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Amazon Kindle (2024) — Top Pick
Best Buy deal price: $80; street price: $110
What we like: Our top pick for the best e-reader for most people. Affordable price, portability, bright display, 16 GB of base storage, and USB-C charging compatibility check the most important boxes. Pocketable 6-inch display. Excellent battery life. USB-C support.
Other things to know: Not waterproof. More expensive than previous entry-level Kindles. Lock screen has ads. Recycled plastic body scratches easily, so protecting your Kindle with a case is a good idea. Downloading EPUB files requires some extra steps. One-year warranty.
Read more: The Best E-Reader
Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro Tablet (32 GB) — Budget Pick
Best Buy deal price: $65 (deal on teal, purple, or blue); street price: $115
What we like: The pro version of our budget pick for the best tablets for kids. Has the same hardware as the Fire HD Kids but is geared toward 6- to 12-year-olds, with sleeker, less childish case options. Solid tablet for watching videos. Durable and more drop-resistant than our top pick. Good parental controls. Two-year warranty.
Other things to know: Offers access to a digital store to purchase apps, books, and games such as Minecraft. Worse screen and a much more limited app selection when compared to our top pick, but a fraction of the price. Deal price is for the 32 GB model.
Read more: The Best Tablet for Kids
Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Tablet (32 GB) — Budget Pick
Best Buy deal price: $65 (deal on blue, purple, or teal); street price: $130
What we like: Our budget pick for the best tablets for kids. Solid option for watching videos. Durable and more drop-resistant than the top-pick iPad. Good parental controls. Two-year warranty.
Other things to know: Intended for younger kids, ages 3 to 7. Worse screen and a much more limited app selection compared to our top pick, but a fraction of the price. Deal price is for the 32 GB size.
Read more: The Best Tablet for Kids
Apple iPad Pro (11-inch, M5, 256 GB) — Top Pick
Best Buy deal price: $900; street price: $1,000
What we like: Our top pro tablet pick. As powerful as a laptop. Using multiple apps in the redesigned iPadOS 26 is easier. Bright OLED display offers fantastic contrast. App Store is easier to use and has better pro apps than other platforms. Face ID is convenient.
Other things to know: Still best as a secondary device, not a laptop. Not great for coding. Webcam is best used in landscape mode, as with a laptop. The larger 13-inch size is better for multitasking and comparing documents. Not user-repairable. No headphone jack.
Read more: The Best Pro Tablets
Wacom Intuos Pro Medium (2025) — Upgrade Pick
Best Buy deal price: $330; street price: $380
What we like: Our upgrade pick for the best drawing tablet. A premium experience. Offers a wealth of bonus features, including mechanical dials and plenty of hotkeys. Full wireless support via Bluetooth. Smaller than its model-line predecessor but with more usable (and smoother) workspace. Solidly built, with the best stylus we tested.
Other things to know: The minimal bezel may take getting used to. No multi-touch input support in this model. Expensive.
Read more: The Best Drawing Tablets
Apple iPad Air (11-Inch, M3, 128 GB) — Upgrade Pick
Best Buy deal price: $450; street price: $525
What we like: Our upgrade tablet pick. Delivers iPad Pro power without the iPad Pro price. Same powerful M3 processor as the last-gen MacBook Air. FaceTime camera is great for work calls. Linking a mouse, keyboard, and monitor unlocks a macOS-like desktop.
Other things to know: Also our budget pro tablet pick. We found a much larger difference between the iPad Air’s display and the iPad Pro’s display than we did between that of the Air and that of the entry-level iPad. Solid 128 GB base storage.
Read more: The iPad Is the Best Tablet
Amazon Fire HD 8 Android Tablet (12th Generation, 32 GB) — Budget Pick
Best Buy deal price: $55 (deal on black or pink); street price: $100
What we like: Our budget Android tablet pick. Same 8-inch display, MediaTek processor, and 13-hour battery life as its predecessor, with more RAM for slightly faster performance and a mildly higher-megapixel rear camera. Ideal for streaming video or using as a family tablet.
Other things to know: Ad-supported lockscreen. 1280×800 screen resolution is much lower than our other picks, so text and images are visibly less sharp. Running content-heavy websites or multiple apps can cause lagging and freezing. Deal price is for the 32 GB size.
Read more: The Best Android Tablets
Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2024, 16 GB) — Upgrade Pick
Best Buy deal price: $125; street price: $160
What we like: Our upgrade e-reader pick. Worth upgrading to if you want a bigger screen for reading more text at a time, if you want to adjust the color temperature as well as the lighting, and if you do a lot of reading at the beach or by a pool. Seamless Audible integration for audiobook lovers.
Other things to know: 2024-model price hikes are irritating, especially considering Amazon declined to include long-requested features like physical page-turn buttons in this upgrade. Deal for the ad-supported model with 16 GB of storage.
Read more: The Best E-Reader
Apple iPad (11th Generation, 128 GB) — Top Pick
Best Buy deal price: $275 (add $4); street price: $300
What we like: Our top tablet pick for most people. Large 11-inch touchscreen, fast performance, a USB-C port, and plenty of color options. Great all-around tablet that can handle pretty much any task. 128 GB is a great jump from the previous 64 GB least-expensive model. Solid battery life lasted for about 10 hours of continuous use. Touch ID sensor unlocks the device.
Other things to know: Adding optional accessories can make the iPad even more useful. Only supports the 1st-gen and USB-C Apple Pencil models. Digital illustrators might need a more expensive iPad.
Read more: The iPad Is the Best Tablet
