Screen time: The best tablets on the market
Want to update your tablet? From iPads to budget brands, our expert reveals the best on the market.
Image credit: Getty/monkeybusinessimages
Want to update your tablet? From iPads to budget brands, our expert reveals the best on the market.
Only a few times during 30-plus years keeping tabs on technology have I been surprised by how a particular genre of gadgetry has appealed chiefly to a specific age group. One such is the way older people swiftly embraced eBook readers like the Kindle – and later took to tablets, especially Apple’s iPad.
The surprise for me was that tablets are tricky to handle if your hands are not nimble. For writing more than a short email, they are not ideal compared to a laptop or desktop. But for websites and streaming video, seeing photographs to their best advantage, video calling and shopping online, tablets are superb.
You can get a serviceable small tablet for under £60, or pay up to £2,599 for a top-of-the-range iPad – a more than 40-times differential.
However breathtaking the new iPad Pro is, though – at 5.1mm thick, it’s thinner than stout cardboard yet faster and more powerful than the top MacBook laptop – I would advise against it.
Unless you are a professional photographer, designer, or film maker, it’s like buying a Ferrari to go to Sainsbury’s.
The iPad range is complicated. There are three levels – the iPad Pro at the top; the iPad Air in the middle – thin, but not as thin as the Pro – and the most basic version, the iPad. The cheapest iPad costs £349 and does 90% of what more expensive models do, just a bit slower.
One argument for updating even if you don’t need to is that iPad screens have been improving over the years
However, if you really want the £999-plus Pro, they are magnificent. When iPads are improved, they don’t really get new physical features – just enhanced chips and software. But the most advanced of the latest Pro has the (expensive) hardware option of a non-reflective ‘nano-texture’ screen.
If your five-year-old tablet works fine for your needs, it should have a year or two left. But a 10-year-old iPad will be virtually unusable as Apple probably won’t ‘support’ it – ie, they won't regularly update the software.
One argument for updating even if you don’t strictly need to is that iPad screens have been improving over the years, and a new one will display content more vividly.
Generally, yes. If you go for a high-end Samsung tablet – the Galaxy Tab S9 is currently its best – it will cost around £1,299 for a slightly lower specification. Samsung also includes the pencil, for which Apple charges an extra £100-plus.
My top Android recommendation is from Chinese company, OnePlus, which has also excelled in budget-but-quality Android phones. Its attractive OnePlus Pad (pictured above) has impressed reviewers and costs £449, but is often on offer for under £400.
If you want a real bargain, however, I would recommend ignoring the bargain bucket models under £100 and going for Amazon’s £149.99 Fire HD10. It’s not huge at 10 inches, but a solid choice that won’t disappoint and no-questions-asked returns if you’re unimpressed.
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