The 5 best thin and high-performance tablets, with prices

Sony came out swinging at the MWC expo this month, and outed the amazing Xperia Z4 Tablet, which clocks in at just 6.1mm thin, and still kept the waterproof chassis of its predecessors.

Apple also managed to trim the waistline of its metal-clade iPad Air 2 to the incredible 6.1mm, which can't be an easy thing to do, considering we have an aluminum shell. We don't know what Dell did, but it weaseled out with a tenth of a millimeter less for its Venue 8 7000 slate, and the Sony isn't far behind those two - all amazing achievements. Some of those low-carb proponents are really svelte-looking and even waterproof, so check out our world's thinnest tablets roundup below, and marvel at their engineering prowess.

Dell Venue 8 7000 Series (from $399)

Dell's new Venue 8 is touted as the world’s thinnest tablet, and at just 6mm (under a quarter-inch) thick, there's no argument against that claim. Moreover, all that jazz is built on a metal chassis, lending a modern, industrial look which will fit any décor in the office, living room, purse, or briefcase. The new tablet also packs a 2K resolution 8.4" OLED display, a Moorfield series quad-core Atom CPU, and intriguing tri-camera setup on the back that leverages Intel’s new RealSense Snapshot Depth Camera. The main camera is an 8-megapixel unit, augmented by two auxiliary cameras that gather depth and dimensional data, much like the duo-camera set up on the M8, but also allow measurement calculations and less warped looking 3D effects.

The thinnest waterproof slate out there, Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet also has the longest-lasting battery of them all, thanks to Sony's proprietary screen technology, with the record up to 17 hours of video-watching on a charge. The display is no slouch, either - the tablet has a 10.1-inch QHD panel. Its other features include a 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor, 32GB of internal storage, 8 megapixels main camera, 5 megapixels front shooter, and it supports LTE connectivity.

Apple surely outdoes itself when we look at the design of the iPad Air 2, which snags the honor of being the world’s second thinnest tablet, and with a premium design at that. Well, it’s 18% thinner than the last year's iPad Air. Unless you have its predecessor side-by-side to compare, it’s rather tough to admire the design improvements Apple has achieved, but, seriously, it’s skinny (6.1mm) and lightweight (444 gr), easily eclipsing all other 10-inchers in the process. That combination alone makes it considerably easier for travel than most laptops, since it’s something that occupies minimal space in a backpack or bag.

At 6.4mm, the Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact is the most slender and compact 8" slate in the wild. It shares identical girth with the Xperia Z2 Tablet, but tips the scales at merely 9.52 oz (270 g), which makes it as light as a feather. As usual with Sony tablets, it makes for an exquisite catwalk star that is not afraid of the water, as it is IP65/68-certified, which is one of the highest ingress protection levels. This means that it will survive a water dip for up to 30 minutes in depths of no more than 1.5 meters.

It might be the "thickest", but at its current $100 off promo, is the cheapest of the bunch. Samsung's Galaxy Tab 8.4 arrives with a just 0.26" (6.6mm) thin chassis - this thickness is also shared with its larger sibling, the Tab S 10.5 as well. At 10.51 oz (298 g) of weight, the first high-res Super AMOLED 8-incher is one of the most mobile tablets out there, as it weighs as much as a cheapo 7-incher, but is way slimmer, not to mention much more powerful, and with the highest pixel density of them all, too.