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#1 Samsung Galaxy Tab A7
Android fans finally have a true iPad competitor, at a much more affordable price. Retailing for $229 (and on sale often for much less) the Galaxy Tab A7 is a great 10.4-inch tablet for consuming content. Whether you’re browsing the web or streaming movies, you get to focus on your content more, thanks to its super-thin bezels that are thinner than what you get with Apple’s $329 iPad. Oh, and it’s got endurance to spare, lasting 13 hours and 13 minutes on the Tom’s Guide battery test. Oh, and it’s also got an iPad Pro feature that Apple makes you pay a lot for: facial recognition to unlock the device.
And just like Apple’s pricier tablets, the Galaxy Tab A7 charges over USB-C, so you can continue to cut non-reversible microUSB cables out of your life. And while it’s not as fast as the iPad and its screen isn’t as bright, neither is a serious problem at this price. Especially when Samsung gives you true Android with the Google Play app store, and not the watered-down Amazon Fire tablet experience.
#2 Samsung Galaxy Tab S7
Samsung’s honing in on what makes a tablet perfect. The Galaxy Tab S7 has the slim-bezel/all-screen look that you should get for a tablet above $500. It’s also got a bright, vibrant display that’s super crisp. Plus, over 13 hours of battery life. And while DeX mode isn’t exactly perfect yet — app developers need to take it into consideration — a windowed Android app interface makes for decent productivity, which I noticed while watching nature videos in Android while I wrote parts of my review in Google Docs.
Samsung needs to refine its Book Cover Keyboard though, if it wants to truly compete with the iPad Pro. The S7’s keyboard has too-small number keys for many, and the two-piece nature of the Book Cover Keyboard (a $199 extra add on) is frustrating. Also, Android app developers need to give some polish to their apps’ DeX mode version, and when the performance of the Snapdragon 865+ pales in testing compared to the Core i5 and A12Z chips, the Tab S7 isn’t the iPad Pro killer Samsung may want it to be. While many may go for a cheaper Android tablet, it’s great to see Samsung giving Android users a tablet that can go toe-to-toe with the iPad Pro.
#3 Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite
Android tablets don’t have the strongest track record, but on hardware, Samsung’s caught up with the iPad with the Galaxy Tab S6 Lite. This excellent tablet has a ton of battery life — lasting over 12 hours on a single charge — and offers a sleek design with a bright screen and solid sound. This all ties together for a tablet that’s great for consuming content on. The Galaxy Tab S6 Lite’s thin bezels help it stand out from the mid-range tablet crowd even further, making it look more like the iPad Pro than the iPad. Oh, and the S-Pen stylus, which offers low-latency drawing, is included by default, and it snaps to the top of the Tab S6 Lite, so you’re less likely to lose it.
Performance-wise, though, the Tab S6 Lite won’t be blowing people away if they try to multitask. There’s also the matter of Android tablet apps, which still could use more love and care from their developers.
#4 Amazon Fire HD 8
The Amazon Fire HD 8 is a great tablet for certain needs. Its bright screen and epic 13+ hours of battery life make it great for consuming content, and its reversible USB-C port is a feature we wish was in the cheaper Fire 7 tablet. On top of that, this $90 tablet is good enough at everything else — decent audio, OK performance — for its price that I can’t deny how many will find it a great value. I also found its front camera surprisingly crisp when I snapped some selfies while writing the review, as more expensive laptops have much worse webcams.
That being said, anyone who wants the completeness of the Google Play Android app store or the iPad’s iOS app store might feel a little ticked off at Amazon. The lack of Google’s own apps, which you need to sideload to use, is frustrating to folks who don’t like to use inferior web-based versions of those apps.
#5 Microsoft Surface Go 2
Sometimes, it takes a second try to make a thing go right. The Surface Go 2 takes aim at all the flaws of the predecessor and knocks them all down. First of all, thinner bezels make way for a bigger screen, arguably the most important part of a tablet. The Surface Go 2 has a 10.5-inch display, compared to 10 inches for the previous model.
The biggest upgrade is the Surface Go 2’s 11 hours and 39 minutes of battery life, which is over 5 hours longer than the original Surface Go.. Microsoft also answered my prayers for a laptop with a great webcam. The 5-megapixel 1080p camera in its top bezel is great for the era of online video calls, and its second front camera sensor adds Windows Hello biometric login. Finally, get the Surface Go 2 with the 8th Gen Intel Core m3 upgrade, it’s a little pricier at $629, but it’s definitely the model for multitaskers.