Top 3 Best Tablets Under $300 | 2025 Edition

Are you tired of everyone recommending an iPad Pro that costs more than $1000 and just want something good for a reasonable price? Then you’ve found the right article.

Today, we’ll go through our top tablet picks under $300. We’ll start with the best tablet for most people under $300, and then move on to alternatives depending on your specific use-case. Make sure to stick around until the end, because there’s a tablet that’s a well-kept secret which might just tick all your boxes. 

Hi, I’m Sandor from MyNextTablet, and we’ve been reviewing tablets since 2008. We’re independent journalists, so no company can buy a good review or score from us.  With that being said, let’s get into it.

Best Tablets Under $300: An Overview

Here’s a quick breakdown of our recommendations.

• Absolute best tablet under $300: Apple iPad 11 2025 (on Amazon*). The iPad is easily the best tablet at $300. The display, build, and performance are all great. But it’s not the best stylus tablet. 
• Best tablet with a stylus under $300: Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Lite (on Amazon*). The Galaxy Tab S10 Lite comes with Samsung’s excellent S-Pen, so we recommend it as a pen-tablet. It’s also good for entertainment.
• Best, biggest tablet under $300: Lenovo Idea Tab Pro (on Amazon*). The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro is 12.7. It performs well and even comes with a decent stylus. The display can feel too dim though.

Best Tablets Under $300: Full Details

Let’s look at each of these tablets in more detail. You can find the full review and video embedded here as well.

Absolute Best Tablet For $300: Apple iPad 11 2025

The default iPad 11 is, without a doubt, the best tablet under $300 for almost anybody. The build quality, performance and software support are miles above the competition at this price range. 

Let’s take a closer look at the performance on offer here. Apple’s A16 Bionic chip is far more powerful than any alternative on the market at $300. The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro, which we’ll talk about later, is half the speed in Geekbench CPU single-core and two-thirds the speed in the Geekbench GPU test. That means the iPad will be more responsive, launch apps faster and even run games better than the Idea Tab Pro in theory.  

The only issue for gamers might be the iPad’s 60HZ display. That means less demanding games that could achieve higher framerates like PUBG:Mobile won’t feel the smoothest here. 

Storage starts at a base 128GB but can be configured with up to 512GB. But that will cost you nearly double. Every model comes with 6GB of RAM which is more than enough for most tasks. 

The 11’’ display here is otherwise great. Peak brightness is 500 nits which is enough for indoor use and the resolution is a sharp 1640x2360p. Streaming movies or shows is nice thanks to the well-tuned and balanced stereo speakers. You can also output the display signal to an external monitor using the USB port. 

Only digital artists and students might be better off with something else since Apple doesn’t laminate the tablet display, meaning that there’s always a small, but visible air space between any stylus and the display when writing or drawing. For most, this won’t be very noticeable, but you might not be able to sketch as precisely as with something like a Samsung S Tablet.

Apple always provides at least 7 years of software support for their devices, which is plenty. Apple’s accessories are also famously expensive, so factoring in a stylus and keyboard might just drive the iPad out of your budget. Still, if you just need a tablet for general use, we couldn’t think of a better one at this price.

Best Tablet With a Stylus Under $300: Galaxy Tab S10 Lite

Since we’re on the topic of drawing and notetaking tablets, we think that the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Lite is the clear choice for students and artists on a budget because of the included S-Pen stylus. This tablet can often be found for under $300, and for that price it’s packing quite a punch.

 The S10 Lite has a 10.9’’ display with a more rectangular aspect ratio than the iPad 11’’, so video content will look less cropped. The display is similarly bright as the iPad but feels smoother thanks to the 90HZ refresh rate. And because it’s laminated, using the stylus feels much more natural with no air-gap. Samsung’s S-Pen is also an excellent writing device, and works even without charging separately. That’s something the iPad doesn’t offer either. Software support is also lengthy with Samsung pledging 7 years of Android updates. The tablet comes with the Android 15 based OneUI 7. 

You also can’t forget about the preinstalled Samsung Notes app. We find it to be one of the best notetaking apps on Android, and it’s only available for Samsung devices. That’s a big advantage. 

The S10 Lite’s speakers are excellent in usual Samsung fashion, and the build quality is premium despite the price. The downside? Performance is much more mundane because the S10 Lite uses Samsung’s older Exynos 1380 chip. You won’t really notice the lackluster performance when browsing or watching videos, but gaming really puts the Exynos to the test. In our testing, demanding titles like Fortnite and Warzone Mobile were hardly playable, and there are many visual bugs that we don’t see on other Android tablets. The 6GB of RAM and base 128GB of storage should be enough for non gamers, and you can even expand the storage with a MicroSD card up to 2TB. But if you’re a gamer, the Tab S10 Lite isn’t the tablet for you.

Also, paying for the 256GB model also upgrades the RAM to 8 Gigabytes. That should help with intense multitasking or having many chrome tabs open. So, get this tablet if you want a nice stylus, or if you’re just an Android fan who doesn’t need the best performance. 

Best, Biggest Tablet Under $300: Lenovo Idea Tab Pro

Lenovo’s Idea Tab Pro is an excellent 12.7’’ tablet pick that offers good features for the price. But it’s definitely not for everyone. The Idea Tab Pro actually comes with a pretty good stylus included, and sometimes even a keyboard. The speakers are super spacious and powerful, and the display is incredibly smooth at 144HZ. You can even do some heavier gaming on this tablet thanks to its midrange Mediatek Dimensity 8300 chipset. 

We can really, really recommend this tablet for streaming entertainment, but also for students who need something with a basic stylus for notetaking. The large display and JBL speakers make it perfect for streaming Netflix or YouTube. When it comes to the stylus, it’s not bad, and definitely better than cheaper Lenovo tablets. 

We think that the Idea Tab Pro is a good pick for taking notes even if the pen isn’t the very best. We used the tablet as a daily driver and notepad with Microsoft OneNote and found the experience satisfactory. Sadly, the stylus needs to be charged separately, and the tip is hard and sounds pretty loud when writing. 

Storage starts at 128GB, RAM at 8GB, and you can get a 256GB variant with 12GB RAM as well. The USBC port supports USB 3.2 speeds so you can output a display signal. That means you can use an external monitor if you get an HDMI adapter or dongle. If you find yourself running low on space, you can also extend the storage with a Micro-SD card. 

Let’s talk about the performance a bit. Although the GPU performance in the 3D Mark Wildlife Extreme benchmark slightly beats the Apple iPad 10, gaming performance isn’t always better. We had a great experience in PUBG Mobile, where the game ran at a smooth 90FPS at lower presets. But Fortnite was barely playable and was capped at a peak of 30FPS no matter which settings. That’s probably an issue with optimisation for the Mediatek chipset, but we can’t recommend the Idea Tab Pro for all gamers because of it. 

The Idea Tab Pro comes with Android 14. It’s unfortunately pretty loaded with preinstalled apps, but those aren’t too difficult to remove. The inbuilt desktop mode is surprisingly good, especially if you use an external display over HDMI.

There’s a couple issues though. The biggest one is the relatively dim 400 nits of peak display brightness, making the tablet pretty much unusable outdoors and somewhat straining to look at in bright indoor environments. There is a model with an anti-glare display. So consider picking it up if you’re sensitive to reflections or want better outdoor usability. 

Also, battery life is just mediocre. We got 7 hours of continuous YouTube HD video playback at max brightness with the Idea Tab Pro, which is a below-average result. 

Another issue is Lenovo’s mediocre software support commitment. You’ll only get updates until Android 16, and security patches until 2029. That’s significantly less than what Apple or Samsung offer. 

Still, if you need a larger tablet, the Idea Tab Pro is easily the best pick for under $300. 

So, those are the best tablets under $300. If you’re looking for something more affordable, you must check out our best-tablets under $200 list. There’s some really interesting tablets we can recommend.