WASHINGTON – They’re the best of the best. Consumer Reports tested more than 145 smartphones, tablets, and cameras to find the top mobile devices on the market.
Best smartphone: Samsung Galaxy S4.
Consumer Reports electronics editor Paul Reynolds tells CBS News the Galaxy ranked number one among all major carriers.
“It’s packed with features. It has really good battery life, great display,” he says. “It even has some bells and whistles like controlled gestures. It actually knows if you look away when you’re watching a video, it will actually pause the video.”
The Samsung Galaxy S4 costs between $150 and $200.
The iPhone 5 ranked between fourth and sixth, depending on the carrier.
Reynolds says while it’s still a great product, “Innovation is no longer just Apple. There’s a lot of new stuff coming first on the Android phones, even the Blackberry. The Z10 is a very innovative phone,” Reynolds says. “So there’s a lot of interest happening and in some ways, Apple maybe is falling a little behind in the innovation as far as hardware goes.”
Best tablets: Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 and Apple iPad Mini (for top 7-to-8-inch- screen tablets)
The iPad Mini is about $70 cheaper and has a longer battery life. But the Galaxy Note includes a pen stylus and voice recognition.
“[The stylus] allows you to scribble on things and send them along with your writing on top of the image, on top of the web page,” Reynolds says.
Google Nexus 10 (for 9-12-inch-screen tablets) This lightweight tablet costs about $400 which is the same as the iPad 2.
Best camera: Nikon Coolpix L610
This $150 camera has good low-light quality. “You’re going to get 14 times zoom. You’re not going to get zoom on your smartphone,” Reynolds says.
