Amazon UK publishes a list of its bestselling tablets which is updated every few hours. Aggregating these lists over time and refining the definition of a tablet allows us to see trends and to be confident of which are truly popular with UK buyers.
It's useful to check whether the model you're considering is reasonably popular as that will improve your chances of being able to find a forum, website, or repair shop later if anything goes wrong. There are a great many different models from Amazon, while none of the high street shops offers this many.
It's no surprise that Amazon's own tablets are very well placed here - but they are genuinely selling well across the board. New higher-resolution "HDX" Kindle Fires arrived for Christmas, but for now, they aren't at the top of this list, with the lower prices of the 2012 "HD" versions proving compelling. For more detail on the market as a whole, and the relative popularity of Galaxies, iPads, Kindles, Nexuses (Nexi?) and the cheap unbranded models, take a look at our trends tab.
The release of the new 2013 iPad Mini (which has a Retina Display) hardly seems to have dented the popularity of the 2012 model.
The subtle little twist for this iPad was that the screen layout of this smaller device (1024-by-768 resolution) is the same as used on the iPads 1 and 2. That gives this little beast 163 pixels per inch. That's nothing like as high resolution as some of the bright new arrivals, like the new Google Nexus 7. But for most practical uses the mini-iPad probably comes far enough.
Technically, this is a good machine with a high resolution screen, a dual processor, and a very handy-looking double Wi-Fi link that has been copied by other manufacturers.
It's not all good though. For some people, the ecosystem, with its preference for one-click purchasing might be a bit too much. Also, the Fire HD lacks a memory card slot and a rear camera.
This is really the 5th generation of the iPad - the grand daddy of popular tablets. It's quite a bit lighter than its predecessors, but strangely, if you hold its slippery, naked form in landscape mode to watch a video, it's no easier to hold unless you get some kind of grippy cover for it.
It also comes with an A7 64-bit processor and a motion coprocessor. Do those 64 bits make much difference? Aren't the really designed so that it can use more RAM (short-term memory) than it actually has? Well, yes, but it's faster too, especially if you're using an app that has been built by Apple themselves, like the Safari Browser, or Pages for documents - part of Apple's iWork package.Compare the Specifications for high resolution devices
This year's upgrade to Google's very own tablet - actually manufactured by Asus - is the product for those who like to know they have something up-to-date. This is quite a significant upgrade and, while it still lacks an expansion slot for an SD card, it does now have an adequate camera on the back as well as one on the front.
Best of all, though, for its reasonable price is the high resolution screen (1920x1200 giving 323 pixels per inch) This is backed up by a very respectable processor which gives the Nexus excellent benchmark results.
These Nexus models are issued with the latest version of Google's Android platform, and they are also the most likely to get upgrades when new Android versions appear.
This
device is carefully matched to buyers' needs - fast enough, smart enough and cheap enough... And it's also has a well-respected brand.
After a good while making sow progress up the best seller list this is the first of 2013's crop of Galaxy Tab 3s to hit the big time. (They were first released at the end of June and took four months to arrive in our aggregated best seller list.) They are cheaper now, too.
The 2nd generation Galaxy Tabs are still popular especially considering the Tab 3's bumpy launch.
Amongst
all its illustrious
top-ten competition, this little tablet is unashamed about being very pink. It's a toy, targeted at girls up to about ten, presumably. But many people are generously buying these for their friends or children and its sales compare well with the much posher models
There are very similar blue ones available for boys, pink ones for girls or black ones for anybody.
As the insides of this machine aren't that different from the original Samsung Galaxy Tab in some ways, the functionality won't be that different either, it's lighter and the battery, in particular, is very lightweight.
It only claims a 3-hour life. For some parents, that might be a good thing, but be careful if you're hoping this will keep things quiet in the back of the car or on the plane for an 8-hour journey.
Of course, the success of this model is pretty heavily dependant on its extremely competitive price - and that was the main reason we originally recommended it.
Amazon's new Fire series has an improved screen and processor compared with last years version. However, it's not yet ahead of the 2012 model - after that has been discounted.
Half a Gig of RAM memory. Luckily IOS uses it well.!
This older version of the iPad has now dropped from Apple's own stores as of March 2014. It's very common, and therefore repairable with a wide choice of good apps.
The iPad 2 was a fabulous product - but time is at last beginning to take its toll.
To be honest, the age of this iPad's design is not really reflected as much as they should be in its current price. Most users would be better served by a 2012 iPad mini, an iPad 4 or an Android device. Although the product is the same as it has always been, other tablets now have better screens and processors, and the battery in any second hand model you buy might be showing its age. Remember that you can't change the battery yourself.
For some, this may begin to feel a bit overpriced, but as a second hand buy, there are still some benefits -
Its iOS platform is still being updated each time Apple introduces a new version.
It was the most popular tablet sold over the last couple of years and there is quite a thriving market in repairing them if, for instance the screen cracks or the battery dies.
Speaking of the battery, this is in fact one of the best batteries and even if its capacity dwindles rather with age, there will still be quite a few usable hours.
And from the point of view of street credibility it helps that this looks almost identical to the newer iPads - 3 and 4 until you get your eyes well focused on the screen.
Welcome back! It's a bit of a trend here - not even last year's model, but from the year before.
The thing is that if there aren't cracks in the screen, there's not that much to degrade. And these that you might describe as the best of the branded tablets from last year still compare quite respectably with to day's models and their price has dropped significantly.
Look out for the things that do degrade though:
Battery - Most are OK, but these batteries cannot be changed except by dismantling the whole thing which is best done at the Apple shop.
Storage - without getting technical, the storage on an older device can slow down.
ones available for boys, 
for girls or 
ones for anybody. 
