The best tablets we tested
Best tablet: Apple iPad (10th Gen)
Best splurge tablet: Apple iPad Air M2
Best Android tablet: Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE Plus
Best budget tablet: Amazon Fire 7
Best Windows tablet: Microsoft Surface Pro (2024)
Sure, laptops can be great for computing on the go, but the top tablets are more portable and can be even better if you don’t need a keyboard. These increasingly do-it-all devices can handle work and play, and potentially replace a laptop. Based on years of testing, we’ve got five top picks, one of which should fit your touchscreen needs, whichever platform you prefer. Apple’s iPad can handle work and play, the iPad Air may be able to replace your laptop, Amazon’s Fire HD series is great for on-the-go streaming and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab series continues to push Android tablets further with their DeX productivity environment. There’s also the ReMarkable , which isn’t for everyone, but will wow those with the budget cap for it.
After a much-needed price drop, the 10th-generation Apple iPad takes the title of best tablet based on our testing. Its processor crushes everyday tasks with ease, and its display, tablet-optimized apps and value combine to smash the competition.
In addition to its faster M2 chip, Apple’s excellent midrange iPad Air supports its phenomenal Magic Keyboard, offers many of the iPad Pro’s key features and comes in a 13-inch option that’s great for multitasking.
The Galaxy Tab S9 FE Plus offers a lot — including a nice 12.4-inch screen that lasts a long time on a single charge and DeX mode for a desktop-like experience — at a midrange price that makes it hard to pass up for Android fans.
The latest Amazon Fire 7 tablet is a great affordable option for kids or anyone who needs a no-frills device for reading and watching shows. It’s perfect if you need an extra device in the house or when you’re taking a car trip or vacation.
The iPad Mini is the perfectly-sized tablet for reading — both books and comic books — and Apple's spent the last years gradually improving its processor. The latest model continues that trend with surprisingly-good gaming capabilities.
If you love to write with pen or pencil, this is the tablet you need to know about. It replicates the handwriting feeling so well, and it's a huge jump over its predecessor by adding color and backlighting.
The new Surface Pro 2024 is great for productivity, thanks to impressive battery life and Windows 11’s multitasking tricks. Oh, and there’s an OLED display option to make your next binge-watch look even better.
Best tablet: Apple iPad (10th Gen)
The 10th-generation iPad, now the official entry-level Apple tablet, threw out the big bezels and Lightning port of the past for a new design that borrows a bit from its pricier siblings. Those perks begin with the A14 Bionic chip, which delivers enough speed to push it to the top of our chart above the cheaper options out there. Thankfully, Apple gave this iPad a $100 price cut down to $349 when it erased the ninth-generation iPad.
The iPad may not have the laptop-like horsepower of the iPad Pro or iPad Air — which run on Apple’s beefier M-series chips — but the regular iPad still sports enough torque for your everyday tasks. Whether you’re dealing with a mountain of unread emails, surfing the web, editing documents, playing games, watching movies or taking video calls — it’s going to be good. Heck, you can even work on iMovie projects with it. And all the latest iPadOS features work just fine. We threw all this and more at the device during our testing period and it chugged right along. Unless you’re doing heavy creative projects such as editing music with tons of tracks, big-batch photo exports or outputting 4K movies, you’re unlikely to run into issues.
Not everyone will need to upgrade from the ninth-generation iPad, though, unless they’re dying to ditch Lightning. This iPad sports the USB-C port you’ve seen in the iPhone 15, Apple’s MacBooks and its pricier tablets — as well as a ton of other gadgets. Those coming from a Fire tablet — like the 8 Plus, our budget pick — or an older iPad, however, will find that this iPad is far snappier.
The 10th-generation iPad also features a slightly larger display than its predecessors, a 10.9-inch Liquid Retina panel that won’t disappoint — especially if you’re upgrading from a cheaper tablet. Text is both sharp and bold, while images and videos offer a lot of details with great colors. It also features True Tone, which adjusts the screen’s color temperature to match lighting conditions. This has reduced eye strain in our testing, making it easy to use the 10th-generation iPad for an entire day.
That’s also valuable because the iPad will survive a day of use on a single charge. In our anecdotal testing, the iPad endured both a full eight-hour work day and a leisurely Sunday of gaming, streaming and general goofing off. That said, it didn’t fare well on our looping 4K video test, only making it past the five-hour mark before conking out.
The 10th-generation iPad features dual 12-megapixel cameras: one in the front-facing side for calls and selfies and the other on the rear, which also takes 4K video (which the ninth-generation model couldn’t). Apple’s Center Stage, which first premiered on the 2021 iPad Pro, is included in the front camera and performs just as well to identify who’s in the frame and keep them in the shot. This worked great for both video calls and capturing clips of our other projects during our testing.
When it comes to accessories, you might need to upgrade. It supports the first-generation Apple Pencil if you’ve still got one lying around from a previous iPad, as well as the new USB-C Apple Pencil. As for external keyboards, Logitech makes reputable options, and it also supports Apple’s Magic Keyboard Folio (not to be confused with the Magic Keyboards for iPad Air and iPad Pro). But since this iPad features a revised design over past iPads, you’ll need a new case if you’re upgrading from an older Apple tablet.
Overall, the 10th-generation iPad is easily recommended to most folks, since it provides Apple’s exceptional blend of features, performance and value.
Best splurge tablet: Apple iPad Air M2
When it comes to picking a better iPad, some might immediately jump to the iPad Pro. To them, we say, “Hold up, wait a minute.” Do not overlook the new 2024 iPad Air with M2 chip, which exists to deliver some of the iPad Pro features we love at a price that doesn’t break the bank.
Now available in both 11-inch and 13-inch designs, and sporting the super-speedy M2 chip that you may have seen in the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, the newest iPad Air is an excellent tablet overall that most will be extremely happy with.
While the standard iPad models will work just fine for most folks, the iPad Air’s M2 chip delivers fast performance that will cut down the time you spend waiting for projects to export.
The M2 iPad Air is also the perfect iPad for those who want the latest and greatest stylus tricks. It supports the Apple Pencil Pro, with its Squeeze and Hover tricks, as well as that nifty Barrel Roll that helps you put a stylish swoosh in. That’s not a bad thing for new buyers — the display and design are still excellent — but recent iPad Pro owners have little reason to rush to buy the newest upgrade.
And you can get all of that starting at $599, from the ultra-smooth and vibrant display to the sheer speed with which it’s able to juggle dozens of apps without a stutter. Plus, its new 13-inch model (which is $799 and up) is more ideal for those who take advantage of the multitasking Stage Manager mode.
Best Android tablet: Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE Plus
Trying to find the right Android tablet can be complicated, but the mid-range Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE Plus gives you a lot at a price that might surprise you. First off, this 12.4-inch slate’s size makes it perfect for all sorts of occasions, including Netflix marathons and using its S Pen stylus for notes and drawing.
Our favorite feature, which we discovered with our looping 4K video battery test, is that the Tab S9 FE Plus packs a ton of endurance. With a final time of 13 hours and 26 minutes, this big screen tablet outlasts the competition with a bigger screen than nearly all of our other picks. And in addition to that screen producing accurate color, its dual AKG-tuned speakers allowed our favorite songs to hit well.
On the front of the Tab S9 FE Plus is a single 12-megapixel ultrawide camera, and there’s an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera on the back. The cameras aren’t as sharp as what you’ll find on a Galaxy S24 smartphone, but they’re good enough to take the occasional photo when your phone isn’t nearby.
Powered by Samsung Exynos 1380 CPU, Arm Mali-G68 GPU and 8GB of memory, we found the Tab S8+ to be just fast enough for all the apps you expect and even light gaming, with no slowdown even with multiple apps open at the same time in various split-screen modes. And that includes Samsung’s DeX mode, which provides a windowed-app experience that looks to replace the traditional laptop.
Best budget tablet: Amazon Fire 7
Amazon refreshed its popular Fire 7 tablet in 2022, giving it a USB-C charging port, a faster processor and double the memory — a significant improvement over the 2019 Fire 7 tablet. Those upgrades, along with longer battery life, make this $60 (with ads) tablet a smart choice for those who want an affordable tablet for consuming media, especially for younger kids.
The Fire 7 tablet is an ideal content consumption device for younger kids, when you need an extra device in the house or when you’re taking a car trip or vacation. At 7 inches, it’s the right size for holding and watching videos, reading and playing simple games. While the screen resolution is not HD (1024 x 600), kids watching videos on a screen not much larger than a Pro or Max version of a smartphone are unlikely to notice or mind very much. They’ll probably just be glad to have their own tablet to watch and not have to share with a sibling.
The Fire 7 runs on Amazon’s Fire OS 8 software and uses its own Silk browser. You’re limited to the apps available in Amazon’s app store, which is not nearly as extensive, so you might be disappointed at not being able to download some of your favorite games or apps. However, most of the popular social and streaming apps are available.
We found the Fire 7 to be more durable than the iPad Mini and great for parents who want to monitor the apps and sites their kiddos are accessing. Plus, with a 10-hour battery life on a single charge, you can easily go from gaming to reading to listening to music without having to search for a charging port.
Best small tablet: Apple iPad Mini 7
The 8.3-inch iPad Mini is a beloved tablet for a very simple reason — it just fits readers’ needs unlike any other iPad. No matter if you’re reading novels or comic books, this tablet’s the perfect size for your next bit of escapism. Apple nails all the little things as well, with 11.5 hours of battery life in our testing, support for the flourishes found in Apple’s latest stylus the Apple Pencil Pro.
So, yes, Amazon makes similarly-sized tablets, but they’re nowhere near as fast, and their screens aren’t as vibrant or sharp. On top of that, nobody has the tablet app ecosystem that Apple offers — especially since Amazon’s Fire tablets don’t even offer YouTube.
Going beyond the basics, the latest iPad Mini impressed us with the power of the A17 Pro chip, which handled everything from productivity applications to the recent port of Resident Evil. All in a shell that weighs in at under a single pound.
Best E Ink tablet: ReMarkable Paper Pro
What’s that old phrase, “one of these things is not like the other?” The ReMarkable Paper Pro uses a custom E Ink display to stand out from the field with its redefining take on the tablet. No grid of apps on the home screen here, just a list of your documents and folders, because this is a tablet made for writers — hand-writers specifically.
With its unique display technology and stylus tips, the ReMarkable tablets seek to replicate the physical feeling of writing with pen or pencil on paper. Some folks won’t understand why that matters, but those who don’t like the feeling of using an Apple Pencil on an iPad screen know what I’m talking about.
The ReMarkable Paper Pro improves on previous E Ink tablets for writers by adding backlighting and color to its screen. This makes it far more versatile for where and when you can write and read its screen, and makes its PDF reading and highlighter functionality even better than before.
Best Windows tablet: Microsoft Surface Pro (2024)
For a while, the Surface Pro only got minimal updates that didn’t really do much to draw attention. Enter the Surface Pro 2024, which finds Microsoft’s detachable tablet reborn, thanks to Snapdragon X chips that enable fantastic battery life. Sure, some people will hype it up as an AI-optimized Copilot+ PC, but that’s far from the big story here.
Our looping battery test took over 13 hours to drain the Surface Pro 2024 of its charge, which puts it alongside the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE Plus in terms of endurance. The big difference between these tablets, though, is that Windows 11 is a far better operating system for multitasking than Samsung’s DeX mode, which is still trying to adapt Android into a windowed world.
As much as we love how iPadOS and Android offer touchscreen tricks on their respective tablets, there’s nothing like Windows 11 when it comes to getting work done on the go. Plus, the best Windows tablet earns more points when its sturdy kickstand and new Flex Keyboard accessory combine to make a better laptop alternative than before.
If you’re considering buying it for streaming movies, check out the OLED display option, which made “Dune: Part Two” look great in our testing. Just don’t buy it expecting to play the best PC games at good settings, as the Snapdragon X chips aren’t exactly there yet. Likewise, we’re still waiting for proper app emulation for select high-end applications in the creator space. All the standard programs I rely on such as Chrome, Slack, Discord and Todoist worked perfectly well, though.
How we tested
Tablets can vary a lot in what they aim to accomplish and deliver, so we run each through the same rigors with benchmark testing while seeing how much value they deliver on their unique and special features.
Design
- Look and feel: There are a lot of tablets online, and it can be hard to know how they’ll actually operate under everyday wear and tear. So we actually use these tablets and find out how durable they seem and how comfortable they are to hold.
- Ports: We take into consideration how certain tablets, like the Surface Pro 9, feature many more ports than your average iPad. Some of us still want a headphone jack, which the iPad (sadly) no longer offers.
Display
- Picture quality: We watch a variety of content on each tablet, ranging from animation to live action, to see how sharp and colorful these screens are.
- Brightness: Tablets aren’t meant to be only used indoors, so we take into consideration how bright these screens can get so you can actually see what you’re doing outside.
Performance
- Benchmarks: In addition to seeing how smoothly these tablets run various productivity applications and games, we run benchmark tests such as Geekbench to get hard numbers that make it easy to compare the tablets’ speeds.
- Battery life: After charging a tablet to 100% and turning off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and any automatic brightness settings, we turn the tablet’s display brightness to 50% and time how long it takes for a looping 4K video to bring the tablet’s charge to empty.
Software
- Usability: We consider how easy it is to use these tablets and how much power user-level multitasking they can enable. It’s an important part of the process, considering how the tablet-friendly operating systems such as Apple’s iPadOS and Amazon’s FireOS differ from Microsoft’s Windows 11 and Samsung’s DeX mode.
- Apps: Some tablets, like Amazon’s Fire tablets, still lack applications you might want. In that case, we’re still going to bring up that they’re missing Google’s programs like Gmail, YouTube and Google Maps.
Other tablets we tested
Apple's most expensive iPads now feature OLED displays that help its hefty price make more sense.
The M4 iPad Pro is both the best tablet Apple’s ever made and a serious case of overkill. That all begins with its Ultra Retina XDR display that uses dual OLED panels to achieve excellent brightness and contrast. On top of that, you get the speed of the M4 chip, which delivers the fastest performance of tablet we’ve ever tested. And while all of that is good, $999 (without a keyboard or stylus included) is still too darn steep for most people when iPadOS is not quite ready to replace macOS in terms of a platform that enables nimble multitasking.
The Google Pixel Tablet doubles as a smart display for the home, and is bundled with a speaker that it magnetically attaches to like a stand.
After a years-long hiatus, Google finally made another Android tablet, but it’s not like most of the models we tested. The Google Pixel Tablet is more of a Nest Hub than an iPad competitor, though it also works well for streaming Netflix and playing mobile games optimized for its larger screen. Unfortunately, its hampered by its stand, which doesn’t deliver strong sound and can get a little awkward to use.
Apple's previous iPad is a good pickup when it's available at a deep sale price. Kids too young to know about the latest design and ports and such won't mind that it's a bit outdated.
Apple may not sell the ninth-gen iPad anymore, but it’s still a solid tablet with decent performance and a good screen that you can find for cheap at third-party retailers. However, its design is a bit dated with its big bezel and Lightning port that’s been replaced by USB-C. You’re better off going for the iPad Air or 10th-gen iPad.
We love the Fire HD 10 tablet because it gives you all the basics you need in a tablet without having to spend a fortune. This model gets you a 10-inch display with up to $65 in savings attached. We like it in purple, but it also comes in black and blue.
What if you’re OK with a slightly smaller screen at a much lower price? The Fire HD 10 makes for a fantastic smart display and offers decent battery life and performance for the price.
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Why trust CNN Underscored
CNN Underscored editors thoroughly test all the products we cover, and we take tablets just as seriously as we do laptops and all other tech. We’re made up of an experienced team of editors and writers who provide full transparency about our testing methodology. I’ve been testing tablets for nearly a decade, and I’ve reviewed everything from the chunkiest kids tablet to the priciest iPad Pro. I’ve seen plenty of tablets turn into doorstops and paperweights over the years, and want to make sure you love the one you buy.
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