Budget 13’’ Tablet Battle: Samsung vs. Lenovo vs. OnePlus

The Lenovo Idea Tab Pro Gen 2 just released, and it’s a great value tablet with solid performance and most importantly, a 13 inch display. So today we’re comparing it to the OnePlus Pad 3 and Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE+,2 other affordable 13’’+ tablets, to see which one is the best big tablet for the money. 

We’ll start with the best tablet overall, then for students, then best for entertainment, best for gamers, best for work, and finally best price-performance. And there are some real differences depending on what you need the tablet for. So let’s get right into it. 

Best Tablet Overall

If you just want to know the best 13’’ tablet out of the 3 and buy it directly, we won’t beat around the bush. The OnePlus Pad 3 has the best mix of premium features from the lineup, and also performs great. You can find the amazon link to it, and the other tablets mentioned above. And we’ll explain the reason it wins in the following categories. 

Best Tablet For Students 

Students need to be able to take handwritten notes with a solid stylus. For that, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10FE+ is the best pick. 

Samsung’s S-Pen is just the better stylus out of the three. It’s simple, included in the box, doesn’t need a charge or bluetooth, but it feels premium. The pressure sensitivity is just right and you also get access to Samsung Notes, one of the best and most in-depth notetaking apps out there. For anyone serious about drawing and taking notes, a Samsung tablet is almost a no-brainer. The only real alternative is an iPad Air with the Apple Pencil Pro, but that costs a lot more. 

OnePlus’ Stylo 2 and Lenovo’s Tab Pen Plus are decent tablet styluses for notetaking, but the Lenovo one feels a bit more precise in third party apps like Notewise, Onenote and sketchbook compared to the OnePlus stylus. Regardless, both leave a bit to be desired when doing precise sketches. 

Best Tablet For Entertainment 

One of the things I do most with my tablet is watch YouTube, stream Netflix and use it to play a movie on the TV. For those things, the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro Gen 2 takes a surprise win. 

The big difference with the display is the aspect ratio. OnePlus goes the niche route with an 7:5 aspect ratio, so the tablet is nearly a square. Lenovo and Samsung stick with the tried and trusted 16:10 ratio. That makes video content scale a lot better. The black bars at the top and bottom in fullscreen mode when watching YouTube or Netflix are much more visible on the OnePlus.

All 3 displays get nearly the same peak brightness under the sun, but there’s a noticeable quality difference in HDR streaming. The OnePlus Pad 3 looks terrible in HDR mode compared to the Lenovo and Samsung tablets. Though it looks pretty much about equal when viewing anything that’s not HDR. Also, the Lenovo and OnePlus both get up to 144hz of refresh rate, and look a bit smoother than the Galaxy Tab with its 90Hz screen. 

Meanwhile for the S10 FE+, the speakers just aren’t as loud or as powerful as the Idea Tab Pro’s quad JBL speaker setup. That makes watching any video content on the Lenovo tablet the most enjoyable by far, and if that’s all you want to do on the tablet, it’s the best pick. Although for pure music listening, the OnePlus Pad 3 actually sounds a bit better with harder hitting bass than the others.

Another point for the Lenovo is thanks to its USB 3.2 port. That allows you to extend you display to an external monitor or TV. The OnePlus Pad 3 also has USB 3.2 speeds and display output. Only the Galaxy tablet isn’t capable of connecting to an external display over the USB-C port, which can be really frustrating when you just want to stream a show on your Smart TV without bothering with the TV’s OS. 

Battery Life

Binge watching a show needs good battery life, and that’s where OnePlus takes some ground back. 

In our YouTube playback battery test, we loop a video at full brightness and HD resolution until the tablets run out completely. The OnePlus Pad lasts a whole 9 hours and 40 minutes. The Galaxy Tab isn’t far behind with 9 hours of playback, but the Lenovo tablet dies after just 5 hours and 52 minutes. And that’s despite all 3 tablets having a similar peak brightness. 

One important factor to consider is the longevity of the battery. The Galaxy Tab S10FE+ actually does the best here, lasting 2000 full charge cycles before dropping below 80% battery health. The Lenovo lasts 1000 cycles, and the OnePlus just 800. So over time, the Galaxy Tab’s battery might outperform the two, actually. 

Best Tablet For Gaming

The OnePlus Pad 3 has the most impressive specs on paper; it has a 3nm, Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, last year’s flagship, and that comes with a standard 12GB of RAM and 256GB storage. The Galaxy Tab and Lenovo Idea Tab both start at a more minimal 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage. But both have a Micro-SD card slot so you can expand the storage if needed, which is a nice touch. 

Performance wise, the Idea Tab also has a fast midrange Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chip, but it’s a 4nm chip, so it’s less efficient than the OnePlus’. And the Galaxy Tab has the Exynos 1580, another 4nm chip. For everyday usability, all 3 tablets are pretty evenly matched. The OnePlus feels the most snappy, but that’s mostly down to software and animation optimisations. Launching an app, browsing the web and scribbling some notes run perfectly on all 3 tablets. You’re only going to notice a large difference when gaming, or editing videos.

Comparing the 3 in benchmarks makes the difference pretty clear. In Geekbench 6’s CPU single core test, the OnePlus Pad 3 is 50% faster than the Idea Tab Pro Gen 2, and 120% faster than the Galaxy Tab. The difference in CPU multi-core is similar too. The Geekbench GPU score also shows a similar trend: The OnePlus Pad is 40% faster than the Idea Tab, and 200% faster than the Galaxy Tab. 

Gaming Performance 

Actual gaming performance follows practically the same trend as the benchmarks. In Fortnite, the Idea Tab gets up to 120 FPS at low settings with balanced upscaling. The OnePlus Pad 3 is able to manage the same 120FPS at Epic settings and max resolution. So the OnePlus looks a lot better in game. The Galaxy Tab S10 FE+ is stuck at around 30FPS with 50% 3D resolution, and the game is barely playable. It’s better delegated to lighter games like clash of clans or Teamfight Tactics. 

Delta Force lets the OnePlus Pad 3 really stretch its legs. It’s able to run the game at 120FPS with high settings, where the Idea Tab is only good for 60FPS. You’ll have to turn settings down to the standard preset for 120FPS gameplay on the Idea Tab Pro. 

Overall, the OnePlus Pad 3 is clearly the best tablet for serious gamers. It just runs better thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip inside, and it also doesn’t tend to heat up as much as the Idea Tab Pro under stress. But the Lenovo tablet isn’t bad for gamers either, and might make more sense since it’s quite a lot more affordable right now. Just forget about the Samsung if you’re planning on playing any shooter games though; it’s not cut out for that life. 

Best Tablet For Work 

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S10 FE+ wins for this category. 

Samsung offers 2 different premium keyboard covers for the Tab S10 FE+, one with a trackpad and one without. But both of them are really pricey without offering many special features. The OnePlus Pad 3 has an excellent keyboard cover with very nice keys and an accurate trackpad. It feels the best to type on, but is only available with a US english layout.

Lenovo’s keyboard cover is actually the cheapest of the 3 without compromising much on quality, and it even has a trackpad. We would pick that one if you just want something to type on. 

Software

On the software, all 3 of these tablets are now running Android 16, and come with minimal bloatware preinstalled. But the S10 FE+ will receive 6 more years of updates and security patches, the OnePlus Pad 3 5 years. Lenovo sits squarely in last place with just 2 more planned Android upgrades and 4 years of security patches. Especially if you’re saving sensitive data like passwords or using banking apps on your tablet, that’s a pretty big negative. 

Speaking of passwords, the Galaxy Tab S10 FE+ is the only one with a fingerprint reader. The rest rely on basic face-unlock or a password PIN for unlocking the tablet, which isn’t particularly safe and doesn’t work in the dark. So Samsung actually does win on this point. 

Cameras

These tablets have surprisingly decent cameras. But the OnePlus definitely feels like it’s lagging behind a little bit. So for videocalling, the Samsung and Lenovo are definitely a step ahead. That’s why we think the Galaxy Tab is the best for getting work done. 

Best Price-Performance 

You might be surprised, but the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro Gen 2 wins this category. The S10 FE+’s weak performance, expensive accessories and high price disqualify it. The OnePlus Pad 3 makes a case for itself with cheaper accessories than Samsung, but it’s only strictly better for gaming, and does most other tasks similarly to the other 2. That leaves the cheapest option, the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro. The accessories are affordable, costing under $100 for the stylus and keyboard, and we expect the price of the tablet to fall under $400 soon. At that price, it offers excellent value, especially since there’s practically no competition for 13’’ tablets under $400.