Students today demand more and more from their technology. While there are many tablets on the market that can be a powerful tool for note-taking, attending lectures online, and completing assignments, it can be tough to determine which one is right for you.
The best tablets might prioritize features like a high-resolution display or a powerful processor, but students generally need a balance between performance, affordability, and features that enhance the learning experience — handling multitasking and sustaining great battery life are vital specs, too. Many students also prefer to take notes electronically, so compatibility with the best note-taking apps is a plus.
Top tablets for students
Best overall
OnePlus Pad 2
With its large 12.1-inch screen, six speakers, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and 9,510mAh battery, the OnePlus Pad 2 delivers a premium Android tablet experience built to last all day. Great for work and play alike.
- Gorgeous display
- Flagship performance
- Long battery life
- No cellular support
- Limited stylus integration
The OnePlus Pad 2 builds upon the original OnePlus Pad’s success and amps it up with more power, a larger display, and a slew of excellent accessories capable of turning the powerful tablet into a capable productivity machine.
The OnePlus Pad 2 expands the display to a large 12.1-inch panel with a tack-sharp 3K resolution. This means content looks absolutely stunning with the 7:5 ratio doubling up well for reading, too. Moreover, the six-speaker system makes the tablet a joy to view Netflix or when you want to crank up the volume on your favorite music videos.
Read our review
Review: The OnePlus Pad 2 surprised me in almost every way
Working from a tablet is finally tempting
Excellent battery optimization ensures the tablet can go all day long, which is an essential feature for students. You can even complete the laptop-lite experience by picking up accessories like a keyboard case and stylus. The OnePlus Pad 2 might lack some of the software bells and whistles of Samsung’s tablets, but makes up for it with its excellent price-to-performance ratio, and overall user experience.
Premium pick
Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+
With a vibrant 12.4-inch AMOLED display and a high-performance Dimensity 9300+ processor, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S10+ offers superb visuals and an included S Pen, perfect for those seeking productivity and creativity in an Android tablet.
- Excellent display
- Long lasting battery life
- Snappy performance
- Very expensive
- Aspect ratio isn’t ideal for all use cases – like reading magazines
- Derivative design
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ has a sky-high price as far as Android tablets go, but it justifies that with its excellent spec list and software package.
The vibrant 12.4-inch AMOLED display makes watching movies or pictures a joy while also offering ample screen real estate for getting things done. The powerful Dimensity 9300+ chipset helps here by enabling easy multitasking and lag-free use of productivity and entertainment apps. In our review, we found the tablet to be perfectly competent at handling everyday tasks, gaming, and more.
Read our review
Review: I love Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S10+, but it’s a hard tablet to recommend
A lesson in OS limitations
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ is designed for all-day use and the 10,090mAh battery ensures that you won’t be left wanting. Elsewhere, the tablet comes with the S-Pen for enhanced productivity, offers a slew of new AI features, and even sports an IP68 rating, which means you can use it by the beach. If you’re looking for a fully loaded tablet without spending extra on the Tab S10 Ultra, this is as good as it gets.
Best value
Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+
Great for carrying out basic tasks
The Samsung Galaxy A9+ offers excellent value with its 11-inch LCD, stereo speakers, and long battery life. It’s more than capable of handling basic tasks. It’s ideal for browsing, video calls, listening to music, and getting work done. It also has optional 5G support, making it suitable when you can’t connect to Wi-Fi.
- Slim and portable
- Decent overall performance
- Optional 5G
- Not the best for multitasking
The Galaxy Tab A9+ is a well-balanced tablet for students, delivering excellent value for its price. While it doesn’t have the stunning AMOLED display Samsung is famous for, its 90Hz LCD screen still offers vibrant colors and decent brightness — perfect for watching videos, browsing the web, and working on assignments.
Under the hood, the Snapdragon 695 chip delivers solid everyday performance for essential student apps like PowerPoint, Word, and Google’s productivity suite. A massive bonus is the expandable storage, offering up to 1TB of expansion for all your files, documents, and project backups.
Its 7040 mAh battery easily lasts a couple of days on a single charge and offers impressive standby time. For those needing on-the-go connectivity, there’s even a 5G model, though it’s sadly limited to the 4GB RAM option.
Read our review
Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ review: ‘Good enough’ is still pretty good
A midrange tablet that neither stands out in any one area nor falls completely flat — it’s just kinda there
Notably, the tablet lacks S Pen support, which might be a deal-breaker for students heavily relying on handwritten notes. Also, we found that the 4GB RAM in the base model can cause performance issues. We highly recommend opting for the 8GB RAM model, which comes at a $50 premium.
High-end Samsung alternative
Lenovo Tab P12 Pro
More affordable without sacrificing essential features
Like having a computing powerhouse on your class desk, the Lenovo Tab P12 Pro springs to life, its octo-core engine driving a 12.6-inch display. The included Lenovo Precision Pen 3 detaches smoothly to provide tactile input via the Instant Memo app.
- Powerful engine for games and media
- Bright screen with high-resolution display
- Extended battery lifespan
- No headphone jack
- Not the lightest in this lineup
Starving students will need to fill a massive penny jar if they’re to afford the premium price of the Lenovo Tab P12. Less a dedicated note-taking tablet and more a gaming dynamo, a financially comfortable freshman can use it as a part-time entertainment hub, one that’s entirely capable of recording lesson plans thanks to the included detachable stylus.
Rife with accessorizing mojo, the P12 gears up for on-the-go studying. A 2-in-1 keyboard, complete with a built-in trackpad, easily attaches to provide more focused, laptop-like interactions with the super-bright OLED display.
Read our review
Lenovo Tab P12 Pro review: A window into the future of Android tablets
Powerful but flawed
The Lenovo Tab’s display is larger than the previous year’s model, yet it holds a charge for an entire day. By the way, perfect for studying, or gaming, on a sunny college quad, the 600-nit screen won’t wash out when lessons are being reviewed outside. Similarly, large-windowed classrooms filled with midday sunshine won’t cause an issue.
Powerful E ink tablet
Onyx Boox Go 10.3
With a crisp 10.3-inch Carta 1200 display and stylus support, the Onyx Boox Go 10.3 is perfect for reading and writing. The included Pen Plus and magnetic case enhance its appeal, and the 3,700mAh battery easily lasts over a week.
- Excellent design
- Crisp Carta 1200 display
- Great stylus input
If note-taking, reading, and annotating are what you primarily use a tablet for, you might want to look at an E ink tablet, and the Onyx Boox Go 10.3 is one of your best bets. With its ultraslim design that is convenient to hold and a crisp 10.3-inch display, the Onyx Boox Go 10.3 feels like an oversized notebook. That’s a good thing.
Source: Boox
In our review, we observed that Onyx has done an excellent job of optimizing the stylus input. With 4,096 levels of sensitivity, brush strokes feel detailed and realistic and make note-taking or annotation a joy.
Read our review
Onyx hits the target with its streamlined Boox Go 10.3 e-reader
Minimalist bliss
Onyx’s app suite is just as good with tools like an E ink-friendly browser built-in and even an RSS reader. Combined with the benefits of E ink, a 3700mAh battery, and a low-power processor, the Boox Go 10.3 lasts over a week on a charge.
Best midranger
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE
Premium Samsung features for an affordable price
The Fan Edition Galaxy Tab S9 tiptoes between extremes. It’s not a full-fledged S9, complete with a razor-sharp OLED screen, but its LCD is still quite impressive for a budget tablet. Likewise, its processor leans into midrange territory, but that should still satisfy academics who base their mobile buying choices on performance.
- Competitively priced Samsung tablet
- Comes with an S-Pen
- Bright, super-detailed display
- Battery life is still unimpressive
- Occasional choppy graphics
Happily, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE doesn’t feel as if it’s living in the flagship device’s shadow. Students will appreciate the included S-Pen, plus that large, bright screen that’s perfect for lectures in brightly lit spaces, although not as bright as an OLED display.
Games run smoothly, and you shouldn’t experience any lag when scrolling through apps and social media. And as our review notes, the S9 FE boasts a premium design and an impressive IP68 rating — not bad for a budget-minded buyer.
Mostly, students will find the big bang-for-your-buck price too tempting to refuse, though the price does go up a little when accessories enter the equation. Also, when it comes to processing speed, the S9 FE may feel sluggish when you have multiple windows open or if you play a more demanding game, like a first-person shooter.
Read our review
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE review: Raising the bar for value
Samsung’s midrange powerhouse is nearly perfect
Trade-offs aside, the Galaxy Tab S9 FE is a more than capable touchscreen device that receives a passing grade from us. The inclusion of an S Pen, a feature not emulated by a famous competitor, makes the tablet an appealing option. Better still, despite its Fan Edition label, this Samsung product doesn’t feel as if any shortcuts have been taken, except perhaps with the display.
Best budget
Xiaomi Redmi Pad Pro
Great value at an affordable price tag
The Xiaomi Redmi Pad Pro is reasonably priced, delivering a premium experience at an affordable price tag. It has a large, beautiful display, a personalizable interface, loud and clear speakers, and an exceptional battery life. It’s ideal for work, play, and a bit of everything, as long as you don’t have ultra-high expectations. If you need something to get work done and play or consume media after studying, this’ll do an excellent job.
- High-resolution Dolby Vision-enabled screen
- Superb battery life
- Great performance for the price
- It can’t compete against higher-end tablets
- Additional accessories aren’t cheap
The Xiaomi Redmi Pad Pro features a 12.1-inch IPS LCD display. It also supports Dolby Vision, and it has a 120Hz refresh rate that provides an excellent experience when browsing the web, scrolling through social media, and playing games.
It’s powered by the Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 chipset and is capable of playing some graphics-intensive games. However, while demanding games will work well, the graphics settings will sometimes have to be adjusted to ensure a smooth performance.
Considering the price, we found the quad-speaker setup really great, and the Dolby Atmos helps elevate the experience even more. The Redmi Pad Pro also supports 33W wired charging, and the 10,000 mAh battery lasts a full day on a single charge, making it easy to use it for work, play, and consuming content.
Read our review
Xiaomi Redmi Pad Pro review: The new king of midrange tablets
The versatile slate can do anything but high-res 3D gaming
The downside of the Pad Pro is that it lacks a biometric login option and only supports face unlock or traditional PIN methods. It’s not the most powerful device when it comes to graphics-related work either, but it’ll do a decent job on more basic tasks that don’t require too much computing. It’s ideal for students and those who need something affordable with decent overall performance that gets all the basics, and some extras, right.
Best electronic paper display
reMarkable 2
The versatile tool for students and creatives
Ideal for students who need a physical medium to record their thoughts, the reMarkable 2 provides a paper-like response to your every scribble. It converts written words to cleanly rendered text and integrates with popular cloud storage services. And the slender E Ink device does all of this without gobbling its way through masses of battery power.
- Sports a responsive E Ink display
- Provides two weeks of battery life
- It’s ultra-slim and light
- Subscriptions are required for cloud syncing
- A wide bezel on the bottom of the display
- Not waterproof
Focusing on classroom lectures, there’s no time to look over complex tablet interfaces, which is why the reMarkable 2 and its E Ink display have been built to automatically transform quickly noted words into easy-to-read digital text. Clean and easy to read, there’s no issue reviewing lessons after a student has returned to the dorm.
That same natural writing experience, scribbling words and drawings onto the paper-like E Ink screen, is responsive and precise, and comfortably performed on the lithe 14-oz form factor.
Read our review
ReMarkable 2 tablet review: Top-tier writing experience, but that’s it
One of the best E Ink tablets for writing, marred only by its lacking e-reader functionality
The reMarkable 2 won’t leave students struggling, not with two weeks of battery power in reserve. It features PDF reading, converting, and sharing capabilities, and there’s even the expected cloud syncing function, too. Students can, therefore, organize and access their work on other devices, although not without signing up for a paid subscription.
Remarkable recently upgraded its offering with an even more premium color E Ink-equipped device, the reMarkable Paper Pro. It’s got a steep price point, but the fast refresh rate and added color annotation capabilities make it a solid choice if you can’t track down, or don’t want to settle for, the reMarkable 2.
The best student-friendly tablets
For students seeking the ideal blend of features, performance, and value, the OnePlus Pad 2 is an excellent choice. With long battery life, strong hardware, and an appealing price, it’s easy to recommend. While the keyboard and stylus are add-ons, even with them, the Pad 2 offers a cost-effective solution for tackling your coursework.
If you’re looking for a tablet that can handle intensive multitasking and demanding projects, the Galaxy Tab S10+ is an excellent investment. While the price may seem steep, it delivers a stunning large display and powerful hardware to tackle just about anything.
If budget is your biggest concern, look no further than our best value champion, the Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+. This wallet-friendly tablet is often available for under $200, and still offers enough power for everyday student tasks like research, taking notes, and relaxing with a movie after a long day of study.
OnePlus Pad 2
$500 $550 Save $50
Featuring a spacious 12.1-inch display, six speakers, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, and a robust 9,510mAh battery, the OnePlus Pad 2 provides a premium Android tablet experience that lasts all day. It’s perfect for both work and entertainment.