While demand for tablets has waned over the past few years, that doesn’t mean a tablet isn’t a great gift! With a few generations into product cycles, many consumers are looking to replace older tablets. This guide will help you cut through the noise and find exactly what you should buy for your family and/or friends (or yourself!) this year.

Buy This for Someone Who Won’t Shut Up about Apple: iPad Air 2 / iPad Mini 4

While the iPad Pro stole the show at Apple’s conference in 2015, it will still brutalize your wallet at a $599 starting price point for the 9.7-inch model and $799 for the larger screen. You are much better off going with nearly anything else in the iPad line. We recommend the iPad Air 2 and the iPad Mini 4, both which will see solid discounts this holiday. We also recommend passing on the original iPad Air and sacrifice an inch of screen size to pick up the feature-loaded Mini 4 for the same MSRP.

MSRP (32GB model): $399 | Lowest Price on Ben’s: $300

Search Ben’s for iPad Air 2 Deals

Buy This for Someone Who Won’t Shut Up About Android: Google Pixel C

Definitely a gorgeous tablet due to the high resolution, 10.2-inch screen, the Pixel C tablet was announced at the end of 2015 in response to the iPad Pro. Replacing the Nexus 9, the Pixel C comes with the NVIDIA Tegra X1 processor, Android 7.0 and a native multi-window display feature. The one downside is that the table is a bit pricey at a $499 MSRP.

MSRP: $499 | Lowest Price on Ben’s: n/a

Search Ben’s for Pixel C Deals

Buy This for an Office Drone Workaholic: Microsoft Surface Pro 3

Yes, Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 is still the flagship, but the price tag is way up in the clouds at a $899 starting point. The Surface Pro 3 received killer reviews over the last year and the price is still falling! It’s also compatible with both the Surface 4 Pro Type Cover and the new pen.

MSRP (128GB model): $999 | Lowest Price on Ben’s: $480

Search Ben’s for Surface Pro Deals

Buy This for a Little Whippersnapper: Amazon Fire HD 7 Kids Edition

Not only is the Fire 7 an awesome bargain tablet, Amazon has the strongest parental controls of all regular tablets. While the LeapPad3 and LeapPad Ultra XDi are also solid picks for this category, the Fire HD 7 Kid’s edition edges out the competition with a 2-year guarantee that replaces the tablet no matter what happened as well as 1 year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited included.

MSRP: $99 | Lowest Price on Ben’s: $70

Search Ben’s for Amazon Fire Kids Deals

Buy This for an Video Game Addict: NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet

Providing killer graphics performance at a competitive price point, NVIDIA’s SHIELD tablet will do an admirable job of running relatively recent games and handle popular MMORPGs. While a Surface Pro 3 may be a better choice for someone who wants to play games and be productive, the SHIELD tablet is vastly more affordable for gamers.

MSRP (16GB model): $199 | Lowest Price on Ben’s: $185

Search Ben’s for NVIDIA SHIELD Deals

Buy This if You are on a Budget: Dragon Touch X10

Blowing out performance at the budget price point, the Dragon Touch X10 is the best tablet that you have never heard of. Sporting a octa-core CPU that runs up to 2.0 GHz as well as a 10-inch screen with 1366×768 resolution, the X10 tablet offers an amazing 178 degree viewing angle. It’s the ideal tablet for watching Netflix or other streaming video services.

MSRP: $125  Lowest Price on Ben’s: n/a

Check Amazon for Dragon Touch X10 Price

Tablets Worth Buying This 2016 Holiday Season

Rolling out the new line of Kindle Fire tablets today, Amazon has added two new models into the mix with the 7-inch and 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HDX tablets. Starting at $229, these updated models offer higher resolution, faster processors, longer battery life and increased storage capacity when compared to last year’s models. In addition, both of the previous models received a much needed price cut taking the old 7-inch down to $139 and the 8.9-inch down to $269.

But how does this stack up to the range of popular tablet competitors? We break it all down for you in our 7-inch tablet showdown between the 7-inch Amazon Kindle Fire HDX, 7-inch Google Nexus 7 and 7.9-inch iPad Mini.

Display Quality

Both the 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX and Nexus 7 sport a 1080p (1920 x 1200) resolution screen with 323 pixels per inch (PPI). Alternatively, the iPad Mini’s 7.9-inch screen isn’t even high definition. It’s a woeful 1024 x 768 resolution pixels with 163 ppi.

While all three tablets feature an ambient light sensor to adjusting the display, the Nexus 7 is the only tablet to sport Corning Gorilla Glass scratch resistant glass. The Kindle HDX does offer a slightly higher brightness output than the Nexus 7, thus it may be easier to see in the sunlight.

Tie: Kindle Fire HDX / Nexus 7

Processing Power

Amazon is storming out of the gate with a 2.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Quad-Core processor basically blowing away the Nexus 7’s 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro and iPad Mini’s 1 GHz A5 Dual-Core processor. If I had to guess, the extra processing power is going to make the operating system and applications run smooth as silk. That was a problem with the original Kindle Fire HD, ever-so-slight lag when launching different applications. Regarding RAM, both the Kindle Fire HDX and the Nexus 7 have 2GB of RAM while the iPad Mini has 512MB.

Winner: Kindle Fire HDX

Operating System

While we still need to take Fire OS 3.0 “Mojito” for a test drive, it’s likely that it will be just as user friendly as the original Kindle Fire OS (if not a bit limited). One really interesting feature on the HDX is the inclusion of live, 24/7 tech support with Amazon’s “Mayday” button (check out the video below). This could help Amazon pull ahead of competitors, especially for older audiences that don’t have the same level of tech skills as the younger generation of consumers. The operating system is definitely geared towards media consumption, however there is a greater focus on email and the Web browser in this version of the OS.

I’m not going to launch into the pros and cons of Android versus the latest version of iOS. If you have an Android or iOS smartphone, it’s probably best to go with what you are comfortable with. Be aware that Android is typically a more flexible platform for content creation, but Apple seems to be making strides with their core production applications.

Winner: Toss-up (based on your core needs)

Storage Space

If you need a tablet with 64GB of space, you will simply have to go with the Kindle Fire HDX or the iPad Mini. Google maxes out the storage of the Nexus 7 at 32GB and there’s no SD card slot to add additional memory. However, be aware that storage space is less of an issue than it was a few years ago due to the growing popularity of cloud storage.

Tie: Kindle HDX / iPad Mini

Price

The base price of the 7-inch Kindle HDX and the Nexus 7 is $229. Alternatively, the iPad Mini is still (and quite astoundingly) $100 more expensive at $329. You should also be aware that the base price of the Kindle Fire HDX includes the “Special Offers” that Amazon is notorious for. To opt out of the advertisements, you will need to pay Amazon an additional $15 raising the price of the 7-inch model to $244.

The Nexus 7 is also the better deal if you want a 32GB version with LTE access, coming in $35 cheaper than the Amazon model without special offers. However, if you want a LTE version with smaller storage space (16GB), that’s an option at Amazon for $329. Google doesn’t offer that option.

Winner: Ad-free Nexus 7 at $229

Overall

At this point, it would be foolish to purchase the 2012 iPad Mini when you can get significantly more value and hardware upgrades with the Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire HDX. How should you approach choosing between the remaining two competitors? Ask yourself what you will be using it for.

If you are looking for a media consumption device, it’s tough to beat the Amazon ecosystem, especially when adding the benefits of Amazon Prime into the mix. If you are looking for a device that will support you in the workplace or the home office, the open Android platform of the Nexus 7 is significantly more advantageous for content creation and general business.

While it’s likely that Apple will refresh the iPad Mini before the end of the year, the price point is unlikely to change based on Apple’s typical launch process. Even with upgraded specs on a new iPad Mini, you really can’t go wrong with the Nexus 7 or Kindle HDX right now. The Nexus 7 is currently available for purchase on Google and Amazon. The Kindle Fire HDX can be preordered now with a launch date of October 18.

Tablet Showdown: Kindle Fire HDX vs. Google Nexus 7 vs. iPad Mini