Launched as a fledgling Web operation in 2001, Newegg has become the second-largest online retailer in the US and the number one destination for tech-savvy shoppers. Given its position, the company is privy to all manner of technology trends, including the holiday's hottest products...

Amazon sent a wave crashing through the mobile industry when it announced that its Android based tablet, the Kindle Fire, would land with a price of $199.

This is the best value in a tablet on the market, and will make tablet computing accessible to many people that either couldn't afford Apple's iPads or couldn't tolerate Android Honeycomb based tablets. Plus, nobody can argue that Amazon doesn't provide a great self-contained ecosystem. But do the high expectations for the Kindle Fire mesh with the reality of the device?

Up until now the tablet market has been pretty much Apple's lonely playground. But while the company is not likely to lose its throne anytime soon, its dominance could face some challenges ahead with the arrival of Amazon's $199 Kindle Fire and the introduction of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

We've compiled a comparative table with what we consider are the hottest tablets either currently available or announced so far. You should know that specs only paint part of the picture, so we've also included metascores from our Product Finder engine and review links to help you dig deeper and narrow down your next purchase.

Amazon is consolidating its web services around the hardware device, not unlike what Apple has done building an ecosystem, and once again something other third parties have had a great deal of trouble replicating, even Google.