Best Tablets of 2022
CR's testers weigh in on the latest models from Amazon, Apple, and Samsung
When you shop through retailer links on our site, we may earn affiliate commissions. 100% of the fees we collect are used to support our nonprofit mission. Learn more.
People buy tablets for very different reasons.
In our tablet ratings, youāll find devices that cost less than $100 that are great for lightweight ātablet-yā tasks like browsing the web, watching videos, and reading e-books.
Youāll also find models that cost 10 times as much that are so powerful they can practically replace your laptop. Of course, not everyone needs a super-powerful tablet, and most people donāt need to spend hundreds of dollars to get one theyāll enjoy.
Best Amazon Tablet
If youāre looking to add another screen to the house for simple tasks, the 10-inch Amazon Fire HD 10 is hard to beat.
Itās more than powerful enough to stream Netflix or Disney+, play simple games like Minecraft, and scroll through social media. It weighs 1 pound and has a battery that lasts 16.5 hours in our web browsing tests. It has 32GB of built-in storage, which isnāt a lot, but the inclusion of a microSD card slot means you can add more storage as needed. The display should be fine for casual use.
Thereās also a bonus for families: The tablet supports robust parental controls that allow you to set limits on when your child can use the device and which types of apps are accessible for social networking and web browsing.
Amazon fire tablets do come with a trade-off, though. The Fire HD 10 uses the Amazon app store instead of the Google Play store. This means that a number of familiar Android apps (like the official Gmail app) arenāt available, so youāll have to turn to alternatives. But we donāt think it will be a big hurdle for most people.
Best iPad for Most People
At $300, this Apple iPad (64GB) 2021āwhich Apple refers to simply as the āiPadāāis one of the better values in consumer electronics, especially if youāre already firmly inside the Apple ecosystem.
The 10.2-inch display is among the best in our ratings and gets bright enough to be legible in direct sunlight. Thatās handy for summertime reading at the beach or in the backyard. The battery lasts 11.3 to 14.5 hours depending on how you use it, according to our tests. Watching high-res video can be more taxing on the battery, while browsing the web isnāt as demanding.
The iPad also supports Appleās Smart Keyboard cover, a physical keyboard that magnetically clips onto the tablet. Unlike a Bluetooth keyboard, this one doesnāt require charging or pairing, which comes in handy when you frequently use your iPad for emailing and word-processing tasks.
Best Android Tablet
You can spend more for a faster tablet with an even more beautiful screen, but the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite should be a perfect fit for a majority of people. It gets above-average ratings for performance and display quality, and the best part may be the price. Retailing for around $330 (the same as the entry-level iPad), the S6 Lite may be the best value for an Android tablet right now.
The S6 Lite has a 10.4-inch screen, which is just north of medium-sized without verging into the unwieldy territory of bigger models. It lasts 12.2 hours in our web-browsing battery test and comes with 128GB of built-in storage.
If you need additional storage, you can throw in a microSD card. For a bit more money, you could instead pick up the regular Galaxy Tab S6, which scores a little higher for performance but sacrifices some battery life in exchange.
Best Tablet for Pro Use
Thereās no denying it: The Apple iPad Pro (12.9-inch) is at the pinnacle of what a tablet can be. Itās incredibly powerful. But the bleeding edge of performance and design doesnāt come cheap. Prices start at $1,100, and you can add $200 to that if you want the model with built-in 5G wireless networking.
The generous 12.9-inch display features new Mini LED technology that can produce much better black levels than traditional LCD screens. (No other tablet uses Mini LED, though the tech is found in some TVs and laptops.) Our testers find the display to have very accurate colors, good contrast levels, and very wide viewing angles, meaning the picture is vibrant and sharp even when seen from an angle. Thatās helpful if a couple of people are watching a movie together.
The performance is very strong, as you might expect from a tablet aimed at professional users and powered by Appleās M1 processor. Editing video, playing demanding games, writing codeāthatās all easily possible here.
Note that Apple also makes an 11-inch version of the iPad Pro that starts at $800, but it doesnāt use Mini LED tech. Appleās iPad Air, which has a 10.9-inch display, slots in between the entry-level iPad and the Pro in terms of features and performance, and starts at $600.
Best Tablet for Kids
The first thing youāll notice about the Amazon Fire Kids Edition is the robust, cheerfully colored rubber case. That should make it tough enough for a fall, but for those with kids skilled in the art of destruction, Amazon has an equally powerful warranty. Just send it back to Amazon if it breaks in the first two years and Amazon gives you another. Thereās no limit within that two years on how many replacements you can get. Note that the coverage doesnāt protect against loss or theft. Youāll also get the great parental controls that come with Amazonās other tablet.
This is basically just an Amazon Fire 7. You can get a regular one for cheaper, but the warranty may be worth the extra $50 alone. This tablet also comes with a one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+, which gives you and your kids access to thousands of kid-friendly movies, TV shows, books, and apps. Better yet, Amazonās robust parental controls allow you to create different profiles for different kids, setting hard limits on what each can look at, and when and how long the tablet can be used.
Though we havenāt tested other Kids Edition models, Amazon also sells Fire 8 HD and Fire 10 versions with rubber bumpers, the two-year worry-free guarantee, and the free year of Kids+.