Best Android tablet 2023

It’s been a while since Xiaomi offered up a slate on the global stage but its return to the tablet space – in the form of the Xiaomi Pad 5 – is pleasingly compelling.

The tablet boasts a thin design that’s fronted by a gorgeous 2.5K 120Hz display and comes backed up by great stereo speakers and solid performance to boot.

Just as with its phones, Xiaomi’s tablet-optimised take on its MIUI user experience won’t suit everyone but it’s wholly usable, and while the added connectivity found on the Chinese models doesn’t make it to most markets internationally, there’s still little else on the Android side of the fence we’d recommend around the Pad 5’s asking price.

If you’ve got the cash to splash, the regular Galaxy Tab S8 is the best premium Android tablet around, even though you can spend more on the Tab S8+ and Tab S8 Ultra.

This model has the best balance of price, performance, design and features. For starters, you get a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 along with lots of memory and storage to serve you well. It’s also a rare example where you get a stylus included in the box.

As well as the kinds of stylish and high-end build you’d expect from Samsung, the firm offers an excellent four years of OS updates so the Tab S8 will keep you going for a long time.

It’s a shame the screen is LCD and not AMOLED at this price and there’s no charger in the box. 5G is also awkward as it’s not available in the States and costs a lot in the UK.

The Galaxy Tab A8 makes a welcome return to Samsung’s tablet range, sporting an attractive design and other standout qualities, including impressive audio chops.

The display and the limited internal storage are its biggest shortcomings, holding it back from being an instant affordable media player recommendation, but it still offers respectable battery life and offers an otherwise balanced all-round experience, especially for the price.

It can also be easily found at lower prices than its already low RRP.

Lenovo Yoga Tabs have often experimented with unusual designs, embodied most obviously by their versatile integrated kickstands.

The Tab 11 might not be the most powerful slate on the block but it delivers a great audiovisual experience, strong battery life and convenient usability, thanks to that signature kickstand; all at a compelling price.

Android on tablets still isn’t brilliant but that’s not an issue unique to the Yoga Tab 11.

Provided you’re not put off by the Tab S8 Ultra’s sheer size or sizeable asking price, it stands as the most capable Android tablet available right now.

On the front, you’ll find an expansive, crisp and colourful 14.6in 120Hz AMOLED display with support for the included S Pen stylus. Performance is top-notch, thanks to the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset and when paired with the dedicated keyboard cover (sold separately) the Tab S8 Ultra is equally at home as a killer multimedia machine or a productivity slate.

Samsung has done well to tailor its user experience to the Tab S8 Ultra’s large display, but Android has its own native quirks that present a few challenges to any tablet running on Google’s mobile OS.

Excellent budget tablets are hard to come by, but Oppo has done a great job of offering something well worth consideration with its first Western tablet. 

The Pad Air has a stylish and svelte all-metal design with quad speakers and its IPS display is better than the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8. It also has strong battery life making it a reliable device for various tasks. 

Where it falls behind its main rival is in the performance department where it’s mediocre and the Pad Air could also do with features like a fingerprint scanner to make it more attractive. 

It’s taken OnePlus a long time to launch a tablet but the firm’s first effort is a solid one and particularly impressive in some areas.

The display is one of the best features with a market-leading 144Hz refresh rate and the speakers are incredible. Combining these with long battery life means the OnePus Pad is an excellent choice for all kinds of entertainment in a premium and affordable package.

It’s not perfect though, with only one storage option, no fingerprint scanner and the need to spend extra if you want the official fast charger.

If the Yoga Tab 11 is too small for your needs, Lenovo also released a 13in model, which boasts superior performance and even better audio output from its quad-speaker setup.

It shares in the Tab 11’s standout design, complete with an integrated kickstand, although build quality isn’t quite as polished as we’d like and we would have loved an OLED panel in place of the LCD that features.

A bigger form factor also means a larger battery, helping with its strengths as a media player, while its ability to function as a second screen is a neat party trick too.

Like the 11in model, it falls foul of Android’s inflexibility on tablets and it’s more expensive than its hardware would suggest, which might be enough to put some off.

Both a big tablet for kids and a tablet ideal for bigger kids, this is the first time Amazon has taken one of its child-centric slates ‘Pro’.

The HD 10 Kids Pro runs on the same underlying hardware as its general-purpose alter ego but comes with a protective case, one year’s access to Kids+ (which includes entertainment, apps, books etc.) and a two-year warranty that includes a no-questions-asked replacement if your little ones manage to decommission the slate the first time around.

The included case is a little more grown-up looking than the conventional Kids bumper, as is the UI that shows up on-screen. The user experience is closer to that of stock FireOS but makes for easy activity monitoring and leaves out access to certain age-gated content or apps (like Netflix), which have to be approved by a parent before being installed.

It’s a shame the kid-friendly version of Alexa isn’t supported – even though the tablet itself does facilitate such functionality – and certain kid-suitable Prime movies just don’t make an appearance without reason.

For the money, there’s little else in the stock-Android space we’d recommend, tablet-wise.

Nokia’s return to the tablet market looks to fill a space that’s littered with poor quality unknown brands by offering the T20 up with many of the sensibilities that make its budget smartphones so appealing.

A tasteful design, nice 2K display and great battery life are the main highlights, while cameras and general performance are less capable than we’d hoped (although not entirely surprising, considering the T20’s affordable nature).