If you're in the market for a tablet, you may find the choice overwhelming. There are so many models on the market, with a variety of screen sizes, operating systems and prices, that it can be hard to know where to begin. We're here to help.
In this article we bring you all our favourite tablets, from compact 7in models to flagship 10in slates with amazing UltraHD screens. Whether you're after Android, Apple or Windows, and whatever your budget, there's a tablet here for you.
To help you choose, check out our handy buying guide on page two. This will help narrow down your choice by setting out what you need to look for in a tablet, from screen size and quality, to performance and battery life, to the advantages and disadvantages of the various operating systems.
There's a huge choice of tablets available, all running different operating systems and available in a wide variety of sizes and prices. It's great to have this kind of choice, but trying to work out which is the best to buy can be tricky. We're here to help. In this article we've listed all our favourite tablets, all of which are still available to buy. With everything from budget 7in bargains to the latest flagship models, you'll definitely be able to find the model you want.
We've split this article into two parts - handheld tablets (7in to 9in) and full-size (10in) - to make it easier for you to find out what you're after. We keep this article up to date with the latest bargains, so check back soon if you haven't bought anything recently. Don't forget to check out all our latest tablet reviews.
To make this article easier to navigate, below are all the 7-to-9in tablets, page two has the best tablets around 10in, and page three is a guide to buying a tablet, so you can read that first to find out which features are most important to you before you get stuck into reading about individual models. There's a navigation menu at the top and bottom of each page, so you can quickly jump to the section you're interested in.
Best tablets - 7in to 9in
These are the easiest to use one-handed. They tend to be more comfortable to hold portrait-style, as you would with a Kindle eBook reader. This makes them great for using on public transport or other places where space is at a premium. They also tend to be a little cheaper than their bigger brothers. The trade-off is that their screens tend to be slightly harder to read than those of bigger models due to their smaller size, even when they have the same resolutions. Although these tablets used to be less powerful than larger models, that is now rarely the case.
Google Nexus 9
When we first reviewed the Nexus 9, we were blown away by its performance but slightly disappointed by the flex in the tablet's plastic back. Since then the tablet has had some build quality tweaks, and is now up there with the competition from Apple and Samsung.
The latest Google-branded tablet is manufactured by HTC, and is a stylish design with a new, squarer 4:3 aspect ratio display, which makes it look more like an iPad than a typical 16:9 (widescreen) Android device. The screen also has the same 2,048x1,536 resolution as the current iPads. Whether you like the new aspect ratio is really a matter of personal preference; we find the squarer screen is a more natural fit when you're using the tablet in portrait mode, but you'll have larger black bars top and bottom when watching a film than on a widescreen tablet. Image quality is generally excellent, with a very high maximum brightness and impressive contrast ratio.
Inside is a brand-new 64-bit processor. The is the first 64-bit model we've seen in an Android device, and it should help speed up complex tasks in the future. Like all Nexus tablets, the 9 will get the latest version of Android before any other tablets: the current Android 5 version has battery life enhancements over Android 4.4, and these seemed to help in our tests, where the Nexus 9 lasted for 16 hours: three and a half hours more than the iPad Air 2.
We love the Nexus 9's unadulterated version of Android 5, and the hardware is also pretty good, even beating the iPad in certain aspects. It's our favourite premium compact Android tablet.
Price when reviewed: £319 For the latest prices and full information see our full Nexus 9 review
Processor: Dual-core 2.3GHz 64-bit Nvidia Tegra K1 Denver, Screen size: 8.9in, Screen resolution: 2,048x1,536, Rear camera: 8 megapixels, Storage: 16GB, Wireless data: 4G (optional), Size: 154x228x7.9mm, Weight: 425g, Operating system: Android 5.0
Tesco Hudl 2
Tesco's first attempt at an Android tablet, the original Hudl, got the price right, but performance, design and screen were merely average. With the Hudl 2, the supermarket giant has addressed these complaints and produced a fantastic tablet that's incredible value and is far ahead of anything else for the price. It was £129 when we reviewed it, but has since dropped to just £99, so is even better value.
The Hudl 2's 8in screen gives the tablet a considerable screen space boost over its predescessor, but the tablet is still nice and compact and feels well made. The display's Full HD resolution is a welcome improvement over the original tablet, and even if the display can't quite match the Nexus 7's screen for quality, it's still excellent for the price. Intel's Bay Trail Atom processor might mean battery life is a little on the low side, but it is perfectly capable of running Android apps and playing games.
Tesco hasn't overly customised Android 4.4 Kitkat, either, meaning you aren't bombarded with Clubcard offers, web shortcuts or invitations to buy your shopping digitally, although these are of course all available as homescreen widgets, which may appeal to frequent Tesco shoppers. For less than £100, the Hudl 2 is a fantastic deal, and if you're savvy with your Tesco Clubcard points you can bring that price down even further - making it the best budget tablet around.
Price when reviewed: £129. For the latest prices and full information see our full Tesco Hudl 2 review
Processor: Quad-core 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z3735D, Screen size: 8.3in, Screen resolution: 1,920x1,200, Rear camera: 5 megapixels, Storage: 16GB, Wireless data: None, Size: 224x9x128mm, Weight: 410g, Operating system: Android 4.4.2
Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact
Until the Sony Xperia Z4 arrived (see page 2) the 8in Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact was Sony's premium tablet. It's come down in price since launch and is now only £279, which is great value for such an impressive slate.
The tablet is thin and impressively light. 6.4mm thick makes it one of the slimmest tablets available, and its 270g weight (a full 140g less than the Tesco Hudl 2), means you barely notice it when you pick it up. The tablet is beautifully made with an aluminium frame, with textured soft plastic front and rear that make the tablet pleasant to hold. The Z3 Tablet Compact is water- and dust-resistant, too.
The tablet has a display resolution of 1,920x1,200 pixels, and a high pixel density of 275ppi, so is super-sharp. Colour accuracy of 98.2% is also a seriously impressive result; this is the best-quality display we've seen on a compact tablet.
We have no complaints about the Z3 Tablet Compact's performance from its Snapdragon 801 processor, with Android 5 running beautifully, and the tablet managed a colossal 16h 51m in our video playback battery life test. Now it's come down in price it's excellent value, so if you want a premium compact tablet the Z3 is the model to buy.
Price when reviewed: £329. For the latest prices and full information see our Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact review.
Processor: Quad-core 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801, Screen size: 8in, Screen resolution: 1,920x1,200, Rear camera: 8.1 megapixels, Storage: 16GB, Wireless data: 4G +£100, Size: 213.3x6.4x123.6mm, Weight: 270g, Operating system: Android 4.4
Asus MeMO Pad 7 ME572C
The Asus MeMO Pad 7 has a new "clutch bag" design, but this excellent all-round compact tablet should appeal to all genders. It feels very well built, and its rubberised sides and back give you plenty of grip.
This latest MeMO Pad model has an updated display, and its 1,920x1,200 resolution leads to a high pixel density of 323 pixels per inch - enough for super-sharp text and icons. It's a highly colour-accurate screen with a high contrast ratio, and is bright enough to see easily outdoors.
It's also a very powerful tablet, thanks to its quad-core Intel Atom Z3560 processor running at 1.83GHz. We saw huge scores in our web browsing and 3D benchmarks, so this tablet should be able to handle anything you throw at it.
All this power doesn't take its toll on battery life, either; the tablet lasted 12h 7m in our video playback battery life test, which is almost twice as long as the Tesco Hudl 2 managed. It may be £50 more than the Hudl 2, but the latest Asus MeMO Pad has a more colour-accurate screen and better battery life, so the extra money brings you some distinct advantages.
Processor: Quad-core 1.8GHz Intel Atom Z3560 , Screen size: 7in, Screen resolution: 1,920x1,200, Rear camera: 5 megapixels, Storage: 16GB, Wireless data: None, Size: 114x200x8.3mm, Weight: 269g, Operating system: Android 5.0
Price when reviewed: £150. For the latest prices and full information see our Asus MeMO Pad 7 ME572C review
Best tablets - 10in
The 10in tablet category is for the original 'full-sized' tablets, such as the iPad. Screen sizes can be slightly bigger or slightly smaller than the category name, but these are all devices with comparatively large displays. These are great for watching films and viewing photos, while many people find browsing the web on the more comfortable than with one of the handheld tablets. The downside with these models is that they're larger and more cumbersome to transport (although still lighter than any laptop) and they tend to be more expensive than their smaller cousins.
Microsoft Surface 3
The Surface 3 is the Windows tablet to buy. Unlike previous Surface models, it runs the full version of Windows 8.1, not the limited RT version, so you have no restrictions on the applications you can install.
It's also beautifully made. The tablet has a silver magnesium chassis, and is just 8.7mm thick and a featherweight 622g. It's not the slimmest tablet there is, but any thinner and Microsoft wouldn't have been able to fit a full-size USB3 port on the side.
The USB3 port is useful if you want to use a normal keyboard and mouse instead of spending £110 on a Surface Type Cover. We were fans of the Type Cover, though, which gives you two different typing angles and plenty of tactile feedback from the keys. The Surface also has a superb screen, with a higher colour accuracy than we've seen on any non-AMOLED tablet or any laptop, covering 97.2% of the sRGB colour gamut.
You can also spend another £45 on the pressure-sensitive Surface Pen, which is fantastic for taking notes or creating works of art. The Surface 3 makes a great tablet and, with the Surface Type Cover keyboard, an impressive tablet/laptop hybrid - it's not cheap, but it's the best of both worlds.
Processor: Quad-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom X7-Z8700, Screen size: 10.8in, Screen resolution: 1,920x1,280, Rear camera: 8 megapixels, Storage: 128GB, Wireless data: 4G, Size: 187x267x8.7mm, Weight: 622g, Operating system: Windows 8.1 (64-bit)
Price when reviewed: £499. For the latest prices and full information see our Microsoft Surface 3 review
Apple iPad Air 2
Compared to the previous model, the iPad Air 2 is thinner, lighter and dramatically more powerful.
Apple has managed to shave 1.4mm off the previous model’s thickness. At just 6.1mm, the iPad Air 2 is even 0.8mm thinner than the iPhone 6. Aside from depth, the Air 2 has the same dimensions as its predecessor, but its slim body make it a lot more comfortable to hold. Weight, too, has been shed, with the iPad Air 2 slimming to a svelte 437g, down from 469g.
The latest tablet has the TouchID fingerprint reader on the front of the tablet. This works in exactly the same way as it does on the iPhone, unlocking your device with the simple tap of a finger. TouchID has also been opened up to app developers, so you can access password-protected data securely and easily. There’s a relatively small list of supported apps at the moment, but that’s bound to increase rapidly.
The iPad 2's Retina screen has a pixel density of 264ppi. Colour accuracy was pretty much the same as with the iPad Air, with the tablet able to produce a high 90.1% of the sRGB colour gamut. Brightness of 390cd/m2 makes the iPad remaining one of the brightest tablets that we’ve tested.
The iPad Air 2 has a new A8X chip, designed specifically for the tablet. The 64-bit A8X adds in an extra processor core for a total of three, and the clock speed has gone from 1.4GHz to 1.5GHz. Finally, RAM has been increased from 1GB to 2GB; this is a seriously fast tablet that runs Apple iOS 8 beautifully.
The iPad Air 2 feels like a true evolution of the Air, with the power, screen size and resolution to make it brilliant at everything from gaming to video editing. If you're set on an iOS device, it's a great buy, but it has some serious competition from premium Android models such as the Google Nexus 9 (see above) and Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet (below).
Processor: Tri-core 1.5GHz Apple A8X, Screen size: 9.7in, Screen resolution: 2,048x1,536, Rear camera: 8 megapixels, Storage: 16GB, Wireless data: 4G +£110, Size: 240x169.5x6.1mm, Weight: 437g, Operating system: iOS 8.1
Price when reviewed: £399. For the latest prices and full information see our full iPad Air 2 review
Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet
The Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet is expensive, but it's the best 10in Android tablet we've seen yet. It's beautifully made, slim, light and waterproof, and its screen is just incredible.
With a huge 2,560x1,600 resolution, the screen's 299 pixel-per-inch pixel density makes this tablet's display even sharper than that of the iPad Air 2. We measured the screen's sRGB colour coverage at 98.3%, which is the best we've ever seen from an LCD display. It's also incredibly bright, which helps colours pop out.
The tablet's octa-core 2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor runs Android 5 beautifully, and only the iPad Air 2 comes close for 3D performance. However, probably the most amazing thing about the tablet is its battery life. During our continuous video playback best, we saw an amazing 19h 48m before the battery died.
Having all this battery life is important, as the Z4 Tablet is designed for working on the move. It comes with its own Bluetooth keyboard dock, and Sony has tweaked Android to make the tablet's operating system more laptop-like with the keyboard attached. If you're after a premium Android slate, there's nothing to beat the Xperia Z4 Tablet.
Processor: Octa-core 2.0GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, Screen size: 10.1in, Screen resolution: 2,560x1,600, Rear camera: 8.1 megapixels, Storage: 32GB, Wireless data: 3G, 4G (optional), Size: 167x254x6.1mm, Weight: 389g, Operating system: Android 5.0
Price when reviewed: £499. For the latest prices and full information see our full Xperia Z4 Tablet review
Tablet buying guide
The tablet market has reached a degree of maturity where there's a model to suit almost every need and budget. As with most things in life, what you get depends on how much you spend, but recent developments mean you don't have to compromise too much even if your budget is limited.
While there’s plenty of competition among fancy high-end tablets, the lower end of the tablet market has seen massive improvements in quality and performance; so much so that you can now buy an acceptable tablet for as little as £80 provided you temper your expectations, or as little as £99 with few compromises.
Screen quality
As it’s your main point of interaction with the device, a tablet’s screen quality is vital. There are several factors that determine how good a screen is, and one of the most important of these is its resolution.
Some less-expensive tablets used to come with 1,280x800-resolution displays, but this is becoming increasingly rare. Most tablets now, even relatively inexpensive ones, have 1,920x1,200 panels, and some even go as high as 2,560x1,600, which makes for a gorgeously crisp display.
The more pixels there are, typically the sharper the text, making reading eBooks and browsing the web a generally more pleasant experience. It’s also important to consider the pixel density of a screen. This refers to the resolution relative to the display size, and is measured in pixels per inch (ppi). A screen with lots of pixels packed into a small space will have a high pixel density, so making everything look sharper.
Higher-resolution screens will also make browsing web pages more enjoyable, as they require less scrolling to see all the content. We find a 1,920x1,080 display or larger is best for surfing the web. You should also take screen aspect ratio into account. Which aspect ratio is best is debatable, but some say a squarer, 4:3 ratio makes a tablet more comfortable to use in portrait mode when reading and surfing the web. If you plan on watching lots of films, a 16:9 or 16:10 ratio will mean you can fit more of a widescreen film on your display.
We also test display quality using our colour calibrator. We look at black levels, contrast ratio and colour accuracy. The last test shows how effectively the display is able to produce the sRGB colour gamut, and gives an idea of overall colour accuracy; screens that don’t score well in this test are often biased towards a single colour, leading to colour casts. Although our scientific tests are a good measurement, subjective tests are just as important, and we also discuss how good each screen looks to the naked eye when displaying text and photos.
You’re most likely to interact with a tablet’s screen directly, but sometimes you’ll want to use a larger display, such as your television or a projector screen, for watching films or viewing presentations. Devices such as the Google Chromecast HDMI dongle let you mirror your display on a larger screen, and some tablets have a Micro HDMI connection that allows you to connect a tablet directly to a TV to view your content.
Tablet performance
Depending on what processor a tablet is equipped with, performance can vary widely. A fast processor will improve your overall experience in everything from navigating the operating system to how quickly apps open and how smoothly they run. Browsing performance is also a critical part of how nice a tablet is to use, so as part of our suite of tests we use the Browsermark benchmark, which reveals how a tablet will cope with rendering complicated web pages.
We also test general performance, including how well a tablet’s processor and storage performs, using the Basemark OS II benchmark, and check graphics performance with Basemark X. We also run the demanding cross-platform Hearthstone game to see how a tablet copes with current games.
For the tablets running Windows 8.1 we also run our standard Windows application benchmarks to see how well they cope with standard Windows applications and tasks.
Operating systems
There are three main operating systems available for tablets: Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows 8.1. Each of these will provide the basic tablet requirements such as web browsing, email and media playback, but each OS differs in terms of how easy it is to use and the programs available through its app store.
Apple’s iOS has remained relatively consistent throughout its many versions, with each update bringing refinement and improvements. The latest version, iOS 8.3, wasn’t a massive change from the previous version in terms of design. Although iOS 7 was a visual overhaul, the changes in iOS 8.3 have been much more subtle. There have been refinements to longstanding iOS functions, such as Spotlight now searching external sources as well as providing a way to easily find local apps or contacts on your tablet. Notifications have also been dramatically improved, allowing you to interact with them directly without having to open the app. Continuity is another big feature, allowing far greater interactivity between your iOS devices, so you can pick up calls from your iPhone on your iPad if they’re connected to the same home network, for example.
While with iPads you’re safe in the knowledge that you’ll receive iOS updates for your device for at least a few years, you’re never as sure with Android. Android tablets come with various versions of the operating system. Nowadays that typically means either 4.4 KitKat or 5 Lollipop. Lollipop is the latest version, and it’s arriving on more and more tablets. However, there’s no guarantee that Lollipop will be present on even current tablets, so you may have to make do with the (still very competent) Android 4.4 KitKat.
With Windows 8.1 on tablets, you get the full Windows experience you might already be familiar with from your laptop or desktop PC. This means there’s not a lot of need to acclimatise to the operating system. It’s not a brilliant OS for tablets: the touchscreen-optimised apps are fine, but traditional Windows software can be tricky to use with your finger, so you might find yourself needing a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.
Access to full Windows software does, however, mean a Windows 8.1 tablet could replace your laptop for many tasks, and bear in mind that you’ll get a free update to Windows 10 when it arrives, which is shaping up to be a much better tablet OS. The Windows tablets we’ve reviewed are available with specially designed detachable keyboards, so can be classed as laptop/tablet hybrids.
Apps
An operating system is only as strong as its app ecosystem. Apple’s iOS still leads the way in terms of app availability, with many developers prioritising the platform, but Android has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years. One of Android’s strengths is the integration of Google’s services, such as Drive, Gmail and Google Maps, but these apps are also available on iOS. Plenty of apps are still only on iOS, and iOS certainly has the best selection of games and creative software, but the gap is narrowing.
Microsoft’s Windows Store isn’t as well stocked, especially when it comes to games. It’s also missing some useful apps, such as Google’s official YouTube and Drive apps.
Storage
Your tablet can quickly fill up if you download lots of apps (especially games) or store lots of media, so it’s important to pick a tablet with enough storage space. We’ll tell you what integrated storage options are available. Some tablets let you expand the internal storage using a microSD card, so you can add extra storage incredibly cheaply. However, bear in mind that not all apps and games can be installed to an SD card.
Battery life
It’s no good carrying a tablet around all day if its battery is constantly running out, so you’ll want it to last at least eight hours to have all-day staying power. We test each tablet’s battery by setting the screen to half brightness, turning on airplane mode and looping a video until the battery dies to give you an idea of how long it will last before you’re scrambling for a power socket.
