were the Acer Iconia Tab A500, Apple iPad 2, Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101, HTC Flyer, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Samsung Galaxy Tab Wi-Fi (7-inch), and T-Mobile G-Slate. Many of the tablets we looked at run Android 3.0; only two of the five 10.1-inchers, the Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, had Android 3.1.

The was clearly and consistently the leader of the pack; it stumbled only on a photo with a variety of skin tones and colors, failing to strike the right balance. In another shot, the iPad 2 had the best color balance and accuracy, and it showed the best distribution of colors on our grayscale and color-bar images.

The two next-best displays were not on flagship Android Honeycomb tablets, but on tablets running Android 2.2 and 2.3--the and the , respectively. Each of these models did particularly well with skin tones and color balance in actual photos, although neither one quite nailed the balance in our color-bar shot.

None of the Android 3.x tablets we tested could compete with the iPad 2, or with the Android 2.x tablets. In our tests, the did better overall than its next-closest competitor, the . But the Tab blew out colors with oversaturation, and crushed shades of black; this tendency was clear in our test photos as well as in the grayscale and color-bar images.

The Xoom's display never particularly impressed me, but in the end it did better on balance than some of the other Android tablets we tested. It suffered from washed-out skin tones, poor handling of brown hues, and a lack of sharpness--even with the Android 3.1 update. The touchscreen grid was evident on the Xoom, too.