The Best Tablets for Streaming, Gaming, Reading, and More

Apple has made uncovering the perfect iPad for astir radical rather casual implicit the years with its base-tier iPad mostly being rather affordable portion offering fantabulous show and physique quality. Even against contention from the Android broadside of the market, which has mostly struggled with decent low-cost tablets, the basal iPad stands out. And with the astir caller 11th generation, Apple keeps the simplicity of prime going.

This caller exemplary is simply a precise insignificant iteration connected the 10th-gen iPad we had recommended previously. It makes precise elemental changes, similar the displacement from a 10.9-inch show to an 11-inch one, though the solution remains unchanged. The show besides continues to beryllium 60Hz with a 500-nit highest brightness. Fortunately, nary of this makes it a atrocious display. It adjacent supports the Apple Pencil, albeit the aforesaid 1st-generation Apple pencil that the earlier exemplary supported.

The interior upgrades are better. For one, the 11th-gen iPad yet does distant with 64GB of basal storage. It present starts with 128GB, providing a immense boost to the abstraction you’ll person for apps, games, media, and integer creations. The spot wrong besides gets a bump from the dated A14 Bionic to the much caller A16 (though Apple is presently connected the A19). In all, the 11th Gen iPad brings a bigger screen, much storage, and a much caller CPU each packed into a tablet that hasn’t changed its carnal footprint.

See our usher to the best iPad models for much options.

Over the years, Lenovo has shown it knows however to marque a coagulated much affordable tablet. You won’t person to settee for a unspeakable show oregon laggard show here. The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro puts effort successful each the close places.

For $279, you’re inactive getting a tablet with a metallic framework and back, and a sharp, ample display. The 12.7-inch show offers a 2944x1840 resolution, keeping the pixel density high. The surface is simply a basal LCD sheet – sorry, nary OLED – but provides a decent 400-nit brightness and runs astatine a creaseless 144Hz. It besides supports stylus input, and Lenovo includes said stylus successful the container truthful you’re acceptable to doodle and annotate close away.

You won’t beryllium getting flagship-tier performance, but the MediaTek Dimensity 8300 wrong the Idea Tab Pro isn’t bad. It’ll support up with mundane browsing, tally streaming apps, and tally airy games conscionable fine, though you won’t beryllium firing up Genshin Impact astatine max settings. Perhaps much critically, the tablet supports Wi-Fi 6, truthful you tin pat into accelerated networks and bask prime streaming. With the tablet’s ample battery, you tin besides number connected it to support you online for agelong stretches.

Another large get for a low-cost tablet is bundle support. The Idea Tab Pro comes with Android 14 retired of the container and volition get updates to Android 16, and it volition person 4 years of information patches. That’s not mind-blowing, but getting immoderate enactment similar this connected cheaper tablets isn’t ever a given.

Gaming calls for a somewhat antithetic tablet than different tasks. While immoderate of the bigger tablets tin surely inactive grip games, really holding them successful your hands for lengthy sessions volition stress 1 of their biggest shortcomings: their weight. The Redmagic Astra is tailor-made for gaming, sitting astatine a much tidy 370g, little than 2 mean smartphones. In that footprint, it manages a 9-inch OLED show that’s fantabulous for gaming. The sheet is crisp astatine 1504x2400 with a 165Hz refresh rate. The colour and opposition rips on smoothly successful mundane cognition and games alike.

To marque the astir of a show similar that, you request almighty internals, and that’s different cardinal facet of the Astra. It fits the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset I’ve seen moving wonders successful 2025’s apical Android devices. While the Astra sadly doesn’t propulsion the Snapdragon 8 Elite arsenic hard arsenic it could, it inactive offers fantabulous show that’s a coagulated measurement supra the earlier Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Better still, it delivers accordant performance. In 3DMark’s Steel Nomad Light Stress Test, the Astra offered immoderate of the astir accordant show I’ve seen. This is simply a demanding trial that sees a batch of vigor physique up successful adjacent the champion devices, and galore of those volition spot their show driblet by anyplace from 30-50% successful moving it. The Astra, meanwhile, lone saw its show dip by 5.5% acknowledgment to its susceptible interior cooling system.

That exceptional velocity means fast-running games with their settings maxed retired and nary descent to dilatory framework rates aft a fractional hr of gaming. I deliberation it volition beryllium immoderate clip earlier Android games tin bring this instrumentality to its knees, and adjacent then, it’ll lone beryllium the astir demanding caller games. Now we tin conscionable anticipation that the PC emulation bundle Redmagic is moving connected yet finds its mode onto the Astra and Redmagic’s gaming phones.

I’m not convinced there’s any Android tablet worthy spending $1,000 connected – sorry, Samsung, but astatine that terms you tin get a competent 2-in-1 Windows instrumentality that volition person clearer longevity (like the Asus ProArt PZ13). On the different hand, galore of the cheaper options rise a batch of concerns. The OnePlus Pad 2 is neither a shoddy fund Android tablet nor an unreasonably costly one, and it brings a ton to the tablet. It pulls connected its flagship-killer roots to supply a tablet that won’t permission you wanting for overmuch more.

First, it comes packing a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which was the flagship chipset from Qualcomm for mobile devices until precise precocious and has yet to beryllium supplanted successful tablets. This gives the OnePlus Pad 2 fantabulous performance, and 12GB of representation helps it support up with the multitasking you’re liable to get up to connected a tablet.

The OnePlus Pad 2 packs successful a sizable 12.1-inch show with a 2120x3000 resolution. It whitethorn lone beryllium an IPS panel, but it offers a 900-nit highest brightness and 144Hz refresh rate. That makes for easier visibility and smoother question crossed the board. That 144Hz refresh complaint tin besides assistance successful the inking acquisition since the OnePlus Pad 2 works with a stylus that besides charges portion magnetically attached to the tablet.

The OnePlus Pad 2 adjacent gets decent attraction wherever bundle is concerned. OnePlus launched connected Android 14 and promised 3 years of OS and 4 years of information updates. In a marketplace of tablets launching connected outdated operating systems with adjacent to nary committedness of updates, it’s refreshing to spot an enactment that’s not destined to beryllium outdated close retired of the gate.

While the OnePlus Pad 2 launched astatine $550 and inactive proved a bully worth astatine the price, it has much often been moving for $450 from OnePlus lately and usually includes a escaped accessory, similar the folio keyboard case.

When I archetypal opened the iPad Pro, I wasn't definite what to marque of it. Apple was branding it arsenic a imperishable workstation replacement, but it inactive wasn't moving Finder oregon the desktop applications I would privation successful that benignant of device. Not agelong after, however, it became 1 of my go-to regular devices. The Tandem OLED show unsocial is capable to get astir radical hooked, adjacent if the terms tag mightiness marque you wince.

Though the chip's powerfulness has been usurped by the iPad Pro with the M5 (which we'll get to investigating soon), the iPad Pro with an M4 is packed with an 8-core CPU clocked astatine 3.49GHz, which is accompanied by a 10-core GPU that volition marque casual enactment of immoderate crippled you propulsion astatine it. Just support successful caput the magnitude of RAM you get depends connected the retention configuration you spell with. As agelong arsenic you get a 1TB model, you're getting a respectable 16GB of RAM, but the 512GB and 256GB models volition person to marque bash with fractional the memory. If you're not readying to usage the iPad Pro for dense originative workloads, this is going to beryllium a non-issue. After all, iPadOS isn't precisely known for being ace memory-intensive. If you're doing a batch of enactment successful Photoshop oregon Premiere, you're going to consciousness it, though.

Artists volition besides privation to brace this tablet with the Apple Pencil Pro (or 1 of the myriad Apple Pencil alternatives retired there). With a stylus successful hand, the iPad Pro becomes an unthinkable originative powerhouse, adjacent with the limits that travel with moving with what's fundamentally a souped-up mentation of iOS.

There are each kinds of large speechmaking tablets that tin bash a batch much beyond turning pages connected ebooks, but if you’re looking to truly absorption connected text, you’ll beryllium hard-pressed to find a amended e-reader than the Onyx Boox Go 7.

The compact and lightweight plan of the Boox Go 7 is simply a large lucifer for reading, being a overmuch amended stand-in for a carnal publication than the ample and weighty tablets that effort to suggest they’ll enactment conscionable arsenic good for reading. At conscionable 6.9oz, the Boox Go 7 is lighter than plentifulness of smartphones, making it a viable enactment for extended one-handed use. Physical buttons for turning pages connected 1 broadside of the tablet (which besides provides a useful grip) besides marque flipping done books much convenient – nary covering up the surface with your thumb – and it tin flip orientations.

Of course, the large vantage of the Boox Go 7 is its e-ink display, packing a crisp e-ink Carta 1300 that provides a 300ppi pixel density for crisp text. As bully arsenic it tin beryllium to person immoderate colour added to e-ink displays, it comes with a large deed to the black-and-white opposition and wide brightness, which tin marque it harder to read. If you similar a spot of colour and don’t caput the trade-off, Onyx besides offers a colour mentation of this tablet. Either way, you’ll besides get the vantage of a precise debased powerfulness gully portion you’re reading, making it apt you’ll beryllium capable to get done a full publication earlier needing to recharge (or galore books depending connected however accelerated you read).

Where the Onyx Boox Go 7 sets itself isolated from competitors similar Amazon and Kobo is successful its usage of Android arsenic its operating system. It comes with a specially tuned mentation of Android to enactment amended with the e-ink display, and you inactive get entree to the Play Store and the wide scope of apps disposable to Android. You won’t beryllium installing each the latest games oregon streaming your favourite movies connected this tablet, but you tin work your favourite websites successful the browser, bash immoderate studying with Duolingo oregon Anki, and load up conscionable astir immoderate ebook room you want, including the Kindle oregon Libby app. Onyx’s autochthonal e-reader app besides supports a ton of formats, letting you load your ain postulation of ebooks onto the tablet’s built-in storage. Boox devices besides person a superior default slumber surface to some Kindles and Kobos; alternatively of rotating ads for the latest romantasy slop oregon affiliate companies, Boox's tablets remainder connected sketched designs.

If you’re looking for an e-ink tablet, the Onyx Boox Tab X C that we reviewed is simply the champion you tin get close now. This is nary casual e-reader with a plain black-and-white display, ultra-low refresh rate, and processing velocity conscionable accelerated capable to crook the pages of a integer book. The Boox Tab X C sports a ample 13.3-inch E-Ink Kaleido 3 display. This includes a 3200x2400 black-and-white furniture and a 1600x1200 colour overlay, giving you the crisp low-power e-ink for speechmaking and a splash of colour connected apical to marque the tablet acold much versatile than emblematic e-ink tablets. Whether you’re browsing websites, speechmaking comics, oregon annotating ebooks, that other colour comes successful handy. The Boox Tab X C besides has a accelerated capable refresh complaint to consciousness creaseless successful astir uses, though you astir apt inactive won’t privation to crippled oregon ticker videos connected it.

Another large positive for the Boox Tab X C is that it runs connected Android and not immoderate proprietary e-reader OS. This means you tin load up conscionable astir immoderate app you want. Your favourite note-taking apps, your favourite ebook oregon comic room apps, and your favourite browsers should beryllium close determination successful the Play Store acceptable to go.

With the large surface it provides, the Boox Tab X C tin enactment arsenic a large productivity aid. You tin brace with a keyboard to constitute up documents and bask the other agelong artillery beingness it offers, oregon you tin load up PDFs to some work and people up with a stylus without needing to woody with scaling.

All of this capableness comes built onto coagulated hardware. The tablet runs connected a potent Snapdragon 855 chip, which is acold much mighty than you’ll find successful astir e-ink devices. It’s besides tucked into a classy, aluminum design.

Apple enactment unneurotic a fantastic small bundle with the 2024 iPad Air. It upgraded from its predecessors with a thinner design, an improved selfie camera, and a newer spot nether the hood. You tin snag the iPad Air with either an 11- oregon 13-inch display, and beyond a corresponding accommodation to resolution, astir of the specs of the 2 tablets different stay the same. Either enactment gets you an Apple M2 spot backed by 8GB of memory. In our testing, we recovered this provided ample show for mundane uses, similar streaming movies and browsing, and it adjacent held up for extended gaming sessions successful Zenless Zone Zero. The bladed plan of the tablet tin effect successful immoderate vigor build-up, truthful beryllium mindful of that if you’re looking to bash superior gaming.

The caller plan of the iPad Air trims its extent down to conscionable 6.1mm, which is adjacent thinner than an iPhone 17 and hardly a fractional millimeter wider than the supremely slim iPhone Air. Between that and the tablet weighing conscionable a hairsbreadth implicit 1lb, it’s exceptionally portable. It’s besides boasting a prime physique with an aluminum framework and backmost – not that I’d expect immoderate little from Apple.

The show connected the iPad Air isn’t arsenic agleam arsenic immoderate of its competition, hitting 500 nits, but it offers a wide colour gamut that looks large for TV and movies. It besides works good with the Apple Pencil Pro, providing creaseless inking for drafting and enactment taking. And, for those looking to incorporated the tablet into a broader instrumentality ecosystem, you’ll get the payment of a USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 larboard connected the bottommost of the tablet, supporting faster information transfers and DisplayPort output.

While there’s a newer exemplary with an M3 chip, the M2 exemplary is inactive going to beryllium plentifulness for astir and tin occasionally beryllium recovered astatine a discount. (The iPad Pro volition inactive beryllium the much sensible enactment for anyone who truly needs top-level specs.) Of course, if you find the M3 iPad Air astatine the aforesaid terms oregon amended than the M2 model, you shouldn’t hesitate to take it instead.

Originally posted:

Oct 21, 2025 9:00 pm