Best Android tablet: Our top six recommendations

The Xiaomi Pad 5 is the Chinese tech giant’s attempt to create an Android-powered version of the iPad Air. And, following a fortnight of use, we found the device completely succeeds in this endeavor, making it the best Android tablet we’d recommend to most people.

Out of the box the device immediately impressed, sporting a slim but sturdy metal chassis that felt suitably scratch-resistant to comfortably slot into most regular-sized bags and backpacks without concern.

While it didn’t prove to be the best tablet in any one area during our lab and real-world tests, it delivered reliable performance in pretty much all of the core areas we tested. The Xiaomi Pad 5’s 11-inch LCD screen doesn’t offer as deep blacks as the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, which features an AMOLED panel. But to the naked eye it’s still capable of presenting decent contrast and a high enough level of maximum brightness to make HDR content on Netflix pop.

The quad-speaker setup isn’t as powerful as the system seen on the competing Lenovo P12 Pro, with the low-end – in particular – in the latter sounding more powerful. But given the price difference between the two devices, this is more than forgivable. Overall, the Xiaomi Pad 5’s audio offering was more than powerful, detailed and controlled enough to comfortably watch movies and play games.

For gaming, the 120Hz refresh rate is a welcome upgrade over competing tablets we’ve tested at this price, including the iPad Air 2022. The tech lets the Xiaomi Pad 5 render 120 images per second, which is twice the number seen on standard tablet screens locked to 60Hz.

Scrolling, therefore, felt like a far smoother experience on this tablet compared to the iPad Air and rival Android models such as the Lenovo Yoga Tab 13 (2021) with 60Hz screens. This will also be great news for early adopters of game streaming services such as GeForce Now, who will be able to play full-fat PC games on the Xiaomi Pad 5 over the cloud at 120fps.

Add the reliable battery life and the Xiaomi Pad 5 easily earns its place as our current best overall Android tablet offering for most people. During testing, the tablet’s 8720mAh battery shed an average of 9-11% of its charge per hour while streaming 1080p video on Wi-Fi. That figure for streaming games over GeForce Now was 22-25%. Using the Xiaomi Pad 5 for office work, the tablet easily lasted around 10 hours.

The only tablet we’ve tested with these features to offer better stamina is the Lenovo P12 Pro, which can last up to 15 hours of video streaming based on our tests.

Reviewer: Alastair Stevenson
Full review: Xiaomi Pad 5 Review

Big-screen Android tablets have been a rarity up until now, with the space currently being dominated by Apple’s iPad Pro 12.9-inch device. Thankfully, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra filled the hole in the market earlier this year, unveiled alongside the Galaxy Tab S8 and Galaxy Tab S8 Plus, which we are yet to review.

During testing, the S8 Ultra proved to be a fantastic option for Android fans after a big-screen tablet for watching movies and playing games. It took our reviewer a good two days to get used to the device’s size, and it’s likely that the dimensions won’t be for everyone – even without its optional keyboard case, the tablet wouldn’t fit into the laptop sleeve in our reviewer’s satchel.

However, the moment we powered it up, the S8 Ultra’s giant 14.6-inch AMOLED screen more than made up for the lack of portability. The screen is wonderfully calibrated for binge-watching TV shows and movies, with the added screen real-estate making movies feel more immersive. The AMOLED screen also delivers wonderfully deep blacks, which, coupled with solid levels of max brightness, made HDR content in particular pop. Dark scenes, such as those in BladeRunner, displayed detail that was completely lost in smaller tablets such as the Lenovo P12 Pro. The iPad Pro 12.9-inch is the only tablet we’ve tested to offer better HDR performance.

The S8 Ultra also features a high 120Hz refresh rate, which we found made it a great option for gaming as well. Streaming games over GeForce Now, with a Razer Raiju Bluetooth controller paired to the device, the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra delivered one of the best experiences we’ve had on a tablet. The generous screen size let us see details, such as the ammo count in first-person-shooter, more clearly, specifics that were too squished to make out on smaller 11-inch slates. The high refresh rate also ensured games looked smooth, and the Snapdragon Gen 1 chip kept every game and app we threw at the device running stutter-free.

The only serious downside is that the tablet doesn’t quite match its main big-screen rival, the iPad Pro 12.9-inch, in a couple of key areas. First, for creatives looking for a mobile sketch or video-editing station, the Android software lags behind Apple’s iPad OS offering. During testing, we struggled to find a reliable video-editing app; outside of Krita, there are woefully few digital painting services that come with full-fat keyboard shortcuts. This makes the iPad Pro a far better option for creative users.

Battery life is also slightly longer on the iPad, which isn’t surprising considering its smaller screen. During tests, streaming non-HDR video from Netflix saw the Tab S8 Ultra discharge an average of 12-14% of its charge. The iPad Pro 12.9 lost 8% of its charge per hour running the same test.

Reviewer: Alastair Stevenson
Full review: Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra Review

There are lots of affordable Android tablets on the market right now. However, based on our time reviewing them, many fall short of offering good value for money. The majority deliver at best mediocre performance, terrible battery life and feature washed-out screens that make viewing Netflix a horribly compromised experience.

That’s why we were pleasantly surprised by the Honor Pad 8. This tablet delivers a large and lush screen which measures 12 inches, supports over one billion colours, and has a 2000x1200p resolution. It’s a good fit for watching TV shows or films, although being an LCD screen it cannot offer the same level of contrast as its OLED counterparts.

Performance is also very smooth and fluid for a tablet at this price point, so if you want to boot up a few mobile games on that large display then you can go ahead and do so with pleasure. The Magic UI 6.1 software (based on Android) offers multi-window viewing as an option, which is a big help if you’re using it for work and need to multi-task.

For the most part the design is classy and appealing, though we did regret the loss of the 3.5mm headphone jack, which would have been handy for customers with wired headphones.

With a beefy 7250mAh battery, this tablet is just fine with long-distance trips, as we found in our testing that it would only lose around 8% battery per hour of online video streaming.

Reviewer: Peter Phelps
Full review: Honor Pad 8

The Realme Pad may well be cheap and well built, but we still wouldn’t recommend it to any buyer looking for a tablet for a child aged 8 or below. Like most tech, it 100% will not survive a full-blown tantrum where it’s thrown across a room.

If you’re after a device that’s more sturdy then we’d recommend looking at the Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids (2021). Designed specifically for younger kids, it comes with a rugged but cute-looking “Bumper” case that envelopes the chassis in foam, and a plastic outer shell. Having pitted the tablet against a toddler, we can personally attest to its robustness, with our review unit surviving more than a few tantrum throws and a game of tug of war between the child and the family dog.

As an added assurance, Amazon also offers a two-year “no questions asked” replacement policy, where the company will send out a new device free of charge if your progeny does somehow manage to break it.

The 10-inch screen offers similar picture quality to the Realme Pad, with blacks taking on a slightly grey tone. Nevertheless, in our tests images proved plenty sharp and vibrant enough to happily keep kids entertained watching video, reading books or playing games.

The only slight quibble parents should be aware of is that, although its operating system is based on Android, FireOS is generally limited to Amazon services. As such, you won’t have access to Android’s full range of apps and you’ll need an Amazon Prime subscription to make the most of the tablet.

This has been a reason we’ve traditionally awarded middling scores to Amazon’s other Fire tablets. However, given the Fire HD 10 Kids’ focus, our reviewer found these limitations to actually be a positive. Advanced parental controls make it quick and easy to filter the content your kids can access, restrict or block in-app purchases, and set limits on how much screen time they’re allowed each day.

The bundled one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+ also grants access to enough content to keep kids entertained. Reviewing the device we found oodles of videos, games, books and audible books vetted to be safe for use by kids, all available for download and offline use.

Finally, some minor issues to consider. The tablet isn’t terribly fast and it offers only middling battery life. On occasion apps can chug and the device can take a few seconds to recognise commands. This isn’t a significant issue, but it did cause our test subject toddler to occasionally hit the screen in frustration when the pauses occurred. We also found the tablet’s battery could run out after just four hours of video playback. If you want to use the Fire HD 10 Kids to keep your child entertained on a long car journey then you’ll definitely want to invest in a battery pack to keep it running.

Reviewer: David Ludlow
Full review: Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids Review

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite

Best cheap Android tablet

Trusted Score

Pros

• Super-affordable
• Sleek, lightweight design
• Great interface and app support

Cons

• Poor display quality when streaming video
• Battery life drains quickly
• No S Pen support

If you’re on a fairly tight budget but would still like to get yourself a capable tablet that can handle a few tasks here and there, then we’d choose the Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite as the best of the bunch.

Don’t expect to get lightning-speed performance, marathon battery life, or picture-perfect display resolution at this price point, naturally, but the A7 Lite does at least offer plenty of app support and has a bright screen that’s fine for internet browsing and editing documents.

The design is simple and lightweight too at just 366g, with a gunmetal finish that does a great job of not picking up too many fingerprints. The display, which isn’t too small at 8.7-inches, is spacious enough to access your favourite apps on even if it doesn’t quite stretch to multi-tasking.

The cameras are not exceptional but do a decent enough job for video calling, while the performance is generally adequate but did result in longer loading times than normal. If you’re using less intensive tasks, you could expect to get a day’s battery life from the Tab A7 Lite.

The Nubia Pad 3D isn’t for everyone, but if you’re one of the few people that love the idea of 3D content (yes, like that odd era with 3D TVs in the early 2010s) then the glasses-free 3D experience of the Nubia Pad 3D could be tempting.

The large 12.4-inch 3D lightfield display is capable of displaying fairly convincing glasses-free 3D content, and it uses head tracking to work out where your head is at any given moment. The viewing angles are relatively narrow so you’ll have to find that sweet spot, but if you do, the effect can be impressively convincing.

However, it’s not a uniform experience with some 3D content looking a little odd and that’s especially true when upscaling 2D content to 3D. The 3D images taken using the dual cameras take great 3D imagery, but given that anyone else needs a 3D tablet to view them properly, it’s likely something that only you will appreciate it.

While that’s cool, it’s essentially the only real reason to get the Nubia Pad 3D. The 3D element means that it’s much bigger and heavier than practically any other tablet around at 8.4mm thick and 781g. That’s much more than the iPad Pro 12.9’s 6.4mm and 682g, which is generally perceived as being big and bulky.

It’s also rather underpowered sporting the older Snapdragon 888 chipset, especially when you consider that it’ll retail at around $1,099 – firmly in iPad Pro and Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra territory.

So, yes, while it’ll do an admirable job at providing 3D content without the need for glasses, it’s pretty much the only reason to go for the Nubia Pad 3D. Everyone else will be better off with one of the other options mentioned above.

Reviewer: Jon Mundy
Full review: Nubia Pad 3D review