The 8 best tablets of 2026: I compared iPads, the Microsoft Surface Pro, and Amazon Fire

Read our full review of the iPad Air (M3).

If you're willing to spend a little extra on an iPad, swing for the iPad Air which got the M3 chip upgrade in 2025. I you plan to do any work on your tablet, then upgrade to the Air as it has the same chip you'll find in MacBooks. Thanks to iPadOS 26 and Liquid Glass, you can also multitask like never before with the iPad.

We also think the Apple iPad Air is the best tablet for creatives and artists. Content creators can get plenty done on the go with the featherlight and ferocious Apple iPad Air, and it works well as a drawing tablet.

Three Mashable reviewers have tested the newest iPad Air, and we all agree: It rules. With double the RAM of its predecessors, the seventh generation of the Air is faster and sleeker than ever before. If you just want to use your iPad for light gaming and streaming, opt for the base iPad.

Our biggest complaint with the iPad Air is that like the Microsoft Surface Pro line, you have to pay extra for the Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard. On the plus side, the new Magic Keyboard is much improved.

The iPad Air's 11-inch Liquid Retina display features True Tone, P3 wide color, and ultralow reflectivity, so all your work, art, and entertainment will come through with vivid visuals. We do wish it offered better cameras, as it matches the base iPad's 12MP front and rear cameras.

We all have different priorities for using a tablet. Some people may want it for watching shows on the go while others might want somewhere to play games. While this tablet is designed specifically for gaming, it's actually well-equipped for everyone, i've found. Its small size makes it great for travel, but its RAM makes it suitable for getting work done.

The Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 3 is enough to convert an iPad user to Android. It's a perfect little tablet with an 8.8-inch screen, which doesn't feel too big while swiping at the screen when you're gaming. Plus, at 0.77 pounds, you can hold it for multiple hours without strain.

The visuals are really impressive, too. The 2.5K screen is brilliant, with smooth graphics. While playing rounds of Subway Surfer, the colors were vibrant and didn't stutter — a much more enjoyable experience than playing on a smartphone.

It's also great for streaming. I love to watch shows while cooking dinner, and thanks to this tablet's compact size, it tucked away nicely on my kitchen counter. Plus, it has really clear and loud sound, without any tinny audio that tablets can sometimes suffer.

It's the little things that count, too. The Legion Tab Gen 3 has two USB-C ports, one each on the long and short sides of the device, a brilliant design choice for when you need to charge your device while in use.

It's more expensive than the base iPad model and the iPad Mini, but it earns its price tag as it comes with more base storage and lots of memory; it has 12GB RAM, unheard of for most tablets.

If you're an Android user who's seeking out a tablet that is well-equipped to handle all the tasks of a laptop, let us point you in the direction of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra. It has a beautiful display and syncs automatically with Google accounts. Plus, it can handle multiple apps at a time, allowing you to split the screen between apps. It even comes with a stylus for illustration or note-taking.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is one of the largest tablets out there, with a 14.6-inch screen. The screen size admittedly feels overkill, making it difficult to use when you're just trying to watch a show or browse the internet. But on the upside, with that giant screen, you can use multiple apps at once, allowing you to watch and play games at the same time. However, reading on the S11 Ultra is difficult, simply because the device is just so oversized that it's hard to hold, and there's just too much screen size unless you shrink the window.

But it's built for much more than reading. It starts with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, but goes up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. The S11 Ultra tablet has a MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ processor and a Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 8,797. That makes it not quite as powerful as Apple's iPad Pro or Air, but the most powerful Android tablet we've tested. Not to mention it scores higher than the standard iPad's Geekbench 6 score.

Its battery life is extremely impressive. When conducting a battery rundown test, it lasted 16 hours and 6 minutes, potentially allowing you to work on it for two days before needing a charge.

The stylus comes included with the S11 Ultra, and it's a lightweight pencil with a button to control the settings with a simple click. It writes beautifully and allows for a lot of precision, though some might prefer something with a bit more heft behind it.

If you are going to do work on the device, I recommend getting a keyboard and cover that doubles as a stand. Since the tablet is just so large, it's awkward to hold and type on. The keyboard and stand, however, make it feel like a great laptop while still maintaining the convenience of a tablet.

Read Mashable's full review of the Amazon Fire Max 11.

If you're already in Apple's iOS ecosystem then it probably makes sense to go for an iPad. Using that same logic, if you're already in the Amazon ecosystem with a Fire TV or Echo devices, then it probably makes sense to go for an Amazon Fire tablet.

Fire tablets tend to be cheapest tablets on the market, so they're made for budget-friendly shoppers. That means that you'll have to make a few concessions, but it also means not spending over $300 on a tablet.

Amazon's biggest and most iPad-y tablet to date is the Fire Max 11, and according to Mashable contributor SaVanna Shoemaker, it's "the bougie-on-a-budget tablet we’ve been waiting for."

It's got a crisp 11-inch display, 8MP cameras that support 1080p video, and some pep in its step thanks to an upgraded octa-core processor — plus plenty of storage that you can expand by up to a whole terabyte.

For some reason, Amazon is still committed to using its own operating system, which is its biggest downfall. It suffers a similar problem as the Fire TV, with a clunky interface that gets slowed down my Amazon ads. And with the Amazon OS, it has a limited app selection since you're limited to just the Amazon app store and not the broader Google Play store you'd find in other Androids.

All Amazon Fire tablets will suffer this problem, so if that's a dealbreaker, look to a true Android tablet like the Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 3. But if you've got your heart set on a Fire tablet, swing for the Amazon Fire Max 11.

Read our full review of the Microsoft Surface Pro 11.

If you're looking for a tablet that can act as a true laptop alternative, then the Microsoft Surface Pro really is in a class of its own. It is more of a laptop than a tablet — even though the keyboard and stylus are sold separately.

It has supreme multitasking abilities thanks to its 16GB of RAM, but remains portable and lightweight, so if you're shopping for a tablet that you can work on, this is it.

We recently reviewed the new Microsoft Surface Pro 2-in-1, and just like the previous models, we believe it's one of the most impressive 2-in-1s on the market. There's just one big problem: The keyboard and stylus are sold separately. We've been complaining about this for years, and probably will still be complaining five years from now.

As reviewer Adam Doud wrote, "The 13-inch Microsoft Surface Pro 11th Edition is lightweight, powerful, and has really great battery life. It can handle almost any task you can throw at it. It is also easily upgradable — the SSD is placed under a small door in the back that has toolless removal. That's the kind of user friendliness you don't often see in laptops this thin."

If you want to spec out this Microsoft tablet, you can. Upgrade the standard Snapdragon X Plus 10-Core processor to the lightning-fast Snapdragon X Elite 12-Core processor. You can also upgrade the display, RAM, and memory — and that optional OLED display looks phenomenal.

Read our full review of the Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids Pro (previous generation).

A tablet specifically made for kids has two main advantages. A kids tablet will be cheaper with built-in parental controls. Those parental controls are key, giving parents peace of mind that kiddos are watching and reading appropriate content.

The Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids Pro is really the ideal kids tablet, best for the most cautious parents as this tablet has built-in safeguard to protect kid's privacy against spyware or malware.

The newly updated Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids Pro has a faster processor, a better front-facing camera, and a longer battery life than its predecessor, but comes in at $10 cheaper.

Mom and Dad will love that new price tag — and the fact that it still has intuitive parental controls baked right into its operating system, making screen time limits, age filters, limited access to specific apps, and schedules easy to find and customize. (There's also a two-year worry-free guarantee in case of accidental drops or spills.)

Kids won't even notice those guardrails because there's that much content to explore; it includes a year's worth of educational (and ad-free) books, shows, movies, games, and apps via Amazon Kids+.

The Fire HD 10 Kids Pro is designed for ages six to 12, so if you're looking for a tablet for younger kids, the Fire HD 10 Kids tablet is for ages three to five.

Read our full review of the Google Pixel Tablet.

Google's flagship tablet doesn't get a lot of love because to be frank — there are way better Android tablets available. However, it will be right for one specific user and that's smart home enthusiasts. It has an available charging and speaker dock during it into both a smart home display or even a mini TV, perfect for when you're prepping dinner and want to watch a show or ask Google Assistant a question.

The new Google Pixel Tablet is a just-OK tablet on its own. Its real asset is the charging speaker dock that comes with it, which turns it into a smart display or a desktop TV when it's plugged in: "It just…works, especially if you’re like me and don’t want two or three big-ass monitors on your desk," said Mashable tech and games reporter Alex Perry. It's a weird little device, but a useful one nonetheless. You'll find a smooth Google Tensor G2 chip with 8GB of RAM under its hood and 8MP cameras on the front and back of it.

We're in the midst of testing new tablets for this round-up, including the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11. Until we've thoroughly vetted the Tab S11, we've included our previous pick for best Android tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9.

Some people are iPhone people, others are Android people. That's going to be the case for tablets too. If you're looking for an Android tablet, our favorite is the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9. It's a zippy tablet with plenty of power to handle streaming and gaming on the go.

The anti-Apple (and Amazon) community can rock with Samsung's Galaxy Tab S9, a premium and polished Android device that includes a compatible stylus — what a concept. This older Android tablet can be hard to find in stock, so if you're looking for something newer and less specced-out, try the Galaxy Tab S9 FE, which starts at $349.99.

The classic S9 has an 11-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate is the other highlight of its spec sheet, and what makes it especially great for entertainment (along with some built-in speakers that support Dolby Atmos). While it's not nearly as fast as one of the newer iPad's chips, its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip can zip between projects.