Other Tablets to Consider
We test tons of tablets every year. Here are a few others we like, just not as much as our picks above.
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Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Lenovo Tab Plus for $272: There are a lot of cheap Android tablets on the internet, and I urge you to be careful with what you buy. If Amazon’s Fire tablets don’t interest you (see below), consider Lenovo’s Tab Plus. I used it for a month for pure entertainment. The 11.5-inch screen is nice and big compared to a phone screen, yet it’s portable enough for travel. The built-in kickstand is excellent and should be standard on all tablets. It’s not the snappiest, but the performance was more than adequate. While the software is largely fine, on rare occasions, a few preinstalled apps caused full-screen ads to pop up on the screen (one was for “virus protection”). It’s crazy that Lenovo would allow that kind of garbage to show up, but the easy fix is to uninstall all the bloatware.
OnePlus Pad 2 for $550: OnePlus is still selling the Pad 2, which is the 2024 tablet and predecessor to the current Pad 3. The 12.1-inch screen isn’t as big, and performance is a small step below due to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset inside. Still, that’s plenty powerful to handle most apps and games. You’ll have a hard time finding accessories (like the keyboard), but if the Pad 3 is too pricey, this one’s not a bad buy.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE Plus for $550: The Galaxy Tab S9 FE is the “Fan Edition” version of the flagship Tab S9 series, meaning it makes some sacrifices for a more palatable price. It now has a successor—the Tab S10 FE series—but I haven’t tested it yet. The S9 FE comes in a Plus and standard variant—I tested the former—and both include a stylus. It performed much better than the older Tab S7 FE tablet with fewer stutters. The 12.4-inch LCD screen is large and a rarity to find at this price in the Android world, but it’s a bit tricky to comfortably hold, especially when browsing apps in bed. It has dipped to $400, so try to catch it on sale. At $550, you may as well buy the newer Tab S10 FE.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Series for $576+: The 2023 Galaxy Tab S9 series (7/10, WIRED Recommends) consists of three tablets: the Tab S9, Tab S9+, and Tab S9 Ultra. They’re all expensive, though prices have come down since their release (the Ultra is no longer available). The hardware is still excellent, and considering the newer Tab S10 series isn’t dramatically different, the Tab S9 series is still worth a look. They sport superbright 120-Hz screens and IP68 water resistance, and Samsung includes the S Pen stylus.
Honor MagicPad 2 for £400: This classy tablet is also not currently sold in the US. Quite similar to the OnePlus Pad 2 we recommend above, it boasts a truly gorgeous OLED display with impressive specs (3K resolution, 1,600 nits, 144-Hz refresh rate) that are generally unavailable at this price. Paired with the eight speakers, watching movies and gaming on this tablet is a pleasure. The stylus and keyboard are great (I love the handwriting and formula recognition), but they don’t seem to be available in the UK. I found Honor’s AI features, like Magic Portal, which gets good at predicting what you want to do, very useful, maybe more so on a tablet than a phone. Battery life is good, and charging is speedy (66 watts). The only real weakness here is the limited processing power, which can’t match something like an iPad (though you will pay a lot more for an equivalent Apple device). —Simon Hill
Tablet Accessories
Tablets often don’t come with kickstands or enough ports, so it’s a good idea to snag a few accessories to enhance your experience. These are some of our favorite tablet accessories, many of which you can also find in our Best iPad Accessories guide.
Satechi Aluminum Desktop Stand for $45: This is my favorite tablet stand, so much so that I’ve taken it with me on trips. It packs down relatively well, and it is very stable—there’s no wobbling around here. You can also adjust the angle quite a bit. It can handle huge sizes too—it worked perfectly with my 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
Logitech K380 Pebble Bluetooth Keyboard for $40: Want a simple Bluetooth keyboard for your tablet instead of spending half the price of your tablet on a keyboard case? I’ve used Logitech’s K380 for years and it’s functioned perfectly. It takes two AA batteries that I’ve yet to replace (Logitech claims two years of use), and you can switch between three connected devices via Bluetooth.
Twelve South StayGo Mini USB-C Hub for $60: This works with iPads and other tablets just fine. You can either plug it in and keep it flush with the edge of a slate or use the included cord to keep it extended. You get a USB-C port you can use for pass-through charging, a USB-A, an HDMI, and a headphone jack.
Lamicall Gooseneck Tablet Holder for $20: I’ve used this on my bed frame to hold up various tablets for more than a year. The gooseneck requires a bit of finagling to get to the right position, and if you’re constantly tapping the tablet, it will jiggle around. But it’s a great hands-free way to watch movies. You can affix the clamp to any surface, like a desk or kitchen counter.
Twelve South HoverBar Duo Mount/Stand for $80: You can use this as a stand or as an arm mount, and Twelve South makes it really easy to switch between the two. That means you can easily affix your tablet to your bedside arm mount and then put it on the stand in your home office in the morning. Both are sturdy, and the arm mount is decently adjustable. Best of all, it doesn’t wiggle around as much as the Lamicall above when you tap the screen.
Anker Nano 3 30-Watt Charging Adapter for $17: Most tablets charge at around 18 watts, so this 30-watt charger from Anker is more than capable. The plugs fold up, and it’s pretty compact.
Ugreen 145-Watt Portable Charger for $70: This power bank is surprisingly compact considering its 25,000-mAh capacity. That’s enough to recharge most tablets two or three times. It dishes out up to 145 watts, meaning it has plenty of power to recharge even a laptop. You can fast-charge with the USB-C ports and use the USB-A port on another device. There’s a small LED that shows the battery’s current charge.
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