cameras use an infrared light filter so that photos or videos come out perfect, without being altered by this type of electromagnetic beam. Generally, only the most premium models integrate it, such as Apple's. To do the test, you can point a remote control of your TV at the camera while it is capturing image. If it has a filter you will not be able to see anything strange, but if it does not have a filter you will be able to see how the IR emitter of the remote control emits a light in a pink tone.
- IA: As I said at the beginning, it is better to have cameras with artificial intelligence functions that can add an extra to your selfies, video calls, etc. Thanks to these functions it will not only be able to recognize your face to unblock services, it will also be able to recognize gestures, apply filters, make adjustments as needed, or take the appropriate approach. For example, Apple is an ace for these types of improvements.
If you have come this far, it is that you still do not have it very clear
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