The 7 Best Samsung Tablets In 2026: Based On Real Reviews

If you’re looking to buy a new Samsung tablet, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve been reviewing Samsung tablets since the very first Galaxy Tab, and right now Samsung’s lineup is stronger than ever. From a basic $150 e-reader all the way up to a flagship with a 14.6-inch AMOLED display, there’s a Samsung tablet for pretty much every budget and use case. We’ll start with the most affordable model and work our way up, so you can see exactly what extra money gets you at each step.

Best Samsung Tablets: A Quick Overview

Here’s a quick rundown of all our picks. Scroll down for the detailed breakdown.

• Budget pick: Samsung Galaxy Tab A11 (on Amazon)* Samsung’s cheapest tablet at around $150. Good for reading, browsing, and basic media. Not for gaming or productivity.
• Best budget all-rounder: Samsung Galaxy Tab A11+ (on Amazon)* Much more power than the A11, can handle Fortnite on low settings, and works well for Netflix and casual multitasking.
• Best value with S Pen: Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Lite (on Amazon)* Included S Pen, laminated display, solid keyboard cover. Our best value pick overall, especially for students and note-takers.
• Best mid-range with extra features: Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE (on Amazon)* & S10 FE+ (on Amazon)* Everything the S10 Lite offers, plus a fingerprint scanner, IP68 water resistance, more power, and a 13-inch option on the FE+.
• Best premium Samsung tablets: Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 (on Amazon)* & S11 Ultra (on Amazon)* Flagship AMOLED displays, the Dimensity 9400+, incredible battery life, and Fortnite at 120 FPS. Our test winners.

All Our Picks In Detail

Lets check them out in more detail.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A11: Budget Pick

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A11 is currently Samsung’s most affordable tablet at around $150, and at 8.7 inches it’s also the smallest in the lineup. If you just want a cheap, compact device for reading e-books, scrolling through social media, watching YouTube, or handing to a younger kid, the A11 gets the job done. Samsung’s software is clean, the display is fine for media consumption, and you get the same 7 years of updates as the more expensive models.

Performance is where it shows its price. The chip inside is significantly slower than everything else on this list. In CPU benchmarks, it’s roughly half the speed of the Tab A11+ and about 30 percent of what the S10 Lite delivers. You can play very basic games, but anything demanding like Fortnite or Call of Duty is out of the question. Multitasking is limited too, so don’t expect to run split-screen apps smoothly.

The A11 also doesn’t support Samsung’s S Pen, so if you care about handwriting or drawing, you’ll want to skip ahead to the S10 Lite. Battery life is 8 hours in our YouTube test at max brightness, which is solid for a tablet at this price. If you want the absolute cheapest way into Samsung’s tablet ecosystem, the A11 is fine. Just know that the A11+ is a much better buy if you can stretch your budget a bit.

Display	8.7″ LCD | 1340 x 800 | 60Hz
Processor	MediaTek Helio G88
S Pen	Not supported
Features	USB-C 2.0 | Wi-Fi 5
Software	Android 16 with One UI | 7 years of updates
Battery	8 hours (our test)
Our Score	6/10

Read our full review: Samsung Galaxy Tab A11 Review

Samsung Galaxy Tab A11+: Best Budget All-Rounder

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A11+ sounds similar to the standard A11, but it’s a completely different device. At 11 inches with a 1920 by 1200 display, it’s bigger and sharper. And crucially, the performance is in a different league. The chip is about 70 percent faster in CPU compared to the A11, and the GPU is roughly double. That extra power makes a real difference: you can actually play Fortnite on low settings, multitasking works reasonably well, and basic video and photo editing is doable.

Samsung has even released a keyboard cover for the A11+, which turns it into a basic productivity device for emails, documents, and light office work. It’s a decent keyboard for the money, though it doesn’t have a touchpad. The tablet also supports Samsung’s desktop mode, though you can’t connect it to an external monitor. For a “living room tablet” that handles Netflix, YouTube, casual games, and light work, the A11+ hits a nice sweet spot.

Like the A11, it still doesn’t support the S Pen. If stylus input matters to you, the next tablet on this list is where Samsung’s pen support starts. Battery life is 8.15 hours in our test, and you get the same 7 years of updates. At its price, the A11+ is a solid buy for anyone who wants more screen and more power than the basic A11 without spending mid-range money.

Display	11″ LCD | 1920 x 1200 | 90Hz
Processor	MediaTek Dimensity 6300
S Pen	Not supported
Features	USB-C 2.0 | Desktop mode | Optional keyboard
Software	Android 16 with One UI | 7 years of updates
Battery	8.15 hours (our test)
Our Score	7/10

Read our full review: Samsung Galaxy Tab A11+ Review

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Lite: Best Value with S Pen

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Lite is where Samsung’s tablet lineup gets really interesting, and it’s our best value pick overall. The S Pen is included in the box, never needs charging, and works almost as well as the pen on Samsung’s $1,000+ flagships. There’s no noticeable lag, it’s pressure sensitive, and it attaches magnetically to the side of the tablet. If you care about handwriting or drawing, this is the cheapest Samsung tablet that delivers a genuinely great pen experience.

The 10.9-inch LCD is laminated, which means there’s no air gap between the glass and the display panel underneath. It looks like you’re writing directly on the screen, unlike non-laminated displays where the pen tip seems to hover slightly above the surface. Samsung Notes is still the best handwriting app on Android, and it’s exclusive to Samsung devices, so this combination of hardware and software is hard to beat for note-taking.

The build quality and display feel a clear step up from the A11+. Samsung also sells a really solid keyboard cover with a good keyboard and a decent touchpad, which makes the S10 Lite the first tablet on this list that we can genuinely recommend for school, university, or as a basic laptop replacement. For notes, browsing, streaming, and Office work, the performance is perfectly fine.

One thing to know: if you’re specifically looking for a gaming tablet, the cheaper A11+ actually has slightly better GPU performance. The S10 Lite’s Exynos 1380 is slower in games. But for everything else, the S10 Lite is the better tablet, and the S Pen alone makes it worth the extra money. Battery life is 8 hours in our YouTube test.

Display	10.9″ LCD | 2112 x 1320 | 90Hz | 600 nits | laminated
Processor	Exynos 1380 | 6-8GB RAM | 128-256GB
S Pen	Included
Features	USB-C 2.0 | microSD | Wi-Fi 6 | Keyboard cover available
Software	Android 16 with One UI | 7 years of updates
Battery	8 hours (our test)
Our Score	7/10

Read our full review: Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Lite Review

Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE and S10 FE+: Best Mid-Range with Extra Features

The Galaxy Tab S10 FE and S10 FE+ are nice upgrades over the S10 Lite if you want more features and a bit more power. The main difference between the two is screen size: the S10 FE has an 11-inch display, same as the S10 Lite, while the S10 FE+ jumps up to a full 13 inches. Both include the S Pen and support excellent keyboard covers.

Compared to the S10 Lite, you get noticeably more performance. The Exynos 1580 is about 35 percent faster in CPU and roughly double the GPU power of the S10 Lite. That means better gaming, smoother multitasking, and more headroom for desktop mode. But the bigger deal is the extra features you get. Both the S10 FE and FE+ include a fingerprint scanner, which the S10 Lite and all the cheaper models lack. And both are IP68 rated, which means they’re water and dust resistant. At this price point, no other tablet offers IP68.

The larger S10 FE+ is obviously a better laptop replacement because the bigger screen allows for a more comfortable keyboard layout. That 13-inch display is also fantastic for watching movies and YouTube. The S Pen works identically on both, and Samsung Notes delivers the same great handwriting experience as on the S10 Lite and the flagships.

We recommend the S10 FE series over the S10 Lite if you specifically want the fingerprint scanner, IP68 protection, or the larger 13-inch screen of the FE+ model. Otherwise, the S10 Lite offers the same core pen experience at a lower price. Battery life is 8.5 hours on the S10 FE and 9 hours on the S10 FE+.

Display (S10 FE)	11″ LCD | 2560 x 1600 | 90Hz | 800 nits | laminated
Display (S10 FE+)	13.1″ LCD | 2880 x 1800 | 90Hz | 800 nits | laminated
Processor	Exynos 1580 | 8GB RAM | 128-256GB
S Pen	Included
Features	IP68 | Fingerprint scanner | USB-C 2.0 | microSD | Keyboard cover
Software	Android 16 with One UI | 7 years of updates
Battery	8.5h (S10 FE) / 9h (S10 FE+) (our test)
Our Score	8/10 (both)

Read our full review: Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE Review

Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 and S11 Ultra: The Premium Flagships

Now we’re in premium territory. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 and S11 Ultra are the best Samsung tablets you can buy, and our test winners. The S11 has an 11-inch display, while the S11 Ultra is a massive 14.6 inches, basically the size of a large laptop screen. But the headline feature on both is the display technology. These are AMOLED panels with 1,600 nits peak brightness, 120Hz refresh rate, vibrant colors, and true blacks. Compared to every LCD tablet on this list, the difference is night and day.

Performance is flagship-level. The MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ is the fastest Android chip available, and you can feel it in everything. Apps open instantly, multitasking is completely effortless, and you can play any game on high settings. Fortnite runs at up to 120 FPS on both models, which is a massive step up from every other Samsung tablet. In GPU benchmarks, the S11 is roughly seven to eight times faster than the S10 Lite.

Battery life is where Samsung really dominates. The Tab S11 lasted 12.75 hours in our YouTube test at max brightness, and the S11 Ultra hit a staggering 14.2 hours. Those are some of the longest battery life numbers we’ve ever measured on any tablet. For comparison, the S10 Lite and A11 last about 8 hours. The S Pen is included, and as always, it works great across Samsung’s entire lineup. The writing experience is basically the same whether you’re on the S10 Lite or the S11 Ultra.

You also get USB-C 3.2 with external monitor support, Samsung DeX desktop mode, IP68 water resistance, and 7 years of updates. The speakers are significantly better than on any other Samsung tablet. One thing to note: the keyboard covers for the S11 series don’t include a touchpad, which is a bit of a letdown. So typing is great, but you’ll still need to navigate by touching the screen. We gave the Tab S11 a 10 out of 10 and the S11 Ultra a 9 out of 10 in our reviews.

We recommend the S11 and S11 Ultra if you want the best display, the best performance, and the best battery life Samsung has to offer and don’t mind the premium price tag. If you don’t need AMOLED and can live without the top-tier performance, the S10 FE series offers a lot of the same core features at a lower price.

Display (S11)	11″ AMOLED | 2560 x 1600 | 120Hz | 1600 nits
Display (S11 Ultra)	14.6″ AMOLED | 2960 x 1848 | 120Hz | 1600 nits
Processor	MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ | 12-16GB RAM | 256GB-1TB
S Pen	Included
Features	IP68 | USB-C 3.2 | microSD | Samsung DeX | External monitor
Software	Android 16 with One UI | 7 years of updates
Battery	12.75h (S11) / 14.2h (S11 Ultra) (our test)
Our Score	10/10 (S11) / 9/10 (S11 Ultra)

Read our full reviews: Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Review | Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra Review

Which Samsung Tablet Should You Get?

If you just want the cheapest Samsung tablet for reading and browsing, the Galaxy Tab A11 at around $150 does the job. For a bigger screen and enough power for casual gaming and Netflix, the A11+ is a solid step up. The S10 Lite is our best value pick and the first Samsung tablet with a really good S Pen, perfect for students and note-takers. If you want extra features like IP68 and a fingerprint scanner, go with the S10 FE, or the S10 FE+ if you want the 13-inch screen.

For the absolute best Samsung tablets with AMOLED displays, flagship performance, and incredible battery life, the Tab S11 and S11 Ultra are our test winners. And if Samsung isn’t a must, check out our best Android tablets guide for some great alternatives from Lenovo, Xiaomi, and OnePlus.