Best Tablets for $300 or Less
These models from Amazon, Lenovo, and Samsung are cheaper than a brand-new iPad—and may have everything you want
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Tablets can be expensive—you can walk into an Apple Store and spend over $2,500 on a top-end iPad. But that’s overkill for almost all of us, in performance as well as price. If you’re looking for a tablet to browse the web, watch movies, and make Zoom calls, there are plenty of models that do a fine job for under $300.
Companies including Amazon, Lenovo, and Samsung make bargain-priced tablets that rival more expensive models in performance. For instance, the Amazon 8-inch tablet listed below scores well in CR testing and costs $100. We’ve picked some models that stand out for their value, including smaller 8-inch tablets as well as 10-inch options.
CR members have access to our full tablet ratings, which provide a comprehensive understanding of how well they perform. All of the tablets we test are graded on almost 240 data points on various criteria like display, versatility, convenience, and more. The best tablets for $300 or less offer a compelling balance between price and performance for all but the most demanding uses.
For more information on tablets, see CR’s tablets buying guide.
The Amazon Fire HD 8 might not impress your most tech-snobby friends, but if you’re okay with some relatively minor shortcomings, this $100 device is an absolute steal. The display is admirably good for the price, and if you’re already on the hook for a $139-per-year Amazon Prime subscription, the tablet will provide you with easy access to lots of content, including movies, music, and books.
The 8-inch display is bright, and it’s legible even under intense light. The 16 gigabytes of storage might be a little tight if you carry around a lot of photos and videos, but you can fix that by popping a memory card into the microSD card slot. The Fire HD 8 clocked almost 16 hours of battery life in our web-browsing tests and just over 15 hours in our video-viewing tests.
But there is one downside. This model uses a customized version of the Android operating system known as Fire OS. That means you don’t get access to apps such as Gmail and YouTube via the Google Play store. Instead, you have to settle for the generic alternatives offered in Amazon’s app store—or just access those services in a web browser.
The 2021 Fire HD 10 is the highest-scoring Amazon tablet in our ratings. It features a bright and crisp 10-inch screen that makes it ideal if you’re looking for a device to watch movies or read books. Additionally, the very bright screen and its reduced glare will be easy to view when used outdoors or in bright rooms. CR testers found the colors to be slightly undersaturated, but that seems like a small flaw in a tablet priced this low.
A longer battery life is important for mobility, whether you’re using it while outside, while traveling, or at work. While browsing the web, the tablet lasted 14.8 hours in CR testing, and while playing back movies stored on the device, it lasted 15.7 hours, longer than most other tested tablets. After partly charging a drained battery for 30 minutes, the tablet lasted 2.4 hours in CR testing.
This 10.4-inch tablet impresses our testers with its ease of use and versatility. Priced at around $230, it’s one of the best values in our ratings. It’s lightweight and has a generous battery life of 10.9 hours in our web-browsing test and 11.1 hours in our video playback test. That’s more than enough to get you through the day or a family road trip.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 has a bright, crisp display, and it’s effective at reducing glare, which means it can be a better choice than others when used outdoors or in bright rooms. It handles everyday tasks such as scrolling through apps and emails with ease. The model has 64 gigabytes of storage, which is just enough if you plan to download videos for offline viewing. If you need more space, you can expand the storage with a microSD card.
This tablet gives you access to the large ecosystem of apps and services in the Google Play store.
Spend a bit more for this large 10.9-inch tablet and you’ll bring home a device that gives you access to all the apps in the Google Play store and comes with a generous 128 gigabytes of built-in storage space that you can easily expand with the microSD card slot.
It earns great scores for performance, its display gets a solid rating, and it runs for 13.5 hours in our web-browsing test and 12.1 hours in our video battery life test. Additionally, the Lenovo Yoga Tab has very good display quality. Its reduced glare makes it easy to view when used outdoors or in bright rooms, and its wide viewing angle makes it easier for multiple people to watch a movie together.
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