Best Budget Tablets 2021

Tablets are a convenient form factor in-between laptops and phones, but like most other electronics, they can get quite pricy. Thankfully you don’t need to pay the same price you would for a flagship smartphone for a tablet – there are some pretty amazing budget options available. We had a look at some of the best budget tablets you can buy in 2021 – these are our picks.

The Apple name doesn’t necessarily suggest affordable tech, but this version of the iPad is one of the cheapest ones you can get, while maintaining typical Apple performance. Available around the $300 mark, it’s a good choice for Apple fans that don’t want to overspend on their newest tablets.

It features a pretty impressive screen and all the features you’d expect from other iPads, such as compatibility with the Smart Keyboard Cover, and of course the Catalina SideCar mode on Mac. It loses some points for its mediocre camera quality, and the fact that while it is a good device, it offers barely any improvements over the iPad 9.7 despite costing a little more. If you’re looking to upgrade from that or a similar device, you won’t see much improvement here.

The Galaxy Tab A 10.5 is probably the best budget option in Samsung’s current tablet line-up. It’s a direct competitor to the Apple tablet above, and it can definitely hold its own against it, at a slightly better price of around $280. With good battery performance and a bright, colourful screen this is a great choice for a first tablet, or even for an upgrade from an older model.

It does feel a little heavy compared to other models, but it’s a solid choice for anyone who wants to watch media on it for example, rather than carry it around all day. There are definitely more powerful options out there as far as the CPU goes, but that isn’t all that surprising in a budget tablet.

One of the cheapest tablets you can buy, period, the Amazon Fire 8 is the ideal choice for those undecided on whether or not they’ll really use a tablet all that much. It does have some considerable negative points, but its affordability makes them fairly tolerable. The most obvious issue is that users are locked into the Amazon ecosystem, and don’t have the freedom to use apps the same way you would on an Android device.

It’s also somewhat cheaply made which makes sense given the price. That said, it is an incredible improvement over the predecessor generation, featuring a 30% processor speed increase, double the storage and better battery life. It also uses a USB-C connector rather than the previous micro-USB. Overall, it’s definitely worth the <$90 price if you’re interested in trying out a tablet.

This tablet is a particularly good choice for kids. While its not exclusively marketed towards them, it has quite a lot of features that make it great for keeping kids entertained during longer trips for example. First up is its exceptional battery life – up to 17 hours of use time. It has a top-tier screen to go with its battery and comes with a stylus included as well.

It also has a dedicated Kid’s Corner feature that has some simplified app versions better suited to kids learning to use technology. There are also some new security features built in to avoid eye-strain and keep use times to healthy limits, as well as a whole bunch of parental control features. It does have lower specs than the main M5 series, however its lower price point more than makes up for that.

While Lenovo may do better in the laptop category, their tablets are nothing to scoff at either. The Yoga Smart Tab is one such example. Available around the $250 mark, it combines some pretty great stuff with only a few gripes. The main one is the display – at ‘only’ 1080p it lags behind competitors with higher resolutions. It also has a relatively weak processor – however, it makes up for that with a surprisingly useful built-in stand and well above average stereo speakers.

The sound quality of this tablet is quite impressive – as is the fact that it’s comfortable to hold even for longer periods of time, despite being one of the heaviest tablets on this list. It’s somewhat unusual shape and design featuring the large speaker bar (and stand) on one side make it surprisingly nice to hold in portrait mode, especially compared to competing models. Like similar models, it features a USB-C port as well as a headphone jack.

This is our list of the best budget tablets you can buy this year. Whether you’re looking for a starter tablet or a cheap option for your kids, any of these make for a solid option for little money. Which tablet did you buy? Let us know your pick and why you chose it!