11 Best Gaming Tablets for Playing Games Reviewed | 2024 Edition

Are you looking for a good gaming tablet to play your favourite games on? We have tested almost every tablet you can buy in Germany, and a particularly relaxed part of our reviews is always the game test. Our favourite game at the moment is still Fortnite, but PUBG Mobile and, more recently, Age of Empires Mobile are also very popular. Here you can find out which are currently the best gaming tablets, in order from cheap to expensive, small and large.

We also reveal some insider tips. For example, there is an inexpensive tablet that is almost as powerful as the most expensive flagships. And one where the display is even far better than on devices costing twice as much.

Well, here it is, our list of the best gaming tablets of the year.

Best Gaming Tablets for Gamers: An Overview

• Great tablet for little money: Xiaomi Redmi Pad Pro (on Amazon*). The Xiaomi Redmi Pad Pro convinced us across the board in the test. For under 300 euros, you get an amazingly good 12.1-inch display with 120 Hz, good processing power, up-to-date software and a decent stylus. Games like Call of Duty Warzone and PUBG Mobile run great on this affordable Android tablet.
• Budget-friendly gaming tablet: Xiaomi Redmi Pad 7 (on Amazon*). For a small surcharge of around 50 euros, you get a smaller 11.2-inch display with the Redmi Pad 7, but it even has 144 Hz. With powerful hardware (Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 and up to 12GB of RAM), a sturdy metal casing and a stylus included, the Xiaomi Redmi Pad 7 is an affordable alternative to many flagship tablets and is great for gaming.
• Solid mid-range tablet for gamers: Apple iPad 10 (on Amazon*). The standard Apple iPad 10 continues to perform well for its price, enabling you to play demanding games at high settings. Unfortunately, however, the tablet does not have a laminated display and only a refresh rate of 60 Hz. Cheaper tablets like the Redmi Pads have a lot more to offer when it comes to gaming.
• Specialised for gaming: Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 3 (on Amazon*). As the name suggests, Lenovo’s latest gaming tablet is designed entirely for playing games. Its 2.5K display delivers smooth 165 Hz at a peak brightness of 900 nits, and under the hood is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 octa-core processor with 12 GB of RAM. The sound is also pretty good and the case has two USB-C ports for accessories such as USB headsets.
• Gaming tablet with OLED display: Honor MagicPad 2 (on Amazon*). The MagicPad 2’s extremely bright OLED display with 3000 x 1920 pixels, 144 Hz and up to 1600 nits is particularly interesting for gamers. But the 12.3-inch entertainment tablet also delivers enough power for popular games with its Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset and up to 16 GB of RAM.
• Best 8-inch gaming tablet: Apple iPad Mini 7 (on Amazon*). Gamers who value portability should go for the Apple iPad Mini 7. The compact tablet with an 8-inch display has enough power for extended gaming sessions. It fits in any larger jacket pocket and still offers a chic screen, albeit only at 60 Hz and with a visible ‘jelly effect’. However, this is not too much of a problem when gaming.
• Good flagship alternative for gamers: OnePlus Pad 2 (on Amazon*). The OnePlus Pad 2 rivals many a flagship from Samsung or Apple with its features, including the fast Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, up-to-date software and a sturdy metal casing with six speakers. A stylus is also included and the 12.1-inch display with 3000 x 2120 pixels, 144Hz and up to 900 nits of brightness is also very cool. Unfortunately, it’s not OLED, but a normal LCD.
• The best 11’ Android tablet for gamers: Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 (on Amazon*). It may not be the latest generation, but the Galaxy Tab S9 is still great for gaming. The Super AMOLED display with 120 Hz continues to look great, the sound is good and the performance is suitable for most current games. Another plus compared to Apple is the stylus, which is included with the S Pen. The S9 also still gets updates thanks to Samsung’s excellent software support.
• Best iPad Pro alternative: Apple iPad Air (on Amazon*). The Apple iPad Air is almost on par with the Apple iPad Pro. Although it has a little less power than the iPad Pro on paper, in practice the differences are hardly noticeable. The iPad Air also allows you to play all the latest games at the highest graphics settings. The display of the iPad Air is slightly darker compared to the iPad Pro and only offers a refresh rate of 60 Hz. In the current generation with the M2 chipset, you can finally get the iPad Air in either 11 inches or a large 13 inches.
• The best Android tablets for gamers: Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ & S10 Ultra (on Amazon*). With the two flagships of the S10 series, you get the crème de la crème of gaming tablets from the Android cosmos. The up to 14.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2x displays with 120 Hz look great, the sound is full and with the MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ processor and 12 GB of RAM, there is plenty of computing power in the metal casing. The 7-year software update and pro features such as IP68 certification, an integrated fingerprint reader and the included S Pen complete the package.
• The best tablet for gamers overall: Apple iPad Pro (on Amazon*). The Apple iPad Pro with M4 chipset is blessed with impressive performance that probably no tablet game will ever max out. It also comes with a very bright and brilliant OLED display with 120 Hz, unparalleled contrast and vivid colours, as well as support for the Apple Pencil Pro. The keyboard covers are also great, albeit very expensive. If you can afford the iPad Pro, you are guaranteed not to have to compromise on gaming with it.

Best Gaming Tablets for Gamers: All the Details

Let’s now take a closer look at the gaming tablets. Our test videos are also included for each one. These show you how to use the tablet properly – and always when playing games.

Xiaomi Redmi Pad Pro

We start this list with a really good recommendation, namely the Xiaomi Redmi Pad Pro. Depending on the offer, you can get it for between 220 and 250 euros, and our advice is to spend at least that much on a gaming tablet and not to buy a cheaper one.

For the price, the Redmi Pad Pro offers amazingly good specs. It features a Snapdragon 7s processor of the 2nd generation with 6 or 8GB of RAM and 128 or 256GB of storage. The chipset is significantly, significantly more powerful than in a few cheaper tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ and is even almost as good as significantly more expensive tablets like the Galaxy Tab S9 FE series.

This means that many games can be played at very high graphics settings. Call of Duty Warzone ran beautifully in our test and we were even able to set the graphics to ‘Ultra HD’ in PUBG Mobile and it looked great.

The 12.1-inch display is also great, offering a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels and, at 500 nits, is just as bright as the significantly more expensive iPad 10. It supports 120Hz, which is of course also great for gamers, and with Android 14, the latest software is installed.

The Redmi Pad Pro has a metal casing, but feels cheaper than the other tablets on this list. There is an optional stylus and a solid keyboard cover, but both have to be charged separately. These are the only major drawbacks.

Also Read: Best Free iPad Games in Review

Xiaomi Pad 7

In 10th place is the Xiaomi Pad 7, which, depending on the offer, can cost around 50 euros more, so it is still quite affordable. The display here is slightly smaller at 11.2 inches, but it has a higher pixel density and even supports up to 144Hz. So it’s even better for gamers.

The processor and graphics performance of the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 is also a good bit better than that of the Redmi Pad Pro. We get between 8 and 12GB of RAM here, as well as 128 to 512GB of storage.

The Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 built into the Xiaomi Pad 7 is not a flagship processor, but in terms of performance it is very close to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. This means you can play many games on the tablet at the highest graphics settings. These again include PUBG Mobile and Asphalt Unite, but also Genshin Impact.

In the future, the Xiaomi Pad 7 should still have enough power for most games for years to come. However, we assume that you will be able to play some titles on the Xiaomi Pad 7 with medium graphics rather than high graphics.

The metal casing feels a bit more premium than on the Redmi Pad Pro, and you can even connect the Pad 7 to an external monitor or TV. The stylus and keyboard are about equally good. However, some premium features such as a fingerprint reader are missing.

Apple iPad 10

The Apple iPad 10 is also an excellent gaming tablet. In fact, the performance of the Apple A14 chipset is significantly better than that of the Xiaomi, in fact, it’s almost twice as good. So, in terms of performance, we’re taking a big leap forward here.

Although the 4GB of RAM sounds very small, it doesn’t actually make much of a difference when it comes to mobile gaming. You can play all the latest games like PUBG Mobile and Apex Legends on the iPad 10 at the highest graphics settings, and that’s unlikely to change for a while.

The metal casing is of a high quality and there is even a TouchID fingerprint reader built in. The Apple Pencil and keyboard cover are quite expensive and you have to buy an adapter for the stylus, but ultimately both work wonderfully.

Apple will probably also distribute updates for much longer than Xiaomi, although Apple Itelligence will probably not be supported due to the small RAM. But the iPad 10 has one major disadvantage. While it offers a big performance boost compared to the Xiaomi Pad 6, unfortunately the display deteriorates. The 10.9-inch LCD is nice and bright and also has a high resolution, but only supports 60Hz.

It is also unfortunate that it is the only tablet on this list that does not have a laminated screen. There is actually a gap between the touchscreen and the IPS panel. We think that’s quite a shame, because we should really be able to expect more quality from an established and high-priced tablet brand like Apple.

Also Read: Best Retro Games for Android Tablets

Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 3

The Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 3 takes 8th place on this list and, as the name ‘Legion Tab’ suggests, it is aimed squarely at gamers. It is by far the best 8-inch Android tablet on the market and is an excellent choice if you want to play games on the smallest tablet possible. In our opinion, it is even a good alternative to the Nintendo Switch.

The Legion Tab Gen 3 measures exactly 8.8 inches and has a nice high pixel density with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels. So the display is very sharp, especially for a tablet. At 500 nits, it’s just as bright as the iPad 10, but it manages a peak brightness of 900 nits and, unlike the iPad 10, has a refresh rate of up to 144Hz. As I said, the Legion Tab is aimed at gamers and Apple is simply not trying hard in this field.

Lenovo has given its gaming tablet a high-quality metal casing, and there are two USB C ports for connecting external monitors or gaming equipment such as a headset. A good stylus is also available as an option. A Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor with 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage ensures decent gaming performance. Genshin Impact runs perfectly at very high graphics settings, and the same goes for Shadow Slayer.

The Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 3 also impressed us in the gaming test in terms of sound. The Dolby Atmos sound can be customised in the settings via equaliser and presets, which we think is really cool for a tablet! The operating system also includes tools and features to enhance your gaming experience as much as possible, and we get haptic feedback and impressive graphics effects including ray tracing.

In principle, the Legion Tab Gen 3 is also suitable as an Android alternative to the iPad Mini 7, even though we didn’t like the stylus quite as much as the Apple Pencil Pro in our test. But in terms of performance and, above all, price, the Legion Tab is definitely worth considering if you don’t want to pay the extra for Apple’s compact tablet.

Honor MagicPad 2

The next place is taken by the Honor MagicPad 2, which is one of our favourite tablets this year. It’s not perfect, otherwise it would be in first place, but for under €600, it offers a beautiful 12.3-inch OLED display. This OLED not only has a very high resolution of 3000 x 1920 pixels, but colours also look beautifully saturated and the contrast is good. Just like the Lenovo, it supports 144Hz.

Particularly impressive, however, is the brightness of up to 1600 nits. This makes the MagicPad 2’s display brighter than all other tablets on this list – with the exception of the Apple iPad Pro, which costs more than twice as much, but is only just as bright.

The speakers are also better than those of almost all other tablets on this list – again, the iPad Pro is an exception. But for the price, it’s a really great entertainment tablet and display and sound quality are also important for a gaming tablet. Unfortunately, the Honor MagicPad 2 is not at all on the level of an iPad Pro when it comes to graphics performance.

Thanks to Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, it is better than the previous devices on this list, but it is far from being top-of-the-range. It offers 8 to 16GB of RAM and 256GB to 1TB of storage. You can play Asphalt Unite and Zenless Zero at the highest graphics settings. And even with Fortnite, you can set the graphics to ‘Epic’ and the 3D resolution to 100% and it will run smoothly.

So, the bottom line is that the gaming performance is better than that of the Lenovo Legion Tab. The stylus and keyboard cover are also solid. It’s a shame that the back is made of plastic, there is no fingerprint reader, and Honor will probably only release a single software update for the tablet. As I said, it’s not perfect, but it’s great for the price.

Also Read: Best Offline Games for Android Tablets Without Wi-Fi

Apple iPad Mini 7

The Apple iPad Mini 7 is not perfect either, but it is actually the best 8-inch gaming tablet on the market right now. The graphics performance of the Apple A17 Pro chipset is quite a bit better than the Lenovo Legion Tab, it has 8GB of RAM and up to 512GB of internal storage.

In our gaming test, all games ran wonderfully smoothly, especially simple ones like Age of Empires Mobile, of course. However, we noticed that Assassin’s Creed Mirage doesn’t run quite as smoothly on the iPad Mini as it does on the iPad Pro. Here we had to lower the graphics a little.

The 8.3-inch display has a very high resolution and is just as bright as the Lenovo, but it only supports 60Hz and an unattractive jelly effect can sometimes be seen. So the display on the Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 3 is visibly better.

Otherwise, the iPad Mini 7 has a stylish metal casing, supports external monitors, and the excellent Apple Pencil Pro. It is also available with a 5G option for mobile data support for occasional gaming on the train or in a café.

Also Read: Best Platformer Games for iPads Compared

OnePlus Pad 2

And now for fifth place on our list. While the Honor MagicPad 2 offers an astonishingly good display for under €600, the OnePlus Pad 2 gives us impressively strong performance for €600. This tablet is powered by the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 flagship processor with 12GB RAM and 256GB internal storage. Depending on the performance test, the OnePlus Pad 2 is sometimes even stronger than the twice as expensive Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra, but in others, such as the 3D Mark benchmark, it is also somewhat weaker. In real life, we didn’t notice any differences.

On the OnePlus Pad 2, we were able to play all games at the very highest graphics settings, including PUBG Mobile and Zenless Zero. Here, the graphics in Fortnite were even set to Epic. With 3D resolution at 100% and framerate at 90, the game ran wonderfully smoothly at 60 to 90fps.

If the pad ever feels a bit slow, you should go to the settings and activate high-performance mode. Otherwise, OnePlus may automatically reduce the performance and not offer you the maximum. We suspect that this is done to save battery power.

The Pad 2 offers a high-quality metal casing and a good stylus, but we would have liked to see a fingerprint reader for complete satisfaction. The optional keyboard is also good in itself, but unfortunately it doesn’t offer a German QWERTZ layout, which takes some getting used to.

Unfortunately, the display is not perfect either. Overall, it is very good with a high resolution, it even supports 144Hz and the brightness of 600 nits is better than the iPad 10. But it is only an LCD and not an OLED. There should be updates for three years, but we would rather classify the update policy as uncertain due to a lack of experience so far.

Also Read: Best Apple Arcade Games Reviewed

Samsung Galaxy Tab S9

On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 offers an excellent update policy and an excellent display, and depending on the offer, it now costs only around 650 euros.

For us, it continues to be one of the best 11-inch Android tablets on the market. It offers a very good and bright 11-inch AMOLED display that supports 120Hz, and it’s packed with premium features. These include a fingerprint reader, good speakers, a water and dust resistant case, and an excellent S Pen that comes included as standard.

In benchmarks, the performance is actually a bit weaker than the OnePlus Pad 2 due to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip. But due to the better display and overall package, we rate it slightly above the OnePlus. We get 8 or 12GB of RAM and 128 or 256GB of storage here, depending on the configuration.

All games run smoothly at the highest graphics settings. For our test, we tried Genshin Impact, Asphalt 9, and PUBG Mobile, and they all ran smoothly. The same goes for Fortnite. Similar to the OnePlus, we were able to select epic graphics, 3D resolution at 100%, and a frame rate at 90, and occasionally it even reached 90fps.

We think you can’t go wrong with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9. As we said, it’s still one of the best 11-inch Android tablets on the market, now that Samsung has unfortunately decided to release the S10 series without an 11-inch model.

Apple iPad Air M2

Outside of Android, however, it is even faster. The 11 and 13-inch Apple iPad Air are a good deal more powerful than the Samsung S9 due to the M2 chip. The iPad Air also offers 8GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage. You can play any game smoothly at the highest graphics settings, including Assassin’s Creed Mirage. The performance is so good that it should be able to handle the most demanding games for years to come.

It also has a high-quality metal casing, fingerprint readers are built in, and you can connect external monitors. The speakers are good, there are two expensive but good keyboard covers as an option, and the Apple Pencil Pro works great. What’s great about Apple is that they provide software updates for so long. We expect at least 5 years, if not longer.

But even the iPad Air isn’t perfect. In fact, Apple only uses LCDs here that are not as high quality as the OLEDs from Samsung. Even the much cheaper Honor MagicPad 2 has a much brighter and overall much, much more stylish display. Especially the smaller iPad Air in 11 inches is with 500 nits just as bright as the cheapest tablet at the beginning of this list, the Xiaomi Redmi Pad Pro. It’s also a shame that the displays only support refresh rates of 60Hz.

We think it’s really a shame that Apple repeatedly skimps on displays. This not only applies to the iPad Air, but also to the normal iPad and the iPad Mini. But for €699, we get an Apple M2 chip that is really, really powerful.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ und S10 Ultra

The iPad Air is even more powerful than the second place on this list, but the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ and Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra have significantly more brilliant displays and in real terms, the performance is not that much worse than that of the Apple competitor.

The Galaxy Tab S10+ and S10 Ultra each feature a MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ chipset with up to 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage. Just like on the Galaxy Tab S9, you can play all games at the highest graphics settings, including PUBG Mobile and Fortnite, of course. These two tablets should be a bit more future-proof in terms of performance.

Just like the S9, we get very chic AMOLEDs here that are high-resolution and beautifully bright, as well as supporting 120Hz. What’s new is that an anti-reflective coating has been applied, so that reflections are now significantly reduced. The only difference between the S10+ and S10 Ultra is the display size. The S10+ measures 12.4 inches, while the S10 Ultra delivers a very large 14.6 inches. Both models are currently the best Android tablets overall.

We get a case that is protected against water and dust according to IP68, good speakers, a fingerprint scanner hidden under the display, the great S Pen is included, and there are two optional keyboard covers. It is also particularly nice that they are supposed to receive major version updates for seven years. However, the prices start at a steep 900 euros.

Also Read: Best Android Games of All Time Reviewed

Apple iPad Pro M4

Probably none of you will be surprised by the first place. If you are willing to spend at least 1200 euros on a gaming tablet, then the Apple iPad Pro is currently the best tablet on the market. You can get it in 11 and 13 inches and if you want, you can even pay up to 3687 euros for this tablet, including a keyboard and stylus.

The 11- and 13-inch displays are both very high-resolution OLEDs that support 120Hz and are up to 1600 nits bright. Brighter than all Samsung tablets, but actually just as bright as the aforementioned Honor MagicPad 2. The speakers are great and the workmanship of the 5.1mm thin metal casing is very high quality. There is FaceID facial recognition, two good keyboard covers, and the Apple Pencil Pro, which we already know from the iPad Mini and Air.

The heart of the two iPad Pro tablets is, of course, the Apple M4 processor, which in turn is a good deal better than the M2 and more powerful than any Android tablet anyway. There is a choice of 8 to 16GB RAM and up to 2TB internal storage.

The M4 is so powerful that it’s hard to find applications that need that much power. Games like Assassin’s Creed Mirage run very smoothly at the highest graphics settings and look awesome. This should remain the case for many years to come. No game developer will release a game that is too power-intensive for the M4.

Well, those were the best gaming tablets you can currently buy. As you can see, we really test almost every tablet that comes out in Germany, and we always give our opinion independently. You can never buy tablet tests from us. If you want to read and see more tests and reviews, please subscribe to our YouTube channel and give feedback in the comments. We don’t always have time to reply to everything, but we do read every comment.