The best cheap tablets in 2024: our top picks | Tom's Guide

These are the best low-cost tablets for work and play, based on our research and hands-on testing

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When it comes to the best cheap tablets, it's surprising how many slabs offer the perfect balance between performance and value for money. It just goes to prove that not all the best tablets have to be expensive. In fact, every single one of these tablets are priced at $349 or less.

Of course, there are compromises to the experience, such as the display, chipset or build quality. But if you price these into your decision, you can really find some great options. Currently, I recommend Apple's 10th Gen iPad as the best cheap tablet for most, as the Cupertino crew took the time this year to drop the price by $100 — matching the outgoing 2021 iPad.

If you prefer Android, the Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 is still plenty usable and can be hard for a steal compared to the latest and greatest. If you'd rather have a cheap tablet that's usable as a laptop in a pinch, the old Microsoft Surface Go 2 or Lenovo Chromebook Duet remain great choices.

I know because my team and I have tested and reviewed dozens of tablets from top manufacturers over the last few years, so we know the gems from the junk. We use our hand-on experience and testing to hand-pick this list of the best cheap tablets you can buy right now, so I think you'll find something you like!

In a hurry? Here's a brief overview of the tablets on this list, along with quick links that let you jump down the page directly to a review of whichever slate catches your eye.

Best of the best

After a price cut to just $349, the 10th Gen iPad is our top recommendation for those seeking a cheap tablet — packing impressive performance and that gorgeous full-screen experience on a shoe string budget.

Read more below

Android pick

Samsung's Galaxy Tab A7 offers a sweet mix of price and performance. It's cheaper than an iPad yet delivers competitive performance and better battery life. It's not the newest model on this list, but it's still one of the best options if you're on a budget.

Read more below

Amazon pick

All of Amazon's Fire tablets are cheap, but we recommend the Fire HD 10 Plus for its optimal blend of price and performance. You can get bigger, smaller, better or worse Fire tablets, but for $200 (or less with ads) this one hits the sweet spot.

Read more below

Chrome pick

If you want a great, cheap Chrome tablet you'd be hard-pressed to beat the Lenovo Chromebook Duet, which packs the utility of a Chromebook into a slick little slate that comes with a detachable keyboard included at no charge.

Read more below

Cheapest pick

If you just want the cheapest tablet possible, we recommend the Amazon Fire HD 8. While you can get some for even cheaper than its $90 asking price, this is the best tablet you'll find under $100.

Read more below

Jason brings a decade of tech and gaming journalism experience to his role as a Managing Editor of Computing at Tom's Guide. He has previously written for Laptop Mag, Tom's Hardware, Kotaku, Stuff and BBC Science Focus. In his spare time, you'll find Jason looking for good dogs to pet or thinking about eating pizza (if he isn't already).

Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what's best for you. Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate.

Our expert review:

✅ You need an iPad: This is the cheapest iPad you can buy new, as Apple dropped the price of this base model tablet by $100. ✅ You're invested in Apple's ecosystem: If you own other Apple products, this is the only tablet on this list that will play nice with their many sharing features. So if you want to quickly share files to your tablet or take advantage of your Apple app library, this is the cheap tablet to buy.

❌ Money is tight: This is the cheapest iPad you can buy new, but it's not the cheapest tablet on this list. If you need to save money, you can get other slates on this list for less than half as much.❌ You dislike Apple products: You're paying a premium for this tablet vs. others on this list, and if you aren't already invested in Apple's ecosystem or you don't already like Apple products it's hard to justify the added expense.

💻 The Apple iPad (10th Gen) is the cheapest new iPad you can buy, and it's a great choice that gives you the fresh full-screen design, along with A14 Bionic power and a long battery life.

You can buy one for 15% off at Amazon — just $297 🤯

What you need to knowThe 2022 Apple iPad is a solid all-around tablet that runs just about any app from Apple's App Store with ease. The 10th Gen model is recommended for those on a budget because it's the last one Apple sold at a starting price of $349, which is a warmly welcomed $100 price cut that happened during the M4 iPad Pro event. Admittedly, the newer iPads have vastly more power (and this is stuck at A14 Bionic), but the design is slick and performance/stamina is enough for your day-to-day work and play.

Design: The 2022 Apple iPad takes its notes from the button-free aesthetic of its more expensive siblings. The bezels are a little thicker here, but they are symmetrical and makes for a gorgeous design that is accentuated with fun colors.

Display: The 10.6-inch (2360 x 1624 pixels) Liquid Retina display on the 2022 iPad is bright and colorful — making everything you do on it look good. Plus, I'm not entirely sure what new screen lamination techniques are here, but the reflections in direct sunlight have been cut quite a bit compared to the 2021 iPad.

However, when we tested the iPad in our lab we found the screen’s brightness maxes out at 504 nits in the center of the display, which will be tricky to see in those sunny conditions.

Performance: Apple put an A14 Bionic chip inside the 2022 iPad, the same chip that drives the iPhone 12 family of devices. While the chip is a few years old, it can still handle apps smoothly with rare stuttering reserved only for more intensive games. Even now, since this chip debuted four years ago, you can expect respectable performance.

Battery life: Where the 2021 lasted nearly 12 hours, the 10th Gen iPad (2022) does still fulfill that 10-hour battery life promise, but doesn't match the older tablet. In our battery test, which tasks the slate with endless web surfing over Wi-Fi, we managed to hit 10 hours and 57 minutes.

While that's a drop from last generation, 11 hours is still an admirable amount of stamina that will take you through a day of work or most long haul flights without needing to plug in.

Read the full review: Apple iPad 2022

Our expert review:

✅ You need a cheaper iPad: The Galaxy Tab A7 doesn't lag far behind the iPad 2021 despite costing $100 less. If you want an iPad-like tablet and don't mind using Android, the Tab A7 is a strong choice.✅ You're invested in Samsung's ecosystem: Samsung designs its Galaxy devices to play well with each other, so if you already own Galaxy devices this tablet will complement them well.

❌ You prize performance: The Galaxy Tab A7 is speedy enough to browse the web and play some simple games, but it's far from a beast. If you're annoyed by slowdown or want to use the most demanding games and apps, you'll want a more expensive tablet.❌ You value screen quality: The screen is more than good enough for casual use, but in our testing the Galaxy Tab A7's display proved to be dimmer than the competition. This can make it hard to see details at off angles, and the resolution is a little underwhelming.

💻 The Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 is one of the best cheap Android tablets you can buy, delivering great battery life and decent performance in a slick, elegant slate that's $100 cheaper than the cheapest iPad.

Yep! You can snag one for $168 — 16% off at Amazon 😲

What you need to knowThe Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 is one of the best cheap Android tablets you can buy because it delivers decent performance in a premium, elegant design for not a lot of money.

The Tab A7 wasn't built to compete with the best tablets on the market, but with nice thin bezels and useful features like facial recognition, it's competitive with the 2021 iPad despite costing $100 less.

Design: Weighing 1.1 pounds and measuring 9.8 x 6.2 x 0.3 inches, the Galaxy Tab A7 looks and feels like an iPad. But it's a hair cheaper, and it comes with some features the iPad can't match, like expandable storage.

You get nice thin bezels and a premium-feeling aluminum chassis that does bend a bit if you really try, along with USB-C port for charging and a microSD card slot and headphone jack, two things the modern iPad doesn't offer.

Display: The 10.4-inch (2000x1200 pixels) display on the Tab A7 is more than good enough for browsing the web or watching movies. It's a lower resolution than the iPad and it doesn't get as bright, but you'd have to set them side-by-side to notice.

Performance: The Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 (SM6115) processor and 3GB of RAM inside the Tab A7 provide enough speed for everyday activity, but be ready to notice some sluggishness when flipping between apps or running anything demanding.

You should be able to enjoy browsing the web, getting work done and even some light gaming, but don't expect anything graphically demanding to run well.

Battery life: Samsung's Galaxy Tab A7 lasted just over 13 hours in our battery rundown test, which is longer than Apple's iPad lasted in the same test.

While it's not the longest-lasting tablet on this list that's still a great score, one that should give you confidence that you can carry the A7 to a day at work or school without having to worry about bringing the charger.

Read the full review: Samsung Galaxy Tab A7

Our expert review:

✅ You're invested in Amazon's ecosystem: Amazon's Fire tablets are great for one thing, and that's engaging with Amazon products. If you mostly plan to stream Prime Video and read Kindle books, this is a great tablet for that.✅ You prize battery life: The Amazon Fire HD 10 Plus is only outstanding in one regard, and that's its 14+ hours of tested battery life.

❌ You value versatility: Amazon Fire tablets are handicapped by limited app selection and Amazon's FireOS. You can use this tablet to browse the web or write emails, but you won't have access to a lot of useful Google Play Store apps.❌ You like to play games: There are loads of games to download from the Amazon Appstore and play on your Fire tablet, but the selection pales to what's available on any competing tablet from Apple, Google or Microsoft.

💻 The Amazon Fire HD 10 is one of the company's top-tier tablets, and we recommend it as the Amazon Fire slate which hits the sweetest spot between price and performance. You can do better if you splurge for the larger, more powerful Fire Max 11, but you're paying at least $50 more for moderate upgrades.

Oh yes! You can get one for nearly HALF PRICE — down to just $75 at Amazon 🤯

What you need to knowThe Amazon Fire HD 10 is a sleek, stylish tablet in the hand with supremely impressive value for money to boot. Previously there was a slightly more better HD 10 Plus, which has been discontinued.

While we do like the larger, beefier Fire Max 11 well enough, we still recommend the Fire HD 10 to those hunting for a great cheap tablet because it's relatively cheap ($179 to start) for what you get. You can pay a small fee to remove lockscreen ads (which we recommend) or to double the storage to 64GB, which might not be worth it when you consider this slate has a microSD card slot and can support up to an additional 1TB of storage via microSD card.

Design: Measuring 9.7 x 6.5 x 0.4 inches and weighing just over a pound makes the Fire HD 10 an easy slate to tote around, and the sturdiness of this plastic design cannot be overstated.

There's a single USB-C port for charging, and the upgrade to the Plus model also brings with it the option of wireless charging, since this tablet is Qi certified and can charge via supported wireless charging pads.

Display: The 10.1-inch, 1920 x 1200-pixel display on the Fire HD 10 is a pleasant surprise at this price. It gets nearly as bright and colorful as an iPad screen despite costing nearly half as much, so you can count on whatever you're doing looking good.

Performance: The Fire HD 10 packs a 2.0 GHz octa-core processor and 3GB of RAM, which is more than enough to handle what you can do within FireOS. Flipping between menus and loading up webpages is plenty snappy, but don't expect graphically demanding games to run well on this tablet.

Battery life: The Fire HD 10 lasted for 12 hours and 39 on our battery rundown test, making it one of the longest-lived tablets on this list. While the difference between 11 hours and 12 hours of runtime may seem minor, don't discount how annoying it can be to own a tablet that's constantly running out of juice.

Remember, great battery life means greater peace of mind, whether you're toting the tablet on a long flight or digging it out from between couch cushions every other weekend.

Read the full review: Amazon Fire HD 10

Our expert review:

✅ You like ChromeOS: If you've used Chromebooks in the past and like using ChromeOS, you may feel more comfortable using this tablet vs. a competitor like the iPad or Surface Go 2. ✅ You want a cheap portable PC: The Chromebook Duet offers all the features of a PC running ChromeOS in a slim, portable tablet. It effectively offers similar functionality as the Surface Go 2 for less, and it's an even better deal when you consider the Duet's keyboard is included at no charge.

❌ You have unreliable Internet: ChromeOS is heavily dependent on having reliable access to the Internet. Without Internet access this tablet will be a lot less useful since you won't be able to access websites or use web apps, and ChromeOS has limited ability to run apps locally while offline.❌ You dislike Google or Chrome: As a Chrome tablet the Duet really only shines when you log into your Google account and take full advantage of its online features. If you don't like using Google or Chrome, you'll hate using this tablet.

💻 The Lenovo Chromebook Duet is the best cheap Chrome tablet for most people because it offers a compelling mix of features for under $300. The fact that the detachable keyboard is included at no charge gives this slate an edge over similar 2-in-1s like the Surface Go 2, which requires you to pay extra for a keyboard.

Right now, Best Buy is the best for saving BIG — get $100 off, which takes it down to $279 🤑

What you need to knowThe Lenovo Chromebook Duet is a solid Chrome tablet that delivers decent performance and good battery life for $249, or less if you can find it on sale. While a tablet like the iPad or Galaxy Tab A7 may offer a better screen or a better selection of touch-friendly games to play, no slate can match the versatility of this Chrome tablet without a keyboard attached.

The fact that Lenovo throws in a detachable keyboard with every Duet at no charge is the killer feature that elevates it onto this list, as it means you can effectively get a nice Chrome tablet that doubles as a productivity device in a pinch for under $300. You won't be playing the latest PC games or doing serious video editing on this Chrome tablet, but you can use it to knock out some emails or edit documents in a pinch, and that's great value.

Design: Without the keyboard attached, the Duet feels like a solid tablet that's about 0.3 inches thick and weighs just over a pound. This makes it easy to use on the couch or in the car, as ChromeOS is nearly as touch-friendly as Android or iPadOS. Plus, the kickstand on the back, while somewhat weak, is nice to have when using it on an airplane or at your kitchen table.

Connect the detachable keyboard and you get access to a viable (albeit cramped) keyboard and trackpad, which expand the Duet to be about 0.7 inches thick and just over 2 pounds. In this configuration you can use it to get some work done, though you want to be careful about where you put the keyboard, as it extends down at an angle and is too flimsy to feel very good unless you're using it on a hard surface.

Display: The Duet's 10.1-inch, 1920 x 1200-pixel panel is pretty good for a tablet this cheap. In our hands-on review we celebrated its crisp picture quality and solid color accuracy, which are competitive with what you get on the iPad and Surface Go 2.

In our brightness test we clocked it maxing out around 372 nits, which is plenty bright but just a bit behind the iPad and Surface Go 2 in terms of raw luster.

Performance: Lenovo put a Mediatek Helio P60T 2.0GHz octa-core CPU and 4GB of RAM inside the Chromebook Duet, and that's enough power that even several years after launch you should count on being able to browse the web with little trouble.

Since this tablet runs on ChromeOS that's most of what you'll be doing with it, but you should also be able to have a good time playing games and running apps pulled from the Google Play Store. ChromeOS runs Android apps natively, so this tablet has access to just about anything you'll find on a competing Android slate.

Battery life: The Lenovo Chromebook Duet lasted 12 hours and 47 minutes before giving up the ghost in our battery rundown test, which is a great runtime. It's not the longest-lasting tablet on this list (that honor goes to a Fire tablet) but it's still more than enough to get you through a day of work or school without having to charge up.

Read the full review: Lenovo Chromebook Duet

Our expert review:

✅ Money is tight: Amazon managed to bring this tablet to market for $99, and it's one of the best tablets in that price range. If money is tight, you can get a lot of value out of this slate.

✅ You're enmeshed in Amazon's ecosystem: As noted earlier, Amazon's Fire tablets are great for one thing, and that's engaging with Amazon products. If you mostly plan to stream Prime Video and read Kindle books, this is a great tablet for that.

❌ You hate ads: The only way to get this tablet for $100 is to get the version with lockscreen ads, which are a bearable annoyance. You can pay an extra $15 or so to get rid of them down the road, which is nice.

❌ You value versatility: Again, Amazon Fire tablets are handicapped by limited app selection and Amazon's FireOS. You can use this tablet to browse the web and watch videos, but you won't have access to a lot of useful Google Play Store apps, including YouTube and Gmail.

💻 The Amazon Fire HD 8 is one of the cheapest slates the company makes, and it offers the best value for those who can only afford to spend $100 on a new tablet. If that's too much you can get the smaller, weaker Fire HD 7 for as low as $59, but if you can afford the asking price of the HD 8 it delivers better performance and screen quality.

Not quite yet... But watch this space and we're sure Amazon will drop the price!

What you need to knowThe Amazon Fire HD 8 is one of the company's cheapest Fire tablets, and one of the best tablets you can buy for $100. Admittedly, it's only that cheap if you get the entry-level version with lockscreen ads, which can be disabled down the line for a one-time $15 fee.

While just about every tablet on this list offers better performance and a nicer screen, you can still wring a lot of value from the Fire HD 8. It offers great battery life and while the screen isn't capable of achieving 1080p resolution, it's bright and colorful enough for browsing the web and reading books. Watching HD videos won't be as nice on this tablet as on those with higher-resolution screens, but you may not even notice.

Design: Weighing just under a pound and measuring a svelte 7.94 x 5.4 x 0.37 inches, the Fire HD 8 is one of the most portable tablets on this list. If you have big hands you may be able to awkwardly palm it with one, and it's a nice size for reading books and browsing websites.

Like with other Fire tablets there's a single USB-C port for charging, though you can upgrade to the Plus model to get wireless charging as well as some minor under-the-hood upgrades.

Display: The 8-inch (1280 x 800 pixels) display on the Fire HD 8 is sub-1080p, meaning you won't be able to watch HD videos in their full glory. However, that's the price you pay for a tablet this small and cheap, and if you're not sensitive to graphical detail you may not even notice on the slim 8-inch display.

While its color accuracy can't match that of pricier tablets, the Fire HD 8's display does at least get nice and bright. In our lab we clocked it peaking at around 474 nits of brightness, which is brighter than all of the tablets on this list.

Performance: Don't expect much in terms of performance from the Fire HD 8. With its 2GHz hexa-core CPU and 2 GB of RAM it will often lag or stutter when you're switching between apps, and you likely won't be able to play games unless they're slower fare like puzzlers and text-based games.

Battery life: The Fire HD 8 lasted nearly 14 hours (13:41, to be precise) in our battery rundown test, putting it within spitting distance of its larger, pricier sibling the HD 10 Plus.

That's great battery life for this little tablet, and it reinforces its utility as a second screen you can keep near the bed or couch to browse websites and read books. The light weight and long battery life make it ideal for such uses, even if the disappointing screen and internals make the prospect of gaming or watching movies a little underwhelming.

Read the full review: Amazon Fire HD 8

Start by thinking about the operating system you live in, which means opening your pocket and thinking about how much you rely on your smartphone. iPhone owners may jump straight to the iPad, and they'd be right to do so — iMessage integration and the shared app ecosystems across iOS and iPadOS are an ideal combination.

Android users have a wider set of options, but since Android apps aren't thriving on tablets as much as anyone would hope, this is a good time to consider all of your options. Yes the Galaxy Tab A7 is useful with all its Android apps, but do you find Windows a more comfortable platform? If so, maybe the Surface Go 2 with Windows 10 is for you.

That all being said, if you've got a big enough family, and you're all living in the Amazon Prime ecosystem, go for the Fire 8 if you're trying to fit to a tight budget (or just need a cheap tablet for the kids to use), and the Fire HD 10 if you want a bit more power and a nicer screen.

First, we run as many benchmarks as that tablet will allow us to see how fast they are in ways that can be compared directly against competitors. We say "will allow" as some tablets, like Amazon's Fire slates, have trouble with side-loaded Android apps. We then use colorimeters and light meters to measure how colorful and bright these tablets’ screens can get. After that, we put them through our in-house battery test, which times how long it takes — while surfing the web with brightness at 150 nits — to drain a tablet of a charge.

After that, we do the same things you do — browse the web, watch YouTube, play games, compose emails — and then a lot more. We try and write some (or all) of our tablet reviews on the tablets we're testing, if there's a keyboard for it that is. Nobody wants to write a magnum opus on a glass screen, trust me.

For more information, check out our how we test page for Tom's Guide.

Here at Tom’s Guide our expert editors are committed to bringing you the best news, reviews and guides to help you stay informed and ahead of the curve!

Jason brings a decade of tech and gaming journalism experience to his role as a Managing Editor of Computing at Tom's Guide. He has previously written for Laptop Mag, Tom's Hardware, Kotaku, Stuff and BBC Science Focus. In his spare time, you'll find Jason looking for good dogs to pet or thinking about eating pizza if he isn't already.

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