Five of the best tablets

Tablets are great. They are smaller and lighter than laptops but they still allow you to work on the move, watch movies or TV series and play games, as well as surf the web and check your social media activity.

It's a big market with stiff competition and new models are constantly arriving so trying to decide which brand and size to go for can be tricky, but here are a selection of some of the best we have reviewed over the year to help.

Apple iPad Air

The Apple iPad Air is lighter, thinner and faster than all the iPad's that have gone before it and it brings with it a great design.

You'll find a 9.7-inch display that offers a 2048 x 1436 resolution in a build that is just 7.5mm thick and weighs 469g.

There is a 5-megapixel camera on the rear, along with a 1.2-megapixel snapper on the front that also comes with 720p high definition (HD) video support and the option to make FaceTime and Skype video calls.

LG G Pad 8.3 - £199

If the Nexus 7 is a little too small for your liking, but the 10-inch tablets are too big then the LG G Pad 8.3 is a great contender for a middle-sized device.

It's a brilliant device with an epic battery life and although it is a little thicker than some of the 10-inchers at 8.3mm, it is quite light hitting the scales at 338g.

The 8.3-inch IPS display features a 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution and you'll also find a 5-megapixel rear camera, 1.3-megapixel front camera and microSD support to expand the 16GB internal storage up to 64GB.

Nexus 7 (2013)

The Nexus 7 (2013) is made by ASUS and it comes with a quad-core processor, as well as a 7-inch 1920 x 1200 resolution display that takes the crown as the sharpest in the 7-inch market.

Alongside a front and rear-facing camera, you'll get built-in wireless charging, 2GB RAM, a choice of 16GB (£199), 32GB (£239) internal storage and it measures 8.65mm thick with a weight of 290g.

The battery plans to give you 9 hours of HD video playback or 10 hours of web browsing, and the Nexus 7 comes with dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC connectivity.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S - £399

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S is the most recently launched tablet on this list and it takes things up a notch in a number of areas compared to the company's previous offering.

It's a lovely looking device that comes in 10.5-inch and 8.4-inch size options in either white or bronze colours, both of which feature a rose gold metal trim.

The Super AMOLED display offers a 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution and there is a 1.9Ghz octa-core processor inside the 6.6 slim and 465g light body. You'll also find an 8-megapixel rear snapper with LED flash and a 2.1-megapixel front camera for video calling.

Sony Xperia Z2

The Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet is claimed to be the world's slimmest and lightest waterproof tablet measuring 6.4mm and hitting the scales at 426g.

The 10.1-inch display offers a 1920 x 1080 resolution so it is slightly lower in pixel density than others on this list but Sony adds a lot of its own technology such as Triluminos, X-Reality and Live Colour LED to give the display a lot of punch.

It has a speedy processor under the hood, along with an 8.1-megapixel rear camera and 2.2-megapixel front camera - brilliant for video chat and selfies, plus you also get microSD support for storage expansion.

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