If you don’t mind splurging, the best iPad to buy is not the iPad Pro, but the iPad Air (7/10, WIRED Review). This 2025 model has been upgraded with the M3 chip, meaning it’s powerful enough to handle video editing and graphically intensive tasks. Don’t forget that you get two screen sizes: 11 or 13 inches. Both will be big enough to really take advantage of the desktop-like multitasking features arriving in iPadOS 26.

Despite the “Air” moniker, it’s not the lightest iPad in the lineup anymore. Go figure. But the blend of a large, bright screen at a reasonable price, powerful performance, Apple Pencil Pro support, a fully laminated screen for more responsive sketching, and solid battery life makes it a machine you’ll want to tote from room to room. There’s no Face ID, but Touch ID is integrated into the power button.

I’ve already seen discounts on the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro that drop it as low as $290, and I suggest you only snag it if it dips under $300. I used this large tablet on a trip to London for entertainment and to edit my RAW photos from my Nikon via Adobe Lightroom, and it did the job without a hitch. The 3K resolution on the 12.7-inch LCD is sharp, the speakers are rich, and I didn’t notice any problems with performance. It can feel a little unwieldy to hold, but that comes with the territory of a nearly 13-inch tablet. The included stylus helps, especially for smaller touch targets in apps like Lightroom.

The only problem? Lackluster software updates. My test unit runs Android 15, but this new tablet supposedly shipped with Android 14 earlier this year, meaning it will not receive Android version upgrades after Android 16. That’ll make it feel a little out of date in a year or so. At least you’ll get four years of security updates.

Do I think Apple’s most expensive iPads are worth their insanely high cost? No. Do people buy and love them anyway? Yes. There’s no denying how fantastic the iPad Pro tablets are, which now come in 11- or 13-inch size options (6/10, WIRED Review). Both are insanely thin and light, enhanced by brilliantly bright OLED displays with 120-Hz refresh rates. They’re the only iPads with Face ID for authentication, and the only ones with the nano-texture glass add-on to reduce glare—a must-have for anyone frequently using an iPad outside or near a window.

They offer MacBook-level performance thanks to the M4 chipset. However, all that power is for naught because the software still feels very constrained. Yes, it’s a great tablet, but it’s still not ready to completely replace most people’s laptops.

When giving a tablet to a kid, you want something durable and cheap so that it’s unlikely to break and, if it does, a replacement won’t be too costly. Amazon offers kid-friendly versions of all its Fire tablets, and the Fire HD 8 Kids Edition sits in the sweet spot of having a kid-friendly size and a wallet-friendly price. It’s the same as the Fire HD 8 above, but the extra money you spend adds a bulky case to protect the tablet and a two-year worry-free damage plan. That means if your kid breaks it, you can return it and Amazon will send you a replacement for free. You also get a year of Amazon’s Kids+ service, which provides access to kid-friendly books, movies, games, and apps, all with parental controls. It’s $8 monthly after the first year ($6 for Prime members).

There’s also the larger Fire HD 8 Kids Pro, which has a slimmer case and comes with preset age filters for kids aged 6 through 12. However, if your kid is within that age range, it might be better to get them the Fire HD 10 Kids Pro Edition. It has a bigger screen, which is a big plus. Read our Best Kids Tablets guide for more ideas.

Google’s Pixel Tablet (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is part tablet, part smart display. This 11-inch slate is like a big Pixel phone, with a sharp LCD screen, good speakers, and slick software. It runs pretty well thanks to the Tensor G2 processor inside. However, it comes with a hub, so when you’re done using it as a tablet, you can magnetically dock it to start recharging automatically. This hub doubles as a speaker, and since the Pixel Tablet is the first tablet to support Google’s Cast technology natively, you can cast music or shows to it from your phone or laptop, resulting in better sound quality from the system.

When you’re not using it, you can turn the display into a screensaver of the Google Home Hub panel, allowing you to see and control your smart home devices at any moment. This is how I predominantly use mine. It features multi-user support with up to eight profiles, so every family member can switch to a personalized profile, securely locked via fingerprint. Each profile can be configured with specific widgets, apps, and layouts, so it’s easy to make it feel like your own slate even if it’s a shared device.

Google sells the Pixel Tablet as a standalone tablet in case you don’t care much for the speaker dock—a nice way to save some cash. Whichever way you go, I highly recommend getting the official Pixel Tablet Case, as it adds a much-needed kickstand and doesn’t interrupt the hub attachment point. It’s two years old now, and while you can find devices with better specs for the same price, there still aren’t many competing slates that play the dual tablet and smart display function as well as the Pixel Tablet.

Amazon’s Fire tablets aren’t for everyone. They really push Amazon Prime services and apps, but they’re great for leisurely tasks, like playing games and watching movies. There’s no Google Play Store (though there’s a workaround), and not every Android app is readily available. Still, for under $200, they’re hard to beat.

I used to recommend the Fire HD 10 here, but the Fire Max 11 (5/10, WIRED Review) is now often on sale enough and so similarly priced that it’s worth springing for (don’t buy it at its $230 MSRP!). It has a nicer build quality—metal and not plastic—a higher-resolution and bigger screen, a fingerprint sensor, plus enough power for most tasks, even light work if you pair it with a Bluetooth keyboard. (I don’t recommend Amazon’s Productivity Bundle, as you can get nicer peripherals for the same amount of cash.) There’s a USB-C port so you can charge it with the same cable as your laptop or phone, and it has hands-free Alexa support, meaning it can double as an Echo Show. Remember, Amazon steeply discounts its Fire tablets on Prime Day, Black Friday, and for shopping holidays like back-to-school season, so avoid paying full price.

Read our Best Fire Tablets guide for more Amazon tablet recommendations.

I’ve used the ReMarkable 2 for several years as a never-ending digital notebook. It writes exceptionally well, and physically jotting things down helps me remember things better. The new ReMarkable Paper Pro (7/10, WIRED Review) steps things up with a color display, allowing you to highlight or use different font colors as you write. It feels even more like paper and pen, with incredibly low latency (the delay between the stylus and display when they touch). You can add tags and make folders or notebooks, and the slate does a decent job of converting handwriting to text. You can send files to your email in a few different formats, too. You don’t need to subscribe to ReMarkable’s Connect service ($3 per month), but it gives you unlimited cloud storage and the ability to access and make notes on desktop and mobile.

I love the company’s Type Folio keyboard accessory, which turns the ReMarkable Paper Pro into a lovely distraction-free typing experience. Oh, and I rarely worry about battery life. It needs a recharge roughly once every two weeks, nicer than most gadgets that require daily charging. It’s just so dang expensive. If you don’t think having a color screen is all that important, go for the ReMarkable 2, which the company still offers at a lower price.

Read our Best Digital Notebooks guide for more options.

It’s hard to find a good-performing tiny tablet these days, but Apple has your back. The iPad Mini A17 Pro (8/10, WIRED Recommends) isn’t a dramatic upgrade over its predecessor, but the performance bump enables you to take advantage of Apple Intelligence, the company’s suite of artificial intelligence features. It’s also compatible with the flagship Apple Pencil Pro, making it an excellent slate for artists who enjoy sketching in the great outdoors. It’s just a handy, travel-friendly, and small tablet that can handle practically anything you throw at it.

You can play demanding mobile games on most tablets in this guide, but Lenovo’s Legion Tab Gen 3 makes it feel extra special for two main reasons. First, it’s super compact! The 8.8-inch LCD might not be as small as the iPad Mini, but it’s similar and just as easy to use. It still feels substantially larger than a phone, too. Second, you’ll find two USB-C charging ports on this slate. That allows you to charge it while playing in any orientation without a cable getting in the way, but also lets you potentially add other accessories.

It’s an all-around great little Android tablet that delivers a similar iPad Mini-like experience, with a little oomph in screen refresh rate, cooling, and charging ports to boost your gaming experience. I’ve enjoyed using it for reading, browsing the web, and watching shows, because the size makes it so much more comfortable to hold, and it’s easy to take everywhere. I just wish Lenovo had a better software update policy.

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S10 series is the iPad Pro equivalent in the Android world. Initially, there were only two slates in the lineup—the Tab S10+ and Tab S10 Ultra—but Samsung unveiled the Tab S10 FE and Tab S10 FE+ in 2025, lower-cost versions that start at $500. I haven’t tested them yet.

I did test the Galaxy Tab S10+ and S10 Ultra, and both are on the bigger end of tablet sizes. They’re hard not to like—they perform exceptionally well, have multi-day battery life, promise long software support, and the displays are vibrant, smooth, and sharp. I watched all of Dandadan on it, and the colors popped. You even get Samsung’s stylus in the box; it magnetically charges and sticks to the side of the slate. I was surprised at how much I liked using the stylus to write in search boxes and throughout the interface—the company has come a long way in its stylus technology.

They’re a little tough to use without the help of accessories, though. The big sizes mean they’re unwieldy to hold, so I highly recommend investing in a kickstand folio or the keyboard cover if you want to get some work done. Samsung’s DeX system turns the Android tablet into a decent desktop operating system, and it certainly is possible to do some light work, but it can’t replace my laptop. The big problem is that they’re just so expensive, and it’s worth considering a proper laptop (or iPad Pro) at these prices.

Want a tablet strictly for drawing? Get the Wacom One 13 Touch (8/10, WIRED Recommends). Former WIRED reviewer Jaina Grey used an iPad to draw for years, yet the Wacom’s silky smooth touchscreen drew her in. It’s easy to set up—plug the USB-C cable into your PC—and start sketching with your preferred drawing app; the stylus doesn’t need recharging. That’s important to note: the Wacom One 13 Touch is a monitor—it won’t work if it’s not plugged into a PC or laptop. That can be a downside for someone used to drawing on an iPad.

Check out our Best Drawing Apps guide for more recommendations.

Who says tablets need to run operating systems originally designed for smartphones? Microsoft’s Surface line employs Windows, making it suitable for heavy, desktop-grade workflows. The Surface Pro 11th Edition (6/10, WIRED Review) has a great OLED display and excellent battery life, with good performance. It’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Plus or Snapdragon X Elite chipsets (on the ARM architecture), so not every Windows app will work perfectly. Microsoft’s translation layer, Prism, allows nonnative ARM apps to work on these processors, but it’s not all-encompassing. Skip this machine if you plan on doing a lot of graphics-intensive tasks.

The best parts are the built-in kickstand, which lets you plop it down on almost any surface, and the Flex Keyboard, which offers a brilliant trackpad and typing experience. It’s not as polished as an iPad in tablet mode, but Windows 11 has larger touch targets that make it easier to use. The main problem? It’s so expensive. Sure, you can get an absolute base model for $1,000, but you’ll still need to add a keyboard, as it’s not included. The upgrades and accessories, which are really what make this machine stand out, will push you closer to $2,000. Wait for a sale. (I recommend the OLED model with the Snapdragon X Elite, 16 GB of RAM, and 1 TB of storage.)

If you have a family member who has a hard time with technology and you want to maintain easy contact with them, the GrandPad (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is your best bet. It’s a yearly subscription, so it’s expensive, but you’re getting LTE connectivity out of the box, meaning the device is always connected to the internet—no need to set up Wi-Fi. The slate has outdated specs (it’s an Acer 8-inch tablet), but there’s a large, optimized interface with big touch targets, speakers tuned to help those hard of hearing, ad-free music streaming and radio stations, unlimited photo and video storage, and games like Solitaire. If the device is ever damaged or lost, the company will send a replacement.

The GrandPad excels at one-to-one video calls, and it’s portable, meaning Grandpa can take it with him and still receive your calls. It sits on a wireless charging cradle, so your loved one won’t have to fuss with cables.